<\/p>\n
I also thought that Le Guin was nudging the concept of either\/or with George\u2019s personality and obviously his name. The first thing I thought of with the logical concept of either\/ or is the Elliott Smith record (note a very postmodern pop culture reference), the other is Kierkegaard\u2019s philosophical doctrine; the latter I think has a little more weight in this discussion so I\u2019ll think I\u2019ll pursue it. I don\u2019t know too much about Kierkegaard but I know he typically wrote about concepts like fear and dread and doubt of religion. I searched Wikipedia for Kierkegaard\u2019s Either\/Or<\/em> and found that the \u201cEither\u201d side of his argument is a worldview that adopts a purely aesthetic lifestyle such as drinking, casual sex, vanity, and any other indulgencies that satisfy the self. The \u201cOr\u201d side of the argument, which is given by a judge, purposes that in the later stages of life one adopts an ethical lifestyle, one that acts responsibly and morally. The doctrine attempts to answer Aristotle\u2019s question \u201cHow should we live?\u201d which I thought to be the question Le Guin purposes to the characters of The Lathe of Heaven<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Haber is an aggressive man but not evil; it is repeated several times, even by George, that he is benevolent: one page 83 \u201cHaber wanted to make the world better for humanity.\u201d However, Haber\u2019s idea of \u201cHow should we live?\u201d is presumptuous. He thinks that his idea of a world will be good for the people, but George knows that no one can possibly be responsible enough to make a decision that will affect everyone. George disproves Haber\u2019s snake bit analogy by arguing that no man can make a decision for all of mankind: on page 156 George says, \u201cJust believing you\u2019re right and your motives are good isn\u2019t enough. You have to be\u2026in touch. Haber isn\u2019t in touch\u2026means are all we\u2019ve got\u2026he can\u2019t let be.\u201d And on page 140 George says to Haber, \u201cWe\u2019re in the world, not against it. It doesn\u2019t work to try to stand outside things and run them that way\u2026the world is, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be (one of several Beatles references).\u201d In reference to Kierkegaard\u2019s book, George Orr represents the ethical side in his decision to try and stop dreaming and stop Haber\u2019s dream suggestions, hence the name \u2013 Orr. <\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think George is merely average and timid. I think that his discourse with Haber in chapters 6 and especially chapters 9 and 10 shows that George is really contemplating this power and showing the flaws in Haber\u2019s dream suggestions. He is living in a world that is pulling him one way or the other, either with Haber\u2019s ideology or Heather\u2019s assertiveness. His passivity is certainly there, but it is marked by intelligence (most likely an average person with this ability would make his life not average). <\/span><\/p>\n I also had trouble seeing this text as postmodern when it had prevailing science fiction themes. But I think that the altercation of reality by George\u2019s dreams is consistent with Postmodernism\u2019s critique of reality. Portland is constantly morphing yet no one seems to question this bizarre reality, except George. The question of what is reality is brought into question which Postmodern text attempts to ask. Also, Harvey brings up the connection between postmodernism and science fiction in his essay, \u201cThe boundary between fiction and science fiction has dissolved, while postmodernist characters often seem confused as to which they are in, and how they should act with respect to it.\u201d If anyone is confused in what world they live in it is George Orr.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I also thought that Le Guin was nudging the concept of either\/or with George\u2019s personality and obviously his name. The first thing I thought of with the logical concept of either\/ or is the Elliott Smith record (note a very postmodern pop culture reference), the other is Kierkegaard\u2019s philosophical doctrine; the latter I think has … Continue reading Either dream of world peace OR turtles from outer space<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16,28,20,35,21,49,34],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-4-le-guin","tag-harvey","tag-lathe-of-heaven","tag-pop-culture","tag-reality","tag-science-fiction","tag-sex","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}