Dune is a 1965 science fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966, and it won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. It is the first installment of the Dune saga, and in 2003 was cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.
Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which noble houses, in control of individual planets, owe allegiance to the Padishah Emperor, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose noble family accepts the stewardship of the desert planet Arrakis. As this planet is the only source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe, control of Arrakis is a covetedâ€"and dangerousâ€"undertaking. The story explores the multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the factions of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the control of Arrakis and its spice.
Herbert wrote five sequels: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune. The first novel also inspired a 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch, the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (which combines the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune), computer games, several board games, songs, and a series of followups, including prequels and sequels, that were co-written by Kevin J. Anderson and the author's son, Brian Herbert, starting in 1999.
Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-life nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn's moon Titan.
Origins
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After his novel The Dragon in the Sea was published in 1957, Herbert traveled to Florence, Oregon, at the north end of the Oregon Dunes. Here, the United States Department of Agriculture was attempting to use poverty grasses to stabilize the sand dunes. Herbert claimed in a letter to his literary agent, Lurton Blassingame, that the moving dunes could "swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways." Herbert's article on the dunes, "They Stopped the Moving Sands", was never completed (and only published decades later in The Road to Dune) but its research sparked Herbert's interest in ecology.
Herbert spent the next five years researching, writing, and revising. He published a three-part serial Dune World in the monthly Analog, from December 1963 to February 1964. The serial was accompanied by several illustrations that were not published again. After an interval of a year, he published the much slower-paced five-part The Prophet of Dune in the January â€" May 1965 issues. (The first serial became part one of the volume, and the second was divided into parts two and three.) The serialized version was expanded, reworked, and submitted to more than twenty publishers, each of whom rejected it. The novel, Dune, was finally accepted and published in August 1965 by Chilton Books, a printing house better known for publishing auto repair manuals.
Herbert dedicated his work "to the people whose labors go beyond ideas into the realm of 'real materials'â€"to the dry-land ecologists, wherever they may be, in whatever time they work, this effort at prediction is dedicated in humility and admiration."
Synopsis
In the far future, humanity has eschewed advanced computers in favor of adapting their minds to be capable of extremely complex tasks. Much of this is enabled by the spice melange, which is only found on Arrakis, a desert planet with giant sandworms as its most notable native lifeform. Melange improves general health, extends life and can bestow limited prescience, and its rarity makes it a form of currency in the interstellar empire. Melange allows the Spacing Guild's Navigators to safely route faster-than-light travel between planets, and helps the Reverend Mothers of the matriarchal Bene Gesserit to access their Other Memory, the ego and experiences of their female ancestors.
As the novel opens, each planet is ruled by a Great House that owes allegiance to the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. The Emperor suspects that Duke Leto Atreides of House Atreides has become a potential challenger to his throne as Leto gains favor with other Great Houses in the Landsraad. The Emperor seeks the downfall of House Atreides by assigning them control of Arrakis, currently ruled by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen of House Harkonnen. The Atreides and Harkonnen houses have had a generations-long feud, and the Emperor secretly plots with the Baron to attack House Atreides after its move to Arrakis. While masking his involvement in the Baron's attack, the Emperor plans to ensure its success by deploying some of his elite Sardaukar troopers in Harkonnen disguise.
Leto Atreides, on hearing of this new assignment, realizes that it must be a trap, but the opportunity is impossible to decline. He and his trusted advisors, including Swordmaster Duncan Idaho, Mentat Thufir Hawat, Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, and troubadour-soldier Gurney Halleck, prepare for any eventuality. Meanwhile, Reverend Mother Mohiam accuses Leto's concubine, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica, of defying their secret centuries-long breeding program, aimed to produce a male Bene Gesserit they call the Kwisatz Haderach, who would have oracular powers to see throughout time and space. Jessica had been ordered to produce a daughter to continue the program, but out of love for Leto she had given him a son, Paul Atreides. Jessica has since trained Paul in the Bene Gesserit way, and Mohiam is reluctantly impressed by the boy.
