The Lathe In Heaven Blog Post #3
By: Matthew Evans Quite a few things have happened since my last blog post. First off, when Heather tells Orr to dream about Dr. Haber being a good man, she also says to dream about the aliens not being on the moon anymore. With this information, Heather and Orr wake up to a world where the aliens have now landed on Earth and are defending themselves against the human militaries of the world. They rush back to the city and meet up with Dr. Haber to try and reverse this mess. After Orr is hypnotized once more, an alien aircraft crashes into the window. An alien appears and tells a terrified Dr. Haber that they actually come in peace and mean no harm. After hearing this, Dr. Haber realizes that civilian life is being lost due to a useless war. He tells Orr to dream about peace with the aliens and a few other requests. Orr wakes up to see that the people around him are all gray and have lost the color in their skin. Everyone also dressed the same. Apparently, Dr. Haber got rid of this to stop racial discrimination along with war as a whole. Portland also became a hub for international relations as the world changed drastically. The aliens also began fitting into society as normal citizens. With this came a price though, he lost Heather Lelache in the process. After processing this, Dr. Haber tells Orr that in each scale relating to traits about himself, he perfectly falls in the middle of each. In this way, he is both normal and abnormal. After learning this, Orr began to question Dr. Haber and even tells him that he isn't going to put up with being used anymore. Dr. Haber reminds Orr that he is in his control legally and can't do anything about it. Orr then allows him to perform the Augmentor while he is still awake. After this, he finds out that Dr. Haber is planning to use him to fix all of humanity's problems. The next day, Orr visits an antique shop owned by an alien. There he learns that the word "iahklu" means incommunicable. He also purchased an antique along with a free Beatles record he gets from the alien called "With a Little Help From My Friends." After finding a record player, Orr listens to it 11 times before falling asleep. He wakes up married to Heather Lelache. Apparently, they have been married for 7 happy months. Next, they drive over to one of Orr's therapy sessions with Dr. Haber. Dr. Haber says that this is Orr's last session ever. After hearing this great news, Heather watches Orr dream through hypnotism one last time. After everything is set and done, they leave together to go to lunch. After a but though, Orr feels uneasy and says that he needs to go see Dr. Haber. Heather forcefully follows him. As they make it closer into the city, the both watch the city slowly melt away. Orr comes to the conclusion that Dr. Haber has found a way to dream effectively and is using it to create the perfect "heaven" he told him about. Leaving Heather behind, Orr makes it up to see Dr. Haber as the world quickly falls apart. He can't stop as the gray world is stripped away entirely. After waking Dr. Haber and seeing what he has done, Orr believes he has lost Heather for good. After that though, an alien finds Orr and tells him to follow it. The alien leads Orr to a bed where he can use his effective dreams to bring back the world that was once known. After dreaming, Orr wakes up to a new world created from the dreams he intended to get rid of. In this world, Dr. Haber ends up in jail for that he has done. After failing to talk to him, Orr makes his way downtown and spots Heather. She doesn't remember that they were married at some point but they do start to talk. After a while of reintroductions, Orr and Heather decide to finally go out to lunch together, since they've missed that chance twice already. This is where the book ends. The book has a theme of doing "God's work" in the sense that Dr. Haber wanted to reshape the world in his image. I see this theme in real life when leaders and dictators force their plans on a nation to reshape it in their image. For example, Hitler forced his radical nazi views on many Europeans which eventually led to the Holocaust. Overall, I really liked this book and how it took a more supernatural take on a "dystopia." It showed what dreams can be to people and how they could affect the entire world. I would recommend this book to a friend because of the very engaging and unique story. I will comment on Maddi P and and Leslie's blog posts.
