Arrakis has you!
The classic literary work "Dune", by modern sci-fi legend Frank
Herbert, is as much a paradox as it is a paradigm. With all the
superficiality of a Star Trek episode, the mental and emotional weight
of Tolkien's words, and a touch of blazing Starsiege
sociology/philosophy/history/mysticism, this book provides for me the
most perfect and fleshed out fantasy world to delve into and
discover.
To put it one way, consider the "living" aspect to certain fictional environments you see in television, books or other mediums. They are fake, obviously, but still we attach ourselves to them in a very real way, relating perfectly to the fabricated characters and stories and locals. Our assosociation with these descriptions, whether in print or motion, bridges that gap for those of us willing to be immersed. Herbert has created in "Dune" an imagined desert planet, with denezins uniquely suited to weather its hardships. Their's is a world with a very realized history and standard of life, of machinery and religion, and most importantly a very engrossing view of something we take for granted in our own world; water. The author takes these ideas, places them in suitable conversations/actions/contexts, prefaces each section with "historical" snippets from "literature" existing in the same fictional universe, and articulates a story of political intreigue, personal survival, respect and honor, and perhaps most critical of all, of the complete schism between good and evil.
Now, I'm sure one can take any number of symbols and analogies from the stories (for instance, the bad guys have a few Russian names and the story was written during the Cold War), but to limit the power of the tale to just those relationships limits the very point of the whole story ... a point, albeit, that I'm still finding out, as I'm only half-way through the book. Regardless of how it ends, though, I'll remember Herbert's engaging writing style, his intuitive play with the roles of history and legend, and attention to immaculate detail when dealing with human expression, emotion, and resolution.
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To put it one way, consider the "living" aspect to certain fictional environments you see in television, books or other mediums. They are fake, obviously, but still we attach ourselves to them in a very real way, relating perfectly to the fabricated characters and stories and locals. Our assosociation with these descriptions, whether in print or motion, bridges that gap for those of us willing to be immersed. Herbert has created in "Dune" an imagined desert planet, with denezins uniquely suited to weather its hardships. Their's is a world with a very realized history and standard of life, of machinery and religion, and most importantly a very engrossing view of something we take for granted in our own world; water. The author takes these ideas, places them in suitable conversations/actions/contexts, prefaces each section with "historical" snippets from "literature" existing in the same fictional universe, and articulates a story of political intreigue, personal survival, respect and honor, and perhaps most critical of all, of the complete schism between good and evil.
Now, I'm sure one can take any number of symbols and analogies from the stories (for instance, the bad guys have a few Russian names and the story was written during the Cold War), but to limit the power of the tale to just those relationships limits the very point of the whole story ... a point, albeit, that I'm still finding out, as I'm only half-way through the book. Regardless of how it ends, though, I'll remember Herbert's engaging writing style, his intuitive play with the roles of history and legend, and attention to immaculate detail when dealing with human expression, emotion, and resolution.
++++++++++