What's Dune REALLY about? #Dune #scifi #booktube #book #dunereview

What’s Dune really about?
- On the surface it starts out much like Star Wars, as a classic heroes journey about 15 year old Paul Atreides discovering his powers, making alliances, and defeating an evil empire
- In reality though, Paul’s character ark is much darker. To win power he has to compromise his morals, entering a marriage of convenience with the emperor’s daughter, and unleashing a violent holy war on the universe, which will claim more than 61bn lives
- This is because, thematically, Frank Herbert always wanted Dune to be about the dangers of charismatic leaders and religious prophecy.

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[barricade]

When you stare into the abyss long enough the abyss stares back at you

[transvestosaurus]

'I had this theory that superheroes were disastrous for humans, that even if you postulated an infallible hero, the things this hero set in motion fell into the hands of fallible mortals... I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your participation in it.'

'Genghis Khan, Hitler, Kennedy... charismatic leaders ought to come with the warning label "May Be Dangerous To Your Health!"'

'Ecology is a dirty seven-letter word to many people. They are like heavy sleepers refusing to be aroused. "Leave me alone! It's not time to get up yet!"'

'There is definitely an implicit warning, in a lot of my work, against big government... I think it's vital that men and women learn to mistrust all forms of powerful, centralized authority. Big government tends to create an enormous delay between the signals that come from the people and the response of the leaders.'

'The thing we must do intensely is be human together. People are more important than things. We must get together. The best thing humans can have going for them is each other. We have each other. We must reject everything which humiliates us. Humans are not objects of consumption. We must develop an absolute priority of humans ahead of profit — any humans ahead of any profit. Then we will survive. … Together.'

-- Frank Herbert

[pereiram]

It's about a young boy becoming a drug cartel boss and ruling everything after that.

[AgentMercer]

“More than 6 billion lives” is a bit of an understatement

[Abtron]

And that charismatic leader was right about everything and his son save the whole humanity.

[EllissDeeyoume]

Dune is so dense. I read the first book in high school and liked it, but didn’t really get it. I reread it earlier this year and continued the series, having last week finished God Emperor of Dune. This series has left me with a lot to think about and I think I’m going to put it down for now. Like a weird acid trip, I need time to process everything before I jump back in. Your videos are great and I’m glad I found this channel.

[LiminalMindsQuizzes]

Corrino Empire lasted for 10, 000 years while Atreides Empire lasted for only 3, 500 years. Even the immortal God-Emperor couldn't escape his fate. This showed that when you have absolute power and die without heir, the power vaccum you left behind will be catastrophic. Similar to how Alexander the Great's empire collapsed suddenly as soon as he died.

[GS-GSBootlegged]

Paul Mau'dib is the original Eren Yeager and Anakin Skywalker

[Shunbound]

Paul is one of my favorite leaders in fiction. Every step of the way he tried to minimize the damage belief in him would cause.

[Flesh_Wizard]

"The Empire has fallen, billions must die"

[nostrategy]

Frank Herbert said it was an allegory for oil in the middle east
Edit: but that that's just one thing. It's also about religion, ecology, etc

[Giganfank]

I find the entire series is about cultures and their changes.

The Golden Path just lives rent free in my head.

[KeepMovingForward]

Then he shouldn’t have made the Harkonnens so cruel, but more human, similar to the emperor. This made Paul Atreides’s kind of danger favorable to theirs, who inflicted torture, took slaves, and treated everyone including each other worse than animals

[deathryder]

People tend to ignore or forget the part were paul sees that he has to make terrible choices that result in terrible things despite what he himself wants all to achieve the singular future possible were humanity isnt extinct and there's a permanent peace

[leroyjenkins]

To be honest Paul never wanted to be a leader or messiah of anything. But that’s what he had to become in order to tear down the established order and regain some semblance of control over his life. The sad part is he never actually succeeded. The more power he gained, the more he became a slave to circumstances. In the end, Paul died feeling extremely unhappy, miserable, and lonely. He was surrounded by people but he didn’t have any meaningful connections with anybody. At first he might have had a good and loving relationship with Chani. As time went on, even that fell apart. Paul sacrificed his personal humanity and became an absolute monster so humanity as a whole could advance. Leto II followed right in his footsteps. Alia went nuts, and Ghanima died. Jessica lost her husband, Duke Leto. The Atreides became the most powerful and important family in the known universe but becoming so powerful never brought them any joy and they never had the luxury of enjoying any part of the process.

[artimex]

Yet many people still claim and quite agressively argue that Paul is indeed the hero. Of course, it all depends on the perspective. For us (readers) we see most of his journey from his own eyes, so his actions may seems justifiable. Objectively speaking though, his initial goal was indeed morally "good". The Harkonnens are presented as extremely evil people, much more so than in the movies (although not as psychopathic as in Lynch's movies) and the emperor is shown as a weak man who's quickly losing power to other groups (Landsraad, Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild etc.). Looking at our world's history we can find many similarities to this state of affairs - the Roman Republic (pre-Ceasar), the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the Ming Dynasty etc. What's more, Paul (similarly to the rest of the Atreides) is shown as a generally good person, who's kind of thrown against his will into the schemes of other powers. As a result it's only natural for him to seek revenge against those who hurt him. In that Paul in Dune is a hero. However, Paul in Messiah can no longer be called a hero, as we can cleary see that the power corrupts him. Here's an interesting quote from Frank Herbert (from his interview with Tim O'Reilly):

"In "Dune, " Duke Leto was fated to fall, and did, before the forces of a malign fate. A Greek tragedy set-up. But Paul, rising against all the cruel fates, overwhelming his enemies, triumphs—a true heroic saga.
In this one, it's Paul, our central character, who is a helpless pawn manipulated against his will, by a cruel, destructive fate… In this one he is not a Hero—he's simply a helpless Pawn of Fate. The anti-hero, showing that even seemingly mighty men of courage and abilities are helpless—that the whole world is a hopeless, overwhelming place, wherein struggle and high purpose are useless…
The reactions of science-fictioneers, however, over the last few decades has persistently and explicitly been that they want heroes—not anti-heroes. They want stories of strong men who exert themselves, inspire others, and make a monkey's uncle out of malign fates!
As Paul did in "Dune"—not as he fails completely to do in "The Messiah."

[notjokaar]

“Jihad” literally means striving, or doing one's utmost. Within Islam, there are two basic theological understandings of the word: The “Greater Jihad” is the struggle against the lower self – the struggle to purify one's heart, do good, avoid evil and make oneself a better person.

[Danielscuriosity]

After reflecting, Paul chill out in the desert

[robertnett]

As Herbert once said in an interview: "Every charismatic leader should come with the label 'may be detrimental to your health'"

[denislavdochev]

Great that someone finally explained because two movies later we couldn't figure it out