House Atreides takes control of Arrakis, finding traps left by the Harkonnens in the palace. Leto quickly makes political ties with the native Fremen, nomadic tribes that have adapted to the harsh desert conditions, and Leto assigns Duncan to stay and learn more from them. Soon, House Harkonnen launches its attack on the Atreides, devastating many of Atreides' troops and killing Duncan. Yueh reveals himself as a Harkonnen traitor, forced to help the Baron capture Leto under duress; however, Yueh also arranges for Jessica and Paul to escape the capital while making it appear they died. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison capsule, hoping Leto can kill the Baron during their encounter, but the Harkonnen avoids the gas, which instead kills Leto and the Baron's Mentat, Piter De Vries. The Baron forces Hawat to take over De Vries' position; while he follows the Baron's orders, Hawat works out how to undermine the Harkonnens.
After fleeing into the desert, Paul and Jessica are accepted into the Fremen community of Sietch Tabr, and teach the Fremen the Bene Gesserit fighting technique known as the "weirding way". Paul proves his manhood and chooses his Fremen name of Muad'Dib. Jessica opts to undergo the ritual to become a Reverend Mother by drinking the poisonous Water of Life. Pregnant with Leto's daughter, she inadvertently causes the unborn child, Alia, to become infused with the same powers in the womb. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, and has a son with her, Leto II. As two years pass, Paul's powerful prescience abilities have manifested, which lead the Fremen to consider him their Mahdi (messiah). Paul recognizes that the Fremen can be a powerful fighting force to take back Arrakis, but also sees that if he does not control them, their jihad could extend to the entire universe.
Word about this new Fremen leader Muad'Dib reaches both the Baron and the Emperor as spice production falls due to increasingly destructive Fremen raids. The Baron decides to replace his more brutish nephew Glossu Rabban with his shrewd nephew Feyd-Rautha, hoping to gain favor with the Fremen. The Emperor suspects the Baron of trying to create troops more powerful than the Sardaukar to seize power, and sends spies to monitor activity on Arrakis. Hawat uses the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt in the Baron about the Emperor's true plans, putting further strain on their alliance. Meanwhile, Gurney has reunited with Paul and Jessica. Believing Jessica to be the Atreides traitor, Gurney tries to kill her, but is stopped by Paul. However, Paul had not foreseen Gurney's attack, and believes he must drink the Water of Life to increase his prescience, until now usable only by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood and fatal to men. Paul falls into unconsciousness for several weeks after drinking the Water, but when he wakes, he has clairvoyance across time and spaceâ€"he has become the Kwisatz Haderach. He senses that the Emperor and Baron are amassing fleets around Arrakis to quell the Fremen rebellion, and prepares the Fremen for a major offensive against the Harkonnen troops.
The Emperor arrives with the Baron on Arrakis, and their combined troops seize a Fremen outpost, killing many including Leto II, while Alia is captured and taken to the Baron. She remains defiant, putting her trust in her brother and revealing that Muad'Dib is Paul. At that moment, Paul and the Fremen, riding sandworms, assault the capital, and Alia assassinates the Baron and escapes. Paul and the Fremen quickly defeat the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops. Paul faces the Emperor and threatens to destroy spice production forever unless the Emperor abdicates the throne. Feyd-Rautha attempts to stop Paul by challenging him to a knife battle, but Paul gains the upper hand and kills him. The Emperor reluctantly cedes the throne to Paul and promises his daughter Princess Irulan's hand in marriage. As Paul takes control of the Empire, he realizes that while he achieved his goal, he is no longer able to stop the Fremen jihad, as their belief in him is too powerful to restrain.
Characters
- House Atreides
- Paul Atreides, the Duke's son, and main character of the novel.
