In Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, one of
the alternate realities Haber makes George dream up has aliens in it. There is
supposed to be “peace on Earth,” but instead there is an alien invasion on the
moon which unites all the “earthlings” together against the alien threat.
Regarding this topic, I found the following quote by Haber quite interesting:
“It’s
been over six years now since their first landing on the Moon, and they still
haven’t made it to Earth. By now, our missile defense systems are completely
efficient. There’s no reason to think they’ll break through now, if they haven’t
yet” (87).
Here,
I’d like to point to things that have happened in reality. I believe that Le
Guin is trying to say something along the lines that we always over prepare,
overreact to every threat that we are faced with. The novel was indeed written
in the Cold War Era, in which an arms race was about to happen (no Reagan yet
though, which makes this novel seem like a precursor!). There was also a space
race as well, which perhaps inspired the bit about the moon. Even today,
America is equipped by nukes to the brim, more than we’ll ever possibly need,
as a threat. However, we still have terrorists and etc. coming by, and now we’ve
pretty much made the Middle East very angry at us. I think Le Guin is saying
that no amount of deterrents will really protect us—I think perhaps, she thinks
it would be better to talk things out instead (perhaps using diplomatic means
to solve problems instead of using our fists).
I agree. I definitely think the author is trying to make a statement about unnecessary violence. I found it really interesting, however, how the threat of an alien invasion ended all war on Earth. The saying "united by a common enemy" comes to mind. Because humans in the novel encountered a greater threat than each other they were able to forget their differences and come together to protect the world from this outside threat.
ReplyDeleteMaybe LeGuin is saying that there will always be war because in order to end one conflict another, greater conflict must arise? (This is a very sad pessimistic thought...)
I found it interesting that later in the story, war was eradicated, but there was still violence, albeit organized violence, through the euthanasia and the sports games. I think Le Guin is commenting on the fact that violence is intrinsic to human nature in some form or another, and it can only be replaced, not gotten rid of.
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