Heretics of Dune

 

I never read Frank Herbert´s "Dune" novels and probably never will. But of course I´m going to opinionate about them and the films anyway. How about that? My blog, my rules.

The story has an anti-imperial(ist) slant. The "spice" is obviously a metaphor for oil. But note that the evil space empire is based on Czarist Russia rather than the United States or the British Empire. And "Dune" was published during the Cold War. 

The Fremen are the wretched of the earth, the dark and oppressed masses. Their religion is obviously based on Islam. Paul Atreides is the upper class scion who breaks with his class and becomes a revolutionary leader. Note that both Bakunin and Kropotkin had an aristocratic background. However, Paul´s revolution against the Empire ends with him becoming the new emperor, while his fanaticized followers kills millions across the galaxy in a holy war or jihad. The parallels with the Russian revolution and its subsequent degeneration are obvious. Or with many other revolutions: the French, the Abbasid, and so on. 

In other words: the political perspective is "pessimist" and "reactionary". 

It´s also interesting to note that both the imperials and the revolutionaries are manipulated backstage by a strange matriarchal cult, the Bene Gesserit. The idea that popular revolutions are really the work of powerful secret societies is not new, of course. It´s a staple of far right conspiracy theory. And while "Bene Gesserit" is supposedly Latin, let´s be honest: everyone thinks it sounds Jewish. Indeed, their goal is to breed an Overman, the famed Kwisatz Haderach (this name is absolutely inspired by Kabbalist Judaism). Note also the sexism: the powerful female witches want to create a Supreme Male!

However, even in this pessimistic story universe, there does seem to be one path to societal change: enlightened despotism. If only the autocrat can acquire quasi-divine powers, the Empire can become an instrument for saving humanity from itself. In the first two novels, Paul can divine the future and therefore knows that the path he has chosen (which leads to the killing of 60 billion people) is nevertheless the lesser evil. In later novels, a descendant of Paul, Leto, becomes a human-sandworm hybrid (the sandworms are a kind of monsters worshipped as divine by the Fremen "Muslims") and after tyrannically ruling the Galaxy for thousands of years makes Humanity fit for freedom. Or something. Or something else. Yeah, well, so about that...

Note also that the Illuminati, pardon, Bene Gesserit have a similar perspective: the Kwisatz Haderach will "shorten the way" to the ultimate goal (note the similarity with the Mule in Asimov´s Foundation trilogy). But apparently this is too fast. Real change we can believe in takes hundreds of generations. Note also the irony that Herbert´s perspective doesn´t really seem that different from the degenerated imperial post-revolutionaries or even the Bene Gesserit. It´s all about elite control and mystical elite transmogrification. A further irony: in Herbert´s story, all religion seem to be obviously phoney, and yet, the "solution" is strikingly "religious" as well. 

And yes, "Dune" is considered a classic of science fiction, was a best seller and always got rave reviews in the American media. Hmmm...

Maybe everyone just misunderstood what the story was all about. Right?