Dune essays

Dune essays Frank Herbert's Dune presents the reader with an imaginery world in which the broad sweep of history can be seen from the distance of a massive amount of history. Indeed, one of the things that makes Dune so intriguing is its ability to locate the action of the present within the overarching timeframe of ten thousand plus years of history, such that all of the specific events, while they are of great importance to the narrative, can be seen merely as further developments in the overarching plot of historical events. Dune offers us an immense backdrop of events and institutions to process, all of which have long and various historical roles; there is House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the other various houses, the history of Dune/Arrakis, the history of the Fremen, the Guild, the Emperor, the history of the Kwitzats Haderach, and, of course, the history of the spice, itself. Given all of these things, in combination with the complexity of the timeline and the political turmoil and underlying political machinations, navigating Dune in itself can be challenging. Attempting to derive some overarching theory of historicity and its effects on people out of this imaginary world is a daunting task altogether, however. The answer to much of this line of questioning, however, lies in the pseudo-religious undertones of Dune, specifically in the central figure of Paul Atreides, who, as a sort of messiah-figure, is made to be an obvious allusion to the Christian story of Jesus. Indeed, the inclusion of the imaginary O.C. Bible, within the text of Dune itself further strengthens this connection between Paul Atreides and the Biblical story as presented and extrapolated from the Gospels. Indeed, Paul represents a synthesis (many syntheses, actually) , in which two previously warring aspects are merged. Indeed, he represents the union of several counter- poised forces, including water and deser...