The Lathe of Heaven

"Snakebite serum is not prescribed for all."

Those whom heaven helps we calls the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.

—Chuang Tzu

A utilitarian is always trying to do the highest good. Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Lathe of Heaven falls under science fiction but it still has some of Le Guin’s fantasy roots. In this case, the utilitarian rolled a mage in the form of a technological oneiromancer. He discovers a Taoist whose dreams can rewrite reality. The Taoist doesn’t want to change anything because like who is he mannn to decide what’s really good and what’s really bad? The utilitarian goes ahead and uses the Taoist’s powers without his consent to rewrite reality in his image of the good which he figures must be pretty close to the objective good.

The funny thing about reality is that it is really hard to pin down. Infinite points clamoring around an infinite circle claiming to all be at the direct center of infinity. Moses and Descartes flipping us the I AM but figuring out the what is the real headscratcher.

George Orr, our protagonist in the novel, has almost nothing of the hero in him. Meek, introverted, always going with the flow….However, this is his greatest strength because his unconscious can change reality and Orr doesn’t resist anything….

Orr is incredibly strong because he remains detached. Infinite possibility like an uncarved block of wood. The wholeness of being concentrated unremittingly on a being who is nothing but himself and therefore everything. His eyes never turn away from the center and it allows him to live without gusto and without disdain.

The jellyfish is a creature with no heart, no bones, and no blood. How can they function without a brain and no central nervous system? They live cast adrift on the currents of the universal mind. The main utility of the cup is that it’s empty. The portal of God is non-existence and that God is nameless and unenvious, asking for neither worship nor obedience.

It is a problem shared with real estate. Location. Am I inside or outside? As kind as Orr’s behaviorist doctor may appear to be or think himself so, he still believes we are conscious ants trapped in a universe it is our duty to improve. No wonder the Spanish prayed God save me from myself.

But here is the main takeaway which when contemplated starts to turn things the right way around.

We’re in the world, not against it. It doesn’t work to try to stand outside things and run them that way.

Ursula K. Le Guin
The Lathe of Heaven