Over at Paradoxa, they are lining up for a special issue on Ursula Le Guin. I submitted the following abstract, and so we’ll see if enough contributors come in to make the issue go through.
Dreams hold a special significance in Ursula Le Guin’s works. Whether they function as premonitions, warnings or glimpses of the past, they are always significant. One novel in particular has dreams as it main focus – The Lathe of Heaven. George Orr’s dreams changes the world constantly, and the novel begins with Orr bringing the world back from nuclear holocaust. This image immediately tells us that dreams are extremely important and the novel takes its force from the different versions of the world that Orr creates.
As can be seen from his last name, Orr functions as a shifting alternative, a personification of what could be. This is exactly what Dr. Haber realizes and attempts to enact in the sessions with George. The novel thus engages with the utopian impulse of imagining a better world, and the pitfalls that follow from holding ultimate power. As such, Le Guin’s work functions as a kind of political philosophy, narrativizing the various utopian impulses, alongside the darker desires and ambitions of both Orr and Dr. Haber.
My essay will focus on these narratives of utopian difference, and how the novel engages critically with these different versions of the world. The novel questions if it is in fact possible to easily create a new and better world, and how one would decide that this world was better than the one before. Difference is not an easy thing to control, but it is most certainly necessary, seems to be the main theme of the novel.
