Frank Herbert, born today on October 8, knew a lot about a lot of things. He was interested in ecology, psychology, philosophy, sociobiology, politics, power, and the future of humankind. Given those many interests, and his varied writing on them, it’s no surprise that he attracted a devoted fan base. Some of them were so devoted that it led others to wonder whether Herbert was making his very own cult.
Which is supremely ironic, given that adoration of and fealty to sparkly leaders is something that Herbert was vehemently against. In fact, he used an entire book series to explore that theme to the fullest.
That book series was Dune.
Frank Herbert was born in 1920 and ran away from his home to finish high school in Salem, Oregon, where his aunt and uncle lived. (The fact that a backwards road sign for Salem, Oregon was the inspiration for Ursula K. Le Guin’s fictional city of Omelas cannot be ignored there.) He was a photographer during World War II, a lecturer, and briefly a television director. He was a husband and a father, and he was passionate about learning at every age, letting friends turn him onto a variety of subjects he would adopt as special interests. He converted from Catholicism to Zen Buddhism in his lifetime. All these things were integral, yet Frank Herbert was always a writer, first and foremost. When he wasn’t writing novels he was working for various newspapers, which he did until he became a full-time fiction writer in the 1970s.
Among the fiction that he wrote was a book called Dune, which was first published in Analog in segments from 1963-1965. He rewrote a good portion of the book when it was finally published in novel form, and shared the Hugo for Best Novel with Roger Zelazny in 1966.
Dune is Herbert’s great contribution to genre fiction and fiction at large, but there is no single, definitive reason for its popularity and longevity. Rather, Dune is so complex, so layered as a piece of literature that it is impossible to isolate one aspect that is responsible for its successes. That makes the series, particularly the premiere novel, a difficult one to discuss casually—everyone draws something from it that is unique to their own reading. Everyone has a specific draw, key-in character, academic interest that the story fulfills for them.
Here are only a few of them, several amongst the multitude of reasons why Dune is touchstone for science fiction readers everywhere:
The tale is gorgeous example of meticulous world-building, easily on par with Tolkien and other genre greats. For this reason, many consider Dune to be to science fiction what Lord of the Rings is to fantasy: an entirely new world submerge yourself in, complete with glossaries, histories, thoughts on language and cultures, quotes from reference books written by authorities in-universe. Dune is an immersive experience for any kind of reader, demanding full attention to detail and invoking an easy fascination.
Dune also was one of the first science fictional works to incorporate ecology in a serious manner. It is odd to think that Herbert’s focus on spice production very eerily mirrors the world’s current dependency on oil and the effect that is having on the planet, but it was undoubtedly his intention to draw those sorts of parallels. Herbert was a proponent for forethought in everything humanity did. He believed that it was important to consider the far-reaching consequences of how we interacted with our world, and how we could plan our collective future.
Though Herbert made the “hero” of his narrative Paul Atreides, the son of a duke who makes himself the leader of Arrakis’ native Fremen population, Herbert never viewed Paul and his crusade as heroic. He created an epic saga, the sort that easily lends itself to hyper-bolded versions of “good” and “evil,” yet there are very few people in his universe that fit those descriptors. He took a story of legends and deconstructed what had been built up around them, the whispers and rumors that make ordinary people into near-gods. Because of that, Dune is a very big story that offers no simple answers to the equally big questions it provokes.
In addition, Dune is one of the greatest works of what some term “soft science fiction.” (A wobbly phrase, but it serves its purpose in certain descriptive situations.) By refusing to lace his universe with lots of machinery and hard scientific exploration, Herbert was able to focus on people, on the paths that humanity might take. Dune’s reach as a novel likely led many others to embrace similar story-telling techniques. It’s probable that we wouldn’t have Star Wars—which takes a very similar approach by making machinery so commonplace that it’s secondary—without the popularity of Dune preceeding it. Probable that we would have missed out on many stories that would have been ignored without a set example.
So it is really no wonder that Frank Herbert and his work continue to fascinate us. No wonder that Dune continues to capture generations of new readers. It will always be on the hook as one of science fiction’s most engaging worlds, and we can only thank Frank Herbert for being interested in so many disciplines… and needing so desperately to write about them all.
