Frank Herbert’s (sp?) Dune portrays a group of desert dwelling, religious fanatics that wage a “holy” war on the evil Harkonnen. Who have come to their land to gather the spice, which is necessary for travel. They bring troops and “occupy” their territory, while enslaving the Freeman and being generally bad.
In recent events (this doesn’t necessarily reflect all Islam). From my understanding the Muslim extremists view the U.S. and other foreign influences as a greedy evil empire that has come to their Holy Land to pillage. Most pillaging is the gathering of oil (which ironically is also needed for travel).
There seems to be many ties between a book written in 1968 and the events in today’s world. Am I just reading to deep into this or is there more than meets the eye here.
While parallels can certainly be drawn between Dune and the Middle East I have never seen anything to suggest that Frank Herbert was writing a thinly veiled political treatise in the form of a sci-fi story.
Still, who knows…sci-fi often tackles current issues by highlighting them in some other setting. You saw this quite often in Star Trek episodes. Then again while in writing classes I was always told, “Write what you know.” By using familiar images an author is able to get the reader to relate more easily to whatever it is he or she is writing about.
Yes, Frank Herbert modeled the Fremen after the Arabs. The Fremen language resembles Arabic, including words like shari’a and jihad, their religion imitates Shi’a Islam’s expectation of the advent of a messaih-like figure (the Hidden Imam), and the Fremen control a valuable natural resource coveted by the rest of the galaxy. The Fremen are not portrayed as bad people, however; in fact, they are the heroes fighting against an oppressive foreign occupier. Dune was published back in 1965, before Islamic fundamentalism was even a blip on the screen. At that time, most of the Arab nations, like Syria and Egypt were Soviet client states as Israel is a US client nation. I don’t think Dune’s plot was meant to echo contemporary geopolitical realities.
Maybe someone can enlighten me as what were the views of OPEC and other Islamic in the late 60’s. And if these view could have an effect on this book.
Since (following the original idea) in 1972 OPEC effectively stopped the flow of “spice” (oil) to the U.S.
On the other hand, going by what gobear said, the evil empire in the book could be view as the Soviet Union and the Freeman are Isalmic fighters, such as in Afghanistan, that rose to fight the evil empire. On this note what where the U.S.S.R intrests in oil in these countries. It is my belief that their occupation was mostly territorial, in the farther client states.
Nope, the Soviet Union wasn’t occupying any Arab nations in the 60s. The Soviets and the US comptered to have third world nations aligned with their respective sides. To this end, the US would funnel aid to an anti-communist dictator like Mobutu in the Congo, while the Soviets would funnel aid to an anti-Western dictator like Nasser in Egypt. The Soviets wwere buying influence in the Middle East, not oil. The major Soviet clients, like Egypt, Syria, and Afghanistan were not oil-producing states, The largest oil exporters, like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE were firmly allied with the US against Communism. OPEC was founded in 1960 by 1960 - Opec founded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, but it was largely toothless until 1973 and the first oil shock.
I’m probably biased because I studied the period in college, but I’ve always thought that Dune had a lot in common with Renaissance Europe, particularly Italy. You have a collection of semi-independent ruling families whose power is based equally on trade and military might, powerful guilds (well, one guild in the books, anyway), politically minded religious orders (Bene Gesserit), a supreme leader with a shaky hold that everyone is plotting with and against, a reliance on trade with a desert culture (spice in both cases) with the attendant cross-polination of cultures, and a theme of secular humanism.
Oh, yeah, I forgot the use of assasination as a political tool.
Change the Harkonnen to the Medici, Emporer Shaddam IV to Pope Nicholas V, set the whole thing in Venice (mixing my families and cities, but you get the idea) and there you go.
From writings and interviews I’ve read (it’s been decades, so don’t ask me for cites), Herbert’s primary interest was the effect on society of water, not oil.
