A Book, According to Its Cover (and Quotes)

 The Lathe of Heaven includes many elements that work to entice and gain the reader's interest, beginning with the outer cover that Scribner (a publishing company) has applied to Ursula K. Le Guin's novel. However, beneath it's initial attractiveness, this cover suggests many things about the content of the novel. The title, in thin, white, rectangular script, is set on a gradient background that shifts from a deep navy blue to a light orange color from top to bottom respectively. On the cover, white cotton clouds float intermittently while bluish-green sea turtles swim languorously through the sky. The title—which in essence means the “maker” of heaven or the "producer" of a "world"—works with this illustration on the front of the novel to suggest that the plot concerns the construction of new realities. The sky appears normal, with its average-looking clouds and either a sunrise or a sunset producing a spectacular array of colors throughout it; however, the reader knows that it is not a normal sky at all when discerning that sea turtles take the place of birds in this illustration. Thus, the reality of this novel, while similar to a normal reality, has certain distinct, fundamental differences, and based on the title, the reader can safely assume that the novel concerns the object that produces these differences.

Designed by Kyoko Watanabe 

At the beginning of each chapter, the author has provided quotations of varying length for the reader to mull over before reading the following text. These quotations are interesting and thought provoking; they too seem to give clues about the content of the novel, foreshadowing both immediate occurrences and occurrences to come later on. At the beginning of chapter one, a quote from Chuang Tse is given.

“Confucius and you are both dreams, and I who say you are dreams am a dream myself. This is a paradox. Tomorrow a wise man may explain it; that tomorrow will not be for ten thousand generations”.

            This quote is applicable not only to the first chapter, but to the entire plot of The Lathe of Heaven. In chapter one, an account of a jellyfish and of the protagonist George Orr—who is recovering from the effects of lack of sleep and strong drugs—is given, and it is difficult to determine which events are the production of George’s mind and which are real—if any. This confusion is later amplified and projected on nearly all parts of Orr’s life, as his dreams create new realities on so many occasions that he has trouble determining which of the memories he has apply to the current reality he is situated in. On page 107 George has reconstructed reality to the point that he even exclaims “This isn’t real….There is nothing left. Nothing but dreams”, seeming to echo the quote the author provided at the beginning of the first chapter.

The Chuang Tse quote is also applicable to Haber, who attempts to control and harness the power of George’s dreams, but fails utterly. Haber believes so much in his own capabilities and “wisdom” that he doesn’t realize that man should not attempt to change reality, because not only is it not man’s place to change the world—which man is a part of, not the commander of—but because he does not fully understand the ways in which George’s dreams or his mind works. In fact, George’s mind is perhaps impossible to understand or control—the things that Haber suggests that George change while George dreams come out of George’s mind twisted and distorted. George exclaims to Haber on page 88, “Look: if you ask me to dream again, what will you get? Maybe a totally insane world, the product of an insane mind.” George realizes that Haber is not “wise” to the workings of George’s mind and that Haber cannot control it, even if Haber does not realize this, just as Chuang Tse stated that a "wise man" capable of explaining reality/dreams may never be found. 

            Scribner, the publisher of this novel, publishes mostly “mainstream” fiction, and might perhaps be using the engaging cover of the novel to sell more copies of this science-fiction work, just as the author might be using these quotes to do the same. However, the cover page and the quotes that the publisher and author use on and within the novel are not only meant to spark the reader’s interest. They foreshadow major occurrences within the novel while giving the events of the text a certain relevancy as the reader realizes that the issues of the novel are not limited to the characters within it, but to actual human beings in the history of mankind as well.