I read Dune back in high school or college. Many years later I have loved the movies. It was time to reread the original. Muttrox’s verdict? It’s bloody great. I whipped through the five hundred pages in two days. It’s an achievement. It deserves every accolade.
Although I love the movies there are too many threads. Love the music, the cinematography, the acting, but… there are too many elements mixed together – the political intrigue, the Bene Gesserit, the weird sister fetus, the Mentat, the spice harvesting, wait Idaho and Gurney are different people, the Fremen legends, the umpteen different names for the prophesied messiah – it’s too much. It’s just too much. My family (normal people who haven’t read every science fiction classic) enjoyed the movie. But they were understandably confused.
The book is even denser. There are more levels to incorporate. The spacer guild, the planetology, the Mentats, the spice life cycle, etc. But Herbert does it. The book is coherent. And like Game of Thrones, the main characters have intelligence, they make plans, they have motivations. Their gambits succeed or fail. In that sense it’s far more adult than most science fiction. The world building is immaculate. My biggest beef is the philosophical sayings that litter the book. They are profound at first and irritating by the end. It’s not they lack insight, it’s the sheer volume of them. Put down the bong Frank.
Oh, why Donald Trump? You don’t get this from the movie, but the key leverage Paul has over the Emperor is control over a natural resource essential to the economy.
Page 409: “[Spice] is the most previous thing in the universe,” Paul said.”… “And we control it, Gurney.” “The Harkonnens control it!” Gurney protested. “The people who can destroy a thing, they control it,” Paul said.
Page 432: “He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it,” Paul said. “We can destroy the spice.”
Paul can’t harvest, store, transport, and sell the spice, but he can keep others from doing that. Sound familiar?
