The Lathe of Heaven is a story from Ursula K. Le Guin about a man named George Orr who possessed a power to change his dreams into reality. It may seem cool and unbelievable and would make us think of how lucky he is. Despite all of that, dreams that he made are turning the world’s peace upside down and brought chaos when the mad scientist appears, Dr. William Haber.
Starting from chapter 8 in the book, the story begins to tell how George’s dreams have gotten worse. After he dreamed of a plague that whipped out 2/3 human population in this world, which is something that beyond logic, he dreamed about the world war and aliens invasion. I found the first part to be really intriguing. How a man’s dream can change the world, not only in the book but also in the real life. It is something illogical for a mere human being can really control the world like George did with just dreaming. But the fact that this world keeps developing is because of every people’s dreams have taken part in it. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison are just 2 real life examples on how a man’s dream could shock the world and bring changes. Dreams are the source of power in this life, because they give someone a vision of a goal in his/her life; and it could end up in either a good or a bad way.
Truthfully, I don’t really find the last couple parts of ‘The Lathe of Heaven’ to be amusing. The plot changed from dreams to ‘Aliens’. I am not saying that Aliens are uninteresting, but it is just something that’s really common and stopping me from curiosity. The book was first published in 1971 and at that time, stories or movies about monsters and aliens would put people in awe. Perhaps the technology has spoiled me from believing the existence of monsters or aliens or life in the out space although the last chapter wasn’t so bad. Being loved by Lelouche cured George’s problems and finally stopped Dr.Haber from destroying the world, and everyone lives happily ever after with the aliens.
People who are gifted can also have dreams where they could see or at least predict the future. We called these dreams, ‘Prophecies’. Some prophecies are told to be true, and some aren’t. Back in 2012, there was this really huge dream by somebody who is really famous in my country, Indonesia. She was so famous that people from all over the nations would come to her and pay lots of money just to get a clue for their futures. She had a dream and made a prediction exactly the same as what the Mayan did, “End of the world would occur in 12/21/2012. Almost everyone believed because same prediction was made before based on these dreams and brought trauma for everyone. But thank God, it never happened and hopefully there wouldn’t be other bad predictions about doomsday.