Thanks for the post – I read Dune my junior year of high school in my science fiction class. I really enjoyed it, although as you said, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why. But I think you’ve mentioned a lot of interesting points here.
It was also the time my German teacher was getting me into Wheel of Time (an interest my science fiction teacher also shared) – and at the time I delighted in making connections between Bene Gesserit/Aes Sedai, Fremen/Aiel and the prophecies surrounding Paul/Rand. I don’t recall of Jordan was directly influenced by this or it’s just a matter of it being a fairly common trope -but it was fun to talk about at the time. And of course both works took it in different directions!
I actually did read the various sequels but at around God Emperor I just lost the thread – I still read the others, but I’ll be honest, I couldn’t tell you what the point was. In college I was a bit too much of a speed reader for my own good, so perhaps if I went back and read them I could glean something more out of them, but I don’t really have the interest, and there are so many other things I want to read. I’m trying to break myself of ‘completism’ :)
Excellent observation, Ms. Asher-Perrin, on the irony of Dune inspiring a cult when the work’s central irony is how “the Chosen One” seeks not to be chosen at all. In a curious parallel with the Matrix movies, I have foumd myself in debate with Dune fans about continuing with the series at least through the original trilogy, in order to understand Paul and his rejection of messiahhood. Most folk prefer to stop at one and ignore the rest, alas.
While I do think that Dune is a wonderful advance in the art of writing science fiction, I must say that I do see it situated well within the traditions of sf, specifically the space operas (where the tech is also typically taken for granted, albeit often too facilely).
This whole series is hands down my favorite of all time. IMO, it eclipse’s LotR’s in that there hasn’t – in my mind – been another series that was able to do what Herbert did (by that I mean, write a similar series that eclipsed his while building upon his writing style) with the original 6 books whereas LotR’s has a slew of books very similar that I enjoy much more.*
*Wheel of Time, the original Shannara trilogy, etc.
Dune is also one of my favorite books, precisely for the many layers that the author mentions. It is one that I have gone back to again and again. Herbert never equalled it, but it is tough to live up to that standard (just look at his son’s efforts).
I am appalled, however, that @3 would consider Shannara in the same league as LOTR (you can try to argue WOT, but I’ll save that for another day). I enjoyed Shannara well enough, but it is one of the most blatantly derivative works in the entire canon of SFF.
I know, my issue though is that I read it before I tried to read LOTR. Sword of Shannara was the first book I ever read (when I was around 12), so while I realize it’s a rip off, it’s a rip off that added to the original. It was hard for me to go back later and read something more basic. Especially considering I didn’t try until after I’d been table-top gaming for quite some time and Gandalf just didn’t do enough spell casting for me as a gamer.
Yes, I know I’m biased and would have a completely different opinion had I read it first.
Also doesn’t help that the Hobbit scenes annoy the crap out of me. What’s even more weird is that I never minded the halflings or kender, which are obviously based on hobbits, but their central nature to the stories just bugged me.
What can I say, taste is not always rational and I’d be the first to admit to that. After all, I can’t stand Joseph Gorden Levit simply due to the shape of his skull. ;-)
PS: @@.-@, you are so right about his son’s books paling in comparison. Jeez, those are bad!
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to leave the water running at a sink while I wash out a mug or something without thinking how the Fremen would kill me for wasting all this water.
Nice article, I very much agree with your premise — Herbert was a true individualist in life and in fiction. And while Herbert is one of my top 5 favorite writes of any genre, but as an ecologist, I think Herbert gets too much credit for thee great SF novel, when Heinlein, Boyd, Blish, Asimov, Pohl and others blended bioscience into some of their books. For instance, Heinlein’s Farmer In The Sky from ’53 is an ecological novel as much as Dune, with better science descriptions. (IMO, thee great ecological SF novel is Jon Brunner’s The Crucible Of Time, which cotains no human charcters or context, focusing instead on the deveopment of an intelligent alien race through different evolutionary pathways than on Earth).
Thanks for the reminder of Frank’s birthday. I had never connected Dune as an inspiration to Star Wars, but I think it’s apt. Except that Herbert (as you imply in the title of your post), not only didn’t want, but actively and literally killed Muad’Dib and his cult, repeatedly. And fairly successfully, at least through “God Emperor of Dune”. After that, things got a bit strange, and I have no truck with his son’s later work. Anyhow: Dune is a masterpiece by itself, and maybe it would have been better if it were the only book about that universe. Cheers!
