"Could be a pip." |
“What little information we have about the old times, the pittance of data the Butlerians left us, Korba has brought it for you. Start with the Genghis Khan.”This passage brought me up short when I read it over 35 years ago. Paul Atreides — now Paul Maud’dib, benevolent overlord of the Fremen — the character I’d kinda-sorta been rooting for in the first Dune novel, compares himself favourably to Hitler because Hitler was an underachiever. Paul goes on to site his own stats the way self-satisfied gamers do: “Killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralized five hundred others. Wiped out the followers of forty religions . . .” Frank Herbert’s tactic, however clumsily staged, achieved its desired effect with me. I’d gone from feeling ambivalent toward this “hero” to wondering why I should trouble myself with the next (at that time) three sequels awaiting my attention.
“Genghis . . . Khan? Was he of the Sardauker, m’Lord?”
“Oh, long before that. He killed . . . perhaps four million.”
“He must’ve had formidable weaponry to kill that many, Sire. Lasbeams, perhaps, or . . .”
“He didn’t kill them himself, Sil. He killed the way I kill, by sending out his legions. There’s another emperor I want you to note in passing — a Hitler. He killed more than six million. Pretty good for those days.”
“Killed . . . by his legions?” Stilgar asked.
“Yes.”
“Not very impressive statistics, m’Lord.”
I made it through God Emperor of Dune, but after that I was done. The prose was just too stilted, finally.
Still and all, the overall concept is remarkably ambitious. And Herbert achieved an astonishing cultural penetration for an Anti-Campbell.
This recollection was inspired by Haris Durrani’s Twitter thread: “Do you think #Dune is a white saviour narrative? Well, you’re wrong.”
I would say that when I picked up the first novel, as a Canadian suburban adolescent in 1977, I was probably unconsciously hoping for a white saviour narrative, even if I couldn’t possibly have named it as such. I knew Dune influenced Star Wars, and I loved Star Wars. But as a sci-fi nerd I’d also read widely enough to know better than to expect a cowboy show when you crack the covers on a beloved SF classic.
Dune was finally, to my eyes, a hippie book. I bought it in a hippie used-book shop on the west coast. The only people discussing it were long-hairs who stank of patchouli and something faintly skunky. Thus: hippie book.
Twelve years later, when I put down God Emperor of Dune and picked up Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers (and probably stank not a little like Calvin Klein’s Eternity For Men) I identified Herbert’s saga as post-psychedelic religious reconstruction — of a piece with Cohen’s mischief, and RAW’s, and PKD’s, and a bazillion lesser luminaries penning the freakier comic books and pulp paperbacks I was into.
To that end I wonder if Herbert would not have been best served if the studios had just left David Lynch to follow his whims. But here we are; Villeneuve should do just fine.
Don’t know that it’s likely you’d have heard that the Inktober brand has suffered some reputation damage in the last couple of years — result of some false steps, real or perceived, by founder Jake Parker. Anyway, there’s a little trend to spite him, this time of year, with alternative ‘Tobers, and this one from a youngish Russian I’ve followed a few years now caught my eye this week: #dunetober.
ReplyDeleteWas not aware of the Parker controversy. Plagiarism is a serious accusation, and offense, certainly -- but canceling Inktober because of it? Seems a bit precious to me, since it wasn't as if Parker was making money directly off the "event." But I'm all for improvisation, whatever the impetus for it might be. And Dune tends to inspire freaky illos -- excelsior, Comrade!
ReplyDeleteThe plagiarism accusation comes some months after what I think was the real fumble, a lawyer-directed move that came off to a lot of people as unprovoked general threat. (I’d thought this was longer ago than it’s been. Just in December actually.) Dunn’s charge, if it sticks at all (not obvious to me), plays in an uglier way in light of that. Could be that Parker will shake it all off, but ‘cancellation’ is certainly the mood I’ve been sensing in some quarters.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed listening to that audio of Herbert explaining the novels to his English prof. buddy in ’69, by the way, via the Haris Durrani thread you link to. (I’ve only ever read the first two books, I think — in young teens. Never seen the Lynch film &c. Jury decidedly out on whether a revisit’s in my future.)
ReplyDeleteYou mean this interview? Yeah, it's quite the kick, isn't it? I must say at this stage in life listening to an hour-and-a-half of these two Poindexters sort it out beats an hour-and-a-half of re-reading the books. I can do the dishes.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Lynch film on opening night in the dead of a Winnipeg winter, back in the day. At the time Burger King had secured tie-in rights, and was covering every plastic XL Pepsi cup with pictures of Kyle McGlaughlin or Sting in a rubber suit -- if memory serves they released a calendar in which the movie figured prominently, along with a month devoted to Rocky IV and another to The Dark Crystal, etc. Anyhoo, this was evidently going to be a VERY big deal, and the Metropolitan Theatre, an old movie palace with an enormous balcony, was packed cheek-to-jowl with expectant cineasts. Two hours later, when the visage of the bald-headed girl swam across the screen to announce, "He IS the Kwisatz Haderach!" hoots of derision ensued. There was no question in anyone's mind that we had witnessed an historic turkey. An epic night.
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