Dune (novel) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Dune is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It was awarded the Nebula award in 1965 and tied for the Hugo award in 1966. It was also a huge commercial success and has now sold more than 20 million copies. Dune was followed by five sequels. The Dune saga is considered by many fans of the genre to be the best science fiction epic ever written. It is certainly one of the most popular; Dune is number six in the Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy list. Dune has been turned into a film made by David Lynch, a mini-series made by the United States Sci Fi Channel and a series of computer gamess.
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2 Themes 3 The setting of Dune 4 Synopsis 5 List of characters 6 See Also 7 External links |
Frank Herbert dedicated the novel to dry-land ecologists.
The success of Dune ensured several sequels. The consequences of the actions of superheroes form an overall theme in the Dune series.
In Frank Herbert's words,
From a historical perspective, many have noted similarities between the narrative events of Dune, in which a foreign-born native son of an old colonial order unites disparate and warring tribes of religious desert nomads to win freedom from a decaying Imperial power, and the Arab Revolt of early 20th century Middle Eastern history, at which time a British liaison officer T.E. Lawrence mobilized Arab fighters to break the power of the Ottoman Turks in the Arabian peninsula. While there are many parallels, one of the most trivial and bizarre may be that in the film adaptations Dune (1984) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), both characters representing the old Imperial order (Emperor Shaddam IV and the Turkish Commander, respectively), are played by actor Jose Ferrer. The spice melange is often compared to oil in this context.
At the time of the novel, advanced computers have long been forbidden due to the Butlerian Jihad, a rebellion against thinking machines, and as a replacement human skills have been developed to an astonishing degree:
Introduction
The novel was originally serialised as two shorter works, Dune World and The Prophet of Dune, in Analog, 1963-1965.Themes
The emphasis on ecological and religious ideas and the use of Middle Eastern cultural themes made the novel a provocative departure from previous science fiction. Many of the ideas and terms are of Arabic or Islamic origin [1].
Political themes in the Dune series include human beings' susceptibility to mass manipulation by political propaganda, religious dogma (e.g. The Missionaria Protectiva), and sexual temptation, and the importance of self-awareness and self-mastery in resisting these types of control.The setting of Dune
main article: Dune universe
When a Bene Gesserit acolyte becomes a full Reverend Mother, she gains her ancestral memories — the complete memories of all of her female ancestors. She cannot recall the memories of her male ancestors, and is terrified by the psychic space within her that the masculine memories inhabit.
The Bene Gesserit are conducting a breeding program to develop a superhuman male who can recall both his male and female ancestral memories, as well as the ability to see (and thus control) the future. They refer to him as the Kwisatz Haderach. This recall is due to an ordeal known as Spice Agony and involves overdosing on melange, which men have hitherto failed to survive.
Against this background, Dune chronicles the conflict between the aristocratic House Atreides and its enemy the House Harkonnen, behind whom lurks Shaddam IV, leader of House Corrino and Emperor of the Known Universe.
While the other noble houses including House Atreides and House Harkonnen do not individually approach the power of the Emperor and are in competition for fiefdoms, financial and political power, and Imperial favor, they are collectively represented in an assembly known as the Landsraad, which provides a check and balance against the power of House Corrino and the Emperor.
On the fringes of the Galaxy are the shape-shifting Tleilaxu and Ix, a planet whose history is lost in the mists of time and whose society is dominated by technology.
The Fremen are the native population of the planet Arrakis. They are a hardy people, used to the hardship and deprivation of their desert-planet. They wear a special suit to conserve body moisture and prevent leakage, called a stillsuit. Their eyes are blue due to their consumption of the spice melange. They await their Messiah because of a legend planted intentionally across the Universe by the Missionaria Protectiva, a division of the Bene Gesserit dedicated to religious manipulation. The Messiah legend is intended to ease the path of the Kwisatz Haderach when they bring him into being.
The Harkonnens are ordered by the Emperor to cede stewardship of the planet Arrakis (known generally as Dune) to the Atreides. The planet Arrakis is extremely arid and inhabited by giant, menacing worms which live under the sand (the Fremen call them Shai-Hulud). The Fremen, adapted to this harsh climate, are obsessed with water and consider the worms holy. Dune is the sole source of melange, also known as "the spice" that gives limited prescience and prolongs the user's lifespan; with it the Guild Navigators see a path through foldspace, and the Bene Gesserit can enhance their abilities. The spice is the most valuable commodity in the universe and it is found only on Dune. Thus, the planet is the political fulcrum of the Universe.
