Concurrences and the Planetary Emergency: Ursula K. Le Guin in the Capitalocene

Abstract

Ursula Le Guin’s prescient 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven envisions a multitude of utopian or dystopian futures made real by dreams its protagonist is made to have by a manipulating psychologist. The chapter analyzes these layered futures with the help of Gunlög Fur’s concept concurrences (2017) and Kyle Whyte’s observation that Western speculative writing frequently leaves humanity in dystopian and postapocalyptic futures “that erase Indigenous peoples’ perspectives” (2017, 225). The chapter argues that LeGuin’s vision resists the simplistic and single dystopian vision common in normative climate narratives while at the same time centering the ongoing history of colonialism. The ending of the novel thus envisions a radically multifaceted, concurrent, and imperfect future lived in a world made up as much of hope as of ruins.