Dune

There is a new show showing in the US just know called “Studio 60”. This is not about that show – but it is worth looking out for when it comes over. It is about a live TV show made and called … Anyway in episode 5 they have a guest musician called Sting. I am sure that he needs no introduction. On the show he is playing classical music from his new album which is currently at the top of the UK Classic music chart. And no this article is not about Sting. However I saw an interview with him on Hard Talk last week again promoting his album which I have been listening to and would recommend it as well. However Sting leads us into the subject, as he stared in a Movie based on a book.

Every so often in life if you are lucky and if you are literate, you read one of those books. It may change your life, or you may ignore it. But the text of the book conveys something to you that is at the very least uplifting, or frightening. It is like a mirror to the sole…

One of those books that had this effect on me is a Science Fiction novel called “Dune” by a now deceased novelist called Frank Herbet. If you have read Dune then I am sure that you have your own conclusions, but follow what I have to say as you may have missed some of the finer points. If you have not read it then I hope that by the end of this article you will want to read it. I read it after seeing the above mentioned movie of which I will return to later.

If I were doing a school essay for my English exam then I would start with the plot review. I do not want to pad this review out, but you have to understand what the book is about – don’t you? Essentially it is the story of a fifteen year old boy, who is a Duke of a family that are part of a political system based on the Middle Ages of Europe feudal system. However this is set around the year 10,000 in the far and distant future. The Galaxy has been colonised and each planet is home to a ruling family. All space travel, life extension and basic pleasure is linked to a drug simply called Spice which is found on only one planet called Arakis, or as it is a complete Desert – Dune. The boy rapidly grows into a man when his father is killed by their rival family. He looses all the family lands and has to redefine himself. It turns out that he is a long term multi generational genetic experiment by one of three political groups that rule the Galaxy called the Beni Gessarit. All female who use the Spice to give themselves superhuman mental powers that only females have. The character called Paul is a Man having been bread to have similar powers. He develops these powers and turns against the females who would rule him. He then goes onto to found a religion based on himself and over turns the Galactic government in the form of an Emperor and makes himself the emperor. By the way this is a very, very summarized plot description. The badies are another family of which Sting plays one of.

What makes the book so good – well anything from this list. Well developed Characters who interact and change. Plot – see above. Extremely good writing style. Let me say this about the writing style. Two characters could meet, and the movement of an eyebrow could be enough to change the entire direction of the plot and thus galactic politics. The Characters are some of the most well developed in the entire literary world and are comparable to anything that Shakespeare ever did on the stage.

However what I want to talk about are some of the other concepts that the book covers. I should also point out that we are talking about an entire industry here. The original author wrote five sequels before he passed away. Then his son along with another writer started to write prequels. Six. And now they have worked on the final book which was started by the author but never written fully – half of which has been published. There has been the movie in three different edited versions. And two TV shows based on the first three books which are by far the better choice if choosing between big and small screen. For more info on all of this go to the official web site at http://www.dunenovels.com/


So what concepts – there are so many it is almost difficult to say where to start. Each could be the subject of a Post in their own right.

The Internet comes first to mind. This is not really in the first book except as very ancient background. The Human race was enslaved by artificial intelligences which are referred to as Robots at first but the later prequels expands this with hindsight. As a reaction to this the human race turns away completely from computers and forces the development of the mind. Our modern society is so dependant on computers that we would be rather stuck if we missed them. I listened to an interview of a police officer this morning who is investigating a serial killer who has just killed five prostitute in the UK. He was involved in an investigation several decades ago into the countries last major investigation into a serial killer. During that investigation the actual culprit was investigated nine different times by the police each officer not realising that the man had been investigated. The reason given being the lack of IT processing power and dependence on manual systems. This could not happen now he said because of the computing power.

In this book after the humans have rebelled and done away with the thinking machines they have to be able to run a galactic power without computers. They develop the human mind to the point that there are humans with more computational power than machines. There are humans with almost telepathic powers. It just makes me wonder that with the developing and embryonic genetic engineering industry if perhaps the book was not more prophetic that it even thought?

The second concept is off course money and it’s relationship between just about everything else that matters: Family, Government, Religion and Power in all forms.

Family and money? What can be learned from an SF novel about this? The essence is that the Family own the business and only one member of the family runs the business. The financial power of the business makes whoever this person is the head of the family. Or is it being the head of the family that puts him n charge of the business? Circular trap here be warned. You get the point however. Look at large families lets say the Disney Family and their control or lack of over the company that old Walt funded. Diluted shareholdings through the years have led to a situation where there is now not even a board member with the name of Disney. So in this universe the family keep all the shareholdings in the name of the head of the family. Who also in the book has complete political power.,

The Government. In the Dune Universe the Government s a dictatorship. This gives rise to basic forms of political competition, Bribery, assassination, war and invasion. You get the picture. In our world there are not many opportunities to wage private wars even if you would want to. But at the same time it was only last week that Toney Blair was interviewed by the police. What for accepting political donations and giving out membership of the House of Lords. Maybe not direct bribery – but looks interesting doesn’t it…

Religion is probably the most interesting. You don’t get many chances to found one. However there was once an individual who did. His name was Jesus. Did he exist – I think we can say that historically there was a political preacher called Jesus. Was he the sun of god – that is a matter of faith. Did he found Christianity almost certainly, but there is evidence of others living his teachings prior to his teaching them… But we are living today in a country dominated by his religion! Did he have any money and what about his family – I leave that to the Devinci Code.

The third concept is the role of the sexes in society. In the books the world is male dominated. However there are various political organisations which are female run. Is there such a concept in our world today? I don’t know about political force, but society is changing and the future is female. Look at University and School exams. Look at employment nb numbers of new jobs? Read any paper and it is full of stories dealing with the rising and aggressive female.

Last but not least – the Books are enjoyable. I when reading them can’t put them down. I don’t really think much is needed to be said beyond this.

Mark.

A Few Links to get started with:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087182/ First Movie
http://www.dunenovels.com/ The Books
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/ TV Series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) Wikipedia
http://www.scifidimensions.com/May02/dunevsdune.htm Which Movie?