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Keith Mukai's Reviews > Dune
Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)
by Frank Herbert
by Frank Herbert
I guess I'm one of the few that bridge the gap between the Pride and Prejudice camp and the Dune camp. I loved both.
Dune isn't a light, enjoyable read. At times it reads more like excerpts from geology, ecology, zoology, sociology, pscyhology, and political textbooks. The characters are more like mega-archetypes than real human beings.
The appeal of Dune is peculiar. In order to enjoy Dune you have to enjoy complexity. All authors create little worlds in their stories but Herbert created a world.
He doesn't just say that Arrakis is a desert planet, he engrosses himself and the reader into the geology.
He puts people on the planet, governments, conflicting cultures, conflicting religions, conflicting ways of life that are thought out to the Nth level above and beyond anything else I've ever read. You could write a sociology or politics dissertation on the societal relations Herbert conceived for Dune.
Now is complexity itself a thing to be admired in a work of fiction? Generally no, but Dune is so immense and so detailed that it creates and inhabits a category of its own. The very fact that it often reads more like a National Geographic article than a sci-fi novel speaks to its peculiar charm.
Admittedly, this will not appeal to everyone. In fact, odds are that it will appeal to hardly anyone. But limited appeal should in no way factor into a work's quality. Compare the Academy Award-winning films against the yearly box office numbers if you don't agree. I'm sure Armaggeddon outgrossed Monster's Ball.
And amidst all this complexity lies a kind of new myth that blends mysticism, religion, and crass real-world politics. It's a hybrid; it's not The Odyssey and it's certainly not Star Wars but I do find great appeal in its particular take on Campbell's hero's journey. And the fact that it plumbs the intricacies of Muslim/Arab/desert culture adds another layer of exotic flair to the work.
As if all that wasn't ambitious enough, it even articulates a fascinatingly dark but pragmatic destiny for humanity as a whole.
And all of these incredibly ambitious elements are all tightly woven together. Take out one element and the story loses its cohesion. Despite all the ridiculous amounts of detail there is nothing extraneous in this novel.
Dune is a remarkable, magnificent accomplishment. But it's okay if it's not to your taste.
Dune isn't a light, enjoyable read. At times it reads more like excerpts from geology, ecology, zoology, sociology, pscyhology, and political textbooks. The characters are more like mega-archetypes than real human beings.
The appeal of Dune is peculiar. In order to enjoy Dune you have to enjoy complexity. All authors create little worlds in their stories but Herbert created a world.
He doesn't just say that Arrakis is a desert planet, he engrosses himself and the reader into the geology.
He puts people on the planet, governments, conflicting cultures, conflicting religions, conflicting ways of life that are thought out to the Nth level above and beyond anything else I've ever read. You could write a sociology or politics dissertation on the societal relations Herbert conceived for Dune.
Now is complexity itself a thing to be admired in a work of fiction? Generally no, but Dune is so immense and so detailed that it creates and inhabits a category of its own. The very fact that it often reads more like a National Geographic article than a sci-fi novel speaks to its peculiar charm.
Admittedly, this will not appeal to everyone. In fact, odds are that it will appeal to hardly anyone. But limited appeal should in no way factor into a work's quality. Compare the Academy Award-winning films against the yearly box office numbers if you don't agree. I'm sure Armaggeddon outgrossed Monster's Ball.
And amidst all this complexity lies a kind of new myth that blends mysticism, religion, and crass real-world politics. It's a hybrid; it's not The Odyssey and it's certainly not Star Wars but I do find great appeal in its particular take on Campbell's hero's journey. And the fact that it plumbs the intricacies of Muslim/Arab/desert culture adds another layer of exotic flair to the work.
As if all that wasn't ambitious enough, it even articulates a fascinatingly dark but pragmatic destiny for humanity as a whole.
And all of these incredibly ambitious elements are all tightly woven together. Take out one element and the story loses its cohesion. Despite all the ridiculous amounts of detail there is nothing extraneous in this novel.
Dune is a remarkable, magnificent accomplishment. But it's okay if it's not to your taste.
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Elizabeth
(last edited Mar 01, 2007 12:37am)
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rated it 1 star
Feb 08, 2007 11:37am
I didn't buy all the arab desert references. That was actually one reason why I questioned the entire premise of the book. To me they seemed thrown in there, like well--spice.
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The spice is oil, they're in the desert, the emperor/Sadukar is a stand in for the U.S. Wahoo... It's a ultra simplified middle eastern crisis done up in planet sized form and then given mythological proportions.And it's terribly obvious that Frank Herbert knows almost nothing about climate, how it works, or how to change a biosphere. How this became a sci-fi classic, really puzzles me.
Because on top of everything above... What Elizabeth said. Slow, and lifeless. The characters are written like the Jedi in Star Wars... Not once do you doubt the outcome of any of their trials and tribulations. Nor do we need the mano e mano pit fighting with knives. Stretches indredulity so far as to make you no longer care.
Banzai, I share your appraisal. Herbert's extremely varied life experiences are the only things that can come close to explaining how that man breathed out a breathtakingly dark universe with human cynicism accounted for and yet overcome concurrently.Anyone dismissing it as an allegory for George Bush and the Mesopotamians is kind of passing over that the book was written in 1965, when Saddam Hussein was merely a young talented brute and Bush 41 was just moving into electoral politics and Bush 43 had yet to discover the joys of cocaine and fixed elections.
With the six Dune books, a nice thoughtful overview of what happens to cultures over the space of millenia is what in my opinion underlines the "wandering Jews" in continual exile depicted in the Fremen, I think it's marvelous. (And that actual Jewish people show up in book five is neat, too.)
I think all six books are worth reading and re-reading (and re-reading) especially for enthusiasts of the first book. And, ironically, many readers of the son's books are going to have a hard time fully appreciating the father's books, but hey.
You put it better than I could ever have. Yes, it has that charm of complete, unbelievable fiction that draws to it like a magnet. I can't say that the follow-ups were as good, even Frank Herbert's ones. Well, I've only read two, actually.. but Dune is still number one in my opinion, forever and beyond.
You're not the only one. I also like both Dune and Pride and Prejudice - along with a whole slew of other things.
