A Story About Dune
I was feeling awful today. And with the news that Denis Villeneuve will be adapting Frank Herbert's Dune with Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides, I am strangely and weirdly excited about Dune! In fact, this story I read off of Wikipedia made my misery dissipate. Going into this story, what you need to know is that bizzaro director extraordinaire Alejandro Jodorowsky was going to be the first person to direct Dune. But he overspent his budget, so the rights were sold to Dino De Laurentiis who eventually asked Ridley Scott to direct. Then Scott dropped out, so it was on to David Lynch!
Here is the story that made me smile (from Wikipedia): "In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who had earlier been disappointed by the collapse of his own attempt to film Dune, says he was disappointed and jealous when he learned Lynch was making Dune, as he believed Lynch was the only other director capable of doing justice to the novel. At first, Jodorowsky refused to see Lynch's film, but his sons dragged him. As the film unfolded, Jodorowsky says, he became very happy, seeing that it was a 'failure'."
How can you not laugh at that? Oh Jodorowsky, you salty little brat. I love you so.
I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Dune. My entire adolescence was filled with my dad trying to get me to watch two films: Blade Runner and the 4-hour version of Dune, both of which I found incredibly boring. I have since gone back to Blade Runner and it's one of my favorite films (possibly an unpopular opinion, but I think I love Blade Runner 2049 just an iota more?). And eventually I watched all of David Lynch's Dune.
1984's Dune is so incredibly silly, it's impossible to take it seriously and that's why it always makes me smile if I see it on TV. But that's just me. I love films that are so incredibly bad, they're good. At the same time, it's also a very strangely grotesque film in a way that only David Lynch can create which has always appealed to me. But mostly it's silly. And I can never get over the fact that Sting is Freyd-Rautha. Which, honestly Jodorowsky, you can't say anything because you wanted to cast Mick Jagger as Freyd-Rautha.
I ended up reading the book in high school because my dad had so many science-fiction books of that era that it was very easy for me to pick one from the shelves and start in on it. I remember being instantly sucked into this world of dunes and sand worms and speaking using all of the Dune terminology in some kind of fever-precog-dream. Looking at the Wikipedia pages and seeing some of the terms from this series, I have a very nostalgic knowing feeling in me.
I was in love with it. I remember distinctly being on the bus for marching band as we were approaching Pismo Beach, finishing Dune, turning to my closest classmate who was well-read and said, "Oh my god, Paul just stabbed Freyd-Rautha." And he said to me, with that look on his face like he had a secret, "Keep reading."
This brings me to a very important point: is Dune a good book?
I guess.
I feel for Dune today exactly what I feel for A Wizard of Earthsea. Was it incredibly influential on science-fiction when it was released? Definitely. Would the science-fiction genre be what it is today if it didn't exist? Probably not. Did it bring a really interesting twist on science-fiction with chemistry, ecology, and religious analysis? Yes. Is it still ridiculously silly and makes me giggle whenever I see "Duncan Idaho"? YES. Is the writing incredibly new-age pseudo-philosophical? Ugh.
I mean, this is the book where someone tries to assassinate a certain Baron by carrying poison in a fake tooth. This is the book that is such a product of the 1960's and has our protagonists constantly taking "mind-altering" drugs. This is the book where, when Paul is going to marry Princess Irulan, Lady Jessica tells Chani, his love interest, not to feel bad because it's the mistresses who are remembered.
That last bit is kind of where I draw the line with Dune. The women . . . aren't written very well. And often face consequences where the men do not. If you compare Paul and his sister Alia, Paul is exposed to loads of "the spice" (a.k.a. LSD) and becomes the Muad'Dib/Kwisatz Haderach. Alia is exposed to the spice and becomes an "abomination" where eventually she can't control her powers and has to commit suicide to save everyone from herself. Did Paul face those kind of consequences? No. No he did not. He just got all old-and-grumpy Luke Skywalker and started roving around as a hermit.
The only female character I felt anything for was Princess Irulan. Mostly because she got to write all of the texts that are quoted within the book and I feel as though, in language, she has some power. She gets the last word, at least.
There's also an incredibly homophobic moment that is in the books and was unfortunately placed into the film as well. Personally, I don't even see Baron Harkonnen as a character. He's just a stock-grade villain who has every cliche possible placed upon him. What's insulting is that Frank Herbert seemed to believe that homosexuality was included in these traits. And when this crops up, I always feel like, "Oh, so we're going to ignore how many countless straight people there are out in the world who have done horrifically terrible things?" This, and how Herbert treats the female characters, are points that bother me greatly about Dune still to this day, and which make me question people who tell me with a straight-face about how much they love this book.
Just now though, I am learning more and more about Jodorowsky's vision for Dune and all the crazy stories about it. He wanted to cast Salvador Dali as the emperor, but Dali was too expensive so they created an inanimate double of him to use for sitting scenes. He wanted Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, and David Carradine, for goodness sake. Pink Floyd did some of the music! He got H.R. Giger and and Jean Giraud (Moebius) together for the art design (and have you seen H.R. Giger's Harkonnen Capo Chair? I need one for my living room)! They would later work together again on Alien. What's important from Jodorowsky's Dune is that while it wasn't made, the remnants of it were lying around, to be used in other future science-fiction films that were big hits.
What I find interesting about Dune is the experimentation it brings out in those who direct it. Jodorowsky was off on another planet with it and thankfully, Frank Herbert goaded him on. David Lynch took it into an extremely unsettling territory only to have executive hands try to wrangle it into a commercial hit. So I'm interested to see where Denis Villeneuve will take it.
