Dune: Difference between revisions

{{work|wppage=Dune (novel)}}

''Fear is the mind-killer."''|from the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear}}

{{quote|''"Arrakis, Dune, Desert Planet.''|Paul Atreides in the beginning for the first book}}

In the 2000s, Brian Herbert and [[Kevin J. Anderson]] said they used notes from Herbert found in a safety deposit box to write prequels and two sequels to the Dune series. These books comprise ten novels overall - the "Legends of Dune" trilogy which covers the rise of the Empire and the Spacing Guild some 10,000 years prior to the original novel; the "Prelude To Dune" trilogy which follows the conflict between Leto Atreides and Vladimir Harkonnen in the years prior to Paul's birth; ''Hunters of Dune'' and ''Sandworms of Dune'', two sequels which complete the second trilogy started by the elder Herbert; and ''Paul of Dune'' and ''The Winds of Dune'', a pair of [[Interquel|Interquels]]s set between the novels of the original trilogy. Unfortunately, they were not very well received. FHM magazine once speculated that while they may have begun with notes from a deposit box, by the time of the last books they were down to a Post-it Frank left on the fridge saying "NOTE: Write more Dune books". ''[[Penny Arcade]]'''s assessment of these books was rather.... [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/10/15 blunt.]

''Dune'' has been [[The Film of the Book|adapted into movie form]] twicethree times:

* From the early 1970's1970s on, attempts were made to produce a theatrical film. Cult director [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]] (known for incredibly bizarre films such as ''[[El Topo]]'' and ''[[The Holy Mountain]]'' and equally strange or stranger comic books) came to the project after having a bizarre dream almost identical to the broader plot of the first novel and then hearing about a book of almost exactly the same story. Convinced that there was something more here he resolved to make '''a movie based on his dream,''' with bits of the book itself thrown in (that's not hyperbole, that's his stated agenda). Comic artist Moebius and fellow [[Heavy Metal]] writer/artist Dan O'Bannon (also responsible for the concept art and a decent chunk of the screenplay for ''[[Alien]]'') worked on concept art and designs, as well as ''[[Aliens]]'' designer [[H. R. Giger]], whose work actually ended up in the final film in small doses. Salvador Dali was cast as the Emperor (which is not nearly as ridiculous as it sounds to non-''Dune'' fans) and [[Pink Floyd]] had agreed to provide the score. [[What Could Have Been|Sadly, and inevitably, it fell apart.]]

* The producers turned to a hot new director who had been considered for ''[[Star Wars|Return of the Jedi]],'' mostly because of George Lucas' [[What Could Have Been|still-intense passion for experimental film]], mostly on the strength of his classic [[Eraserhead|first film]] and a critically and commercially successful [[The Elephant Man|biopic]] that made him a true commodity in the industry. That man's name: [[David Lynch]], who took the project and made it his own to only a slightly lesser extent than Jodorowsky would have. Due to his alien style and the sheer scale of the book, the already-complex narrative became nearly incomprehensible to some viewers; many theaters handed out [[All There in the Manual|printed plot summaries]] to patrons. Ironically, the altered cut made more understandable to be commercially viable for television was ''even longer'' than the existing film, running about '''four hours''' with commercials, and included, among other things, altered narration and a lengthier prologue. Lynch was incensed that the studio had [[Executive Meddling|recut his movie]] behind his back; he had himself credited for director as [[Alan Smithee]] and as ''[[Meaningful Name|Judas Booth]]''<ref>(as in John Wilkes; a name he has signed at least once as an autograph at the request of a fan)</ref> for his screenwriting credit. The 1984 Lynch version of ''Dune'' is the most memorable and notorious for its [[Scenery Porn|elaborate and immersive set design]], and carried some holdovers from the Jodorowsky version, including Giger's designs. Subsequent recut and extended versions have inspired [[Broken Base|varying]] degrees of critical [[Love It or Hate It|reappraisal]]. It was a complete flop at the box office and has become both a [[Cult Classic]], and an example of how ''not'' to make a blockbuster.

