CateSo I watched Dune 1. I've read the first book maybe 4 times. I saw the (rejected by Lynch) Lynch version in the theaters as a child. I gave up after Children of Dune. And now, I just watched the new movie (part one). 1) good thing I sat at home watching today because i was able to call the apartment complex over the leak that started during the movie overhead just now. 2) I am still done with Dune. Like, this adds nothing for me.
I think I figured out the thing that was bugging me about Dune. The Eugenics and the pro-feudalism/feudalism-is-inevitable bugs me alot but something else bugged me and I think I finally put my finger on it: the future is written/fate is real/inevitable is inevitable/powerful people can tell you to quit trying because they can see the future. That's Paul's superpower, it's also the dominant philosophy, and it messes up the potential for any radical changes. ... #Dune #StarWars #Ligeia
This isn't a critique of power. This is arguing that power can't be fought. It feels like EA Poe--Ligeia-ish: the main character can make choices, but other people's pre existing plot-armored plans matter more and the main character is along for the ride. Lots of Dune spoilers to follow. Ligeia too I guess. And some Star Wars stuff.
Back in my college Victorian lit class, the idea got kicked around and I don't know where it came from (hey, Tennyson, was this you?), that there's a standard power plotline where everything would be fine but a woman betrayed the hero (Eve, Guinevere, others). That seems to me to be the root of this "stuck in someone else's better prepared plot line" that happens in Dune/SW/Ligeia...
So the corrupt friendly types (Bene Gesserit, Ligeia, Palpatine...yeah, not female, ooops) are the antagonists, but the main character fails to take them on directly until what seems kind of too late, after the horror or tragedy. The hero seems more ironic than heroic as we wish for an idea of success but then are horrified by the actual successes.
So these stories (which via their anti diversity themes of breeding and eugenics have plot lines I want to see DEFEATED...) even when the main character manages something, the bigger work does not undercut the eugenics. So the bigger work is putting its energy into showing us eugenics-ville. And while I hope SW gets out of this corner, I don't have hope for Dune.