DUNE

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
-The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

ah! you've stumbled upon my secret dune shrine~
dune is a science fiction epic written by frank herbert and originally published in 1965. its influence on science fiction as a genre is unmatched and has inspired countless other works. (is this a good time for me to admit that i don't really care for star wars?) i first read dune in 2020 (why did i wait so long) and it immediately cemented a spot as one of my favorite books of all time. and as someone who chronically rereads books, i can forsee myself rereading this for the rest of my life. i enjoy it that much. during his lifetime, frank herbert wrote 6 books in the dune universe, which are considered to be the canon. his son, brian herbert, has followed in his father's footsteps and has continued to write novels in the dune universe alongside author kevin j. anderson. needless to say there's a lot going on. at this time i have only engaged with the first dune novel and the most recent movies that have come out (which i have *complex* feelings about) i am hoping to delve into more of frank herbert's books soon and also some of the other visual adaptations and will add information about those as i go.

pulled this synopsis straight from wikipedia, as it is *really* tough for me to boil down all the ideas of dune into a brief explanation. plans within plans within plans!!

"Dune is set in the distant future in a feudal interstellar society, descended from terrestrial humans, in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs. It tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family reluctantly accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange or "spice", an enormously valuable drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities. Melange is also necessary for space navigation, which requires a kind of multidimensional awareness and foresight that only the drug provides. As melange can only be produced on Arrakis, control of the planet is a coveted and dangerous undertaking. The story explores the multilayered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the factions of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the control of Arrakis and its spice."

*disclaimer: the following is a lot of my opinions/analysis, please take with a grain of salt. also spoilers lmao

with the recent film franchises and thus a bit of a resurging interest in dune i have seen and heard (both online and in person) discussion that i disagree with. i find it a pity that some people are just engaging with it on a surface level because mr. frank herbert did not write those 629 pages plus 3 appendixes, an entire glossary of terminology, and 5 more books for it to be a casual sci-fi. it is an expertly layered story and each different layer deserves careful attention. i also really wonder about anyone who considers paul "the good guy". to me dune is one of those pieces of media where everyone sucks to varying levels. (and in fact, part of paul's inner monologue is about how he can maybe try to suck less) i actually sort of enjoy this type of media because it really makes you analyze each character's motivations and intentions. (LOST is another piece of media that i consider to be like this). another thing i often hear repeated is that the main takeaway of the story is to not trust charismatic leaders (frank herbert has been quoted saying things to that affect.) i don't disagree, this idea is obviously present in paul's characterization but i do tire of hearing this constant regurgitation as the main focus of dune. it's just wayyy more complex than that.

one of the things i find most frustrating about current atittudes towards dune is that they ignore the present day parallels!! a lot of the problems of dune are ones mankind has always had to some degree- the struggle over resources and power played out by corporations, governments, and coercion by means of religion. spice, while not only an addictive drug used for increasing awareness- is also required for space travel in this universe. it is the basis for the universal economy and as noted, he who controls the spice controls the world. given its nature that makes one more alert, spice is reminiscent of cocaine (which has a ceratin history in the US). but in addition to that, and its importance to space travel, spice is an apt metaphor for oil. arrakis, the desert planet, and its inhabitants- the fremen- are obviously modeled after peoples of SWANA (Middle Eastern) regions. a lot of the customs and language used by the fremen are lifted straight from islam. it is called spice for christ's sake. control of the spice trade was the original target of british colonization. suddenly the emperor, the houses, and the guild all fighting for control of the spice becomes much more familiar to our current world and our histories. caladan, the home world of paul atreides, is described as an ocean planet. meanwhile, on arrakis, every facet of fremen life is centered around the scarcity and value of water. it is the mining and resource extraction of melange that makes the cozy life on caladan (and other planets of the imperium's great houses) possible.