- Duke Leto Atreides, head of House Atreides
- Lady Jessica, Bene Gesserit and concubine of the Duke, mother of Paul and Alia
- Alia Atreides, Paul's younger sister
- Thufir Hawat, Mentat and Master of Assassins to House Atreides
- Gurney Halleck, staunchly loyal troubadour warrior of the Atreides
- Duncan Idaho, Swordmaster for House Atreides, graduate of the Ginaz School
- Wellington Yueh, Suk doctor for the Atreides, who is secretly working for House Harkonnen
- House Harkonnen
- Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, head of House Harkonnen
- Piter De Vries, twisted Mentat
- Feyd-Rautha, nephew and heir-presumptive of the Baron
- Glossu "Beast" Rabban, also called Rabban Harkonnen, older nephew of the Baron
- Iakin Nefud, Captain of the Guard
- House Corrino
- Shaddam IV, Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe (the Imperium)
- Princess Irulan, Shaddam's eldest daughter and heir, also a historian
- Count Hasimir Fenring, genetic eunuch and the Emperor's closest friend, advisor, and "errand boy"
- Bene Gesserit
- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Bene Gesserit schemer, the Emperor's Truthsayer
- Lady Margot Fenring, Bene Gesserit wife of Count Fenring
- Fremen
- The Fremen, "native" inhabitants of Arrakis
- Stilgar, Fremen Naib (chieftain) of Sietch Tabr
- Chani, Paul's Fremen concubine
- Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist on Arrakis and father of Chani, as well as a revered figure among the Fremen
- Mapes, head housekeeper of imperial residence on Arrakis
- Jamis, Fremen killed by Paul in ritual duel
- Harah, wife of Jamis and later servant to Paul
- Ramallo, reverend mother of Sietch Tabr
- Smugglers
- Esmar Tuek, a powerful smuggler and the father of Staban Tuek.
- Staban Tuek, the son of Esmar Tuek. A powerful smuggler who befriends and takes in Gurney Halleck and his surviving men after the attack on the Atreides.
Analysis
The Dune series is a landmark of soft science fiction. Herbert deliberately suppressed technology in his Dune universe so he could address the politics of humanity, rather than the future of humanity's technology. Dune considers the way humans and their institutions might change over time. Director John Harrison, who adapted Dune for Syfy's 2000 miniseries, called the novel a universal and timeless reflection of "the human condition and its moral dilemmas", and said:
A lot of people refer to Dune as science fiction. I never do. I consider it an epic adventure in the classic storytelling tradition, a story of myth and legend not unlike the Morte d'Arthur or any messiah story. It just happens to be set in the future ... The story is actually more relevant today than when Herbert wrote it. In the 1960s, there were just these two colossal superpowers duking it out. Today we're living in a more feudal, corporatized world more akin to Herbert's universe of separate families, power centers and business interests, all interrelated and kept together by the one commodity necessary to all.
Each chapter of Dune begins with an epigraph excerpted from the fictional writings of the character Princess Irulan. In forms such as diary entries, historical commentary, biography, quotations and philosophy, these writings set tone and provide exposition, context and other details intended to enhance understanding of Herbert's complex fictional universe and themes.
Environmentalism and ecology
Dune has been called the "first planetary ecology novel on a grand scale". After the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962, science fiction writers began treating the subject of ecological change and its consequences. Dune responded in 1965 with its complex descriptions of Arrakis life, from giant sandworms (for whom water is deadly) to smaller, mouse-like life forms adapted to live with limited water. Dune was followed in its creation of complex and unique ecologies by other science fiction books such as A Door into Ocean (1986) and Red Mars (1992). Environmentalists have pointed out that Dune's popularity as a novel depicting a planet as a complexâ€"almost livingâ€"thing, in combination with the first images of Earth from space being published in the same time period, strongly influenced environmental movements such as the establishment of the international Earth Day.
