The Heretics of Dune

 I present another exhibit of either my failing memory or my lack of taste in writing.. Defenses will appear later.

I thought  I had read all of Frank Herbert's Dune books in the late Eighties, early Nineties. I started re-reading God-Emperor of Dune before I left Ft.Dix and lost the book en route to Indianapolis. I remembered nothing of that novel except the the cart used to transport the title character. I'm not sure if this much memory loss makes it re-reading as much as a reading. With The Heretics of Dune the problem was even greater, I only recalled the ending.

So I started Heretics after arriving at the halfway house. I finished the novel on May 10.  In both novels, Herbert's prose surprised me by not having any of the pulpish accents of Isaac Asimov or Robert Heinlein.

In my defense, I would not have been noticing style 30 plus years ago - certainly not as I do now. Then I was reading, trying not to think of writing. For the past ten years I have been thinking about writing. Which is why there are all these with the label "On Writing" to bore and distress my readers.
What I paid attention to in science fiction was plot and ideas and characters. I was very much a fan of William Gibson and Robert Heinlein when I read Frank Herbert for the first time. What I thought of as Dune's primary idea was ecology. The politics I got from the movie version. This time I noticed the politics of Heretics. They belong to the school of Thomas Hobbes and Niccolo Machiavelli. Could be my recent re-reading of The Prince influenced my reading of Heretics.  In Heretics, the politics have as their end a humanity better able to survive in the Universe while The Prince wants a prince more capable of helping in the survival of Italy.  In the novel, some of the political groups see the acquisition of power as the mans to improve themselves (the Honored Matres); some see the end as spreading their religion (the Bene Tleilax) over humanity; and others want a better humanity for humanity (the Bene Gesserit). 

Don't worry there is also plenty of action and adventure. If it had dragons and more gore, I might think of George .R. R. Martin.

One thing I noticed now about Herbert's writing is how he displays his ideas through dialog. That I try to do the same thing makes me feel justified <g> in the technique - better than in narrative dumps. For example the third paragraph in the following encounte3r between a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and a military officer acting for her and her group:

...She drained her glass and put it aside. "I was addressing the way a significant life extension has produced in some people, you especially, a profound knowledge of human nature."

"We live longer and observe more," he said.

"I don't think it it's quite that simple. Some people never observe anything. Life just happens to them. They get by on little more than a dumb persistence, and they resist with anger and resentment anything that  might lift them out of that false serenity."

p.206 (Ace Premium Edition, 2019

Herbert wrote that in 1984. I think we all know the truth of the third paragraph's last sentence. . We saw that on January 6, 2021.

One last point about the science in Herbert's novels - it has yet to be undermined by reality. There is a quality to his world-building I had not quite noticed. There is nothing like the Pan Am shuttle in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Could it be eh went from what would be needed in a future society then gave it its sciences? Before now I thought Iain Banks had built an incredible world but so did Herbert.

Now I have to read the son's books! So many books... so little tiem.

sch

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