The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven is a 1971 novel by Ursula K Le Guin first serialized in Amazing Stories. It was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards and won the Locus Award.

George Orr is a perfectly ordinary man with one problem. Namely, when he wakes up from dreams, he gets the nagging feeling that things are different. He begins to suspect that his dreams have the power to alter reality, retroactively changing the world to match his dreams, but that no one but him notices.

He goes to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Haber, who, while dismissing his claims as delusions of grandeur, has a machine that may focus his dreams, curing his problems. Except that once Dr. Haber discovers that Orr's dreams can indeed change reality, he has no intention of curing him. Instead, he decides to harness Orr's dreams to shape reality into what he feels will be a perfect world.

The world changes bit by bit while Haber tries to create his utopia, passing through many classic dystopian sci-fi ideas in the process. Orr suspects what Haber is up to, and tries to stop the doctor from using him to warp reality. But then things get a lot worse. And a lot weirder.

The Lathe of Heaven has been adapted twice into TV movies, first by PBS in 1980 and then remade by A&E in 2002.


 * A God Am I: Haber comes to believe it, though he doesn't really have any power of his own.
 * Alternate Universe: Each time Orr dreams, the world is shifted into one.
 * Anti-Villain: Haber, although YMMV
 * Apocalypse How: of various sorts
 * Author Tract: the plot was informed fairly heavily by Le Guin's Daoist beliefs: whereas Haber tries to make the world better by forcing change through Orr's dreams, Orr tries his very best to stop anything from changing. The aliens council Orr to just "go with the flow" and be content with the reality that he has
 * Le Guin also clearly dislikes utilitarianism: in a reality where Haber essentially rules the world, his philosophy is summarized as "the greatest happiness for the greatest number," a utilitarian phrase, and the effect is terrifying.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Haber's attempts continually go wrong because Orr's mind uses this trope. Wish for the world to be united? They'll be united by an Alien Invasion of the moon. Wish for the aliens to leave the moon? Fine, they leave the moon... in order to invade Earth.
 * Dystopia: Many of the worlds Haber makes Orr create. This is partly an excuse to explore the various "big ideas" that were floating around the social science fiction community at the time.
 * Exact Words: this messes up quite a few of the intents of people trying to get Orr to dream things (perhaps the clearest example of this was when Heather tells Orr to dream the aliens "off the moon" and because of that they invade the Earth)
 * Living Dream
 * The Other Rainforest: takes place in Portland. Haber begins to believe Orr when he dreams that it hasn't rained there for two years
 * Population Control: Haber feels the world is too crowded, so he gets Orr to dream about the world having fewer people. So a plague wipes out most of the world's population.
 * Reality Warper: George Orr, though not consciously.
 * Retconjuration: What Orr is doing.
 * Ret-Gone: Heather in one reality, until Orr dreams her back into existence.
 * Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Orr remembers all the past realities he's been through. But no one else does. Unless they were with Orr when Orr is ordered to change reality. When Haber orders the changes Haber remembers also. As well as when Heather is there, Haber, Heather and Orr all remember.
 * Starfish Aliens: they invade the Earth...although, thanks to one of Orr's dreams, they are peaceful
 * White and Grey Morality: Between Orr and Haber.