Declining empires
Lorenzo DiTommaso compared Dune's portrayal of the downfall of a galactic empire to Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which argues that Christianity led to the fall of Ancient Rome. In "History and Historical Effect in Frank Herbert's Dune" (1992), Lorenzo DiTommaso outlines similarities between the two works by highlighting the excesses of the Emperor on his home planet of Kaitain and of the Baron Harkonnen in his palace. The Emperor loses his effectiveness as a ruler from excess of ceremony and pomp. The hairdressers and attendants he brings with him to Arrakis are even referred to as "parasites". The Baron Harkonnen is similarly corrupt, materially indulgent, and sexually decadent. Gibbon's Decline and Fall blames the fall of Rome on the rise of Christianity. Gibbon claimed that this exotic import from a conquered province weakened the soldiers of Rome and left it open to attack. Similarly, the Emperor's Sardaukar fighters are little match for the Fremen of Dune because of the Sardaukar's overconfidence and the Fremen's capacity for self-sacrifice. The Fremen put the community before themselves in every instance, while the world outside wallows in luxury at the expense of others.
Middle Eastern references
Many words, titles and names (e.g. the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, Hawat, Bashar, Harq-al-Ada) in the Dune universe as well as a large number of words in the language of the Fremen people are derived or taken directly from Persian and Arabic (e.g. erg, the Arabic word for a broad flat landform, is used frequently throughout the novel). Paul's messianic name (Muad'Dib) means in Arabic "the teacher or maker of politeness or literature", and the prophesied appearance of one known as the "Kwisatz Haderach", meaning "one who shortens the way" borrows the Hebrew term Kefitzat Haderech (קְפִיצַת ×"Ö·×"ֶּרֶךְ), a Kabbalistic Jewish term meaning one who can "clench the way", i.e. the distance between two places - and teleport. The Fremen language is also embedded with Islamic terms such as, jihad, Mahdi, Shaitan, and the personal bodyguard of Paul Muad'Dib Fedaykin is a transliteration of the Arabic Feda'yin. As a foreigner who adopts the ways of a desert-dwelling people and then leads them in a military capacity, Paul Atreides' character bears many similarities to the historical T. E. Lawrence. Lesley Blanch's The Sabres of Paradise has also been identified as a major influence upon Dune, with its depiction of Imam Shamil and the Islamic culture of the Caucasus inspirings some of the characters, events and terminology of Dune.
Gender dynamics
Paul's approach to power consistently requires his upbringing under the female-oriented Bene Gesserit, who operate as a long-dominating shadow government behind all of the great houses and their marriages or divisions. A central theme of the book is the connection, in Jessica's son, of this female aspect with his male aspect. In a Bene Gesserit test early in the book, it is implied that people are generally "inhuman" in that they irrationally place desire over self-interest and reason. This applies Herbert's philosophy that humans are not created equal, while equal justice and equal opportunity are higher ideals than mental, physical, or moral equality. Margery Hourihan even calls the main character's mother, Jessica, "by far the most interesting character in the novel" and pointing out that while her son approaches a power which makes him almost alien to the reader, she remains human. Throughout the novel, she struggles to maintain power in a male-dominated society, and manages to help her son at key moments in his realization of power.
Heroism
I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it.
Throughout Paul's rise to superhuman status, he follows a plotline common to many stories describing the birth of a hero. He has unfortunate circumstances forced onto him. After a long period of hardship and exile, he confronts and defeats the source of evil in his tale. As such, Dune is representative of a general trend beginning in 1960s American science fiction in that it features a character who attains godlike status through scientific means. Eventually, Paul Atreides gains a level of omniscience which allows him to take over the planet and the galaxy, and causing the Fremen of Arrakis to worship him like a god. Author Frank Herbert said in 1979, "The bottom line of the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better [to] rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes." He wrote in 1985, "Dune was aimed at this whole idea of the infallible leader because my view of history says that mistakes made by a leader (or made in a leader's name) are amplified by the numbers who follow without question."
