primeideal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
primeideal) wrote2021-11-11 08:31 am
primeideal) wrote2021-11-11 08:31 am
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Dune (continued)
So some people I've heard discussing Dune upon a reread have been like "eh, I liked it at first, but it hasn't aged well because I'm more enlightened now." And I was kind of hoping to like it to just be like "bleep the haters." But...I want to have characters I can root for who make interesting decisions. And that...didn't really happen.
There's only so much you can get out of "Paul did the spice and had visions, they showed him a lot of possible futures. But not the only one because that would be boring. But he wants to prevent the bad ones. Then he got upset because he'd been manipulated to become the chosen one." Repeat.
The culture clashes were neat--Jessica being seen as a holy woman and basically trying to bluff her way through everything, contrasted with the scene where the Fremen are just only here for the water and can't imagine why the Atreides care about anything else. Kynes surprised me because the death scene in the movie--"I serve only one master, and his name is Shai-Hulud"--was so epic I figured it had to be straight from the book. (Okay, I know the tropes I like.) But no, book-Kynes just hallucinates his dad giving him an ecology lecture.
The book makes it much more clear than the movie that Jamis really was a jerk and Stirgar is not very sad to see him go. But then there's that funeral scene, again, more Steerswoman vibes.
Like I said, I'd read it once before and barely remembered anything except "there's political intrigue and sand." The Reverend Mother-Jessica (and Alia) scene felt vaguely familiar on reread though, maybe that part stuck out to me? (Or maybe it's just a coincidence, which would be amusing on a meta level, I guess.)
Influences on other media: "Things persisted in not being what they seemed" (Paul trying the modified water at the "orgy" ceremony) is an achievement from the early levels of Crying Sun. "Waking from the dream"/"this inhabitable place needs to be seen as a test to make us strong" are more direct Aiel influences than the early chapters.
The stuff I would look to fic for is probably more about the supporting characters--how does Irulan become the chronicler rather than "Paul's wife"? Harah and her kids and her relationship with Alia? Jessica/Stirgar just taking time for themselves? (Maybe he figures out about Alia and things diverge before the ceremony?) And I know there are a zillion more sequels and prequels, but...IDK if I care enough to read those, shrug.
Anyway, here is some great fourth-wall busting from the appendix:
There is a fifth force which shaped religious belief, but its effect is so universal and profound that it deserves to stand alone.
This is, of course, space travel--and in any discussion of religion, it deserves to be written thus:
SPACE TRAVEL!
There's only so much you can get out of "Paul did the spice and had visions, they showed him a lot of possible futures. But not the only one because that would be boring. But he wants to prevent the bad ones. Then he got upset because he'd been manipulated to become the chosen one." Repeat.
The culture clashes were neat--Jessica being seen as a holy woman and basically trying to bluff her way through everything, contrasted with the scene where the Fremen are just only here for the water and can't imagine why the Atreides care about anything else. Kynes surprised me because the death scene in the movie--"I serve only one master, and his name is Shai-Hulud"--was so epic I figured it had to be straight from the book. (Okay, I know the tropes I like.) But no, book-Kynes just hallucinates his dad giving him an ecology lecture.
The book makes it much more clear than the movie that Jamis really was a jerk and Stirgar is not very sad to see him go. But then there's that funeral scene, again, more Steerswoman vibes.
Like I said, I'd read it once before and barely remembered anything except "there's political intrigue and sand." The Reverend Mother-Jessica (and Alia) scene felt vaguely familiar on reread though, maybe that part stuck out to me? (Or maybe it's just a coincidence, which would be amusing on a meta level, I guess.)
Influences on other media: "Things persisted in not being what they seemed" (Paul trying the modified water at the "orgy" ceremony) is an achievement from the early levels of Crying Sun. "Waking from the dream"/"this inhabitable place needs to be seen as a test to make us strong" are more direct Aiel influences than the early chapters.
The stuff I would look to fic for is probably more about the supporting characters--how does Irulan become the chronicler rather than "Paul's wife"? Harah and her kids and her relationship with Alia? Jessica/Stirgar just taking time for themselves? (Maybe he figures out about Alia and things diverge before the ceremony?) And I know there are a zillion more sequels and prequels, but...IDK if I care enough to read those, shrug.
Anyway, here is some great fourth-wall busting from the appendix:
There is a fifth force which shaped religious belief, but its effect is so universal and profound that it deserves to stand alone.
This is, of course, space travel--and in any discussion of religion, it deserves to be written thus:
SPACE TRAVEL!
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