4 Comments
The Lathe In Heaven Blog Post #2
By: Matthew Evans I have gotten much further into the book since my last blog post. From where I left off, many important things happened. The lawyer attends the meeting and watches as Dr. Haber hypnotizes Orr into falling asleep. He asks for him to dream about his concern with overpopulation which triggers Orr into dreaming about a world where over 6 billion people are erased from existence. Both the lawyer and Dr. Haber witnessed the change and still contain the double memories, but neither speak up to reassure Orr. Later that day, Miss Lelache calls Orr to schedule a time where they can meet. Her and Orr come to a date and both agree to meet then for lunch. The next day, Orr returns for another session, this time without the lawyer. While he is very reluctant to go, he ends up going. The news at the time was the countless deaths from mass killings in Africa and the war being fought. After hypnotized, Dr. Haber tells Orr to dream about a world at peace. This is altered by Orr however since he cannot dream of a world with complete peace. So instead, he dreams that Aliens take over the moon. Once again, this becomes true and just like that, the entire world is at risk again. After this session, Orr is overcome with anger and depression and makes a very risky decision. He packs up and leaves for his cabin in the woods that he had dreamt of. After Orr fails to meet up with Miss Lelache, she decides to look for him herself. After a while of searching, she comes to the conclusion that he might be in that cabin he had told her about. She heads there and finally gets the chance to meet up with him. When she sees him, he hasn't slept for days and looks like he could collapse at any moment. After talking for a bit, she finds out that Orr is purposefully keeping himself from dreaming. They both agree he shouldn't go on like this so she suggests that she will put him through hypnosis to dream that Dr. Haber is a good man. That's all I've read to at this point. This book in a way is similar to the movie, "Independence Day." In the movie, aliens start to invade Earth as the world is starting to slowly fall apart. In this case, Orr's dreams and brings aliens into existence which threaten all life on Earth. The world also starts to fall apart knowing the moon is being occupied by deadly forces. It's a loose connection, but it's one that stood out to me. I would compare George Orr to Dr. Strange the marvel superhero. The reason is that both of them can manipulate reality in a unique way. Orr uses his dreams while Dr. Strange uses magic to alter what we all know. The difference is that Dr. Strange's alterations are not permanent while Orr's can change the course of the entire world. I will comment on Maddi P and Leslie's Blog Posts. The Lathe In Heaven Blog Post #1
By: Matthew Evans So far in The Lathe In Heaven, I have read about a man named George Orr and his ability to alter the past and present reality with his dreams. Essentially, his dreams become very vivid and specific to the point where that becomes present in the world when he wakes up again. Even though everyone has only the memory of his dream being a reality, Orr has the memory of both when it wasn't a thing and now that it is. He visits a doctor named Dr. Haber who tries to help him by using a machine to command and control his dreams. He uses hypnosis to put Orr to sleep and then from there uses the machine to calculate data about Orr's brain. This machine also measures which state Orr is in while he is sleeping. While Dr. Haber isn't necessarily sure about Orr's claims, he is interested to find out what actually does happen. After a while, Orr starts to feel used by Dr. Haber to the point where he even gets a lawyer to help him with his case. He tells the lawyer, whose name is Heather Lelache, about how Dr. Haber has actually had the memory of both realities like Orr has and is using them for his own personal reasons. The lawyer is very hesitant, but agrees to help Orr with his case. The lawyer attends one of the "sessions" and is very weary about the situation. She also records all of the audio since she technically has the ability to do so. All of this takes place in a dystopian Portland, USA where climate change and starvation have wracked the earth. This is where I have stopped reading so far. I have read a dystopian novel before. A good example of one is the Divergent series which I have read through and through. While the dystopia in that series is different from this book, I see similarities in how hard life is on the people. I do really like this book though, because of the fact that it takes you through a journey of past and present. I also like how the problem isn't necessarily catastrophic. This gives more complexity to the simple concept of sleep we all know of. There are quite a few similarities between real-life and this fictional book. First off, it takes place on Earth and in the United States. It also deals with problems such as starvation and climate change which are huge problems in the world today. While our reality isn't as "dystopian" as the reality in this book, there are many similarities that are very concerning. The book also takes place in the early 2000's, a decade we all lived through as 10th graders. Overall, there are many connections and similarities between our world and the setting in The Lathe Of Heaven. I will be commenting on Maddi P and Michael's blog posts. |