and so enters my main problem with the current movies (and perhaps the one yet to be released will help rectify this for me?) is that i feel it does not lean into the current world affairs re: control of oil, colonization, palestine, US intervention in the Middle East, etc. as hard as it should. for me, the most STARK revelation of the WHOLE BOOK was when paul lets jessica have it in their tent as they are hiding from the harkonnens awaiting liet-kynes' fremen- he reveals that she is the baron's OWN DAUGHTER. the point being made there is that not only are they *literally* the same people, who share the same blood- but that their purpose on arrakis is the same as the harkonnens. their methods possibly different, possibly not as brutal- but their goal of controlling the spice, and controlling the people there is ultimately not different. which reminds me a lot of american liberal propaganda tbh. america thinks themselves the "good oppressor". but the oppressors are still oppressors at the end of the day no matter how diverse their identities are or how progressive they profess to be or how "charismatic" they come across. empire serves empire. the new dune movie conveniently leave this revelation out of the first movie entirely and instead (in a very rushed manner) they place it at the end of the second movie...perhaps even a loophole given that at that point jessica had already transformed the poison in the water of life to become a reverend mother....would she not have gained vision of her lineage? sure, the new movie is a visual feast, but what it lacks to me is substance. my hope is that villeneuve has built up his paul atreides so that he can properly tear him down in the next film.

some other observations that i've had when reading dune regarding gender/queer identity. i haven't quite decided what i think frank herbert's intentions were or if he even had any. but he did decide to include these as parts of the story, so i am listing them here for my own future reference.

jessica's decision to go against the bene gesserit's wishes and produce a male heir versus a female child. the female child was intended to "close the gaps" between house atreides and house harkonnen. in other words, paul was meant to be married to feyd-rautha....which makes their showdown at the end of the book all the more intense.

jessica taught paul the "weirding ways" of the bene gesserit: the bindu-prana nerve and muscle training, the inward stare, voice control, the minutiae observation. in the beginning of the book, paul is tested by the reverend mother gaius helen mohaim with the gom jabbar. a test, that she notes, is seldom administered to men-children. it is a test of great pain to decide whether or not paul is an animal or if he is human. she exclaims that he withstood a great amount of pain- more than any woman-child ever withstood. the result makes her question whether or not paul is the kwisatz haderach they seek through their breeding program, a man capable of the bene gesserit power and capable of finding the unknown (described as both masculine and feminine pasts).

a "mentat" is a man (of a certain class) trained especially for "supreme accomplishments of logic" in order to aid the great houses. their usefulness became of importance following the butlerian jihad in which humanity rid itself of computers, thinking machines, and robots. mentats have some limitations to their computations, as they need to be fed information. this is why i feel they are at odds with their female equivalents- the bene gesserit, who come to their conclusions in a more intuitive manner alongside their training.

frank *really* wants you to know that the baron is fat. so fat that he must use suspensors to get around. perhaps this is to display his excessive wealth due to his control over arrakis. but it certainly plays into stereotypes that the perceived "villain" of the story is fat or disabled or queer. because frank also wants you to know that the baron is gay. there is a particular passage in which he requests a specific male companion, one that reminds him of paul. yikes.

what ultimately solidifies paul as the prophesied kwisatz haderach and sets into motion his terrible purpose is when he transforms the poison into the water of life. this practice was only performed by the reverend mothers....hold my hand for a bit here- i'm not going to explain this well, but i will attempt to. (i am aware of the bioessentialist understones of this argument...) it has been said that the roots of misogyny come from men's insecurities surrounding women as the creators of life. women endure pain- great pain- but are able to transform that pain into life. what makes paul formidable, in this case, is his ability to see into both feminine and masculine pasts and to work through his pain and transform it. paul also notes, towards the end of the book, that his power to destroy a thing makes him the true controller of it (in reference to the spice). men are thought to only be capable of destruction and not creation, but (supposedly) he is able to understand all sides. and that, for some reason, treads into a territory of unknown power that the bene gesserit fear (even though it was their own creation!!) lots of conversations swirling around creator and creation.

i could go on endlessly tbh. but i will leave this here for now. i will probably add more later about the missionaria protectiva and sandworms lmao. and i will add more to this page as i read through more books/watch things. i hope you enjoyed my infernal yapping.