Juan A. Prieto-Pablos says Herbert achieves a new typology with Paul's superpowers, differentiating the heroes of Dune from earlier heroes such as Superman, van Vogt's Gilbert Gosseyn and Henry Kuttner's telepaths. Unlike previous superheroes who acquire their powers suddenly and accidentally, Paul's are the result of "painful and slow personal progress." And unlike other superheroes of the 1960sâ€"who are the exception among ordinary people in their respective worldsâ€"Herbert's characters grow their powers through "the application of mystical philosophies and techniques." For Herbert, the ordinary person can develop incredible fighting skills (Fremen, Ginaz swordsmen and Sardaukar) or mental abilities (Bene Gesserit, Mentats, Spacing Guild Navigators).
Zen
Early in his newspaper career, Herbert was introduced to Zen by two Jungian psychologists. Throughout the Dune series and particularly in Dune, Herbert employs concepts and forms borrowed from Zen Buddhism. The Fremen are Zensunni adherents, and many of Herbert's epigraphs are Zen-spirited. In "Dune Genesis" he wrote:
What especially pleases me is to see the interwoven themes, the fuguelike relationships of images that exactly replay the way Dune took shape. As in an Escher lithograph, I involved myself with recurrent themes that turn into paradox. The central paradox concerns the human vision of time. What about Paul's gift of prescience-the Presbyterian fixation? For the Delphic Oracle to perform, it must tangle itself in a web of predestination. Yet predestination negates surprises and, in fact, sets up a mathematically enclosed universe whose limits are always inconsistent, always encountering the unprovable. It's like a koan, a Zen mind breaker. It's like the Cretan Epimenides saying, "All Cretans are liars."
Reception
Dune tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966, and won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Reviews of the novel have been largely positive, and Dune is considered by some critics to be the best science fiction book ever written. As of 2000 it had sold over 12 million copies worldwide, and it has been regularly cited as one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels.
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke has described it as "unique" and claimed "I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings." Robert A. Heinlein described Dune as "Powerful, convincing, and most ingenious." It was called "One of the monuments of modern science fiction" by the Chicago Tribune, while the Washington Post described it as "A portrayal of an alien society more complete and deeply detailed than any other author in the field has managed ... a story absorbing equally for its action and philosophical vistas ... An astonishing science fiction phenomenon."
Algis Budrys praised Dune for the vividness of its imagined setting, saying "The time lives. It breathes, it speaks, and Herbert has smelt it in his nostrils". He found that the novel, however, "turns flat and tails off at the end. ... [T]ruly effective villains simply simper and melt; fierce men and cunning statesmen and seeresses all bend before this new Messiah". Budrys faulted in particular Herbert's decision to kill Paul's infant son offstage, with no apparent emotional impact, saying "you cannot be so busy saving a world that you cannot hear an infant shriek".
Tamara I. Hladik wrote that the story "crafts a universe where lesser novels promulgate excuses for sequels. All its rich elements are in balance and plausibleâ€"not the patchwork confederacy of made-up languages, contrived customs, and meaningless histories that are the hallmark of so many other, lesser novels."
Writing for The New Yorker, Jon Michaud praises Herbert's "clever authorial decision" to exclude robots and computers ("two staples of the genre") from his fictional universe, but suggests that this may be one explanation why Dune lacks "true fandom among science-fiction fans" to the extent that it "has not penetrated popular culture in the way that The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have".
Portrayal of gender and sexuality
Kathy Gower criticizes Dune in the 1972 essay anthology Mother Was Not a Person, arguing that, although the book has been praised for its portrayal of people in a mystical world, the prominence of its female characters is significantly lower than that of the males. In her view, women in Dune culture are largely left to domestic duties, and the exclusively female Bene Gesserit religious cult resembles age-old notions of witchcraft. Gower opines that female characters in this religion are portrayed to be feared and hated by male characters. Gower observes that female characters never use their power to aid themselves, only the men around them, and their greatest desire is to bring a male character into their religion.
In 2000, science fiction author and literary critic Samuel R. Delany observed that the portrayal of the book's only homosexual character, the vile Baron Harkonnen, is negative.
