Dune series (Frank Herbert, 1965-1976)I have read the three main “Dune” books, and these were “Dune”, “Dune Messiah”, and “Children of Dune”. I have to say, that it is a very interesting science-fiction world the author has created, but it is not necessarily a great read. The main flaw is not exactly the book’s flaw, but only my own preference. The book is extremely serious. There is no humor. All my favorite books and authors use some kind of humor in their books, and when it becomes too serious, I always lose a bit of interest. I suppose, it is because I find things around me a bit funny and absurd, and I like it to be reflected in books too.
The “Dune” universe is about a planet that is complete desert. Water is a rarity there, so living in it is hard and a constant survival challenge. The only interest in the world from other plants is that it has a certain spice that is essential to many different professions, and therefore, the Dune planet has an important role to play. The story is less of a space opera and more like a political/religious story that is somehow straight out of medieval times. Instead of Presidents, we have an Emperor and different Major and Minor Houses.
The problem with making a book so serious is that certain things look sillier the more serious the author treats them. Because the planet is a desert, the author has used a lot of Arabic and Iranian references. It is based thousands of years in the future and I never was sure if the references were just the author’s idea that it was the normal evolution of those religions and races or just (and I’m guessing, more probable), it was just easier for him and more exotic to write it in. The emperor is called Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Ooh, sounds very exotic, but I’m Iranian, so to me Padishah is just an Iranian word for Emperor, and Shaddam sounds way too close to Saddam. And the planet Dune is actually called Arrakis. Get it? Sounds like Iraq. The book is filled with stuff like that, the natives from Dune are these desert people, rebellious, religious, honorable, which I suppose is romantic views of Arabs in the 60s and before that, before rich oil-barons of the Arab world as one new kind of Arab image and the other eventually being the angry, fanatical terrorist. The book is filled with other uses of Arabic or Iranian words, such as using Kitb (book) for their holy book or Mehdi as another word for Messiah or Prophet. Characters would also say a word in these two languages or a made-up language and then translate it to English themselves, which really is annoying and pointless.
Finally, the book was at times smart and fascinating with its philosophical dialogues and plot-lines and other times just frustrating with the same philosophical dialogues and plot-lines. It went on making me going “hmm” to just rolling my eyes.
Here are a few of them, chosen from all three books, just to give you an idea:
- “The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”
- “A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.”
- “Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.”
- “Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.”
- “If you need something to worship, then worship life — all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!”
- “I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find the day."”
- “This is the fallacy of power: ultimately it is effective only in an absolute, a limited universe. But the basic lesson of our relativistic universe is that things change. Any power must always meet a greater power.”
- “Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class — whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.”
- “Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your religion real when you fatten upon it? Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name? Whence comes your downward degeneration from the original revelation?”
- “Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing.”
- “To stay awake all night adds another day to your life.”
- “When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.” (this one is actually attributed to a French 18th century philosopher, Louis Veuillot)
3/5
