we will be remembered as wives

[ironymaiden]

after a lively thread about sandworm abuse on work Slack, i decided i was overdue for a Dune reread.

i zipped through it in a few days. damn, i love that book. one of the things i find particularly striking is how many details i retain from it. (there are many books that are more of a 'warm feeling' in memory than an accurate set of details - in a bad non-plague year i read a minimum of a book a week so i can't expect to devote too much permanent storage to them.) it also says something about the power of fiction that i actively hate desert climates, get physically ill in that level of dryness, and two of my all-time favorites feature desert life.* for rereaders, i enjoyed putting on Weapon of Choice while reading the sequence where they're crossing the open sand.

for folks who haven't tried it - if you enjoyed watching Game of Thrones, this has all the politics and adventure with less tits and more ecology. you can skip reading the sequels and prequels, Dune is nicely self-contained. (in a fit of optimism i decided to try reading Dune Messiah for the first time since my first trip, where i got through four before sputtering out on the fifth one. nope nope, just read the first one. knowing the future of Arrakis is not worth seeing the sausage made.)

i am cautiously optimistic about the new movie; many choices i've seen in pictures look good but it's still not crystal-clear that they will do stillsuits correctly (only the eyes are exposed). i'm fine with making Liet a black woman instead of a blond (presumably white) man (although it may reinforce the white savior narrative rather than increasing the natural diversity of the cast in the way it should). fingers crossed. who knows when we'll ever see it anyway :/


*yes, yes, The Blue Sword has white savior problems too.

Comments

Ahhhhhh.

[jesse_the_k]

I wish I was the person who read DUNE back then. I loved it. I'm glad the suck fairy hasn't descended (she'd already visited the endless sequels).

I saw Lynch's 1984 epic version in the best possible circumstances: at an outdoor drive-in theater. I was very sad that he imagined the stillsuit as a nasal cannula.

[buhrger]

one advantage of including at least the first two sequels is that it really nukes the white savior thing. but i get that #2 especially is rough going. i'm also curious about the new movie: apparently it only covers the first half of the book, and the second half is still being written, so will be filmed in whatever covid- or post-covid-context is available. i've been watching this dude's stuff on dune recently, and appreciating what he has to say, including thoughts about the movie.

[ironymaiden]

it really nukes the white savior thing

true. true. true. and it's foreshadowed well in the first book. i think especially right now i need a shot of triumph over corruption more than the reality check of the rest of the story. actual reality is so hard right now, yunno? shit, i don't want to compare the garbage regime in the US to living under Beast Rabban, but 🤮

*spoilers* but where is the break point?

[ironymaiden]

so we have three sections: Dune, Muad'dib, and The Prophet. for once i would be in favor of making three films, there's plenty of material.

if they broke at the end of book one, it's just before the open crossing and Paul and Jessica meeting Stilgar & Co. since they keep showing us Chani, it has to go somewhere into Muad'dib (unless she's just showing up in his visions; could be a big tease like Luke in The Force Awakens). maybe end with Jamis' funeral and Paul being welcomed into the tribe?

the most natural break is between Muad'dib and The Prophet, since there's an actual time skip...but it's also the shortest part of the book. hmmm.

it's also bothering me that there's casting we haven't seen. although maybe a lack of Feyd-Rautha is reasonable since most of his personality comes out in The Prophet (ditto Count Fenring, the Emperor, Irulan).

Re: *spoilers* but where is the break point?

[buhrger]

we've got at least one shot of Stilgar not at the meeting with the Duke soon after they get to Arrakis. between Muad'dib and The Prophet would make some sense, yes. but, as you say, short.
i continue to take hope from the fact that Villneuve wanted to do this because he's a fan of the book. and allegedly someone asked him what his dream film would be and he said "Dune, but that's never going to happen" or words to that effect.
hoping he doesn't screw this up. and that there's a way i can watch it.

Re: *spoilers* but where is the break point?

[ironymaiden]

the photos of people in stillsuits with windblown hair is bugging the shit out of me. but at least i can see that there's some kind of half-mask hanging under their chins so i'm hopeful that publicity wanted us to see faces and that they will suit up properly before they go outside.

the original release date was the weekend of my birthday; now, who knows? WB has lost a lot of revenue this year. i'm wondering what the tipping point is for something truly big (not just a family movie) to go direct to streaming. Cinerama is literally refunding gift certificates due to uncertainty about when and if they'll be able to reopen. i wanted to see Dune there.

Re: *spoilers* but where is the break point?

[buhrger]

i would love to see dune there too. :-/

[jazzfish]

Weapon of Choice <3

I tried twice to get into book 2: once in eighth grade, and once, um, sometime within the past ten years. Both times I couldn't make it past the first twenty pages or so. I mildly regret this... but Dune itself is such a good standalone, it's only a mild regret.

[flexagon]

I'm not into Dune at all (finally forced myself through it by bringing that, and only that, on a trans-atlantic plane flight) and find the sandworms kind of ecologically unrealistic. HOWEVER, that article was hilarious and I plan to share it. :-)