First edition prints and manuscripts
The first edition of Dune is one of the most valuable in science fiction book collecting, and copies have gone for more than $10,000 at auction. The Chilton first edition of the novel is 9.25Â inches tall, with bluish green boards and a price of $5.95 on the dust jacket, and notes Toronto as the Canadian publisher on the copyright page. Up to this point, Chilton had been publishing only automobile repair manuals. Other editions similar to this one, such as book club editions, exist.
California State University, Fullerton's Pollack Library has several of Herbert's draft manuscripts of Dune and other works, with the author's notes, in their Frank Herbert Archives.
Adaptations
Early stalled attempts
In 1971, the production company Apjac International (APJ) (headed by Arthur P. Jacobs) optioned the rights to film Dune. As Jacobs was busy with other projects, such as the sequel to Planet of the Apes, Dune was delayed for another year. Jacobs' first choice for director was David Lean, but he turned down the offer. Charles Jarrott was also considered to direct. Work was also under way on a script while the hunt for a director continued. Initially, the first treatment had been handled by Robert Greenhut, the producer who had lobbied Jacobs to make the movie in the first place, but subsequently Rospo Pallenberg was approached to write the script, with shooting scheduled to begin in 1974. However, Jacobs died in 1973.
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights from APJ, with Alejandro Jodorowsky set to direct. In 1975, Jodorowsky planned to film the story as a 10-hour feature, in collaboration with Salvador DalÃ, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Alain Delon, Hervé Villechaize, and Mick Jagger. It was at first proposed to score the film with original music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henry Cow, and Magma; later on, the soundtrack was to be provided by Pink Floyd. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction periodicals, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Metal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Moebius began designing creatures and characters for the film, while Foss was brought in to design the film's space ships and hardware. Giger began designing the Harkonnen Castle based on Moebius' storyboards. Jodorowsky's son Brontis was to play Paul Atreides. Dan O'Bannon was to head the special effects department.
Dalà was cast as the Emperor. Dalà later demanded to be paid $100,000 per hour; Jodorowsky agreed, but tailored DalÃ's part to be filmed in one hour, drafting plans for other scenes of the emperor to use a mechanical mannequin as substitute for DalÃ. According to Giger, Dalà was "later invited to leave the film because of his pro-Franco statements". Just as the storyboards, designs, and script were finished, the financial backing dried up. Frank Herbert traveled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phone book", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. Jodorowsky said in 1985 that he found the Dune story mythical and had intended to recreate it rather than adapt the novel; though he had an "enthusiastic admiration" for Herbert, Jodorowsky said he had done everything possible to distance the author and his input from the project. Although Jodorowsky was embittered by the experience, he stated that the Dune project changed his life. O'Bannon entered a psychiatric hospital after the production failed, and worked on 13 scripts; the last of which became Alien. A 2013 documentary, Jodorowsky's Dune, was made about Jodorowsky's failed attempt at an adaptation.
In 1976 Dino De Laurentiis acquired the rights from Gibon's consortium. De Laurentiis commissioned Herbert to write a new screenplay in 1978; the script Herbert turned in was 175 pages long, the equivalent of nearly three hours of screen time. De Laurentiis then hired director Ridley Scott in 1979, with Rudy Wurlitzer writing the screenplay and H. R. Giger retained from the Jodorowsky production. Scott intended to split the book into two movies. He worked on three drafts of the script, using The Battle of Algiers as a point of reference, before moving on to direct another science fiction film, Blade Runner (1982). As he recalls, the pre-production process was slow, and finishing the project would have been even more time-intensive:
But after seven months I dropped out of Dune, by then Rudy Wurlitzer had come up with a first-draft script which I felt was a decent distillation of Frank Herbert's. But I also realised Dune was going to take a lot more workâ€"at least two and a half years' worth. And I didn't have the heart to attack that because my older brother Frank unexpectedly died of cancer while I was prepping the De Laurentiis picture. Frankly, that freaked me out. So I went to Dino and told him the Dune script was his.
