[Anne Elk]

This morning's NY Times published a guest essay by Daniel Immerwahr,  a history professor at Northwestern U:

‘Dune’ Owes Its Climate Change Prophecies to Indigenous Tribes

The article details how the inspiration for Frank Herbert's desertified planet was born from learnings he'd acquired over the years from a Hoh man he knew in his youth, Henry Martin (aka Indian Henry) and one of his best friends in adulthood, Howard Hansen, of La Push and Seattle.  I wrote about Howard in this section a few years ago: about his memoir, Twilight on the Thunderbird, and a report about attending Howard's memorial service in La Push. NWH members who picked up a copy of "Thunderbird" are already aware that Howard and Frank Herbert were pals, and that Howard was godfather to Herbert's son Brian.

Daniel Immerwahr's essay in the NYTimes is a distillation of a longer, scholarly article in the Journal of American Studies:

"The Quileute Dune: Frank Herbert, Indigeneity, and Empire".

FYI re copies of Twilight on the Thunderbird: The link in the NY Times article for Howard's book is for Third Place Books, which originally published Thunderbird when they had a small in-house publishing dept which is no longer in operation.  TPB and Amazon still have some copies, but more will be available in the near future through a new publisher.

[Malachai Constant]

I met Frank Herbert when a student at the UW he was still a reporter for the PI on the UW beat. I was the head of the Academic Affairs department of the student government. It published the Course Critique which rated courses and professors. He did not seem happy as a reporter. Dune had just been published and was extremely popular. Of course I congratulated him on the book. At the time he did not seem like a sci fi author who would revolutionize the genre.

[Anne Elk]

[Sore Feet]

[Get Out and Go]

Like Anne Elk, in the 70s, a friend recommended the book to me but I didn't get very far.  I have to tell you, I'm OK with Sci-Fi movies, but not a huge fan.  However, I watched the NEW movie on HBO Max today and I was completely captivated.         I loved the tone, soundtrack, story-line and it fulfilled my need for escape.  (Especially since I'm isolating in my upstairs room, with symptoms, after testing positive for the virus on Friday.)  As mentioned, now I just have to wait a couple years for more of the story.....

[Malachai Constant]

Seattle was different in the early 70’s the P.I. was a Hearst paper and very conservative with a guy named Lou Guzzo as editor. Lou did not seem to like the UW very much and hippies, students, and peaceniks less. I believe he was sent to do a hit job on the Course Critique and was not happy about it. Lots of gotcha questions etc. but the article was quite fair. I guess he was a bit of a rebel at heart at least judging from the Dune trilogy and really into the spice. By the way Dave Horsey was the cartoonist on the UW Daily at that time.

[Brian Curtis]

Driving around Portland the other day and listening to the local NPR station they said that Herbert was inspired by a trip to the Oregon Dunes.

I've long enjoyed the fact that in one of the sequels he named a character Winslow Ferry.

[Klapton]

First:  I am a sucker for Hero's Journey stories.  I love them all.  Lord of the Rings was my first reading after seeing my first as Star Wars.  Dune was my third.

I was in high school when the first movie came out.  I started reading it back then, but it didn't work out.

I LOVED the first movie because you really had to pay attention to every word to figure out what was going on.  I learned later about the "sound" nonsense.  It was basically because they wanted to make a sci-fi movie, not a kung fu movie.  But every word mattered, and I loved it.  As someone mentioned, they do pretty much zero character development other than Paul.

The SciFi channel Dune 2000 and Children of Dune series I also loved.  The costume budget was sh*t, and it takes some effort to ignore.  Getting past that, the mini-series format is obviously better suited to telling a story this huge.

I finally read / listened to the whole series a few years ago.  I doubt they'll ever make a movie of Leto the giant worm-god.  LOL  But now I know all the secrets and can better critique these productions.

The New Movie:

Thopters are the coolest yet.
Shield fighting is way better with the visual effect of blue vs. red color.  The slow blade penetrates the shield.
PC casting choice for Dr. Keynes did not feel forced or preachy.

THIS Paul is the most believable 14 year old by far.  Paul was an incredibly gifted, educated, healthy, athletic but completely pampered BOY when he comes of age in this movie.

Visually stunning, obviously.  Pacing is good.

Some complained because we only got a peek at one of the Fremen's great secrets:  they RIDE the effing things!  Because this is actually a complete secret, it was PERFECT that we only saw a tiny peek.  I am sure that we will learn ALL about the Fremen in the next film.

The great innovation of Herbert was that planetary ecology was the fulcrum of the entire plot of the story.  The Fremen were badass because they lived on a desert planet.  The Sardukar were badass because they lived on a frozen planet.  The idea of "hydraulic monopoly" ...  "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing."

Paul became emperor by threatening the extinction of a species.  No worms = no spice = no civilization.  Because the Fremen believed in him SO much, that they would kill their own gods (the worms) if he ordered it.

In the stories that follow, Paul deals with the consequences of what he has done - becoming a god to a fanatical people.

I'll stop rambling now.