finished august 2026

dune messiah is the second book in frank herbert's dune series. it was published in 1969. part of the book was allegedly written prior to the completion of the original dune. plans within plans within plans this frank herbert had!!
this book takes place 12 years after the events of dune, with paul ruling as the emperor and despot of this new imperium, having conquered most of the known universe. he struggles with his visions into the future, having seen possible outcomes of accepting his role as a religious icon and all the blood shed in his name, but still believing that there were other outcomes that were even worse yet. of course, his reign is not unopposed, and the book largely follows the events of a plot against him- the guild, the bene gesserit, and the mysterious inventions of the tleilaxu- even some defected fremen- as they come together to conspire against him.

this book was wild. literally had me screaming out loud at certain points because what the fuck
there was a foreward added to the beginning in my edition that was written by brian herbert, mr. frank herbert's son, that confirmed some of the suspiscions i had about frank herbert's purpose in his characterization of paul. apparently readers of the time were not happy with the sequel, having the myth of maud'dib shattered. it's interesting to me that so many read dune without recognizing the underlying messages!! anyhow, if it were ever unclear, frank herbert is definitely using his second book to dispel any misunderstandings by flat out having paul compare himself to h*tler, laughing, boasting about how many more have been slaughter in his name. 61 billion souls claimed, 90 plants sterilized, demoralized 500 other planets, and wiped out the followers of 40 other religions. he acknowledges that 100 generations will still be recovering from the effects of his jihad.

irulan, as part of her conspiring with the bene gesserit's breeding program, has been secretly feeding chani contraceptives. paul is aware of this, but takes no action, because he has forseen that bearing a child will result in chani's death. i know that back in the day, royalty and incest were quite common and so it isn't surprising that that seems to be a constant element in this story- where humanity has circled back around to similar times, but the bene gesserit seem to love some incest. the reverand mother suggests to irulan that paul and his sister, alia, need to be arranged in order to preserve their bloodlines. there is a weird scene with paul walking in on his sister, naked, as she trains in which it is described that she elicits a "male response" in him HONESTLY WTF. ALSO AT THIS POINT HE IS 30. AND SHE IS LIKE MAYBE 15. okay and the ghola. duncan idaho is presumably EVEN OLDER. and also because she is sort of mentally her own mother....that makes the whole thing with paul OEDIPAL???

that being said, the concept of the ghola in this novel is particularly interesting....the tleilaxu are really towing the line of technological ethics here, that seemingly go against the resentments that caused the butlerian jihad. i'm admittedly a little confused at what exactly caused the ghola to resume duncan idaho's total memories and break free of tleilaxu control. but i think it does raise some interesting questions re: religious programming/propaganda/etc. in conjunction with paul/alia. it is said that the tleilaxu also wish to produce their own kwisatz haderach and that their ghola gift to paul is in part to advance their program.

the ending scenes are crazy. paul going blind by the stone burner but still being able to rattle off what people are wearing/etc and pilot a thropter. paul being lent his newborn child's vision in order to kill scytale was truly wild to read. truly wtf. the role of the ghola gift being revealed was also very satisfying. i am very excited to read children of dune and i am actually looking forward to the new film!!

a few other things of significance that i want to note, in no particular order:

okay i really want to know if/where/when lady fenring's child with feyd-rautha is ever going to pop up again. maybe i just missed this information somewhere but...i would have thought that would have come up in the reverand mother's conversations about the bloodlines.

the mention of the dune tarot!! it doesn't get explored too much and i wonder if it will come up later in subsequent novels. it seems that (aside from edric's influence) the popular use of the dune tarot contributed to paul and alia's visions becoming more clouded as it gave others some abilities of prescience (but simultaneously also giving them more credit as the purchases and use of the cards also symbolize a devoutness among their followers? a double edged sword?) i may have missed it, but i wonder who/what popularized the use of the cards or if it just follows the way religions capitalize off of religious iconography (this is also explored later in the book when paul visits otheym and notices he has sold some of his fremen tapestries to pay for medical costs) OR if this maybe is to say that the more people who are able to perform these prescient abilities the less special (and god like) paul and alia's abilities become??