- â€"From Ridley Scott: The Making of his Movies by Paul M. Sammon
1984 film by David Lynch
In 1981, the nine-year film rights were set to expire. De Laurentiis re-negotiated the rights from the author, adding to them the rights to the Dune sequels (written and unwritten). After seeing The Elephant Man, De Laurentiis' daughter Raffaella decided that David Lynch should direct the movie. Around that time Lynch received several other directing offers, including Return of the Jedi. He agreed to direct Dune and write the screenplay even though he had not read the book, known the story, or even been interested in science fiction. Lynch worked on the script for six months with Eric Bergen and Christopher De Vore. The team yielded two drafts of the script before it split over creative differences. Lynch would subsequently work on five more drafts.
This first film of Dune, directed by Lynch, was released in 1984, nearly 20 years after the book's publication. Though Herbert said the book's depth and symbolism seemed to intimidate many filmmakers, he was pleased with the film, saying that "They've got it. It begins as Dune does. And I hear my dialogue all the way through. There are some interpretations and liberties, but you're gonna come out knowing you've seen Dune." Reviews of the film were not as favorable, saying that it was incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the book, and that fans would be disappointed by the way it strayed from the book's plot.
2000 miniseries by John Harrison
In 2000, John Harrison adapted the novel into Frank Herbert's Dune, a miniseries which premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel. As of 2004, the miniseries was one of the three highest-rated programs broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Further film attempts
In 2008, Paramount Pictures announced that they would produce a new film based on the book, with Peter Berg attached to direct. Producer Kevin Misher, who spent a year securing the rights from the Herbert estate, was to be joined by Richard Rubinstein and John Harrison (of both Sci Fi Channel miniseries) as well as Sarah Aubrey and Mike Messina. The producers stated that they were going for a "faithful adaptation" of the novel, and considered "its theme of finite ecological resources particularly timely." Science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson and Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert, who had together written multiple Dune sequels and prequels since 1999, were attached to the project as technical advisors. In October 2009, Berg dropped out of the project, later saying that it "for a variety of reasons wasn't the right thing" for him. Subsequently, with a script draft by Joshua Zetumer, Paramount reportedly sought a new director who could do the film for under $175 million. In 2010, Pierre Morel was signed on to direct, with screenwriter Chase Palmer incorporating Morel's vision of the project into Zetumer's original draft. By November 2010, Morel left the project. Paramount finally dropped plans for a remake in March 2011.
In November 2016, Legendary Entertainment acquired the film and TV rights for Dune. Variety reported in December 2016 that Denis Villeneuve was in negotiations to direct the project, which was confirmed in February 2017. In April 2017, Legendary announced that Eric Roth would write the screenplay.
Audiobook
In 1993, Recorded Books Inc. released a 20-disc audio book narrated by George Guidall. In 2007, Audio Renaissance released an audio book narrated by Simon Vance with some parts acted out by Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and other performers.
Cultural influence
Dune has been widely influential, inspiring other novels, music, films (including Star Wars), television, games, and comic books. Real world extraterrestrial locations have been named after elements from the novel and its sequels. Dune was parodied in 1984's National Lampoon's Doon by Ellis Weiner, which William F. Touponce called "something of a tribute to Herbert's success on college campuses", noting that "the only other book to have been so honored is Tolkien's Lord of the Rings," which was parodied by The Harvard Lampoon in 1969.
Music
- In 1978, French electronic musician Richard Pinhas released the nine-track Dune-inspired album Chronolyse, which includes the seven-part Variations sur le thème des Bene Gesserit.
- In 1979, German electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze released an LP titled Dune featuring motifs and lyrics inspired by the novel.
- A similar musical project, Visions of Dune, was released also in 1979 by Zed (a pseudonym of French electronic musician Bernard Sjazner).