But still, you have to agree there is great similarity between the Fremen and the Arabs. The Fremen used “terrorist” acts to get people to pay attention to them, and so do some Arabs. Could Dune be a forcast? Possibly. Maybe the Arabs will end up regaining total control and pushing out the invading foreign powers. Even Osama resembles Muad’dib, with his idealic visions and his new type of religion. In the second Dune book, Muad’dib even admits to being much like Hitler, going out and conquering lands and killing lots of people, and saying that he killed even many more than Hitler did (in the book his armies kill billions of people.) So maybe if we are comparing the Arabs and the Fremen, we shouldn’t veiw Muad’dib as a heoric character, but more as a terrorist.
It’s even more interesting to read Dune after a few courses on Ottoman history.
One example that leaps to mind, the Emperor is crowned after a survival trial in the desert that leaves only one survivor. In early Ottoman history it was custom to execute all of your brothers in the harem when you ascended to Sultan … to cut down on rivals.
Another, the fact that all of the planets were held by the Imperium. No family had ancestorial lands that were theirs alone. Again like the Ottomans.
No doubt in my mind where Herbert got his ideas for the Imperial Court, but the Guild and the Landsraad were definitely influenced by the Hanseatic League and perhaps the court of Charles.
ssj_man2k I am glad you pointed out the similarity between Usama Bin Laden and Muad’dib. I was thinking more about this, and its a coincidence that both came from a well to do family. Both felt betrayed. In Dune by Dr. Huey (sp?), and in real life it is said that he feels that his family has sold out to the “western” ideas. Both were well educated and trained the masses in new ways of combat. Although there are those that will argue that Usama didn’t do much teaching he is more of a figure head.
The lines between the Renissance/Ottoman empire are also fairly good. But the fuedal system portrayed in the book was less of an issue then the religious struggle that the Freeman were leading. There are also people that argue that Muad’dib is a Christ like figure leading the Freeman.
I think it is hard to argue Muad’dib as a Christ like figure. Muad’dib considered himself a god, while Christ did not. Muad’dib also taught people how to engage in deadly combat, and even saw alot of action himself. I don’t think Jesus ever taught someone to or did hurt anybody.
That depends how you look at it. In dune, the Fremen crushed the invaders, in the Gulf War, the invaders crushed the desert people. And Saddam Hussein was never like Muad’dib, sure he was a leader, but that was it. He’s not a very good one either.
. When Herbet wrote Dune he set out to explore many different questions concerning not only politics, but also environmentalism, religion, and philosophy.
. I hardly think he set out to write a precient history, but as he himself points out, One can’t use the gift,it uses you.
. In light of recent events, perhaps the world should grab a copy, and give it a read.It may be one man’s vision of future events,it is undeniably fitting.
.He who controls the Melange, controls the universe.The idea of Hydrolic depotism seems anogolous to the Middle East.
. The paralells between Oslimy Beenloudin an Paul Atraides are rather amazing,I guess finding him heroic is just a matter of Herbert’s writing.I find neither of the two more than passionate men who believe,along with thier sects, that the world needs direction.
. If nothing else, it reminds us that we need to be ever vigilant of anyone trying to overthrow the status Quo.
. Further in the series,Many thousands of years latter,a remnant of those who escaped Leto II, known as The Scattering, returned to Rakkis, with a synthitic that served them well and blew the planet to bits with those illegal atomics, killing the sand wyrms which produced the spice, and rendering the planet unlivable, there fore rendering the whole spice thing moot, simply so no person or group could ever again gain so much power over others.
.Meebee we augt nuke the oil fields? It will end the fighting and the environment will breathe just a bit cleaner.(ya I know I’m gonna get funny looks for that statement)
Yes, i’m sure the environment will be cleaner after we nuke thousands of acres of land. Oh, and i’m sure the economy will be better too. Wow that sounds like a safe plan for our future, we should go through with it.
Puk:
i think CalMeacham meant the US played the role of the freemen and Saddam is emporer Shaddam
But the US didn’t originate in the desert. They came from a foreign land with foreign ideas and ideals.