Dune - a literary and historical analysis - 10/06/25

A fiction more political than scientific.

8.5/10

[port] Aviso: esse artigo só tem uma versão em inglês. Ah, e spoilers, óbvio. [eng] Warning: this article has only an English version. Oh, and spoilers, obviously. [it] Avviso: questo articolo ha solo la versione inglese. Ah, e spoilers, ovvio.

This book is what Star Wars should have been.

The franchise, I believe, dismisses any introduction. I will at least comment on the success of Denis Villeneuve's films, the man who did everything he could to best approximate the cinematographic and literary universes. The problem is that Dune, more than any other literary franchise, is impossible to be portrayed vehemently on a cinema screen without losing crucial elements of the original work, making it a feat that's even more so irreplicable in large scale, not to mention not one, but TWO feature-length movies.¹

Historical context

Dune was written in the 60's, when the Cold War tension was at its zenith and was considered a major source of terror among americans. A fun fact that's kind of ironic is that even though the political tension at the time might have deeply influenced Dune, the starting point for the series was actually based on more of an ecological premise related to the dunes of Oregon and the governmental action of the time, which entailed terraforming the region near where Frank lived in order to halt desertification.² Now, if you've read the book, you clearly can infer that this is what developed Arrakis' ecological standpoint involving Kynes and all of the biological components of Dune's worldbuilding, including Paul's promise to the Fremen regarding the terraforming that would turn Arrakis into a true oasis, kinda similar (and probably intentionally similar) to the promised land of Israel to the jews.

In fact, most of the main conflicts of this book can be paralleled directly to political issues seen today, such as the competition for a scarce and arguably finite resource mostly located in a desert (melange and oil) and the mixture of religion with politics (a theme that is too relevant nowadays and, surprisingly enough one of the main focuses of the franchise). This reminds me of a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin written in her book "The Left Hand of Darkness" that basically summarizes what Herbert does masterfully and explains the reason for why his 60-year-old masterpiece is still relevant to this day: "Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive". That is partially why it's so engaging to attempt to find out the context behind many science fiction books, such as the ones written by Asimov — the history behind a work of art is complementary to the work of art itself.

Another very interesting aspect of Dune's franchise is the fact that many times the universe's historical analysises and chronicles are in direct contradiction to what actually happens in the story (if we can trust the narrator, that is, and I'm pretty sure we can), as pointed out with an example by the essayist Don Riggs. ³ This shows that Dune's universe is even more so similar to ours in the sense that history has significant misinterpretations which become commonplace in our culture, that is, similarly to our manner of studying history (historical revisionism).

Main storyline and its seemingly absurd technology use

The main plot starts out with a young governor named "Paul Atreides", a boy who finds himself in the middle of a multilateral intergalactic political conflict. Similar to feudalism, there are parties that are somewhat independent but are still servants of a bigger institution: the "houses" and the Emperor Shaddam IV, respectively. The conflict containing several factions and political organizations, such as the cruel and deceptive Harkonnen, the rigorous and somewhat hopeful Bene Gesserit and the enigm atically elusive Guild. Paul and his father represent the house Atreides, an at first loyal and powerful house. One of the first aspects that already stand out when first reading the series is how technology doesn't progress as the reader expects it. Even though every party in the franchise is capable of creating significant actions with the help of (mechanical) technology, there seems to have happened a quite impactful event which is only mentioned a few times in the story involving a war against "Thinking Machines" (that is how they're called), a war that made humanity reject objects such as computers and (most definitely) AI. This creates this funny-looking scenario regarding technology where humans reject machine-learning algorithms altogether, as they had become smarter than them in this very idealistic future where things like calculators and other objects eventually became obsolete. This can be paralleled to another interesting explanation of Dune's worldbuilding happens when, in Dune: Messiah, Stilgar says that even more worrying that any nuclear bomb are the development of human beings as special weapons. Religion, as always, is used as a conservative tool to impede any use of technology capable of replacing human thought and the Bible of Orange appears to play a major role in educating the fictional universe in this aspect.

