Ms. Hen reviews Dune

Dune

Frank Herbert

Penguin Random House

1965

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she knows it is in the cannon of great science fiction. She didn’t know anything about it before she started reading it, and didn’t realize until then that it is all science fiction. She doesn’t usually read dense, heavy sci-fi, she mostly reads speculative fiction that is more contemporary. This book took a long time to read.

This novel is about a young man, Paul, son of Duke Leto and his concubine, Jessica. Jessica has trained him in the Bene Gesserit ways of paying attention, and always being aware of what is going on, among other things. The family moves from Caladan, a temperate planet to Arrakis, a desert planet, with little water. Shortly after they arrive, a coup occurs and Paul and Jessica escape from their captors and end up with the Fremen, desert people who live in the dunes.

Paul becomes Muad’Dib, the leader of the group, and his mother becomes the Reverend Mother. They live in the dunes and learn to scrape water where they can, and doing their best to not waste water. When someone cried over the death of a person, it is said that person is wasting water. They survive in the dunes how they can.

Ms. Hen knows this book was published before STAR TREK came out, and also before STAR WARS, and there are similarities to both of those. The people are humans in space in the future, like in STAR TREK. The desert planet is reminiscent of Tatooine on STAR WARS, also the Bene Gesserits resemble Jedis, but they are all women. Ms. Hen thought it was interesting that the author based Jessica on his wife, and also Jungian psychology. Ms. Hen also thinks that the Bene Gesserits are similar to the spiritual leaders of the Bjorans, on STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE.

When she started reading this, Ms. Hen wondered what it is about men who write epic sagas. It seems to her that all the really large books and series are written by men. She did some research about some writers to find out about their personal lives, and she found that Tolstoy, Tolkien and Frank Herbert were all married and had women who took care of them, who most likely made dinner and kept the house clean. Tolstoy’s wife was his secretary, and made clean copies of his books. Frank Herbert’s wife worked in advertising full-time for a while, which enabled him to write undisturbed. Proust, however, was not married; he was gay, but he was wealthy, and that gave him freedom to write. Ms. Hen thinks that women tend to not write large books because they have too many things to do besides writing. Ms. Hen believes that the world exists to keep writers from writing.

Ms. Hen liked this book, but she thought it was a little long. She found that she grew impatient with it, and her mind would wander. However, she thinks it’s a beautiful book, and an important one because it points out the importance of ecology and water. She would like to become a Bene Gesserit, if that was possible. It’s also a pleasant book to read when the weather is cold, because it’s about a desert, and it made Ms. Hen warm when she was reading it.