Dune Genesis (1980)
emmaconcepts.net
emmaconcepts.net
I didn't realize that was the official line. I always thought spice was supposed to be a metaphor for oil rather than water. Especially since spice was only found on a single desert planet but the heroes came from a world covered with water. If water was supposed to represent oil and the heroes had any sense of basic economics, they would have just shipped tonnes of water from their homeworld. Or have gotten water from stellar ice or hydrogen.
One of the positive pro-technologies messages from the Dune series is that the spice monopoly is broken once synthetic spice is created. I viewed this as an optimistic future where synthetic carbon-negative hydrocarbons (or solar, wind, fusion, etc) would replace our dependency on oil pulled from the ground.
Did you read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune?
Yes, read each of those books once. I think I got up to God Emperor. Next time I have the itch to read the first, maybe I'll just force myself all the way through to Chapterhouse...
Years ago I read someone who was paraphrasing this and use it to describe how governments go bad. I did not realize that Herbert originated it (afaik)
Very few are able to escape their own prejudices, viewpoints and succeed in the office. Extremely difficult to make a positive difference for everyone. So many recent examples.
I feel like we've been seeing exactly this in contemporary political movements. Identify some perceived injustice with society, create a power structure to address it, more injustice is created in the process, festering resentment at the power structure develops and produces blowback.
Damn, he was spot on about this.
The book is freely available on oreilly.com[1] and likely worth a look for anyone interested in TFA.
For example, O'Reilly claims "in writing about the mystique of the superhero, Herbert himself was prey to it" quoting Analog editor John Campbell's rejection letter for Dune Messiah: "science-fictioneers [...] want heroes—not anti-heroes. They want stories of strong men who exert themselves, inspire others, and make a monkey's uncle out of malign fates! As Paul did in Dune —not as he fails completely to do in The Messiah"
Campbell misses the point, O'Reilly says, " that Herbert deliberately looked for this reaction from his readers. To Herbert, the hero mystique is symptomatic of a deadly pathology in contemporary society, a compulsive yearning for easy answers. As long as men are looking for simple solutions to their problems, they will give over their ability to think for themselves to the first person who comes along and promises a solution. The Dune trilogy is an attempt to unveil that pattern and, in some small part, to change it."[2]
How many of the books would you recommend reading to get the whole story? I've heard they go off the rails later on (or was that the Ender saga?).
Book 2 is grim and deflating, 3 picks up the pace again but is really just setup for 4.
After 4, Herbert’s wife passes away and he takes up with his much younger editor. From then on, the books get significantly hornier. YMMV.
I never realized that the change in tone in 5 and 6 were due to a new editor. Interesting, but it makes sense.
I think 5 and 6 were ... fine. But I have trouble pinpointing what they were really about. There is a lot of movement but no direction.
I hesitate to use the word because afaik Herbert was a widower at the time, but can’t think of a better one that hits the right tone.
Affair: a sexual relationship between two people, one or both of whom are married to or in a long-term relationship with someone else. "his wife is having an affair". (Google)
Websters: “a romantic or passionate attachment typically of limited duration”
You should probably read Children of Dune to round off the trilogy, just to learn the fate of Paul Atreides, although he is not the primary character in that book.
The second trilogy is distinct but the stories are told told in the same setting; enjoyable but not essential.