The more I read Dune the more I begin to understand that it was always woke slop.
Much like Blazing Saddles, Dune has always been seen as something that predates our current cultural decline- when in actuality it released right in the thick of it. It isn’t based, it isn’t traditional, it isn’t brave or daring or particularly unique. In actuality it is extremely subversive in ways that 60’s audiences simply wouldn’t have been familiar with. Just as it wasn’t immediately obvious what a problem ‘girlbosses’ like Sarah Connor would become after Terminator 2, readers in the 60’s simply did not understand the story Frank Herbert was trying to tell. And I think the easiest way for fans to process this is to understand the actual intentions of the story.
Most fans, I think, view Dune as a single novel that continued with several increasingly middling sequels. It is very common for casual readers to believe that the fall off happened after Herbert’s death in 1986. But in reality Dune Messiah was written first. Messiah was the story that Herbert really wanted to tell, and it very strongly emphasizes the actual core themes of the franchise- the idea that charismatic leaders who actually do something about problems are bad because a lot of people may die.
It’s a very silly belief, but it’s a big point among establishment shills that it is better to do NOTHING than it is to do ANYTHING that may upend the current status quo. The people in power don’t want someone like Paul Atreides to ride up and throw a wrench in their delusions that they are special, unstoppable people. They don’t want things to change because they are perfectly happy with the way things are. This is, I think, one of the most pervasive lies in modern fiction: The idea that violence never solved anything. This is a lie that is exposed simply by looking at history and seeing how violence establishes kings, countries, and a shared culture through violence.
The idea that violence never solves anything is propaganda to convince the masses not to do anything about their problems. Do not rise up, do not overthrow your leaders, you will only suffer if you try. And Dune’s entire DNA is built around this concept.
It is a mistake of Dune as the first novel in the series- in actuality Messiah was written first, and Dune is merely a prequel to set up this scenario of Paul being jaded by all of his power and influence. Dune Messiah is the ‘true’ Dune that better represents the themes and ideas of the series, while the prequel novel merely exists to establish how Paul established his power to begin with.
So what does this mean, exactly?
The prequel Dune exists to bait and switch people going into Dune Messiah. The purpose of it was to make Paul Atreides look like a hard motherfucker, to make him look as badass as possible before completely emasculating him in the next book. If that sounds familiar- it’s the same exact template we see in every single Hollywood movie franchise for decades. Where people are drawn in by cool, badass male leads only for the filmmakers to try and replace them with women and diversity. In other words, Dune was always intended to be a subversive novel- one that defies traditional heroic archetypes to push some weird political agenda that demonizes the idea of trusting the leaders of your country.
However, rather interestingly, because of how the novel was first published with the prequel becoming a classic first, the masses completely misunderstood the purpose of the story. People read Dune and thought it was a cool badass story with an interesting setting. They didn’t understand what the story was supposed to be about, and as a result of that ended up really liking Paul when the character was meant to be disliked.
It reminds me of a lot of Alan Moore, and how upset he gets about people thinking Rorschach was a genuinely inspiring heroic figure. In his mind it went against his entire intended message. It’s a very boomerish mindset: instead of creating inspiring figures that people can look up to and emulate, he created a setting which reflects life as he experiences it: Where everyone is stupid and evil, just like him. Herbert, perhaps, was nowhere near as bad as Moore- but it must be understood that he was cut from the same cloth.
Dune struggles from typical Woke White Male syndrome: It’s better for us to die out and have the moral high ground than it is to fight and die for survival. I do not need to explain to you how suicidal and evil this mindset is, but it is at the core of all of our problems in western culture today and is a defining philosophy on why so many characters in fiction are not allowed to be noble or good. It’s made to be propaganda: it’s made to discourage you. And your only escape it consuming more, increasingly extreme propaganda to distract you from the reality of your every day life.
Dune is nowhere near the caliber of story that it’s cracked up to be, and it seems with the recent hype around the movie more people are beginning to realize it. A lot of books that were sold to us as classics (Lord of the Flies and To Kill A Mockingbird are good examples) are increasingly being seen as preachy, condescending propaganda pieces that seek to manipulate people’s understanding of the world and how it actually works. Black people weren’t lynched for committing serious crimes against the community: It was just racism bro. Ignore all the very real stories of stranding people surviving on islands: in Lord of the Flies everyone turns on each other due to not having a strong enough authority figure. (Which is a cope for how people need the government to have morality, instead of cultivating it within themselves) And in Dune’s case no one would ever, ever, ever overthrow a corrupt political regime and then make things better than what they were.
These things do matter, and people are increasingly become aware of just how long and deep the cultural rot goes. In spite of the establishment’s attempts at keeping Dune relevant through new books, movies, and video game adaptions people are beginning to see through decades of lies and deceit and are beginning to understand what the story is actually about. Once they do that- they will almost immediately lose all respect for it. It’s interesting to see how something like say, Lord of the Rings had endured as an time classic while Dune (Which I see as the establishment’s attempt at pushing an Anti-LOTR) has completely fallen on its face.
People are beginning to embrace tradition, and they are beginning to see the value in promoting good values and morality through fiction. This boomer mindset that ‘morally grey’ situations are more realistic, relatable, and interesting is becoming very transparently false every year. The girl bosses and the political agenda aren’t resonating with anyone anymore because increasingly people are developing a stronger conviction that people don’t act like this.
At this point the Boomer method of storytelling is coasting by on nostalgia and established brands. People are desperately trying to sell you on Toy Story 5 and Hoppers while refusing to see the writing on the wall: that people are sick and tired of what Hollywood is doing with our culture. Twenty years ago I never would have thought that Christopher Nolan, the man behind the Dark Knight, would produce a movie based on the Odyssey and have it immediately be rejected by even his most hardcore fans. All trust in the establishment has completely faded away, and what we’re left with is sweeping up all the broken pieces.
An important part of that though is acknowledging HOW WE GOT HERE to begin with. The simple fact of the matter is, Dune was bad. Star Wars was bad. The Matrix was bad. American Beauty was bad. Starship Troopers (The movie not the book) was bad. Back in the day people would eat up endless propaganda that would gaslight them to hate their people and country, and it’s high time that we acknowledge just how damaging these brands were for the overall country.
I do think there’s a serious case to be made that a major reason the country declined so quickly was because of fiction like this negatively influencing the culture. We laugh at the conservatives of the 60’s questioning the morality of media today, but I think there is a very good point to be made that, much like the opposition to feminism, that they were absolutely correct about everything. Shows like South Park and Family Guy absolutely corrupted the youth (I know, I was there) I saw people seriously advocate for the Daily Show as being a better news source than any mainstream outlet, and I saw how people developed a completely incorrect view of homosexual culture because of movies and TV.
In short we have SEEN how allowing people to create degenerate media has effected the youth, but rather than needing to ban it we should simply just advocate for everyone to just stop reading or watching it. It’s like I always say- good people don’t watch TV. When it comes to books, though, anyone who reads more than one book a year will find something way better than Dune relatively quickly. It’s just a matter of going out and finding it.