Ursula K. LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven and Science Fiction and the Future

Popular fictions texts expressing views of the future educate audiences about current issues and the dystopias that develop from them. Texts such as the film ‘Gattaca’, directed by Andrew Niccol and novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ by Ray Bradbury explore futuristic societies and the implications that become of their innovation. Although entertaining, texts such as these are didactic and must be taken seriously, as they communicate messages to audiences regarding prevalent concerns and possible futures based on society’s choices.

Many people in the past and today believe the future will hold advancements in how humans live and what they use. The most common advancement is technology. Technology is the future, from the simplicity of turning on a light, to an advance development of a robot. The future is commonly told through sci-fi movies and through non fictional books such as the stories “The Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury or “The Nethergrave” by Glaria Skurzynski. The story Nethergrave is better than The Sound of Thunder because it’s more entertaining, shows better imagery, and it’s ultimately easier to understand.

There are many styles of writing authors use to captivate their readers. One style in particular is the epistolary style. The epistolary style of writing seduces its readers by using the character’s documents or letters to tell a story. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote the book The Left Hand of Darkness using the epistolary writing style, in return he captures his readers by making them feel the experience one would have if they lived on the planet Winter and understand the planet’s history. The story is told by Genly Ai, a person from earth who is sent to Winter to study their forbidding, ice-bound world.

    One can unknowingly suffer for the sake of society’s convenience. Both authors, Ray Bradbury and Ursula Le Guin, demonstrate the suffering that the protagonist endures in order to serve their society. A variety of rhetorical strategies and modes contribute to the overall role of the protagonists. Ray Bradbury uses personification and the rhetorical mode of pathos to convey the oblivious suffering that the protagonist, the “smart house”, undergoes. Ursula Le Guin utilizes diction and the rhetorical mode of pathos to demonstrate the society’s dependency on the life of a young, hopeless boy. Through the authors’ use of diction, personification, and the rhetorical mode of pathos, readers can view both short stories in

In her introduction, she explains to the reader that “all science fiction is nothing but a metaphorical lie” and “The future, in fiction, is a metaphor.” (Le

Many futuristic texts depict grim and bleak worlds, yet there is often hope contained within the text. In ‘1984’ this hope is shown through his dream of the “Golden Country”, and through the characters of Emmanuel Goldstein and the anonymous Prole woman. Unfortunately all these sources of hope are systematically and ruthlessly destroyed by Orwell. In Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ the only source of hope is a quick fix solution that will inevitably fail, and cause the need of yet another quick fix solution. Even though many futuristic texts contain undercurrents of hope, these sources of hope are either eventually annihilated by the author, or once researched deeper are not really a source or hope at

In both Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Vonnegut’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, the authors show major concerns about the future. Bradbury’s major concern is the misuse of technology that leads to the corruption of society while Vonnegut’s major concern is overpopulation and the lack of natural resources for the future. Both authors show concerns that can turn out to be real if people do not do anything about the environment and about technology.

In the novels, We, 1984, Riddley Walker, and The Lathe of Heaven, D-503, Winston, Riddley, and George, respectively, must fight to transcend the rigid boundaries and societal restraints of their worlds. As We progresses, D-503 defies the boundaries of his predisposed mind, but eventually restores his allegiance to the oppressive One State. In 1984, Winston resists the rules of Big Brother in order to acknowledge his individuality but is later subdued to an emotionless state. In Riddley Walker, as Riddley is forced to adjust to the harsh surroundings of his environment, he must become fierce and brave but ultimately accepts his youth and powerlessness. In The Lathe of Heaven, George eventually liberates himself from Dr. Haber’s dream control

Throughout this semester our literary material dealt with themes of technology, modernization, the imponderable bloom, human nature, and truth to name a few of the most overarching. Each text has woven an impression of the possible near future for humanity if the patterns we are creating continue at an exponential rate. Patterns such as consumerism, neglecting unpleasurable emotions, using drugs, and controlling the environment for our short term benefits will write an unsavory and inevitable future. Science Fiction often reflects on society by exaggerating their negative characteristics and advancements to seem far-out, but often it is ironic how close many aspects of the fiction are a direct reflection of the present condition. Even now, the possibilities of utopias and dystopias forming are not so out of reach. The ability of our culture to control an entire population with a self-satisfied culture of vices outfitted with technology is less and less science fiction as the years pass.