where the fuck is jessica LMAO. honestly when bijaz told the ghola about how monstrous a creation paul and alia are that like...their own mother doesn't want to be on the same planet as them i laughed a little too hard. and her letter basically saying to keep his little jihad away from her planet!!

why must men be awful at naming things? you couldn't come up with another name for your son?? and i'm with harah...why the fuck are you naming your daughter "the spoils of war" cause like if you are coool with reusing names, why not honor chani? your falling moon??

the worms!! there was some talk of the guildsman's plot to capture a sandworm and try to recreate the spice cycle on another suitable planet. i am sure this will be explored later, but it seems like it gets briefly mentioned and nothing else comes of it.

finished september 2026

children of dune is the third book in the series and takes place nine years after the events of dune messiah. paul is presumably dead, after having assumed the fremen fate as a blind man- wandering into the desert. alia has taken over as the head of the regency and irulan has taken a step back from the bene gesserit sisterhood to look after paul's children, leto II and ghanima. liet-kynes' ecological plan has progressed under paul and alia's reign creating a complex environment and culture to the desert planet. as the planet has become more suitable for plant life, the fremen people have also changed. some have forsaken the old ways- building and living in villages outside of sietches, no longer wearing stillsuits, etc. alia has slipped into abomination. unable to control herself against her many inner lives she becomes "possessed" by the baron harkonnen. leto and ghanima are aware of their aunt's possession and recognize that they could also become possessed, being preborn. at the same time, house corrino plots from salusa secundus to have leto and ghanima killed using conditioned laza tigers so that princess wensicia (irulan's sister) can install her son (farad'n) back on the lion throne. in a timely manner, the lady jessica has decided to return to arrakis, meeting her grandchildren for the first time- but her visit seems to have been motivated by her return to the bene gesserit sisterhood. and as if all of that working against the twins wasn't enough- there have been reports of a mysterious man known as "the preacher" speaking out against the regency and warning about the new fremen forsaking the ancient ways. leto and ghanima work together to overcome all the plots against them- even faking leto's death- so that he can escape to jacurutu. he confronts the preacher, who is revealed to be paul and starts following the prescient visions his father could not- in order to lead humanity away from annihilation and down the golden path. and how does he do that? BY BECOMING ONE WITH THE WORM. literally wrapping himself up like a condom made out of sandtrout??? mucus?? lmao i'm not even really sure!!

okay this book was so good. omggg. admittedly in the first part of the book i was feeling a little fatigued and thinking to myself that this one might not be as good as the others but the last portion of the book really delivered in a way that had me OBSESSED/thinking about it the whole day at work lmao. i ordered god emperor of dune and heretics of dune IMMEDIATELY after i finished.

some thoughts i want to make record of:

alia talking to her grandpa. inside her own mind. WAS NUTS. and also there were suggestions made that her affairs with javid/buer were motivated by the baron. WHICH IS SO FUCKED UP AND CRAZY.

full disclosure, i did have parts of this book "spoiled" for me. (i knew leto was enventually going to become a worm lmao..it's kind of on book covers and shit) but i did not realize it would be happening in this book, i thought that was going to happen in the next one. and i also didn't know how we would be transforming into a worm and the journey to that was still intriguing enough to me that i did not care that that detail was spoiled for me. AND BOY I WAS NOT READY. I WAS LIKE OH SHIT. WE'RE DOING THIS RIGHT NOW. i have seen some..complaints from people online and in person that this concept is too unserious and that it makes the story too far-fetched???? and i think *that* is a silly opinion tbh. maybe even lazy. BECAUSE WTF DO YOU THINK THE REVERAND MOTHER GAIUS HELEN MOHAIM WAS SAYING?? in the very beginning!! the gom jabbar was a test!!! to see if paul was animal or human!!! and leto laughs in the face of such a test!! omg the layerrrrs. leto is picking up where his father left off. paul also saw the future, but was unable to commit to it. he didn't want to sacrifice his humanity for humanity. he was "the messiah" to the fremen- but he wasn't god. and that's where leto differs- he fuses himself with the species responsible for the spice!! the most important resource in the universe!!!! the children of shai-hulud (god) to become the god-emperor and put humanity on the trajectory of the golden path and save them from the future that contains extinction. (it has also occurred to me that this may have not even been possible for paul to achieve, not being truly fremen, which leto mentions later in the book. but leto has chani's fremen genetics and her ancestral lives.) there is a lot of philosophical discussion in the book about change, evolution, ecology, and survival. leto merging with the fremen symbol of those concepts....ITS LITERALLY PERFFECT.