I read “Dune” so many times, at so many different points in my life, starting as a Marine at the Chu Lai combat base in the mid 1960s all the way thru my career as a science/business/legal/leader and dofus in charge of everything, until I walked away as a far too happy camper for the herd in 2005, that having read it so many times, I formed so many differing impressions of it, that I do not even today have a single idea about it that is not different from previous ideas…..Today, I would view Mua’dib as either the 2nd cominng or the beast….and I’m not sure that there is any difference in effect….I’m pretty sure that Herbert thought that
Today’s other birthdays include the infamous Richard S. Shaver (1907-1975), the Clarke Award winner George Turner (1916-1997) and Goosebumps author R. L. Stine (1943).
@7 – do you also show respect to people by spitting in their faces?
Because if you do… that’s kind of awesome.
Its intersting that this article came up now. I just started reading the series for the first time. I’m up to Children of Dune and they are pretty good, though I will admit that Messiah and Children are much harder to keep up with than Dune.
@@@@@ 12 – Its intersting you should mention that. One of the more confusing things to me was the spitting. In Dune spitting was a sign of deep respect. In Children its a sign of deep insult. Oh well, context clues I guess….
It’s a surprise that so many sf/f readers I know who were not born when Dune was published regard LOTR — anti-technology, too long, too wordy, sexist and dull.
One of the many reasons I re-read Dune so often is that it did have effective female characters within a space opera milieu.
An observation: Herbert spent an extended period of time working for the oil industry as an industry publication journalist — something like that, if I recall correctly from his biography. This sent him to North Africa and Saudi — if I’m recalling correctly. That he noticed that the globe was drunk on oil — and further saw that the addiction, which had become embedded in every aspect of the interplanetary econmy from life extension to transport and communication, is both obvious AND prescient.
That he further extrapolated a rebellion against computing — the benefits of which were replaced by mentats and other spice addiction enablers — was exceptional. The additon of the persistence of religious faith and reliance upon worship of the Hero and the Special within a feudal interplanetary government and society was brilliant.
That latter, the feudal system of emperorers (who possess almost-immortality thanks to the spice) is where the retro charm of Dune resides. As big technology other than the inter-stellar space ships appears fairly limited, hand-to-hand dueling and imurderous inter-ruling family warfare can safely be allowed by the emperor. This provides so much of the reminscent of Renaissance city-state color to weave through the narrative.
Or so I’ve concluded, fwiw, which is not much in this economy! :)
Love, C.
I think the first three Dune novels are the best thing I’ve ever read. I wish he could have finished the second half of the arc. I was happy to get it from KJA, but the way they went about it was a travesty. Still, better than not knowing what the first six books were leading up to.
Dune is my favorite sci-fi novel ever. Brilliant stuff (although I also love Zelazny’s This Immortal, which tied it for the Hugo; what a year for writing!).
IG @12 – you spit on the table in front of them, silly.
Wait, there’s a Muad’Dib cult? What the what? @15 – if you think the BH/KJA novels bear even a remote resemblance to whatever Herbert had intended, you’re far more trusting than I.
@14
Track down and read Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian Sands if you haven’t already. It provides a fascinating look into the world of the Bedouin nomads of Arabia – especially Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Oman – just as the discovery of oil was to transform the arabian peninsula forever.
You can easily see influences from that time period, which is when Herbert would have been travelling in the areas, especially in the behaviour of the Fremen, and the difference between traditional ways and the alienness of aircraft and vehicles in that environment.
It is also a surprisingly old-fashioned novel – you can imagine Rider Haggard reading Dune and thinking “I wish I’d written that”. I think the phrase is “what these people need is a white guy” and Herbert cranks that up to maximum by making the white guy’s advantage not just that, say, he has a rifle and a couple of cases of dynamite, or he knows how to predict eclipses, or he can teach the natives close-order drill (all good Rider Haggard stuff) but that he is a human computer, a prescient, a genius military leader, an unbeatable hand-to-hand fighter, and a living god.