During The Lathe of Heaven, Dr. Haber tries to legitimize George’s use of the Augmentor while awake and says, “Eliminated the color problem, racial hatred. Eliminated war. Eliminated the risk of species deterioration and the fostering of deleterious gene stocks… Progress, George! We’ve made more progress in six weeks than humanity made in six thousand years” (147)! Orr immediately responds, “People can’t choose anything at all anymore for themselves. Why is everything so shoddy, why is everybody so joyless? You can’t even tell people apart—and the younger they are the more that’s so” (147). In the beginning of George’s response, choice is highlighted as a key factor to the lack of people’s happiness in novel’s current bleak setting. George’s mentioning of choice represents the individual freedom for which people are denied as Dr. Haber ultimately decimates the population. Additionally, as George denies the alleged benefits of Haber’s world, George acknowledges his humanitarian desire to save the people of Portland. Eventually Haber says, “You have no social conscience, no altruism. You’re a moral jellyfish. I have to instill social responsibility in you hypnotically, every time”(147). George proves Haber wrong as he stands by his choice to not cooperate.

The therapist asks George, “Imagine one day when you wakes up and a miracle has happen, all the problems you had was solved overnight, how would you know it was solved, and what how would things be different for you?” When George talks about what he hopes to be different in his life, the therapist is hearing the direction George wants his life to go and the focus has been shift from talking about his problems to talking about the solutions.

This theme pertains to the possibility that the world may fall into the hands of the government in the name of a “utopian” society, resulting in a robot-like world without any feelings or imaginative thought if the world becomes too technologically dependent. Huxley portrays this theme through many occurrences, such as when the main character, John the Savage, is arguing with the head of the society, Mustapha Mond. John, in response to Mustapha saying that society should be based on efficiency and comfort, states “But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin” (Huxley 240). The theme of oppression and restraint of emotion is characterized by Huxley’s decision to give the characters of the novel insight as to what is actually going with this “utopian” society. The absence of diversity among people and the social barriers caused by technology asserts Huxley’s overall theme of the falling of society due to technological advancements. In the society that the characters of the novel are living in, technology has made it so that people are designed to work to create more people, all in a thoughtless, monotonous manner. All in all, Huxley is able to convey a theme of Brave New World which portrays a new world run by technology in which all that

dreams of a lot of people must be destroyed in order to improve it which is shown when he

Projections that have been made about how today’s society and culture will look in the coming years, decades, and centuries, all have yet to be seen in how valid they are. If you look in any sort of media: television, social media, or radio/music, you will see people giving their interpretations of what will become of our world down the road. Yet, few people look to see how our the current state of culture and society reflect the projections made by people in previous years, decades, and centuries. In looking at the visions of the future presented by both novelas, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, each story presents aspects of society that prominently appear today. Written during the Industrial Revolution, a time where technology and human innovation was at one of its highest points in recent history, both stories explore the possible effects of the machinery that was becoming evermore present. Both authors present aspects such as omnipotent technology, decaying human independence, and destruction of real communication, to create the artistic statement that complacency is rising within the human race, and that complacency will eventually lead to the fall of mankind. In both stories, the authors speak against human complacency and deference to technology, warning that it will lead to the creation of weaker people and society that will ultimately destroy the human race, yet that complacency is present in today’s culture and due to the

The people of the future may be inspired by dystopian fiction. Most of our books would probably be based through this. Even though this is not a huge effect,