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The 1980 Adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven (Screenshot 1)

a skeptical lawyer with no dreams This is the lawyer love interest in the 1980 Adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, the actress Margaret Avery. This is the scene where she helps our hero George Orr, played by Bruce Davison, by essentially guiding his ability to dream. And in this fiction, George Orr has the ability to change the universe when he dreams.

So let’s recap: we have a woman here with strong African features, living in a world that is clearly dominated by recessive-gene patriarchs, occupying all relevant positions of power, exploiting the natural resources of the planet. And now this woman has the ability, by proxy, to change the universe by suggesting a dream to her lover. Well, what is her dream?

Nothing. Her first response is tell him to dream about nothing.

I would have been deeply offended by this plot point in my younger, more innocent years of idealism. I would have found it hard to believe that a woman—especially one sporting her hair natural—would squander such an opportunity as badly as any properly socialized penis bearer. I’m a little more grown up and can now accept that such a person is plausible. Hairstyles do not make the man.

Comments

, 2005-03-03 21:29:28

the power to dream up something, conjure it from a place dead to consciousness before the concept of tangible through the intangible would be amazing for cream colored patriarch. you must first become aware of your ability to control small aspects of your dreams (freedom of movement, for example) to be able to get to that next stage of cooperate consciousness changing through dream-scapes. perhaps our beautiful dream tutor is simply starting him at the place he is (nowhere) before she can guide him on building something new somewhere else.

rasx()