@18:
Nope, but, without spoilers, I certainly think the general premise, i.e, what was driving those from the Scattering to return, and its connection to the Butlerian Jihad, was out of the notes… like I said, the way it was executed was a travesty.
But knowing those plot points, at least, the main one I was refering to, and then rereading the original 6 books, is really enlightening.
Reading The Prophet of Dune in Analog in 1965 was a joy. And then there was the absolutely stunning artwork by John Schoenherr that accompanied the serial. The cover to the last large issue of Analog before it went back to digest size:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/outofthisworld/gallery/index.html
@20 – you also forgot the ability to go into near death trances, use Jedi mind tricks to convince others to do what he wants, and other cool BG skillz. And the iron will not to pull his hand out of the box in the gom jabbar test. And he’s a sensitive guy who cries when he kills someone….
Where to begin? The complex, multigenerational dominance plans of the Bene Gesserit;
The dance between the Emperor, Great Houses, Bene Gesserit and Spacers’ Guild;
The multiple levels of irony where the different factions’ achievement of their most hoped for goal lead to their utter ruination;
A sly deconstruction of religion, unlike any that had come before, while at the same time showing its significance to humanity.
Truly a great, seminal trilogy.
@19 — I have it, like all of his books, and read it more than once.
I loved the first Dune, butv there’s an obvious inspiration that hardly anyone ever noticed – Herbert must have seen Lawrence of Arabia and was duly impressed; the story of T. E. Lawrence is essentially retold in “Dune”, and try to imagine Anthony Quinn as Stilgar, Omar Sharif as Duncan Idaho….
26: seen it, or read “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”…
Just because I’m a mom and thought that would be cute. Anyway I can’t believe how many of you are saying that his son’s books were awful. I read all of the originals first, and frankly by the sixth book I was a little let down. I LOVE the originals, even the last one that seemed kind of odd… like he had gotten too old or something, but I also love the book’s his son co-authored. I began with the Butlerian Jihad trilogy, which after reading that sixth book, was a breath of fresh air. It was completely captivating. I’ve read all but I think one, maybe two, of the books his son wrote, and while I found the culmination of powers ended up in (trying not to make spoilers for those who haven’t read it)… who it ended up being… I thouroughly enjoyed all of them. Perhaps the writing style wasn’t as… beautiful? as Frank’s but the books were nonetheless still very deep, and very into exploring the human condition like his father’s were. The whole series is just an amazing experience to go through. Anyway, just wanted to say that at least one person out here likes the books Brian co wrote. Opinion only of course I was just a bit surprised.
The Dune series is in my opinion the all-time greatest book series. I agree with @28 to a point – I have read all of the Dune books, including the ones by KJA and BH. While the nextgens’ writing paled in comparison to the original, since the content was taken from the notes they are valuable to get an end-to-end view of the underlying drivers of the Dune universe – kind of like getting to look back in time to see the big bang. It’s funny that @26 mentioned Lawrence of Arabia – there are some similar themes at a very high level, at least to the first book. LoE is also my all-time favorite movie. At any rate, the first 4 books are among the few that I’ve read more than once, and at some point I will want to take a chronological go at reading all of the books in the universe. I know that rereading Dune after having read the nextgens’ books really expanded on my understanding of the motivators behind the Emperors, the Ixians, the Bene Tlelax and the Bene Gesserit. I’m glad to have experienced it and am looking forward to doing it again.
I interviewed Brian Herbert back in 2004, and he told me a great deal about his father and his family life. One of the things he did mention was that his father left behind many outlines of other books, prequels, if you will, to his Dune books. Brian teamed up with Kevin J Anderson to flesh out those outlines into the series he created. Another interesting fact, the Herbert family lived on Mercer Island, WA in a house that looked like a space ship. And the Bene Geserit were a take on the Jesuit order of Catholicism, except they were all female because Herbert considered women more powerful in his world.
Marko @26, yes, the David Lean film came out in 1962, and “Dune World” came out as the cover story of the December 1963 issue of Analog.
The film featured great powers fighting over the resources of the desert, and a man from one of the great powers, played by an actor with intense blue eyes, who holds his hand in a flame and says the trick is not that it doesn’t hurt, but that he resolves not to mind that it hurts.