With the second part of the film adaptation
of Frank Herbert’s Dune now with us, I have been re-reading the book
and oddly I’ve done it in two parts. I’d hoped to finish it in 2021 to post
just before the first film was released but circumstances meant I had to stop half
way. So, in a way that paralleled the film this year I’ve finished the book
and completed this post before the second film! It’s a hefty tome as you might
imagine and despite the reach of the movies there is still some material left
out though this is not one of those book versus film comparison articles. Rather
I wanted to re-live the novel itself.
When I was a teenager, I read Dune
more than once amongst several keynote science fiction novels that interested
me back then. Now that the new film version was finally arriving in cinemas, I
thought I’d dig it out of the sand and give it another read. It’s a big
commitment for me as I rarely get time to read anything more than short articles
online or in a magazine but a commitment I wanted to make. Wonderfully I read the
same copy I had all those decades ago. Nothing else remains from those days as
I’ve never been a collector (though given the prices some old stuff now goes
for perhaps that was a foolish way to move on) but somehow this book- and its
sequel Dune Messiah- were never thrown away. I suppose that says
something about them.
It runs for 456 pages in all, excluding
several appendices detailing background on the planet Arrakis and the
terminology of the Imperium, themselves fascinating. I wouldn’t really look at
them before you read the book however as they give away plot points and even
the birth and death dates of significant characters. I suppose if you’re a skim
reader they’re an ideal cheat though they will not provide you with the meat of
the story. Frank Herbert is a writer who likes different languages, the
etymology he brings into play echoes several countries not least Middle Eastern
terminology. Anyone reading will have their own pronunciation going on in their
head! It begins simply enough, The Atre ides house, one of many making up the
Imperium are to take their turn holding the desolate desert planet Arrakis in
“quasi-fief” replacing sworn enemies the Harkonnen’s. The advantage? They get
to mine the ultra-valuable spice called melange. The disadvantages? Well, it’s
a horrible place and the Harkonnens may have left traps.
Before leaving fifteen-year-old Paul
must undergo a test called the Gom Jabbar, described in Herbert’s appendix as
“a poison needle tipped with meta cyanide” “used by Bene Gesseritt proctors in
the death alternative test of human awareness.” Or, in Paul’s case, you put
your hand in a box that appears to burn it to a crisp but actually it’s an
illusion albeit a mighty powerful one. This scene is where the oft hash tagged
phrase “fear is the mind killer” comes from. He is also surprised by a sudden
`attack` from one of his father’s most loyal officers gurney Halleck
emphasising the dangers he is heading into. Herbert spreads these ominous portents
amidst quotes from holy texts.
As you can tell It takes a while to get
used to the rhythm of the storytelling especially as it weaves in and out of
several character’s thoughts often about the other person in a conversation.
Yet this soon turns out to be a valuable tool enabling an easier understanding
of the culture and traditions of the world we’re delving into. It’s also an
effective way of creating tension in what might otherwise be a lot of
conversations filled with exposition. This is particularly appliable to Doctor
Yueh whose dilemma creates a more sympathetic character than you initially take
him for. There’s a riveting conversation between the man who has been Paul’s
teacher and Lady Jessica (Paul’s mother) in which the doctor’s guilt is like a
tide he is trying to stop but he can’t. “That, at least, was truth” he thinks
more than once when he can be honest.
Frank Herbert is excellent with what
brief but informative descriptive passages. Where someone like Charles Dickens
for example (and I say this as a Dickens fan) will take paragraphs to describe
every nook and cranny or every defining facial feature, Herbert prefers economy
so we don’t read about the journey to Arrakis, instead Herbert offers a
sentence about lady Jessica’s luggage and mentions “shadowed carvings,” “deeply
recessed windows” and “arched ceilings.” It’s enough to paint a vivid picture.
The value of water on such a stark planet is also emphasised. Paul is soon in
danger from an attempt to kill him with a Hunter- Seeker, a remote-controlled piece
of metal designed to kill. We also start to learn about Arrakis’ mysteries- of
Fremen who have totally blue eyes due to their intake of melange and enormous
sandworms.
