61–70 of 120 posts
> “Dune” ’s lack of true fandom among science-fiction fans I'm not sure what sci-fi fans he's hanging out with... > This de-emphasis on technology There is de-emphasis on thinking technology -- there is still "magic level" technology everywhere else.
Re-reading Dune many years later I found it to be pretty cringey. Laurence of Outer Space basically. Maybe the 2nd book was better ...?
The next three books get increasingly philosophical and many people don't like them, but I very much do.
"Fear is the mind killer" liberally riffed the deep house, electronic, call it whatever, is awesome...
No popular culture penetration..?
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I've always loved the fourth book the most, and I've always felt it was most simply described as "Nietzsche's Gay Science, but to a plot." and I will totally talk about this with anyone who wants to.
> Catchphrases from the book have not entered the language. The spice must flow? Fear is the mind killer? Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" includes the phrase "Walk without a rhythm, you won't attract the worm". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8 Maybe to a lesser extent, "He who controls the spice controls the universe", "wheels within wheels", and the gom jabbar are all things…
> Catchphrases from the book have not entered the language. The spice must flow? Fear is the mind killer? Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" includes the phrase "Walk without a rhythm, you won't attract the worm". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8 Maybe to a lesser extent, "He who controls the spice controls the universe", "wheels within wheels", and the gom jabbar are all things…
This is my favourite film so I'm pretty tuned in to these phrases, and I've never heard anyone use any of them. I'm also pretty sure there's no "wheels within wheels" in it.
>As David Itzkoff noted in 2006, what’s curious about “Dune” ’s stature is that it has not penetrated popular culture in the way that “The Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars” have. There are no “Dune” conventions. Catchphrases from the book have not entered the language. The movie next year oughta do it, if the star-studded cast and acclaimed director are any indication.
The last Dune movie (1984) didn't do it. "It's like The Last Airbender, but with sand."
The weirding way, the Voice, even the psychedelic sequences - these had to be explained, or shown, and how? How do you film these things in a way that audiences can understand?
Not saying there's clear answers now, but there's been another thirty years of exploration in how you show weird, hard-to-film genre elements. There's also another entire set of explorations on exactly these things (the Scifi Channel's miniseries) from which to see what works and doesn't.
"One winter evening, I heard him read my mother a passage about a young man named Paul Atreides who was forced to place his hand into the blackness of a box while an old woman, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, held a poison needle at his neck, the gom jabbar. Though I didn't realize it at the time, this was the opening chapter of Dune. Pauls' hand would feel intense pain, the wrinkled crone told him, but if he…
Why is Brian Herbert as lucid as this talking about his dad, but so terrible when trying to write a book following on from his work? Bit of a puzzle to me.
(KJA is and was married to the editor-in-chief of Banta mSpectra, the imprint with the book licensing rights to Star Wars and Dune. This is the only reason he was allowed anywhere near these series.)