Please note the above background and definitions in "Setting to Dune". It may also be worth reading the article on the Dune universe for further background.
On the political level Dune is the tale of a political conflict between three noble houses - the House Atreides, the House Harkonnen and the House Corrino. The Corrino Emperor has come to see the Atreides as a threat to his throne. This is for two reasons. Firstly, Duke Leto Atreides is very popular among the noble houses of the Imperium, and has become something of an unofficial leader. Secondly, and more seriously, the House Atreides is in a position where it could potentially undermine the fundamental source of Corrino power. The Corrinos' power base is their military strength, a specially trained army called the 'Sardaukar' who per soldier are five to ten times better fighters than the military forces of the other noble houses. However, Duke Leto Atreides has created a military force that has been trained to a standard equivalent of the Sardaukar, and though comparitively small in number they are potentially capable of training many others to the same standard. The Corrinos have not ruled the Imperium for so long by ignoring such potential threats to their power base.
The Emperor therefore decides that he must destroy House Atreides, and so he decides on a subtle plan. For centuries the House Harkonnen have been ancestral enemies of the Atreides, and so he uses the Harkonnen in his attempt to bring the Atreides down. Naturally the Baron Harkonnen, happily agrees to this because of his hatred for the Atreides, and because it would put the Emperor in his debt.
The plan is to trap the Atreides with their own ambition. Realising that the Atreides are next to impregnable on the home planet Caladan, which they have ruled wisely and well for centuries, and thus have an incredibly loyal populace, the Emperor realizes the Atreides need to be lured away from this safety. The Emperor therefore offers them the stewardship of Arrakis, a desert planet which is incredibly important for the imperial economy, because it is the only source of the 'Spice', a drug which increases life expectancy threefold, and increases mental abilities. Indeed for the two most important organizations in human space - the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit - spice is required to train their people. The Spacing Guild pilots would be unable to pilot between the stars without spice, and the Bene Gesserit would be unable to either access their ancestral memories or practice their feats of minute observation without it. Obviously then Spice is incredibly valuable, and whoever rules Arrakis, and thus mines the Spice, controls a source of huge power and wealth. Offered this 'wonderful' opportunity by the Emperor, the Atreides have little choice but to accept.
The Atreides do this knowing full well it is a trap. They expect to be attacked by the Harkonnen, and probably disguised Sardaukar troops in the near future. But they walk into the trap for two good reasons: 1) If the refuse this trap, they know future plots are inevitable, and with the Emperor's resources they would be very unlikely to escape them all. 2) They see that if they walk into this trap, there is the potential on Arrakis to not only evade the Emperor's trap, but indeed become virtually impregnable. The Atreides understand how the Emperor's Sardaukar are created, that those troops are all recruited from a hell planet (Salusa Secundus) where only the strongest survive the planet and each other, and so the Emperor recruits from a populace that are simply quicker, stronger, fitter, and more dangerous than the people of the civilized worlds of the Empire. On Arrakis, there is an independent people, the Fremen, who live in the deep desert, and have been oppressed for thousands of years by the rulers of Arrakis, and also having to deal with an incredibly hostile planet, they have been bred in much the same way as the Sardaukar. When the Atreides take over Arrakis, they hope to befriend the Fremen, and recruit them into their service, and thus be able to defeat attacks by the Emperor's Sardaukar. And in the longer term their position would be secured by the immense wealth which could be gained from good stewardship of Arrakis.
The central figure of the book is Paul Atreides, son and heir presumptive to Duke Leto Atreides, head of the House Atreides, and Leto's concubine, Jessica, a Bene Gesserit lady. The Bene Gesserit perform many functions in the Empire, as Truthsayers (human lie detectors), negotiators, advisors, teachers, but all these functions serve one deeper purpose: they are selectively breeding humans trying to improve humanity. One specific type they are trying to create is the Kwisatz Haderach, a human being who will be aware of both the female and male ancestral memories, plus the prophetic skills of a guild navigator. The Bene Gesserit are close, they believe, to the fruition of their plan, and Paul Atreides is at the heart of it. Jessica, his mother, disobeyed Bene Gesserit orders out of love for Leto Atreides, and gave birth to a boy, Paul. Her express orders had been to produce a girl, who the Bene Gesserit would have mated with a Harkonnen, and they hoped from this union they would produce the Kwisatz Haderach. What this means is that Paul Atreides has resources one would not expect, and possibilities that were unforeseen by everyone.
