Dune and psychedelic desert messiahs

[Mark Kohut]

All I know is that the original hardcover of Dune was published by Chilton,
the car manual company. Some
story there I don't know.

On Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 3:23 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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> >
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