The Reading Prismatic Arch discussion

I was so afraid after the first chapter. I was worried this whole novel would end up being the dying thoughts of a jellyfish drying up on the beach. I am still not exactly sure why the jellyfish thing was even in there. Your thoughts?
The main idea of the story is the ability of George Orr. He can change reality, retroactively, with his dreams. This idea is explored throughout the book. I would have liked to see more of the actual dreams, but we never got those really, just brief descriptions of them. I did enjoy the main story though and thought that it was well written. I have a few complaints though.

First and foremost, the book definitely shows it's age. The story is set in 2002, though it never states this specifically you can infer it from information in the book. The "future" (the book was written in 1971) is a bleak hippies worst nightmare. From 1971, when the book was released, to 2002 the world has:
1) Became overpopulated (at 7 billion, our current population) making food scarce, urban populations out of control, and housing and basic utilities have become communal affairs. this also has caused temporary "trial marriages" to be the norm.
2) Been devastated by man. Greenhouse gases from cars have melted the polar ice caps, caused a permanent haze to envelop the earth and scoured the earth with barren patches. Also, San Francisco was buried in garbage before it was enveloped by the sea.
3) (view spoiler)[Nuclear war ended the earth once, before George stopped it 4 years before the story begins. (hide spoiler)]
4) People constantly need drugs to operate normally, there essentially pharmacy vending machines in the future.
The over population thing is interesting as it has direct impacts on the story but the rest is political drivel of the early 70s. It took away from my enjoyment of the story somewhat. At times the ridiculousness of the situation the "future" is in made me laugh out loud.

(view spoiler)[ Geore Orr's "revelation" at the end of the novel which allows him to submit to not dreaming and helps him stop Haber's nightmare doesn't really make any sense. He all of a sudden just feels right? And I guess you are supposed to infer that the aliens helped him because he learned some weird words to say just before sleeping and after he got a Beatles record from one of the aliens? What? It really doesn't make much sense. Maybe I missed something and you guys can fill me in. (hide spoiler)]

As I said above, I would have liked to see the dreams more.

What's your review of the book? Disagree with me? Agree?

The vision of 2002 was kind of funny, but it actually got quite a bit right. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it as drivel.
- We do have a huge population and, although advances in agriculture allow us to feed them better than in the book and the housing situation isn't quite as packed, I could see how they would see that as a concern back in the day.
- Many people have "trial marriages" today- they live together before actually getting married.
- Our planet is a little worse for wear due to greenhouse gasses. Maybe give it another forty years until we're there?
- There are a lot of people that need medication to operate normally.

The ending kind of confused me, too. I had to check Wikipedia to make sure that I didn't miss something. But no, it's just weird. The Wikipedia article also mentions that this book was heavily influenced by Philip K Dick's work in the sixties. I can really see that in the ending. Dick's Martian Time Slip left me scratching my head in much the same way.
(view spoiler)[I guess since the turtles are creatures created from his dreamworld, they would have a better understanding of how it works? If not, he could empower them to be able to help them? Maybe it's a metaphor-come-true for his subconscious (turtles) helping him work through his problems. Like how some people have Eureka moments in their sleep? (hide spoiler)]

I also found the ending quite confusing, I kind of envisioned a scene from the TV show eureka where people get sucked into a computer-based reality. Near the end of the particular episode The computer reality starts being deleted and portions of 3-D space begin to disappear I kind of imagine that as what George Orr saw.

(view spoiler)[ On the ending, I saw it as him finally confronting his fears (that his mind isn't to be trusted because it changes things) and that he was finally not at odds with himself when he asked for the Turtles' help, because they were the part of his subconscious. <\spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

It was an odd book to me. I couldn't really get into it until I was more than halfway through. Haber was really annoying to me, but maybe that's the point?

I do one of think that was the point, but I also feel like Orr grew significantly throughout the book as he realized more and more what things mattered to him. His will was strengthened and I think he also grew in confidence when he got the girl!

I do one of think that was the point, but I also feel like Orr grew significantly throughout the book as he realized more and more what things mattered to him. His will was strengthened and I think he also grew in confidence when he got the girl!