* In 2000, the [[Syfy]] (then still the "SciFi Channel") produced a three-part miniseries adaptation of the novel. This version followed the plot of the book much more closely, but had a ridiculously small budget, [[Ascended Extra|and gave several characters expanded roles]] while paring others down to bare bones or removing them entirely. The Sci-Fi Channel also adapted ''Messiah'' and ''Children'' into a second three-part miniseries in 2003, which was substantially better in some people's opinion (though its ending was much more ambiguous than that of the novel and doesn't provide a suitable lead-in to ''God Emperor''.)

* [[Accidental Marriage]]: Paul, before adapting to Fremen culture, asks Chani to carry his water tokens for him without realizing that only a betrothed does this for a man, making his offer tantamount to a proposal. Played with in that the only result is a moment of shock and then an embarrassed explanation to Paul of what he just did. Stilgar then orders Chani to carry the water tokens anyway out of survival necessity,<ref>They're on patrol in hostile territory and cannot afford to make any noise, but Paul doesn't yet know how to wrap a bunch of small clinking objects so that they don't jingle when carried, which is the entire reason he asked Chani to do it for him in the first place.</ref>, but with the clear pronouncement that it does ''not'' place Chani under any obligation. (Paul later on ''does'' marry Chani, but his proposal in that instance is entirely deliberate.)

* [[Aesoptinum]] / [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] : The Spice. It's one of the few clear-cut allegories in the book - a precious resource absolutely vital to the economy, much like gold in past eras and oil today. To hammer the point home, Herbert even compared the CHOAM company (which oversees the Imperium's commerce, including spice procurement) in one interview to [[Real Life]] international trade organizations, including OPEC. As for the [[Aesop]] : [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|Humans Are Greedy Bastards]] and will often do anything in order to collect as much spice as possible, including armed conflicts, espionage, assasinations, and a great variety of immoral acts, all out of blind wilfulness and greed. Thus, Paul (and later Leto II) act against humanity's immediate desires in order to save it from itself.

* [[Agony Beam]]/[[Hand in the Hole]]/[[Life or Limb Decision]]: The ritual of the gom jabbar is a test employed by the Bene Gesserit, performed by requiring the examinee to put her hand into a box that causes [[Agony Beam|excruciating pain]] by nerve induction. A poison-coated needle -- theneedle—the gom jabbar itself -- isitself—is then held to the "victim's" neck with the threat of instant death should she withdraw her hand without permission. The test is whether the person can master her instinctive desire to flee the pain, thus proving her "humanity". Paul Atreides is one of the few males to be administered the test, and his passing of it is seen as a sign of his future role as the [[The Chosen One|Kwisatz Haderach]].

* [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]]

* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: Probably the only exception is Duke Leto. And even then, only maybe. Averted in the prequels -- theprequels—the Atreides are almost always benevolent, and the Ecazi, Richese, and Vernius families are more or less good. Too bad [[Being Good Sucks]]. A few more good ones in the prequels describing the Butlerian Jihad, including some of the Butlers, Tantors, and Porce Bludd (but not his great-uncle Niko Bludd, a complete [[Jerkass]]).

* [[As You Know]]: Literally entire chapters of it. One chapter begins with the villain introducing himself ''by name'' to his henchmen -- "Is it not a magnificent thing that I, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnnen, do?" -- and—and continues with him explaining his plan to the henchman who helped him to devise it. Justified in that (a) they were recapitulating their plan for the benefit of Feyd-Rautha, whose patience and attention span were equally short; and (b) the Baron himself is a ''gloriously [[Large Ham]], and arrogant to boot.

* [[The Battlestar]]: The ''Ballista''-class battleships are the main warships used by the League Armada in the prequels. Besides formidable weaponry, they carry 20 troop transports, 15 shuttles, 50 patrol craft, and 200 ''Kindjal'' [[Space Fighter|Space Fighters]]s. Each one also has a crew of 1500. They are later equipped with [[Deflector Shields]] and Holtzmann drives.

