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.

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, and it is melange that they have in excess. and it is the mining and resource extraction of melange that makes the cozy life on caladan 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 brutual- 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 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!!)

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.