The next segment sees Herbert focussing
on the different approach House Atreides takes to Arrakis. We are privy to Duke
Leto’s doubts about people surrounding him even Jessica. This causes him to act
subtly in trying to make friends amongst the inhabitants so we see him waving
away lapses of expected protocol, banning a tradition involving the waste of
water and most significantly placing the safe rescue of workers on a
Sandcrawler above saving the spice they’ve mined even risking his own life to
help save them. “I like this duke” thinks Kynes, the Fremen who oversees overseeing
the changes and is initially suspicious. Paul meanwhile seems unnaturally
accustomed to the place with his training and perhaps something more enabling
him to read situations accurately. A telling scene occurs when Kynes comments
on how easily he has donned a stillsuit even though he’d never worn one before,
Frank Herbert is clearly not writing for
children so he avoids going into a lot of detail when it comes to action
segments thus when an actual sandworm enters the story for the first time it is
barely described. The Harkonnen takeover a little later is presented afterwards
as characters react to the fact that it has already happened. On the other hand,
he enjoys the detail of character interaction. A lengthy sequence in the
evening before the Harkonnens return is devoted to a dinner which is packed
with underlying tension as small talk frequently threatens to become cause of
argument. He shows the event from multiple perspectives, each betraying certain
aspects of that person’s intent. You wouldn’t imagine this might be riveting
yet it is.
The novel turns on a penny soon
afterwards- the reader will have sensed the tension of a potential Harkonnen
move and after tricking the reader- and Jessica- into thinking it might be
happening (the culprit is a drunken Idaho) we come to a pivotal set of events in
which several prominent characters are killed. I can’t remember off hand a
novel which dispatches so many key people in a relatively short number of pages
but Yeuh’s treachery is exposed though he has a final trick to try and kill
Harkonnen. The Baron himself puts in an appearance – as originated I’d say the
TV miniseries was a more accurate portrayal than the slightly over the top
David lynch version. He’s a difficult villain for these times of course because
being and I do feel Herbert avoids analysing him with the same forensic detail
he affords Paul or Jessica or several others.
As we approach page 200 Jessica and Paul
are in the desert having escaped the Harkonnen purge with some help and the
story begins to move into Paul’s transformation. He becomes increasingly aware of
everything as his power grows and there’s quite a sustained period where the
novel becomes a survival one. Their efforts to survive in the desert bring out
the more descriptive side of Frank Herbert’s writing though he’s not one to
leap beyond the ordinariness of description so however vividly this is
portrayed on the page it does become a bit repetitive. I’m not a fan of survival
fiction in any case so this was probably always the part of the novel I found
heaviest going. One episode that describes in some detail how they retrieve
their supplies making me want to skip pages or at least skim read. However,
there is no doubting the omnipresence of the sandworms who are mostly depicted
as shifting crests of sand rather than bursting out. It adds tension to
proceedings,
The interaction with the Fremen comes in
an extended sequence where Jessica and Paul are spotted in the rocks and meet
Stilgar. Here the novel is able to give more nuance to their meeting than a
film, with Herbert’s love of italicised asides showing the shifting way the
Fremen leader and Jessica view each other. Rather than go into the combat that
climaxes the first film the duo first travel to the `stietch`, described ad `a
meeting place in times of danger`. Travelling by night it is only when they’re
here that one of the Fremen challenges Paul while Stilgar contemplates potential
marriage to Jessica. The way the author delves into character’s thoughts
creates such an unusual rhythm to the text. Chani is introduced in person at
this point too, her job to train Paul in the ways of the tribe. The fight
between Paul and Jamiis presents over four pages like a strategic plan with
echoes of Paul’s training frequently revisited.
One lighter touch is that Muad’Dib which Paul choses as his Fremen name is also
the name of a jumping mouse The Fremen’s ambitions are also revealed to
gradually change the climate cap - they
show Paul a large water pool in a cavern and tell him they have thousands of
these dotted around. Jessica’s transformation into Reverand Mother is described
across several pages as a mystical yet primal experience where Herbert’s use of
different character’s perspective works really well. Its tense too because the
reader doesn’t know quite what will occur
As the novel reaches its conclusion
Herbert brings everything together with skill with both a large battle and a one-on-one
battle. The Baron’s comeuppance is a brief as it is final and were glad to see
the back of him. His misdeeds are described in some detail by the author
throughout the story and will shock those who only know the story from the
films. In one example he has someone killed for being a bad chess player. As
matters draw towards the climax, we also see examples of Paul’s so called time
vision which enables him to see possible futures.
I’d say this is not a novel even for
everyone who’s enjoyed the films and I did find it heavy going and, as you can
see from above, a difficult mass to review especially as its taken months to
finish. From my perspective now it’s not the amazing book I once thought it was
but that’s more about me than Frank Herbert who has certainly created a
timeless world.
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