* [[Bedouin Rescue Service]]: In ''[[Dune]]'', Jessica and Paul Atreides are rescued by Fremen. They then have to jump through religious hoops and trial by personal combat to prove that they're ''worth'' saving. Of course, they were deliberately seeking out the Fremen, and the Fremen were primed by the religious mythos seeded by the Missionaria Protectiva to look for a Messiah, which Paul and Jessica were trained to exploit. Otherwise they'd have been killed out of hand. Additionally, many Fremen tribes were warned by their leader, Liet, to watch for Jessica and Paul. The novel lays this out clearly through a scene where Liet-Kynes helps them hide from the Harkonnens.

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]: The novels are consistently and deliberately ambiguous about the relative morality of each of the various factions. House Atreides, the most conventionally moral of the Great Houses depicted in the story, is made to pay heavily for its idealism, and even that is called into question by the prequels. Paul slaughters billions under the godhead of the Madhinate, and his son Leto II is the greatest tyrant in history; yet both claimed their actions were necessary to avoid an even greater catastrophe -- thecatastrophe—the complete and total extinction of humanity. The Bene Gesserit are similarly portrayed as scheming witches, yet by the time of ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse: Dune'', they have inherited the responsibility of safeguarding humanity's future.

* [[Brain In a Jar]]: The prequels have brain-jar villains riding around in [[Humongous Mecha|giant war machines]] ([[Rule of Cool|just because they can]]), who cause the [[Robot War|Butlerian Jihad]] through poor programming of their [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|computerized inside "man"]] and wind up as minions/slaves themselves. Besides the Titans ([[Humongous Mecha|giant war machines]] ), are the Cogitors, humans who gave up their bodies to spend millennia contemplating the mysteries of the universe. As a group they have declared themselves neutral in the war where humanity is being exterminated like rats.

* [[The Caligula]]: The Harkonnens are pretty much an entire family of Caligulas. Gladiatorial death sports, hunting humans as game, [[Perverse Sexual Lust]], murdering random servants, obscenely expensive luxuries, drug addiction, torture as entertainment--theyentertainment—they did it all.

** Mentats as well are "human computers". They are trained to possess photographic memories and deduce perfectly logical conclusions from the barest minimum of information. A Mentat Advisor is one of the most valuable assets that a noble house can have; when he first landed on Arrakis, Paul had just found that he had potential Mentat capabilities himself -- tohimself—to quote Duke Leto, "a Mentat ''Duke'' would be formidable indeed". And, later, a Mentat Kwisatz Haderach. Miles Teg in the later novels is a mentat generalissimo. But just try using one as an iPod.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: "Princess Irulan," the lady who's writing the [[Encyclopedia Exposita]] about Paul from which the novel's [[Epigraph|Epigraphs]]s come. Even though her name has been on every fifth page of the book, she doesn't show up ''in person'' until the last 20 or so, and we don't learn until the very last page (or, if you prefer, for another two books) just ''why'' she's [[All Love Is Unrequited|so interested in chronicling him]].

* [[Coca -Pepsi, Inc.]]: Perhaps the most famous example in science fiction. Due to thousands of years of space migration, various religions and cultures have merged, split, then re-merged again and again. The Fremen are Zensunni, a combination of Sunni Islam and Zen Buddhism. Though most of this occurred naturally, it eventually was pushed this way by an ecumenical council that produced the "Orange Catholic Bible". The title suggests a reunification of Catholicism and Protestantism (the militant, anti-Catholic Protestant Irish Orangists), although it is actually far more ecumenical, incorporating "Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism and Buddislamic traditions".

* [[ColourColor-Coded for Your Convenience]]: The novels have the Harkonnens in blue, the Atreides in green (presumably referencing Islam), Reverend Mothers in black aba robes, and Spacing Guild representatives in grey, denoting their neutral status.

* [[Con Lang]]: Many of the phrases and terms used throughout the book have some basis in real-world languages. The Fremen speak a clear development of Arabic. Galach, the official language of the Imperium, is described as an Anglo-Slavic hybrid with some other tongues mixed in for good measure -- andmeasure—and it shows... in the rare instances when we get to read some actual untranslated phrases from it.