What is also somewhat connected to the Cold War tension is the vehemently defended "Great Convention", formed between the major parties. Every weapon of considerable mass destruction is strictly forbidden in war. Items like the lasgun and the shield are never seen being used together in the narrative because of their potential for destruction. I guess what most people forget when reading Dune is that, similarly to the political friction created in the 60s, any kind of all-out war could result in an infamous M.A.D.⁴

Paul and his terrible destiny

Paul's destiny is very much traced for the start and he knows it from the very beginning, particularly due to of his intense contact with melange. Consequently, although for us readers the events that unfold are quite unpredictable and essentially complex, it's as if Paul had ruined his role as a pawn is this overly multilayered chess game by "getting the worst of both worlds": he can't exactly know what to do next as a player and he is aware of the terrible consequences that his victory will bring about, even though his defeat might be disastrously worse. This is exactly what makes the story that much more intriguing to the reader, as Paul creates a mystery that not even he knows the answer to but he can see clues and glimpses that indicate absurd and horrifying possibilities, with him in all of them. Every single extract from the book where Paul attempts to explains to himself what happens before his eyes when he foresees is mindblowingly poetic, it's a treat to read.

With the fall of his family's empire, Paul "finds his path" among the Fremen, a fundamentalist tribe and the main habitants of Arrakis. Their costums are all modelled around the scarcity of water, or lack thereof. The Fremen can be seen as a weapon throughout the entirety of the plot, as they are easily manipulated by the Bene Gesserit in order to foster the prophecy of Kwisatz Haderach. When you combine their fanatically religious culture with their power, they become an unstoppable force that mitigates any opposition with sheer strength found in their beleives. In fact, this is not limited to Dune at all. Any kind of political action guided by religion is bound to be unreliable at any moment, due to the contrast between religion's dogmatic nature and politics' many demands for flexibility when confronted with several different scenarios. This is why a war like Israel x Palestine doesn't make any sense: it doesn't have to make any sense precisely due to its religious nature. Many lives are lost during irrational conflicts and in Dune, it is no different. The Jihad in Dune brought by Paul at the end of the conflict with Baron Harkonnen, Bene Gesserit (and etc.) is estimated to have exterminated at least 61 billion people. There's even a moment in the books where Paul, after fucking up, attempts to compare his extermination to the one of Hitler and fails miserably — his death toll is too big for comparison. You could argue that it's an inevitable occurrence, as said by Paul many times, but the problem arises when you realize that he is indeed responsible for his actions because responsability, BY DEFINITION, means knowing the consequences of your actions. It's a bit like the trolley problem, but it's a lot harder to comprehend why Paul can't just stop the trolley. Oh well, I guess us readers just have to follow Paul's words as religiously as the Fremen sometimes.

The Physical Downfall (and later the Moral Downfall) of the Atreides

The first part of the book ends with the house Atreides falling to the Harkonnen, as every member and supporter of the house gets executed or exhiled in order to survive. In the beginning, with Leto in control of what Nietzsche would classify as a "decadent" government, the Atreides are considered a loyal and altruistic house, with a lively and lush home planet, aspects which are polar opposites of the house Harkonnen. After the lost war between these aforementioned houses, the Atreides find many unique and unparallaled ways to ressurge to power, by using the Fremen as a ticket to hide and act in the shadows throughout basically the whole first book. Their cause for revenge (something already not quite Atreides) becomes even more distorted as a convergence of interests happens between them and the Fremen, as Paul exploits and manipulates their religion molded by the Bene Gesserit to the house's desire. Everything changes even more when Paul finally takes his throne as the Emperor and starts forcing the Fremen's beliefs throughout many galaxies, as now the paradox of violence and overexpansionism begins to creep over Paul and, when he makes that comparison to Hitler during his crisis as a fearsome ruler, Stilgar finds it weird. And indeed, it is truly weird how a governor like Paul can look back on what he did and feel remorse, as usually this remorse isn't really expected from people in positions of power. This reflects on how Paul, even after all of the things he had done during the 12-year war and even after being locked mentally by his divine (or diabolic) prescience, still has a deep compassion, an emblem from the old house Atreides: a house that fell victim to destiny.

Honestly, Dune Messiah feels like the perfect sequel for many reasons, but, for me, the main one is the perfect ending for Paul's character, coming from a confused young adult with many unsolved inner to, only in the uttermost end, an individual that finally stops worrying about his destiny, as he has already arrived there. He starts conciling with his visions, creating scenes where he can foresee not the arrival and potentialization of his empire, but its fall (the visions of the moon falling down the sky to the horizon of the desert).

Conclusion

I skipped over many things and I might still keep going later with this review once I finish Children of Dune, but overall Dune represents everything done right in a sci-fi book.