Reading Dune
Well, I read Dune in a mad rush--just like in high school. I think I was up until 2 or 2:30 a.m. Sunday, and late again Sunday night. I finished on the bus on the way in to work this morning.
For me the book is totally gripping for the first half or so, then the silliness starts to become too evident. The giant worms are a part of it. Like with Star Wars (I guess--I don't know much about it) we have a high-tech society of the future which in some ways is forced back in to low-tech ways. No one dares use "atomics," lasers will cause an explosion when they are used against high-tech shields, so it's back to sword fights and knife fights. So far, so good.
The Fremen of the desert planet are almost totally cut off from this advanced civilization. They speak an ancient "hunting" language--their ancestors migrated from elsewhere, or were moved to the planet to harvest the spice. With help from a "planetologist" who technically worked for the Emperor, they have begun to grow plants and ecosystems--in a remote part of the planet, far from the cities. In principle, everything is visible from the air in this world--so they bribe the "Guild"--which has a monopoly on interplanetary travel and satellites--not to look.
One thing that has always excited me is the vague idea of all great civilizations and texts, including religious texts, coming together. (I think C.S. Lewis would say such hopes are the ultimate sin of pride). The desert people are clearly the Arabs--ignored by the West for a long time, their ancient history forgotten, now emerging with a new power because of a resource everyone wants. The Atriedes have the same family name as the main royal family of the Greeks at Troy--Menelaus, whose marital difficulties start the war, and Agamemnon, who is some kind of chief of the Greeks. Harkonnen and the Emperor sound German. No Brits? No Romans? Bene Geserit are a combination of nuns and Vestal Virgins--was Frank Herbert a Catholic having a little joke? Are the Mentats who think logically (no one is allowed to rely on thinking machines) a stand-in for the Jews? I don't know.
And then, when I go searching the web, I find out that Frank Herbert was a hack writer, with a tremendous capacity to absorb a lot of reading in such a way that he could churn out original-sounding narrative, and a bit of a nut. Sigh.
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