* [[Cyanide Pill]]: Yueh gives Duke Leto a poison-gas tooth so that he can kill the Baron Harkonnen. This makes Leto something of a kamikaze -- butkamikaze—but an unsuccessful one, as the gas only kills Piter.

** It's mentioned during Paul's fight with Gurney that the air was becoming stale because it couldn't be exchanged. (A deflector shield which keeps out fast-moving objects would isolate the wearer from things like, well, oxygen -- individualoxygen—individual molecules of which drift around at [[wikipedia:Kinetic theory|several hundred metres a second]] even at room temperature.)

* [[The Dragon]]: Subverted with both Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and Hasimir Fenring. Feyd-Rautha fought Paul Atreides on behalf of the Emperor, but only because he saw killing Paul as a stepping-stone to the throne; and Fenring was such a deadly fighter that the Emperor knew he could kill an exhausted Paul after his previous fight with Feyd -- onlyFeyd—only for Fenring to realize that he and Paul are [[Not So Different]].

* [[Fantastic Slur]]: After becoming "cymeks", the Titans began to view normal humans as inferior creatures and invented an insulting term for them - "hrethgir". When [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|Omnius]] took power from the Titans, he shared the Titans' view of humans and kept using the term. His final defense against the Army of Humanity is a group of cargo ships filled with millions of human slaves and rigged to blow if the human fleet passes a certain threshold. He calls it the Bridge of Hrethgir.

** In ''Dune Messiah'', the conclusion is hinted at in the second chapter, and by halfway through the novel, the protagonist has a prescient dream in which he foresees the entire rest of the story. The vision guides him even after his eyes get burned out by nuclear radiation. By twenty pages before the climax (a substantial portion of the just 200-page book) it's a definite [[Foregone Conclusion]], except for the [[Plot Twist]] in which Paul foresees only the birth of his daughter, and not her far more significant twin brother -- becausebrother—because he's the one who will ultimately take the reins of prophecy from Paul.

* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: The ''Dune'' universe is positively riddled with words seemingly inspired by or derived from Arabic and Farsi (most of the future religions have some Islam in them). Even Hebrew shows up once or twice. Amongst other things, ''K'fitzat ha'derekh'' (compare to Dune's ''Kwisatz Haderach'') is a magical ability ascribed to some real-world Chassidic holy men -- specificallymen—specifically, the ability to teleport. The twins speak French, because it's a dead language at this time, so nobody else could possibly understand them.

=== I-P ===

* [[Ice Cream Koan]]: The phrases of the Zensunni sect from ''Dune'' are said to intended to be [[Ice Cream Koan|Ice Cream Koans]]s, similar to Zen as mentioned above. Instead of providing enlightenment though bypassing rational thought and accepting paradox; they're intended to teach the student to recognize nonsense and obfuscation, regardless of how logically-constructed and reasonable it may appear, and to see through to the "true" underlying reality. Zen emphasizes acceptance of the irrational. The Zensunni philosophy underlying most schools of thought in ''Dune'' emphasizes the extremes of rationality and mental development (eg. the Mentat human computers, and Bene Gesserit observation techniques).

* [[Instant Sedation]]: Played with during Lady Jessica's capture scene in the novel. At first it's played straight -- shestraight—she's taken prisoner during the Harkonnen attack by having someone slap a drug-impregnated rag over her mouth while she's sleeping, rapidly knocking her out. When she wakes up she's bound and confronted by the Baron Harkonnen, who gloats that 'the drug was timed, and we knew to the minute when you'd be coming out of it'. Then the trope starts being played with, as Jessica immediately lampshades to herself that sedatives just don't work that way unless you had unbelievably precise information on the target's metabolism and physical condition to allow an expert tailoring of the dose -- anddose—and then stops in realization that the only person who ''does'' have that information on her is her own physician, and that therefore the traitor must be Dr. Yueh.