okay so apparently alia was keeping herself looking young using her bene gesserit training???? apparently they can do that. they can like shift around molecules and enzymes and slow their metabolisms and shit. which is funny because that fits so well into the trope of witch tales. (also i guess that makes sense given that jessica was like able to choose her child's chromosomes.) BUTTTT this also makes me wonder if leto's ability to fuse with the worm is doubly possible not only because of chani's fremen genes, his prescient preborn abilities, but alllllsooo his bene gesserit training available to him through paul and jessica's genetic memories.

i was wondering who harq al-ada was as i was reading. (they are quoted at the beginning of some of the chapters.) and i didn't get my answer until the end of the book lmao. farad'n!! ghanima's male concubine. farad'n's character is interesting to me. he has similarities to paul, and his curiosity and ability to learn the bene gesserit way suggest some ability within him. loathing the prospects of his mother's political games, he is a historian who would rather read his books and do his research. the old fashioned way!! not the preborn way. but he doesn't completely leave it up to chance. it is mentioned that farad'n has a secret spice addiction and that HE WEARS FUCKING CONTACTS TO CONCEAL IT!!!! this gets mentioned briefly like in the middle of the book and then doesn't get mentioned again!! which is crazy and left me with so many questions!!

although i do think it is necessary for the story to progress, i'm sort of disappointed(??) we didn't get to see more of ghanima. leto kind of hogs the spotlight. and just for her to become a tool for destorying house corrino's claim to any throne. there were moments in the book where leto mentions that he would ultimately have to betray her for the golden path. but by the end of the book she seems totally okay with it whereas before when she is unable to come out of her self-hypnosis- she is deadset on killing alia and farad'n. idk.

there is a part in the book where leto has been force-fed spice by gurney halleck under jessica's orders and he is having spice visions and in one of them he sees the future of arrakis with no sandworms and no spice. it is described: "He felt the red fruit of his life swaying on a limb, fluid sipping away from him, and the fluid was the spice essence flowing through his veins. Without Shai-hulud, no more spice. He had seen a future without the great grey Worm-Serpent of Dune." i can't ignore the biblical references, unfortunately. my religious trauma won't allow it.

the parallels between duncan idaho being able to break free from tleilaxu control as a ghola only for alia to succumb to the possession of her inner lives is not lost on me!

i like the way leto described the future and his visions as "threads" and how he needed to cut some of the threads in order to make his path. reminded me of greek mythology, which also describes fate as a red thread, controlled by the fates.

leto briefly discusses that he was able to create a hierarchy of all his past lives and was able to gain knowledge and memories from a particlar ancestor, named harum, to give him the information necessary to begin down the golden path. i want to know wtf are in harum's memories and wtf he is!!

the way this book discusses change is brilliant. change as being the only constant. change and adaptation being a necessary part for survival. the moralism of survival!! the evolution of the sandworm!! stagnation being a threat to humanity!! leto undergoing a metamorphic change in order to change the course and save humanity!! i wonder if this worm/human fusion will result not only leto's transformation but a transformation of the sandworms as well!!

the more i read these books the more complicated the character's morals become! i consider this a good thing, it really gets you thinking about fate vs free will, sacrifice for the greater good, intention versus reality. how many truths can we hold at one time? i already knew dune was complex- but i am realizing with each book that it gets deeper and deeper. i've never thought of paul as THE villian of the series- he's definitely not a good guy- i don't think this story has one- but a lot of the circumstances he (and his children) are in require moral paradoxes in order to secure the "best" outcome. but who decides what is "best"? those who are shielded from the consequences?? IDK LOTS OF THOUGHTS. that's all for now!! come back later when i have finished reading god emperor of dune.