Dune and psychedelic desert messiahs

[Ian Livingston]

Yes, Joseph, I also saw Dune yesterday, but for a matinee showing in a
mostly empty theater populated by adults who likely read the books about
the same time I did and loathed the previous attempts at screening the
story. (The 4-day work week pays off!)  I agree that Villaneuve succeeds in
capturing the mise-en-scene of the books more effectively than the other
attempts of screening the story. I read the books decades ago, but the
effect on my young psyche was lasting. Maybe it will work thus with other
young folks who see the film. I do hope the box office pay-off is
sufficient to move the process forward. The potential is pretty big, in
movie business terms. I think reviewers are, as you suggest (perhaps) taken
aback by the desert culture not only surviving, but shaking off white
colonialism as a positive narrative--particularly given the
universe-dominating-empire paradigm that develops as the story continues.
We often, I think, fail to recall that Islam is the youngest of the
world-dominating religious narratives and, as such, holds great potential,
still, for explosive growth among emotionally volatile people. Opposition
through oppression is more likely to increase its attractiveness than to
decrease it. I think Herbert recognized that. The wars of the last 20 years
have only hardened the mettle of desert culture while likely weakening the
hold of the elites among them who bought into Western capitalism. Those
princes rule precariously.

I thought it was interesting that Villaneuve and his co-writers place the
story in an ostensibly future tense. I rather read it as told in the
historical framework, e.g., where we all came from. Then again, there is
quite a bit of the Nietzschean to the tale that might resound to the
eternal return of men craving power.

On Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 10:50 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Went to see Dune last night, mostly Williams College kids attending,
> needed some escapist nonsense. It was well done I thought, good acting,
> good music and sound effects if slightly over the top with the big drums.
> Visually severe, engaging, ominous in story-appropriateriate ways. I
> wondered if the whole heroic desert freedom fighters with Islamic style
> might shake up the imagination of young watchers shaped by anti-Muslim
> cultural atmosphere. Stayed quite close to the book, more condensed. Not
> sure visionary psychedelic messiahs leading desert rebels against the
> exploitation of a cruel empire has serious relevance, but it could be a lot
> worse. It is only half the first book.
>   I thought Herbert made a big mistake killing off the ecologist when I re
> read the book most of a year ago. I still think so, too central as a
> redeeming theme.
>
> I have an increasingly hard time with big Iron machines traveling light
> years through space while people fight with swords.  We are so fucking far
> from real space travel.
>
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