* [[Kill and Replace]]: A favorite tactic of Tleilaxu Face Dancer [[Shape Shifter|Shape Shifters]]s.

* [[Lonely Atat the Top]]: Both Paul and his son Leto II at the height of their power have no one to truly understand them. For Paul, his love Chani, dies in childbirth and for Leto II {{spoiler|Hwi Noree. Leto and her both die before their wedding}}.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Ghanima, Leto II's twin sister. Her name means "spoils of war," because despite his seeing-the-future-vision, he'd never realized his wife was having twins. "Ghanima" also comes with added connotations of an object that is no longer being used for its real purpose-- orpurpose—or for any meaningful purpose at all, in fact. Paul was in a weird mood when he named her: he'd just been blinded, and she'd just killed his concubine via [[Death by Childbirth]].

* [[No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus]]: An entry in the Dune Encyclopedia claims the Bene Gesserit existed millennia before humanity developed spaceflight, and more-or-less specifically stated that Jesus was nothing more than a premature -- andpremature—and, therefore, failed -- Kwisatzfailed—Kwisatz Haderach.

* [[Old Retainer]]: Paul has not one, but three Old Retainers -- GurneyRetainers—Gurney Halleck, Duncan Idaho (though he's not so old), and Thufir Hawat.

{{quote|"Remember, we speak now of the Muad'Dib who ordered battle drums made from his enemies' skins, the Muad'Dib who denied the conventions of his ducal past with a [[Hand Wave|wave of the hand]], saying merely: "I am [[The Chosen One|the Kwisatz Haderach]]. [[Omniscient Morality License|That is reason enough]]."

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: The Fremen, deliberately contrasted with the Sardaukar who are more of a [[Praetorian Guard]]. Both in turn start out [[Badass]] but end up succumbing to arrogance and pleasure, allowing them to be overcome by a superior force -- Fremenforce—Fremen for the Sardukaur, and, well, ''Leto II'' for the Fremen.

=== Q-Z ===

* [[Retcon]]: In the first novel, the Reverend Mother power of "other memory" was bestowed by a kind of "download" of all the memories of another Reverend Mother -- onlyMother—only that Reverend Mother's memories, or the memories of previous Reverend Mothers she'd downloaded, were accessible. By the time of ''Children of Dune'', "other memory" was a genetic phenomenon that allowed its possessor access to the memories of anybody in his or her past, male or female.

* [[Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves]]: Dr. Wellington Yueh betrays the House Atreides for the sake of freeing [[I Have Your Wife|his wife]] from Harkonnen [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortures]]. Yueh is an interesting case in that he walks into it with his eyes mostly open -- heopen—he strongly suspects that Wanna has been [[Released to Elsewhere]] and is betraying everyone just to make ''sure''. He knows he'll only be killed for his troubles once he's [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|outlived his usefulness]], and he does everything in his power to help House Atreides survive his betrayal. Hell, he even sets up a trap of his own to kill Baron Harkonnen in retaliation, and it almost succeeds.

* [[Robot War]]: The "Butlerian Jihad," which is referenced in the very first book but wasn't fleshed out in any detail, [[Fanon Discontinuity|certainly not by the prequels]]. Led to a core tenet of civilization: "[[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind]]"-- by—by which we mean, No Computers Allowed. Various schools of mental training, such as the Mentats and the Bene Gesserit, were founded to produce humans who can do what Pentiums did (and eventually went far beyond that).

* [[Scry vs. Scry]]: A few times in ''[[Dune]]''. Bonus points for the foresight itself being a trap; seeing a future locks it in among all the possible futures, so it's avoidable ''unless'' you know it's coming.

** There are at least two to [[Poul Anderson]]: an appendix to ''Dune'' mentions a biography of Alia written by "Pander Oulson"; and in ''God Emperor of Dune'', Leto II asks Hwi Noree if she's familiar with the philosophy of Noah Arkwright,<ref>a [[Meaningful Name]], when you consider that "-wright" means "maker" or "builder."</ref>, a philosopher/explorer mentioned (but apparently never actually appearing) in several of Anderson's stories.

