source: YouTube
If you're not acquainted with the world of Dune, you're missing out. Originally published in 1965, Dune has sold some 20 million copies and has regularly been cited as one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels. If you don't know the story of Dune, you still have seen its influence in many other titles. Dune was, for example, a major inspiration for Star Wars. It's no understatement to say that Dune has done for science fiction what Lord of the Rings has done for fantasy. So, if you like science fiction, reading Dune should be on your to-do-list for sure. Still, Dune is quite unique in some ways, and I'll briefly discuss how and why.
For one, the story doesn't focus on futuristic technology at all, even though it plays some 20,000 years into the future. There are no robots, no androids, almost no laser gun fights. Instead the fighting is done mostly hand to hand with knives and swords. The shields that are used everywhere in Dune protect against ballistic and projectile weapons; things that move fast, can't penetrate those shields. A slow moving knife can. And if such a shield is touched by a laser, an uncontrollable nuclear explosion ensues. This makes for a universe where power struggles between powerful factions are mostly decided by stealth, assassination, poisoning and betrayal. Members of the factions that maintain the delicate power balance, such as the Empire, the Great Houses and the Spacing Guild therefore are always suspicious; "trust" is a rare thing and is often paid with the ultimate price.
Aliens you will not find in Dune. The saga of Paul Atreides takes place some 10,000 years after the Butlerian Jihad, the revolution in which humankind defeated once and for all the "thinking machines." In the very first chapter of Dune, Paul Atreides and the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam of the Bene Gesserit have this little dialogue:
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind," Paul quoted.
"Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible," she said. "But what the O.C. Bible should've said is: 'Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind.' Have you studied the Mentat in your service?"
source: genius.com
The above link contains the entire first chapter of Dune for your reading pleasure, and the quote brings us to another unique aspect of the books, one that's related to the abolishing of artificial intelligence after the Butlerian Jihad. With the loss of thinking machines, humans evolved into a number of different specialized strands, one of them being Mentats, individuals who are highly skilled in making calculations and are strategic masters in Dune's one-of-a-kind battlefield. Another specialization is found in the Spacing Guild, where so called Navigators have evolved into creatures that hardly look human anymore, but have a monopoly in space-travel. Their minds are capable of limited prescience, they can look into the future and, combined with wicked math-skills, calculate jumps through spacetime to facilitate interstellar travel. Then there's the Bene Gesserit, a female-only order who have full control over every fiber and atom in their bodies and, with the use of the geriatric spice Melange, can access the genetic memories of all of their female ancestors. In short, humanity has evolved into, was compelled to evolve into such different ways due to the loss of thinking machines, that the absence of aliens and robots will never bother the reader, and will not detract from the fact that it's indeed pure science fiction.
All of the above makes for a universe that's strangely familiar, yet utterly unworldly. And, more importantly, it allows for a thorough examination of humankind itself. This may be THE main reason why everyone should read these books; every aspect of the human experience is explored, from growing up to ruling, from science to religion, from ecology to technology, from philosophy to all human emotions and how they're used constructively and destructively. It's not a particularly fast-paced story as it's full of political, economical and religious machinations, has a lot of inner dialogue, giving a clear understanding of the personality and motivations of each and every major and minor character, elaborate descriptions of the unique ecology of the desert planet and a deep dive into the power struggle between the Great Houses of Corrino, Harkonnen and Atreides, the secretive manipulations of the Bene Gesserit and the coming of age of Paul Atreides who's to become the ruler of the known universe.
This short summary of the world Frank Herbert has built doesn't come close to covering every aspect of it, but it may give a glimpse into the reason why this story has been deemed impossible to put into the cinematic format. It's been tried two times, and twice it was a failure. The first attempt by Alejandro Jodorowsky never even reached the production phase, and David Lynch's 1984 film was a resounding failure at the box office. Jodorowsky wanted to make a ten hour film and was so rediculously expensive it never got made. Lynch wanted a four hour film, the studio allowed only half of that, resulting in a very poor final cut that necessitated the movie audience to be handed out little pamphlets with an explanation of the words and terms used in the film. Dune's story is so grand and so complex, and contains so much inner dialogue, that I sometimes wonder if Denis Villeneuve will be able to finally pull it of. The fact that he planned for, and got permission to film the first book in two parts is encouraging. The downside is that the first film must be successful for the second to become a reality...
Since the release of the final trailer a few weeks ago, the internet has been flooded with reactions to that trailer. The reactions are overwhelmingly positive, but there is a distinct difference between the ones who have read the books and the ones who haven't. All are mesmerized by the cinematography, the music, sound design, the cast and acting, but the latter often are somewhat confused about what it is exactly that they saw. That worries me somewhat; a final trailer is supposed to give the viewer an idea about what the story's about, and for some who don't know the book that understanding didn't land. Dune is not like Lord of the Rings, it's not a simple good against evil story, but explores the good in evil, the evil in good and everything in between. Paul Atreides isn't a hero in the classical sense, but a magnificent example of human success, victory, failure and defeat. Spoiler alert: he ultimately fails his noble destiny and will be responsible for many billions of human lifes lost in a crusade (or jihad) of his doing. In later books it's his son who dares make the sacrifice needed to do what's right, and even he becomes a galactic tyrant.
And that's Frank Herbert's ultimate message, it's the warning he wanted to give to us in the Dune novels: never put your trust in charismatic leaders, for they are only human... I've included four videos: the trailer, the best reaction to the trailer that I could find, one speculating on the inclusion of Navigators of the Spacing Guild, and below is linked a short video explaining why you should read the novels. For me personally I can say that this book has influenced me more than any other, and I sincerely hope the film will live up to expectations and that it will be a success at the box office, so that Villeneuve will be allowed to make at least one more film and finish the story of the first book.
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