The Harkonnen attack is more diabolical, and more powerful than the Atreides imagined. The Harkonnens have managed to gain a spy in the Atreides inner household, and in doing so they achieve something unique in Imperium history: they have broken the 'imperial conditioning' of a Suk doctor, which is believed to make such a person incorruptible. However, the Harkonnens with their gift for cruelty and manipulation have managed to break the Doctor - Yueh - to their will: they many years ago kidnapped Yueh's wife, and used her to manipulate him.
So when the Harkonnen attack, Yueh lowers the defensive shields, and uses sedative drugs to disable Leto, Paul and Jessica, leaving the Atreides leaderless and disorganized under the Harkonnen and Sardaukar military onslaught, which is far more powerful than the Atreides had ever conceived. The leaderless Atreides army is crushed, with only a few remnants managing to escape.
Paul and Jessica are sent out into the desert to die. Because of the use of truthsayers in the Empire, the Baron Harkonnen needs to be able to say truthfully that he was not (directly) responsible for their deaths. However, this plan misfires and Paul and Jessica manage to kill their captors and escape into the desert, leaving the Harkonnen to believe that they died in a huge desert storm.
Meanwhile, Yueh, realizing that it is likely that the Harkonnens have been playing him for a dupe, and that his wife is probably dead already, plants a poison gas capsule, disguised as a tooth, in Leto's mouth, and informs Leto about it. When Yueh hands over Leto, Baron Harkonnen lets Yueh join his wife...in death. Leto, still paralyzed, but conscious, attempts to kill the Baron by breaking the gas capsule, but misjudges his moment, and is only successful in killing the Baron's advisor and mentat, Piter.
Book One ends in the deep desert. Under the pressure of his extreme circumstances, and the increased doses of Spice that Paul had been ingesting simply living on Arrakis, some of his powers come to fruition, and his ability to see possible futures explodes into awareness. He sees many things, a way out of his situation, and the restoration of the Atreides, if only he can make contact with the Fremem...and survive.
After a dangerous crossing of the desert, Paul and Jessica manage to meet up with a troop of Fremen. Paul and Jessica prove their worth by disarming Fremen in unarmed combat - the weirding way - and the Fremen leader Stilgar gladly accepts them into his troop because he would like to add that skill to the Fremen people. But during this scuffle Paul disables a proud Fremen, who takes offence at this 'presumptious' youth, and challenges Paul to a fight to the death. Superficially, this contest between a grown man and an untried fifteen year old boy would seem grossly unfair, but this boy had been trained by masters of the sword, and he triumphs easily, making his name in the tribe, and also succeeding to the position of head of the household of the killed man. At the same time, Paul and Jessica are introduced to the deadly harshness of the Fremen lifestyle, as the Fremen ritually render the dead man down to his water because it is so precious to them. Paul is named 'Usul' by Stilgar as his private name within the troop, and names himself Paul Muad'dib as his public Fremen name.
When they return to the troops's sietch, they discover the Fremen Sayaddina is near death, and with the fortuitous arrival of Jessica, a Bene Gesserit lady, they make Jessica their Sayaddina. Jessica, not realizing the consequences of what the Fremen are about to do, accepts to cement her place in the tribe. Halfway through the process she realizes she has made a mistake, that she is involved in a similar process to how the Bene Gesserit make their own Reverend Mothers who can see genetic memories, and realizes that the baby in her womb will also go through the process. This has truly unfortunate consequences, because it is a Bene Gesserit teaching that the baby will not have the strength to withstand her ancestors and sooner or later their consciousness will be overwhelmed by an ancestor - creating an 'abomination'.
Years pass. Paul Muad'dib learns to be a Fremen, and becomes something of a religious leader among the Fremen. He also meets a young woman, Chani, daughter of Liet-Kynes, who he has long seen in his dreams, and she becomes his lover (but not his wife, as will become significant later). He and his mother train the Fremen of Sietch Tabr, and other Fremen who seek out Paul in his religious guise, in the Weirding Way, the Bene Geserit's advanced fighting techniques. Under his leadership his 'Fedaykin' experience victory after victory. His prestige and aura grow daily.
However, in order to be truly accepted by the Fremen he must become a sandrider. The Fremen have a great secret, they have learned to control the Giant Worms, through the use of 'maker hooks' they have learned to climb aboard the worms, and then take control of their course, which enables them to quickly move around the desert. Obviously this is not the safest of tasks, but Paul attempts it and succeeds; he is a sandrider at last.
