Post by gerardian on Jul 22, 2018 18:34:56 GMT -8
Frank Herbert admitted that he already had a path where his entire epic was going, and that parts of even God Emperor of Dune were written before Dune was published.
It's a huge, sprawling, interconnected narrative set 10,000 years in the future in which the background, sociology, politics and ecology of Arrakis (Dune) in the context of the feudalistic, uncomputerized Galactic Empire of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV are critical to understanding of the characters' motivations and goals and appreciation of their amazing accomplishments and dreadful failures.
So I will now briefly summarize what you need to know and understand, whether you've read the books or not.
It is a story about ecology and ecologic transformation.
It's a parable of hydraulic despotism (Spice for Oil. Water for Oil and Water as an analogy of Water itself), and the "trap" of being dependent upon one source of energy, fuel or transportation.
It's about the absolute destruction that prescience creates and how it traps the prescient person and those around him/her in a path from which they cannot extricate themselves. Two people understood this fully and acted to fix it: the God Emperor of Dune (Leto II) and Mother Superior Alma Mavis Taraza (she destroyed Arrakis).
It's a story about the rise and fall and rise again of a family and how that is a parable for how absolute power destroys even the greatest amongst us.
It is a parable about the trappings of bureaucracy and how bureaucrats destroy good government.
It is a parable about the nature of how Godhead always creates religious trappings and that the priests ultimately gain all the power and the living god loses it to those administrators.
It is Frank Herbert's ultimate moral judgment that a human "grabs the firebrand" and takes control of his destiny and a "subhuman" or "nonhuman" animal basically watches, observes and does nothing.
It is a parable about living too long on the path to obtain something great and losing yourself in that path (the Sisterhood in obtaining the Kwisatz Haderach and the God Emperor in obtaining the Siona gene).
It is also the story of "coming to purpose" on small and grand scales. The Sisterhood, specifically, becomes House Atreides (most Dune fans forget about this). The God Emperor sees the future and dares the Sisterhood to become the power-holders and to cease living in the shadows because, to their surprise, they are worthy of ruling Humanity and are the only ones capable of doing this.
To that end, he seeds the universe with Honored Matres to be the Gom Jabar (hidden weapon) of the Sisterhood. By forcing the Sisterhood to create the Atreides Manifesto, he forces them to accept being the Atreides in reality and become great rulers like them. The Honored Matre gom jabar tests the sisterhood, proves them to be human, turns them into everything the Atreides were and prepares them to save humanity from something he would NEVER be able to do himself seeking what the God Emperor calls the "Golden Path".
It's a story about short sighted goals and long sighted goals and about how great leaders focused on the long-term.
It's a story about petty revenge and how all revenge is petty, no matter how earned.
It's a story of selective breeding, planted prophecies, and resurrection from death - with a big price (the gholas). Ghola Duncan Idaho in many ways becomes the central character after Paul.
It's a story of interstellar space travel totally dependent on one unique psychotropic drug (mélange, the "spice") found only on Dune.
It's a story of a galactic empire run without the use of electronic computers as a result of the Butlerian Jihad - and how those functions have been taken over by human computers (the Mentats)
Lastly it is a moral story about owning your life and always keeping your own counsel and acting, rather than reacting. Always having a plan and always knowing who your friends are in enacting that plan, in the context of Zensunni philosophy - a unique fusion of Zen Buddhism and Sunni Islam.
I hope this gives you understanding and perspective. Let's see what Denis and Timothee do, with their creative team, to bring this saga to life and make it relevant to our own times while also being the ultimate terrifically entertaining, thought provoking space opera and hero's journey. I believe they can do this with two 3 hour films with an option for a 3rd.
It's a huge, sprawling, interconnected narrative set 10,000 years in the future in which the background, sociology, politics and ecology of Arrakis (Dune) in the context of the feudalistic, uncomputerized Galactic Empire of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV are critical to understanding of the characters' motivations and goals and appreciation of their amazing accomplishments and dreadful failures.
So I will now briefly summarize what you need to know and understand, whether you've read the books or not.
It is a story about ecology and ecologic transformation.
It's a parable of hydraulic despotism (Spice for Oil. Water for Oil and Water as an analogy of Water itself), and the "trap" of being dependent upon one source of energy, fuel or transportation.
It's about the absolute destruction that prescience creates and how it traps the prescient person and those around him/her in a path from which they cannot extricate themselves. Two people understood this fully and acted to fix it: the God Emperor of Dune (Leto II) and Mother Superior Alma Mavis Taraza (she destroyed Arrakis).
It's a story about the rise and fall and rise again of a family and how that is a parable for how absolute power destroys even the greatest amongst us.
It is a parable about the trappings of bureaucracy and how bureaucrats destroy good government.
It is a parable about the nature of how Godhead always creates religious trappings and that the priests ultimately gain all the power and the living god loses it to those administrators.
It is Frank Herbert's ultimate moral judgment that a human "grabs the firebrand" and takes control of his destiny and a "subhuman" or "nonhuman" animal basically watches, observes and does nothing.
It is a parable about living too long on the path to obtain something great and losing yourself in that path (the Sisterhood in obtaining the Kwisatz Haderach and the God Emperor in obtaining the Siona gene).
It is also the story of "coming to purpose" on small and grand scales. The Sisterhood, specifically, becomes House Atreides (most Dune fans forget about this). The God Emperor sees the future and dares the Sisterhood to become the power-holders and to cease living in the shadows because, to their surprise, they are worthy of ruling Humanity and are the only ones capable of doing this.
To that end, he seeds the universe with Honored Matres to be the Gom Jabar (hidden weapon) of the Sisterhood. By forcing the Sisterhood to create the Atreides Manifesto, he forces them to accept being the Atreides in reality and become great rulers like them. The Honored Matre gom jabar tests the sisterhood, proves them to be human, turns them into everything the Atreides were and prepares them to save humanity from something he would NEVER be able to do himself seeking what the God Emperor calls the "Golden Path".
It's a story about short sighted goals and long sighted goals and about how great leaders focused on the long-term.
It's a story about petty revenge and how all revenge is petty, no matter how earned.
It's a story of selective breeding, planted prophecies, and resurrection from death - with a big price (the gholas). Ghola Duncan Idaho in many ways becomes the central character after Paul.
It's a story of interstellar space travel totally dependent on one unique psychotropic drug (mélange, the "spice") found only on Dune.
It's a story of a galactic empire run without the use of electronic computers as a result of the Butlerian Jihad - and how those functions have been taken over by human computers (the Mentats)
Lastly it is a moral story about owning your life and always keeping your own counsel and acting, rather than reacting. Always having a plan and always knowing who your friends are in enacting that plan, in the context of Zensunni philosophy - a unique fusion of Zen Buddhism and Sunni Islam.
I hope this gives you understanding and perspective. Let's see what Denis and Timothee do, with their creative team, to bring this saga to life and make it relevant to our own times while also being the ultimate terrifically entertaining, thought provoking space opera and hero's journey. I believe they can do this with two 3 hour films with an option for a 3rd.
