Original artwork, not a still
The Lathe of Heaven • 1971
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The line rejects the idea that love is a thing you find and keep on a shelf. For Le Guin it is a craft, like baking: it goes stale unless somebody does the work again, every day. The bread image is why it is a regular on wedding readings and relationship advice, though it comes from a novel about a world being rewritten by dream.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Lathe of HeavenShow the scene
The Lathe of Heaven (1971) is set in a near-future Portland, Oregon, where a man named George Orr has dreams that change reality and a psychiatrist named William Haber tries to use them. The line is from chapter 10, in the novel's reflections on love and on how to live in a world that keeps being remade. The book ran in Amazing Stories in March and May 1971 before Scribner's published it that year, and epigraphs from the Chinese writer Chuang Tzu run through it.
Sources (2)
- Love, WikiquoteLe Guin entryReference checked
- The Lathe of Heaven, WikipediaLead, plot, publication history and title sectionsReference checked
Context reviewed
