George Orr is the most\u00a0forgettable\u00a0character I know. \u00a0I was expecting invisibility, super-strength, flying, lightning fast changes into spandex and capes, but not banality. \u00a0My expectations for a main character in a sci-fi \/ postmodern novel have been upended, and in their place is left normalcy. \u00a0Our first physical description of him is ordinary, even boring: “haircut conservative shoulder-length, beard short. \u00a0Light hair and eyes, a short, slight, fair man, slightly undernourished, good health, twenty-eight to thirty-two. \u00a0Unaggressive, placid, milquetoast, repressed conventional” (7). \u00a0Le Guin has decidedly chosen the most mild-natured man in Portland, or even the world to be suddenly thrust into the spotlight. \u00a0I can’t help but wonder: why Orr?<\/p>\n
Not only is he average–but the Le Guin goes out of her way to say just how average he his. \u00a0Habor even justifies Orr’s averageness by confirming it with psychological test results: \u00a0“Creative\/destructive, on the Ramirez scale–same thing. \u00a0Both, neither. \u00a0Either, or. \u00a0Where there’s an opposed pair, a polarity, you’re in the middle; where there’s a scale, you’re at the balance point” (137). \u00a0Why would a man so average and mundane be caught in the middle of these dream\u00a0experiments? \u00a0Maybe his name has more to do with him being caught in one reality or another. One dream or another. \u00a0One\u00a0experiment\u00a0or another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At one point, Orr wonders,”What kind of man am I?[…]I haven’t any strength, I haven’t any character, I’m a born tool” ( 74). \u00a0He seems to want to take a stand against Habor, but can’t dream the right dream,\u00a0convince\u00a0the right attorney, or be in the right reality. \u00a0However, there are a few moments of assertiveness in Orr’s overwhelmingly banal personality. \u00a0For example, after the curious incident with aliens, Orr insists that Habor call the HEW Minister and explain the miscommunication. \u00a0It is at this moment that Habor wonders, “Why had this gift been given to a fool, a passive nothing of a man? \u00a0Why was Orr so sure and so right, while the strong, active, positive man was powerless, forced to try to use, even to obey, the weak tool?” (124). Additionally, when Heather goes to the cabin to learn why Orr missed their lunch date, she acknowledges that “He is the strongest person she had ever known, because he would not be moved away from the center” (96). \u00a0Since Heather is described as Orr’s antithesis, one can’t help but mark this unusual role reversal. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though Orr may be forgettable and mundane, I can’t help but think that this was Le Guin’s point. \u00a0Haven’t all of the superhuman strengths been chronicled and the stereotypes of science fiction been established? \u00a0So where does the postmodern novel turn to create a main character? \u00a0The yawning averageness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lastly, I am not sure what to make of this, but there were all of these unusual references to Orr being similar to different types of animals: \u00a0a monkey, an insect, a goose, a dead elephant, etc. \u00a0What is a reader to make of these?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
George Orr is the most\u00a0forgettable\u00a0character I know. \u00a0I was expecting invisibility, super-strength, flying, lightning fast changes into spandex and capes, but not banality. \u00a0My expectations for a main character in a sci-fi \/ postmodern novel have been upended, and in their place is left normalcy. \u00a0Our first physical description of him is ordinary, even boring: … Continue reading Mr. Either Orr<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[35,21],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-4-le-guin","tag-reality","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}