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]], as Dune became a desert planet thanks to the sandworms/sandtrout species basically [[Terraform|terraformingterraform]]ing it.

* [[The Spartan Way]]/[[Training Fromfrom Hell]]: The Emperor's Sardaukar. To a certain extent the Fremen also - their culture is more survivalist than purely martial, but on a man-for-man level it seems to yield a superior result.

* [[Super -Detailed Fight Narration]]

* [[Super Speed]]: In ''Heretics of Dune'', {{spoiler|Miles Teg}} gets this power as a result of a botched interrogation -- impliedinterrogation—implied to be a result of the [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|unique mechanics]] of the interrogation device unlocking a latent genetic talent. His speed also includes accelerated reflexes, [[Time Stands Still|slowed time perception]], a form of [[Super Senses]] (explained as an amplification of his Mentat training), and massive boosts to his metabolic rate and the oxygen storage capacity of his blood to handle the increased energy demands. The effect also turns him into a [[Big Eater]], which is played for both drama and laughs. Fortunately, he can turn the ability on or off at will.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: The Baron during his POV segments. You ''so'' want him dead for his crimes and perversions, but while waiting for his comeuppance, you can't help but admire his brilliant political maneuvering and epic-level [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastardy]]y.

** The Bene Gesserit are also big on the Xanatos Gambling Circuit, manipulating individuals, societies, governments, religions, and bloodlines to produce their [[Chosen One|Kwisatz Haderach]]-- and—and then having to start over from scratch when they get one too soon.

== {{examples|Adaptations with their own trope pages include: ==}}

=== A-Z ===

* [[ColourColor-Coded for Your Convenience]]: The Sci-Fi Channel's miniseries portrays the Harkonnens in red, the Imperial Corrinos are purple and gold (likely a reference to the purple togas worn by Roman emperors), the Atreides primarily in tan and white, Fremen in brown and dark orange, and Spacing Guild members in black.

* [[Deleted Scene]]: Several scenes were cut from the theatrical release of the 1984 film and later restored to the extended versions, which is part of why they're so much longer. Of these, one of the most significant is the death of Thufir Hawat, a powerful scene in which Paul separates Thufir from the captured Harkonnen and offers him his life, only for Thufir to commit suicide rather than kill Paul. This omission creates something of a [[What Happened to the Mouse?]] moment in the original cut, as Thufir--oneThufir—one of the film's more important characters--cancharacters—can clearly be seen standing among the prisoners (between the Emperor and Gaius Mohiam) in one shot, and simply vanishes in the next; his disappearance is never explained.

* [[Fisher King]]: Lynch's '84 film has Paul Atreides taking up his place as the Kwisatz Haderach, at which point Arrakis, a planet defined by its absurd dearth of water, is consumed by a torrential downpour of rain. In the book, it took years of [[Terraform|Terraforming]]ing.

* [[Nice Hat]]: In the [[Syfy]]'s production of ''[[Dune]]'' there were several [[Nice Hat|Nice Hats]]s, mostly notably the Bene Gesserit, [[wikipedia:Image:Ghm.jpg|seen here]] (the hat is the thing extending back from her head).

* [[Re CutRecut]]: The 1984 theatrical version was not direct or [[David Lynch]]'s Director's Cut--theCut—the producers not only made him cut a lot of material from his script, they also cut a lot of scenes that had been shot out as well--butwell—but it's the only one he's very happy with. Then in 1988, an Extended Cut was made to be shown on TV, referred to as The [[Alan Smithee]] Cut. It used deleted scenes, but reused more footage than ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''. David Lynch hated it, demanding his name be removed from the writer and director credit. ''Then'', in 1992, a San Francisco TV station made a mix of a cut between the original theatrical version of the movie and the Alan Smithee cut, which kept the new scenes but also put the violence back in. Finally, a cut known as the Extended Edition came out on DVD, which was a 177-minute edit of the Alan Smithee version. David Lynch is now a bitter arthouse director. Go figure.

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