The same day smugglers seek Spice too deep in the desert and the Fremen of Sietch Tabr spring a trap. In the middle of the battle Paul recognises his weapons teacher Gurney Halleck, and calls on him to surrender, and surrender his men. Gurney is overjoyed and overwhelmed in equal measure. He surrenders his men, and joins Paul's service. Among Gurney's men, however, are some Imperial spies who attempt to kill Muad'dib. They are unsuccessful, and they are captured by the Fedaykin. Paul gives secret orders for the spies to be allowed to escape, so they reveal that Paul Atreides still lives on Arrakis. Taking advantage of recruiting Gurney Halleck, Paul uses the moment to solve his leadership problem. Since he has become a wormrider many of his followers have expected Muad'dib to challenge Stilgar, his greatest friend among the Fremen, in order to take control of Sietch Tabr. But Paul breaks tradition and in doing so forces Stilgar to do the same, managing to sidestep this issue by proclaiming himself the ruling Duke of Arrakis, and thus taking power without killing his friend.
They return to Sietch Tabr. Gurney is shocked to discover Jessica is still alive, because he believes she was the one that betrayed the Atreides and that Paul does not know. Gurney is about to kill her, when Paul walks in, and manages to stop him, and explains that it was Yueh who was actually the betrayer. Gurney is almost broken by his almost fatal and tragic error, but Jessica forgives him and he is bound even further into Atreides and Jessica's service.
Paul's power among the Fremen grows, but he is still frustrated. He is not all he could be, he cannot control his journeys into the future, and much of it is still blank to him. So he takes a truly risky step and takes the spice essence, and so attempts to perform the male equivalent of the Reverend Mother ceremony. Previously to this no man has survived this experience, and it seems he fails also, because he sinks into a coma.
Paul neglects to tell anyone what he is doing, and so many people think he is dead, though others do think he is in a religious trance. His mother, Jessica, does all she can to wake him but fails, so out of desperation she calls Chani from the deep desert to help. Chani, through her more personal knowledge of Pauls dreams and desires, realises what a mad thing Paul has done, and uses spice essence to bring him out of his trance. For Paul no time has passed, and he glories in his new memories, and powers. He declares that it is now the time to destroy the Harkonnen.
Paul has a great plan. First he steps up Fremen attacks on the Harkonnens and manages to almost entirely stop the flow of the spice from Arrakis. This forces the Emperor to act, and he comes to Arrakis with all his Sardaukar, and also levies of all the other noble houses, to annihilate the Fremen if necessary in order to get the spice flowing again.
By now the Emperor is aware of who Muad'dib is. In advance of his arrival, he sends a large Sardaukar force into the deep desert for information. Attacking a sietch, they manage to kill Paul's son, and capture Alia - Paul's sister - but are driven off by Fremen children, old people and women.
After the Emperor himself has landed, Paul launches the final attack. Using the House Atriedes' family atomics (nuclear weapons) that his men managed to retrieve after the Harkonnen attack, he blows a hole in the Shield Wall (a mountain/rock wall) that protects the capital of Dune, Arrakeen, from the sorrounding desert and its fierce storms. Under cover of a huge desert storm the Fremen then attack, using giant worms. The Sardaukar are unable to withstand the full force of the Fremen, caught as they are in total surprise, and the Emperor is forced to surrender. The combined forces of the Landsraad still looms in orbit around the planet, but Paul threatens with destroying the Spice if any of them try to land, and they back off. In the surprise of Muad'dib's attack, Alia manages to escape, and in the process kills Baron Harkonnen.
Realizing that Muad'dib is not some mad Fremen religious leader gives the Emperor possibilities. Feyd-Rautha, the Baron's nephew, and an acclaimed gladiator, challenges Paul to single combat claiming rights of kanly as declared by Paul's father Leto. Paul agrees even knowing that it is possible he will die, but after a difficult fight he eventually triumphs.
Paul refuses to take any more nonsense. He forces the Emperor from the throne by the simple expedience of taking power from the real rulers of the Empire - the Spacing Guild - who control space travel. He again threatens to destroy the spice if they do not ship all the troops home. The Spacing Guild have no choice - their limited powers of prophecy show Paul is capable of it - and they send everyone home. The Emperor abdicates and retires to Salusa Secundus, Paul marries (in name only) the Emperor's eldest daughter, Irulan, and assumes control of the Empire.
He promises the Fremen that he will turn Arrakis into a garden planet, and all seems well in the universe of Paul Atreides.
This is an Article on Dune (novel). Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Dune (novel) Synopsis
List of characters
The characters are listed by primary allegiances. In some cases these allegiances change or reveal themselves to be different throughout the novels.House Atreides
House Harkonnen
House Corrino
Fremen
See Also
External links