Walk without rhythm, and it won't attract the worm

[cyrano]

Those of you who have read Dune, can you tell me how fair this synopsis is?

Dune “Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and also the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is frequently cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.” Is it a coincidence that the production company that financed Avatar is named Dune Entertainment? You decide: Dune is about a planet that is the only source in the galaxy for something that sells for millions per gram; it’s being mined by evil offworlders. One offworlder accidentally falls in with the locals- and isn’t killed out of hand because they receive a sign. So the daughter of a chief is assigned to teach him the ways of the planet and the people. Naturally, they fall in love. Passing a test of manhood- which involves riding a huge wild beast- he is accepted as one of the people, and using a mix of his offworld knowledge and his new understanding of this world, he becomes a war leader. They ride their beasts into combat against the high-tech offworlders and win.

Yes, it's from a review of Avatar, but I think he must be stacking his deck slightly.

Comments

[roisnoir.livejournal.com]

It's a highly cherrypicked synopsis, but what is there is not wholly incorrect.

I don't think I'd call it 'fair', but I also don't think that it's possible to properly summarize Dune in a few sentences. Especially if the Bene Gesserit aren't mentioned - they're just as important to how the world of Dune works as the spice is. (Was there anything analogous in Avatar? I haven't seen it.)

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I'd have to know more about the Bene Gesserit and why they were key players. I think they were some sort of religious order, yes?

[roisnoir.livejournal.com]

Religious/political, with a breeding program, trying to create a messiah (who wound up being Paul, though I think he was intended to be the father of the messiah.)

[spideyj.livejournal.com]

So... I'm a huge Dune nerd. I've read the books dozens of times at least, watched all the versions of David Lynch's rendition, read all the appendices, even own the Dune Encyclopedia. There are some massive problems with that summary, in my opinion.

First of all, the Fremen are not native to Dune - they've just been there longer. They, like everyone else in the Dune universe, are part of a diaspora driven by religious conflict. The Bene Gesserit are a religious order, they manage all the genetic lines of all the rulers of the various houses in the Dune universe as well as manipulating all the politics (ruling from behind the scenes).

It's true that Paul, similar to Sully, joins the Fremen and becomes one with them. But he's fighting against a house that opposes his, rather than fighting against his own people. House Atreides was betrayed by the emperor and attacked by the Harkonnen, so it's the Harkonnen and the emperor that the Fremen, led by Paul, are fighting against. Paul's acceptance by the Fremen is basically possible due to the manipulations of the Bene Gesserit - they are somewhat involved in the development of the Fremen as a people. Paul's mother Jessica is accepted first because of her Bene Gesserit status - without her, he probably would have been killed before he could prove himself to them.

And the Fremen actually don't oppose exploitation of the spice, they just want to maintain ownership of it. Harvesting the spice doesn't threaten their homes and livelihood like mining unobtainium does for the Na'vi - harvesting the spice is an important part of the Fremen lifestyle. Unobtainium is presented as being extremely valuable - spice is necessary for space travel to continue in the Dune universe. Spice is used by the navigators to map their route through what is essentially hyperspace, something that is impossible to do without the prescience spice grants. Without the spice, ftl travel becomes impossible and there is no more intergalactic society, they have to go back to generation ships for there to be any sort of space travel.

Another thing - a key part of Paul's strategy in retaking control of Arrakis was making it clear that they are willing to completely destroy the spice and spice production, something which the Na'vi were unable to do, unobtainium being a resource sitting right under their homes.

It's just a super far stretch to make any kind of comparison between the two movies. Avatar is eye candy; Dune is a heavily philosophical opus dealing with issues of religion and politics on a fairly sophisticated level (well, less so in the movie but still much more than Avatar).

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yay Dune nerds!
Thank you for enlightening me. I should try to read it again sometime.

[spideyj.livejournal.com]

Well, I certainly loved it, though it's not for everyone.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I never thought it was bad, I just kept getting to a part where I'd either read the same page three times or I'd read three pages and had no idea what was on those pages. Brain was apparently saturated, and not picking up anything.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

IME, you have 100 pages at the beginning that are a hell of a slog, and then the book is fine from there. But I haven't ever re-read it.

[denyse.livejournal.com]

I'm a Dune nerd as well, and think you've put it very well.