DUNE BOOK CLUB :: Week 01!
DUNE is ostensibly a science fiction novel. But like most good genre fiction, the trappings of its genre are little more than a container large enough to hold the story. Dune is not about spaceships or lasers, though both of those make brief appearances from time to time. Dune is not about aliens, though there are some of those too, later on.
Dune is about systems and forces. The most obvious are the systems of peoples within the book: political systems, sociological systems, religious systems. But underlying all of these are ecological systems--remember that the book itself is named "Dune," the ersatz name of the planet the story takes place on, and from which a bizarredly convoluted epic spins out over the successive books in the series. Don't worry, we can ignore those for the purposes of our might DUNE BOOK CLUB, but it's important to point out.
Dune deals mainly with systems and the introduction of forces into those systems. Throughout the novel, the phrase "plans within plans," and different permutations thereof, is repeated over and over. All things are interconnected, and force exerted on one thing will necessarily impact all other things within that system. If you look at the book in this way, it takes on a whole new life as a rich treatise on politics and ecology, wrapped up inside an epic adventure story. Ooh I'm getting excited just talking about it!\
above, by Pen Ward
I'm not really good at this sort of writing/thinking/discussion-leading, so I'm just going to wing it. I'll point out a couple of interesting things I noticed and ask a couple of questions--but I'd love to hear what YOU noticed, what YOU are thinking. This is a book with a near-bottomless subtext, so there is plenty to pull out for examination. I just talk a lot, so I don't want to be all like blah-blah-blah, y'know. OKAY, I NOTICED: 1) In the first little chapterish thing, Frank Herbert introduces his protagonist (SPOILER ALERT, PAUL IS THE PROTAGONIST, SORRY) and immediately throws him into a seemingly life-or-death struggle. The book begins with a double-dose of mortality and mysticism, a strange beginning for a sci-fi novel written in the 60's. It makes me think of this excerpt, just after Paul removes his non-charred hand from the black box: "Ever sift sand through a screen?" she asked. The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind into a higher awareness: Sand through a screen. He nodded." There's a lot of this verbal/philosophical play in the book, especially in the later, more philosophical sequels. Sometimes it can get kind of cloying, everyone talking to each other with four meanings in their mouths, but it makes dissecting the dialogue more interesting.
above, by Peter Lazarski
2) The second chapter is all politics, another of the important systems in the book. Jeez, it's super boring too, isn't it?--after all that secret black box and shadowy Bene Gesserit hoodoo of the first chapter? I don't mind all the politics stuff, but I think Herbert tried to cram a bunch of exposition in these early chapters, which sometimes works (I love the conversations between Paul and Thufir Hawat and Gurney Halleck in the fourth chapter), but sometimes is just a bunch of jerks giggling to each other about their Important Secret Plan. 3) I think it's important to point out the quasi-feudal structure of the world of Dune, as laid out in the fourth chapter. Not so much that the politics itself is important, but more what CREATED that structure: something called The Holtzmann Effect. Which, basically, means that you can't shoot lasers at people or their little shield-thingies will create a quasi-atomic explosion incinerating shooter and shootee and a few miles in all directions. That sounds pretty sci-fi, right? But in one of the few blatant sci-fi moments in the book--remember, it was published in 1965--Herbert effectively removes a lot of that super-science from the rest of his story. Because these shield protect from projectile weapons (guns, et al), and lasers are no good, everyone has to revert to fencing if they want to kill each other. In some ways, Dune is almost a "steampunk" story, anachronisms like swords next to science bits like spaceships. Ditto the lack of computers in the story, which is just nuts for 60's sci-fi. Not only are there no "thinking machines" in the story, but there are religious proscriptions against them! They have been replaced by highly trained "Mentats", basically computer people. Super crazy, making a sci-fi story about a bunch of people who mainly depend on their own wits and abilities. Who can say what the real purpose of this is, but to me it creates a framework that makes the story somewhat more believable than if people were raygunning each other all the time. It's interesting to see how Herbert juggles this stuff throughout the book, because it's not like there isn't a ton of weird stuff later.