- The experimental rock band Dün named themselves after the novel. Their only album, 1981's Eros, features two tracks entitled after elements of the novel: "L'epice" ("Spice") and "Arrakis".
- Heavy metal band Iron Maiden wrote the song "To Tame a Land" based on the Dune story. It appears as the closing track to their 1983 album Piece of Mind. The original working title of the song was "Dune"; however, the band was denied permission to use it, with Frank Herbert's agents stating "Frank Herbert doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially bands like Iron Maiden".
- Dune inspired the German happy hardcore band Dune, who have released several albums with space travel-themed songs.
- The influential progressive hardcore band Shai Hulud took their name from Dune.
- "Traveller in Time", from the 1991 Blind Guardian album Tales from the Twilight World, is based mostly on Paul Atreides' visions of future and past.
- The song "Near Fantastica", from the Matthew Good album Avalanche, makes reference to "litany against fear", repeating "can't feel fear, fear's the mind killer" through a section of the song.
- In the Fatboy Slim song "Weapon of Choice", the line "If you walk without rhythm/You won't attract the worm" is a near quotation from the sections of novel in which Stilgar teaches Paul to ride sandworms.
- Dune also inspired the 1999 album The 2nd Moon by the German death metal band Golem, which is a concept album about the series.
- Dune influenced Thirty Seconds to Mars on their self-titled debut album.
- The Youngblood Brass Band's song "Is an Elegy" on Center:Level:Roar references "Muad'Dib", "Arrakis" and other elements from the novel.
- The debut album of Canadian musician Grimes, called Geidi Primes, is a concept album based on Dune.
Games
There have been a number of games based on the book, notably the 1992 strategy adventure Dune and its sequels. The online game Lost Souls includes Dune-derived elements, including sandworms and melangeâ€"addiction to which can produce psychic talents.
Space exploration
The Apollo 15 astronauts named a small crater after the novel during the 1971 mission, and the name was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1973. Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-world nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn's moon Titan.
See also
- Dune universe
- List of Dune Houses
- List of Dune characters
- List of Dune terminology
- List of fictional books § Works invented by Frank Herbert
- Soft science fiction
References
Further reading
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1995). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 1386. ISBN 0-312-13486-X.Â
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1995). The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (CD-ROM). Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBNÂ 0-7172-3999-3.Â
- Nicholls, Peter (1979). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd. p. 672. ISBN 0-586-05380-8.Â
- Jakubowski, Maxim; Edwards, Malcolm (1983). The Complete Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy Lists. St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd. p. 350. ISBN 0-586-05678-5.Â
- Pringle, David (1990). The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction. London: Grafton Books Ltd. p. 407. ISBN 0-246-13635-9.Â
- Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 136. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.Â
External links
- Official website for Dune and its sequels
- Dune title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Interviewer: Paul Turner (October 1973). "Vertex Interviews Frank Herbert". Volume 1, Issue 4. Archived from the original on 2009-05-19.Â
- Spark Notes: Dune, detailed study guide
- Audio Review at The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
- DuneQuotes.com - Collection of quotes from the Dune series
- Dune by Frank Herbert, reviewed by Ted Gioia (Conceptual Fiction)
- "Frank Herbert Biography and Bibliography at LitWeb.net". www.litweb.net. Archived from the original on April 2, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-02.Â
- "Arabic and Islamic themes in Frank Herbert's Dune". The Baheyeldin Dynasty. Retrieved 2009-01-02.Â
- Works of Frank Herbert at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- Timberg, Scott (April 18, 2010). "Frank Herbert's Dune holds timelyâ€"and timelessâ€"appeal". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 27, 2013.Â
- Walton, Jo (January 12, 2011). "In league with the future: Frank Herbert's Dune (Review)". Tor.com. Retrieved November 27, 2013.Â
- Leonard, Andrew (June 4, 2015). "To Save California, Read Dune". Nautilus. Retrieved June 15, 2015.Â