Dune is ridiculously silly in almost every way possible. There's a teenage version of myself who really loves the series. And then there's the adult me who understands how problematic it is in some areas. But it's also extremely nostalgic to me and is, in some ways, like book candy. Maybe it's worth a re-read. I don't know.
Here is the story that made me smile (from Wikipedia): "In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who had earlier been disappointed by the collapse of his own attempt to film Dune, says he was disappointed and jealous when he learned Lynch was making Dune, as he believed Lynch was the only other director capable of doing justice to the novel. At first, Jodorowsky refused to see Lynch's film, but his sons dragged him. As the film unfolded, Jodorowsky says, he became very happy, seeing that it was a 'failure'."
How can you not laugh at that? Oh Jodorowsky, you salty little brat. I love you so.
I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Dune. My entire adolescence was filled with my dad trying to get me to watch two films: Blade Runner and the 4-hour version of Dune, both of which I found incredibly boring. I have since gone back to Blade Runner and it's one of my favorite films (possibly an unpopular opinion, but I think I love Blade Runner 2049 just an iota more?). And eventually I watched all of David Lynch's Dune.
1984's Dune is so incredibly silly, it's impossible to take it seriously and that's why it always makes me smile if I see it on TV. But that's just me. I love films that are so incredibly bad, they're good. At the same time, it's also a very strangely grotesque film in a way that only David Lynch can create which has always appealed to me. But mostly it's silly. And I can never get over the fact that Sting is Freyd-Rautha. Which, honestly Jodorowsky, you can't say anything because you wanted to cast Mick Jagger as Freyd-Rautha.
I ended up reading the book in high school because my dad had so many science-fiction books of that era that it was very easy for me to pick one from the shelves and start in on it. I remember being instantly sucked into this world of dunes and sand worms and speaking using all of the Dune terminology in some kind of fever-precog-dream. Looking at the Wikipedia pages and seeing some of the terms from this series, I have a very nostalgic knowing feeling in me.
I was in love with it. I remember distinctly being on the bus for marching band as we were approaching Pismo Beach, finishing Dune, turning to my closest classmate who was well-read and said, "Oh my god, Paul just stabbed Freyd-Rautha." And he said to me, with that look on his face like he had a secret, "Keep reading."
This brings me to a very important point: is Dune a good book?
I guess.
I feel for Dune today exactly what I feel for A Wizard of Earthsea. Was it incredibly influential on science-fiction when it was released? Definitely. Would the science-fiction genre be what it is today if it didn't exist? Probably not. Did it bring a really interesting twist on science-fiction with chemistry, ecology, and religious analysis? Yes. Is it still ridiculously silly and makes me giggle whenever I see "Duncan Idaho"? YES. Is the writing incredibly new-age pseudo-philosophical? Ugh.
I mean, this is the book where someone tries to assassinate a certain Baron by carrying poison in a fake tooth. This is the book that is such a product of the 1960's and has our protagonists constantly taking "mind-altering" drugs. This is the book where, when Paul is going to marry Princess Irulan, Lady Jessica tells Chani, his love interest, not to feel bad because it's the mistresses who are remembered.
That last bit is kind of where I draw the line with Dune. The women . . . aren't written very well. And often face consequences where the men do not. If you compare Paul and his sister Alia, Paul is exposed to loads of "the spice" (a.k.a. LSD) and becomes the Muad'Dib/Kwisatz Haderach. Alia is exposed to the spice and becomes an "abomination" where eventually she can't control her powers and has to commit suicide to save everyone from herself. Did Paul face those kind of consequences? No. No he did not. He just got all old-and-grumpy Luke Skywalker and started roving around as a hermit.
The only female character I felt anything for was Princess Irulan. Mostly because she got to write all of the texts that are quoted within the book and I feel as though, in language, she has some power. She gets the last word, at least.
There's also an incredibly homophobic moment that is in the books and was unfortunately placed into the film as well. Personally, I don't even see Baron Harkonnen as a character. He's just a stock-grade villain who has every cliche possible placed upon him. What's insulting is that Frank Herbert seemed to believe that homosexuality was included in these traits. And when this crops up, I always feel like, "Oh, so we're going to ignore how many countless straight people there are out in the world who have done horrifically terrible things?" This, and how Herbert treats the female characters, are points that bother me greatly about Dune still to this day, and which make me question people who tell me with a straight-face about how much they love this book.
Just now though, I am learning more and more about Jodorowsky's vision for Dune and all the crazy stories about it. He wanted to cast Salvador Dali as the emperor, but Dali was too expensive so they created an inanimate double of him to use for sitting scenes. He wanted Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, and David Carradine, for goodness sake. Pink Floyd did some of the music! He got H.R. Giger and and Jean Giraud (Moebius) together for the art design (and have you seen H.R. Giger's Harkonnen Capo Chair? I need one for my living room)! They would later work together again on Alien. What's important from Jodorowsky's Dune is that while it wasn't made, the remnants of it were lying around, to be used in other future science-fiction films that were big hits.
What I find interesting about Dune is the experimentation it brings out in those who direct it. Jodorowsky was off on another planet with it and thankfully, Frank Herbert goaded him on. David Lynch took it into an extremely unsettling territory only to have executive hands try to wrangle it into a commercial hit. So I'm interested to see where Denis Villeneuve will take it.
Dune is ridiculously silly in almost every way possible. There's a teenage version of myself who really loves the series. And then there's the adult me who understands how problematic it is in some areas. But it's also extremely nostalgic to me and is, in some ways, like book candy. Maybe it's worth a re-read. I don't know.