I probably read Frank Herbert’s “Dune” because of the pre-release hoopla surrounding the 1984 movie. The novel was/is a “science fiction classic,” I was a “reader” so I hunted up a copy and read it.
Dune (1984) has serious issues – but is a fun “80’s movie.” e.g. Sting (who was a full blown “80’s rock star” at the time) was gratuitously inserted into the movie – which I’m sure seemed like a good idea at the time.
The big problem is that the movie makers tried to squeeze a 400+ page book with a large cast of diverse characters into a 2 hour 17 minute movie – which equaled “box office disappointment” (e.g. reportedly a $40 million budget but only $30 million gross in box office).
SO Dune (2021) doesn’t make that mistake. Sure this time around the movie makers have modern digital CGI fx to bring the Dune universe vividly to the screen – but again the real issue with the 1984 movie wasn’t the special effects.
I tend to avoid “movie pre-release hype” so the movie makers may have been explaining that the 2021 movie is really “Dune – part 1” – i.e. obviously they are splitting the novel material between two movies.
The really short review – I mistook Timothee Chalamet for another “young, thin, dark haired” actor but he does a fine job. If you like the “movie experience” then seeing it on the big screen is worth the effort.
The rumor is that Frank Herbert started researching and writing “Dune” in the late 1950’s – then spent a lot of time being turned down by publishers until the novel was published in 1965.
random thought: this “popular book by first time author – turned down by multiple publishers” tends to be the norm for a couple reasons – first: if the subject/style is really something “new” or a “new approach” then the number of people that will recognize the potential of the book is small.
Just the nature of “publishing” is that they tend to look for “something like something that was successful” NOT “something new.”
Then secondly – if someone wrote the greatest novel of all time, and then gave up after the first rejection, well, then the novel would be unpublished and no one would ever read it 😉
While the “science fiction” community appreciated Dune, Frank Herbert wasn’t able to quit his “day job” after writing Dune. I was surprised to learn that Mr Herbert wrote 20+ “non Dune” novels – but that isn’t important at the moment.
Dune covers a lot of philosophical ground – but I’ll call it “speculative religion” today.
dreams
SO it is possible to look at Dune and see a story about scarce natural resources, the wealth possible by controlling those resources – as well as the resulting conflict over those resources. Living in the U.S. the connection between “oil” and the “Middle East” and then “spice” and “desert plant Arrakis” is probably obvious.
But if you want “spice” to be a drug or something else – it doesn’t really change the dynamic of the storytelling – the point is “scarce resource” and “cartel power.”
The “religious” portion or Dune revolves around “dreams.” Numbers 12:6-8 comes to mind – but the idea that having “visions of the future” tends to equal something beyond what we can touch and feel is common throughout all cultures and history.
Of course there is a big difference between “predicting” something will happen and “causing those events to occur.” The motivational poster might be “We predict the future by making it happen.”
Carl Jung (a contemporary of Sigmund Freud) theorized about a “collective subconscious” shared by humanity – which is often useful when talking about “storytelling” across cultures and comparative mythology – BUT is “backward looking” and not prophetic in nature.
“Time travel” also certainly qualifies as a science fiction “component” if not “cliche” – i.e. if you are “from the future” and “living in the past” then “predicting” the future is a matter of memory.
Meanwhile the “gift” of seeing the future tends to be reserved for “gods” or their emissaries.
If memory serves – Odin gave up his eye in exchange for “future vision.” The “blind prophet” that no longer has physical vision but can “see” the future tends to pop up on a regular basis (e.g. “O Brother Were Art Thou?” was a comedic retelling of the Odyssey – a couple characters lack physical sight – the first one is in the clip, the second runs the “radio station” both “prophets” in their own right – and John Goodman is a ‘cyclops’ stand in 😉 )
SO “Dune” becomes speculative religion because of the “prophetic dreams” that the main character is having. If you have read the “Dune trilogy” and think “Paul goes ‘blind’ multiple times” then you know what I’m talking about …
O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
Hamlet – Act 2 Scene 2
Predictions
ANYWAY – “Science Fiction” as a genre covers a lot of ground – the “classics” of science fiction tend to deal with “present day” issues through the lens of “future speculation.”
The problem is that making predictions about the future is easy, but being accurate about those predictions tends to be much harder.
The “history of computing” documentary (from the late 1990’s) I like to show first year students is great for 30ish minutes – then they start making “predictions of the future.”
No, the “experts” in the documentary don’t make “everyone will own a flying car and have lunch on Jupiter” predictions – what they were expecting kind of happened, just not the way they predicted – i.e. no one could have predicted the iPhone and “mobile apps” and Google was still a new thing in 2000 – again, illustrating the limits of “human predictions” …
SO “false prophets” are also a given if you have “true prophets” running around – the difference being that the “false prophet” is, well, “wrong.”
Well, I suppose the “prophets” could also be intentionally misleading like the witches in Macbeth – i.e. just having visions of the future doesn’t mean you are on the “right side” but it does imply a “spiritual connection” beyond human capacity.
This is where Dune becomes “speculative religion” – i.e. the main character is having recurring dreams that come true – just where do the dreams come from? Just because Paul’s mother and the Bene Gesserit have been manipulating events for hundreds of years does NOT make them capable of “prophecy.”
Frank Herbert kind of makes the “future sight” a genetic trait that Paul passes on to his children – but then loses himself. Which I suppose is plausible – IF “prophetic capacity” was genetic.
fwiw: George Lucas was intentionally going for “quasi religious” with Star Wars – but the most “science fictiony” part of the “Star Wars universe” is probably the “droids with personality”/true consciousness — so maybe the most “science fictiony” part of the “Dune universe” is the “prophecy without gods” aspect.
dream interpretation
The Oracle at Delphi was once considered a source of “truth” – the exact process is lost to history, mostly because it was “common knowledge” back then and not one bothered to document the process. It appears that folks would make the trip to the shrine, ask their question – and then receive a response from the Oracle.
Of course the responses tended to sound like daily horoscopes in modern times – kind of generic and open to interpretation. There is speculation that the shrine might have been built on top of a natural ‘gas leak’ of some kind that caused the oracle to have ‘visions’ but that is obviously speculation.
Nostradamus also comes to mind – folks dig through his writings and try to match up what he wrote to history. i.e. it is easier to sound profound when you speak in “mysterious symbols” – Walmart will sell you “Magic 8 ball” for around $10 this is just as useful 😉
As for “normal” recurring dreams – they tend to be very subjective and personal. If you are having recurring dreams about “famous historical figure” it probably has nothing to do with “history” but a LOT to do with how you feel about “historic figure.”
A subclass of “dreams” might be related to “sleep apnea” or “bad sleeping position.”
If you are allergic to your pillow you might have recurring dreams where you can’t breath – which probably means you need a different pillow, but not much else. If you have a dream where you can’t use an arm or leg – and then you wake up with your arm or leg in a weird position – well, there is probably a direct connection between the two.
The idea that “dreaming about x” means “y” goes back to the old “collective unconscious” thing. Most dreams boil down to your mind processing data in some form OR “sleep fitness issues.”
The “prophets” of the Old Testament had no doubt whom they were representing. They didn’t have a single weird dream and think “I wonder if God is talking to me” – i.e. there was no doubt that their “prophetic visions” were something different.
God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son is in a special category for a specific purpose – so I’m not sure if that falls under “prophecy” or not. So if you hear “voices” telling you to do bad things – well, tell the voices to go away, they certainly aren’t acting in YOUR best interest one way or the other …