Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune - the serial sperm donor of science fiction! Let me explain…
Dune, by Frank Herbert, is a space opera written in 1965. The story follows the saga of a young hero named Paul, on a planet called Arrakis, in a galaxy far far away. This book normally wouldn’t be on my radar. I don’t read a lot of fantasy or science fiction. I hadn’t even heard of it until the last year when a couple friends mentioned it and I saw news of the upcoming film. It didn’t stick out as something I would want to read until I learned that the book is considered an absolute classic of the science fiction genre.
The internet tells me that this book is ground-breaking for many reasons. First and foremost, it was one of the first science fiction books that brought fantasy style drama to the genre. Apparently a lot of the science fiction before it was primarily focused on the “science” part rather than the “fiction” part. Dune pulls from a lot of classic hero journeys: the most notable being the exiled son that must then return to his people to save them. Also, Herbert was influenced by issues of the time like human-caused environmental damage brought to light in Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Ecosystems - and their treatment - play central roles in the book’s action. At the time there weren’t a lot of books that dealt with the impact of the local environment so Dune is understandably ground-breaking in this way.
The most interesting element about Dune however, is the way that Dune SO clearly influenced science fiction that came after it. Parallels are seen in a lot of the most famous science fiction stories of the last couple decades like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Mad Max. Whether it is the desert planet settings, scarce resources that govern society, or humans that think without emotions, so many lines can be drawn back to Dune.
Final Thoughts
In all honesty, I didn’t love reading Dune. The story plops you right in the middle of a completely created world and immediately hits you with an avalanche of complicated names. I really enjoyed thinking about the book and its place in the overall science fiction genre though. It’s such a perfect example of how people create. Art doesn’t come out of nowhere. Artists consume the ideas, situations, and maybe most importantly, the other art around them to create anew. Herbert’s Dune inspired an amazing amount of new work but it’s important to note that he was equally inspired by the religions, cultures, and stories before him to create his master work. As the saying go - good artists copy, great artists steal - and the beautiful cycle goes on and on.
tags: annotations