Dune Two and Beyond

I’m not writing a review of Denis Villeneuve’s second Dune installment because I haven’t seen it. There was much I liked in the first one and I presume there will be much I like in this new one. But. I have a few bones to pick in and around the movies and that’s what this post is about – including why I have not yet seen the movie I am most interested in this year.

Part 1: This Is Some Bullshit

I wrote pages and erased them. Let me sum up. I am disabled. Going to public places is impossible because the pandemic is not over, I need to not get COVID, and I can’t go to the bathroom alone or easily out there. I’m sick of hearing from celebrities, especially Denis, that I HAVE to see Dune in a theatre or not at all. Also, I am willing to bet I know the world of Dune better than him. And if you really wanted to do it, you’d do an I, Claudius style series. Not the one on Sci-Fi, which granted, wasn’t the travesty Lynch’s Dune movie was, but the whole shebang. Do the whole first book, and finally let us see that dinner party. And Jessica’s showdown with Thufir. And the garden room. And Lady and Count Fenring – we know about Lea but have we heard about him? And maybe give David Dastmalchian more than two minutes of screen time. Piter is one of my favorites and both he and Dastmalchian deserve it.

Part 2: They Just Need to Stop

If I have to read one more imbecilic, ignorant article about the Dune books…

Among my people I am a well-known Dune-ite. Dunehead. Honorary Fremen or Bene Gesserit. (The word ‘witch’ to refer to them is less prevalent in the books. Of course powerful, secretive women who can bend men to their will – which they really can – are called witches by men. That’s one thing that doesn’t change in the 10,000 years between now and then. Give or take.) One thing I like about the book fandom is that we don’t have a cute name.

There are six Dune books. Google or Amazon will tell you there are many more but they don’t count for us old-schoolers. Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune. That’s it. These six were written by Frank Herbert and I think it is a given he planned a seventh. His death before that seventh book has left me on a life-long cliffhanger that I do not forgive him for. (I just know George R.R. Martin is going to do the same thing to me, when all I want from that book series is a single good thing to happen to any member of the Stark family. And Cersei to suffer horribly and die.) His son, Brian Herbert, has his notes and has (with help) parlayed that into innumerable other books. I’m sorry to say they suck. He’s just not the writer his father was, much to my dismay. I was rooting for him, I truly was.

I have no idea how many times I’ve read Dune or it’s five followers. I first read the series in 8^th grade. (Oddly, I started with Dune Messiah and went through the series from there. I got them from my family library, and I couldn’t find Dune. I was eventually quite surprised to find no ‘weirding modules’ in that first book. Stupid Lynch movie.) I am quite sure I didn’t get much of it, but I did take away a few important lessons that quite literally affected my life, then and now. Of course I know the Litany Against Fear. My version. There are several – it’s inconsistent. But the gist is the same. I realized that religion was a very powerful way to control people and persuade them to action. And that you might not want to get overly attached to any characters in a series that spans over 3,000 years. I think. Best guess. 2,000 or so at the beginning of God Emperor anyway.

Dune is, of course, the most classic. A mix of character, action, philosophy, ecology, and massive in its world building. As much or more so than any of the other great fictional worlds. I mean, he starts every chapter in six books with quotes from fictional sources. That alone is intense. And often obscure, to say the least. Dune reading, to a greater degree than the filmed versions, requires a large capacity to suspend disbelief and just go with it.  Dune Messiah and Children of Dune follow only a few years apart from one another and from Dune. They are the Atreides trilogy, if you will. The family’s influence is felt throughout the millennia, but the characters themselves are long dust, rendered of their water, I suppose, like true Fremen. Except Duncan Idaho – his gholas are eternal. And poor Leto, son of Chani and Paul, doomed to 2,000 years in inhuman form to set humanity on the Golden Path. (I’m not gonna give it all to you.) God Emperor indeed.

As for the movies as book interpretations, I’m going to say what I’ve always said about David Lynch’s Dune: it’s useful as a pronunciation guide. (Denis has different pronunciations, when talking is allowed, so that’s fun.) But the films and books are different things. Yeah, based on the books, but they’re just a guideline. I will give Denis that his are more faithful, certainly than Lynch’s nonsensical POS, and evince at least a passing experience of books beyond the first, but you can like one medium over the other or like both, but as separate entities.

I know I shouldn’t fall prey to the click bait. Today’s was simply to confirm my deduction that Anya Taylor-Joy is playing Alia Atreides. Not hard, really, as she was the only heretofore unclaimed woman character in the early books. It’s an interesting choice and if he goes forward with the second and third(?) books, she would be imminently capable as Alia, who is a major character in those. She’s another favorite of mine and quite the unique, powerful, tragic figure.

What she does not do, as this article asserted, is have “a sexual tension with the ghost of Duncan Idaho.” She does have an affair with and marry the ghola of Duncan Idaho. I know the words look similar, on purpose, but they are not the same. The corporeal man in question is a clone of Duncan Idaho, grown in the tanks (you don’t want more details, believe me) of the Bene Tleilax. The Tleilaxu (tai-lax-you) didn’t appear in Dune Part 1, at least not beyond mere mention, as in the first book, but they become one of the most important groups as the books proceed. They are experts at genetic modification and invent a lot of “magical” creations, one of the most popular of which is the ghola. Lose someone beloved? Pay the Bene Tleilax for a ghola; they can even have the same abilities and personality as the original.

Or they can not. This first Duncan Idaho ghola (there are millions over the course of the fourth, fifth, and sixth books) is: 1. Fitted with artificial eyes that are silver. Creepy. 2. A mentat, so one of those computer-like minds possessed by, of people we know, Thufir Hawat, Piter de Vries, and Paul (Denis didn’t mention he would’ve continued to be trained as a mentat had everything not  gone sideways.) and 3. Imprinted with a compulsion to kill Paul. (Spoiler Alert, for the events of a book published in 1969). Overcoming that compulsion is what allows him to regain the original Duncan Idaho’s memories. Yeah, like magic. Everyone knew that accepting the Tleilaxu gift of the ghola would be dangerous because the Tleilaxu are dangerous and mysterious with ulterior unknown motives. Also, they named him Hayt. I mean, that seems like a questionable person right off the bat.

The other most important creation of the Tleilaxu is the Face Dancer. They can physically mimic anyone and perhaps, over the books, even the person’s memories, skills, and personality. It means no one really knows what a Tleilaxu looks like, as they have chosen to use a particular guise; who knows if that’s what they “really” look like at all. Or if that makes a difference, even. An individual Tleilaxu is a highly significant character in the second book so one can only imagine Denis would have a Scytale/Bijaz (name of one of the Tleilaxu Masters and a Face Dancer/Ghola combo) in the next movie.

Is this a description you get in the click bait article? No. Because most people don’t have the staying power y’all do. But you could say briefly that Alia has a relationship with a clone, called a ghola, of Duncan Idaho. That would at least be true, rather than say she’s flirting with a ghost. I mean, she’s also struggling with an incarnation of Baron Harkonnen that lives in her head, but that’s something else entirely.

So if you haven’t read the books – and I won’t tell you what to do, but I’ve always found them worth the time; God Emperor is a damn slog but I particularly like Heretics and Chapterhouse – don’t trust the short articles. Ask me if you have a question.

I’m more than happy to talk Dune and I promise not to bitch about Denis if we do.