# 📔 Dune (Book) --- # ℹ️ Information **Author**:: [[Frank Herbert]] **Category**:: Science-Fiction **Tags**:: **Started**:: [[2023-05-09]] **Finished**:: 2023-05-21 **Medium**:: Kindle **Price**:: $9.99 **Readwise**: [[Dune (Readwise)]] **Topics**: **Rating**:: 5 --- # 🏔️ What It's About The story is about a young man named Paul Atreides, who alongside, his mother, find themselves caught in an oligarchic coup amongst reigning political powers. Through this strife, there is loss, love and even a rise of Paul to recover his rite as the Duke of The Great House Atreides. # 🧠 Overall Thoughts * I think it deserves the laud it has taken up in this space - this book was excellent * ## 👍 What I Liked - I enjoyed the dense-nature of the book - the author has an incredibly unique way of building the context and the characters of the world - Primarily, the author frequently introduces you to context - The "omnipotent" nature of the dialogues and exchanges between characters - Couple this with the intentionally vague (above) concept and it is: *insert chef's kiss* - For example, in a given dialogue between two characters, you will experience dialogue in the following formats: - The narration of the events surrounding them - The quotations of spoken dialogue of both characters, so both tangible sides of the conversation - AND, you also get the *internal* side - each of their minds - This is one of the most intriguing things! - You'll regularly find these sections of internal dialogue/monologue in italics throughout the book - One of my favorite chapters in the book uses this to a masterful nature: (**SPOILER**) - After Paul has his life threatened by the hunter-seeker assassination attempt, there is a following chapter where Duke Leto (Paul's father) is, sort of, trying to make sense of all of the events since arriving on Arrakis and building out Arrakeen. - There have been A LOT of uphill battles and otherwise strong senses of "wrong" - things are just not sitting right. This is illustrated regularly though while he's still trying to make this place work, as is his fief. - What I love here is that, as Leto is rationalizing the past, the present, and the future, at least 2 times per page, the following line is interjected into those thoughts: *But they tried to kill your son!* - I just love the dizzying nature and almost honest depiction of how that inner voice is screaming at us, but we can choose so intentionally and ignorantly to dismiss it. - I also love the opening "retrospective" writings about the content of the chapter ahead and this chapter's opener specifically is an incredible testament to that. - It basically deals with saying, it isn't that Duke Leto was a poor leader, it was that he'd be worn down by the various levels of urgency and turmoil to the point where he couldn't differentiate that fight or flight signal. - I liked the multitudes of discord amongst the leadership of the universe, especially the heavy emphasis on politics - Even though the context/background setting isn't obvious, there are many references to, sort of, "the computer age" and how, as AI evolved, humanity devolved and that, at least eventually, almost in pure Matrix style, humanity needed to overcome AI and remove it from existence to maintain any possibility of sustaining human life. - Also, it is funny how relevant this is right now given the rise of AI and machine learning through the advancements and public usage of ChatGPT and similar other understanding-based models - Based on what I know of AI though, this future is unlikely - there is too much control built into the operations of models for them to become fully dominant. E.g., just shut off the VM it is running on or power down the server it is running on. - Through this war and overarching reformation of years past, we're pressed *very far* into the future where human-centered intelligence was supremely important, especially as a resulting lack of computational functions that computer otherwise served. - This gave rise to the "Mentat" or the computer-minded wizard that sat alongside political figures, such as Duke Leto, Barron Harkonnen, eventually Paul, and so on. - Examples of mentats: - Thufir Hawat - Atreides - Piter - Harkonnen - Additionally, not only did one of Mentats, but also the Bene Gesserit through their prescient abilities - Of note, becomes one of the core elements of Paul's uniqueness - Notably, guild navigators also had this prescient awareness as well, but it isn't talked about *too much* in the first book - In some way, this reminds me a lot of a quazi-feudal or even oligarchic ruling - This reminds me of the the disruption of power after the fall of the USSR - capitalistic advantages, such as commercial business that are fundamental to basic human needs, such as electricity, were "sold" to the wealthy. Who, unsurprisingly, in a world fresh with capitalism and lacking proven out regulation - The odd thing is, we never really see the "oppressive" nature of this order other than through the oppression of the Fremen, which, I'm sure you could easily extrapolate. - I liked the pacing of the evolution and casted devolution (at least heavily foreshadowed) of Paul, the main character - While I know many have mixed opinions about the series beyond this first book, I do think the author did an excellent job building toward the main climax of the book - overcoming monumental obstacles and making Paul's destiny right. - However, this comes at a cost - one that is not too hard to see - Paul begins losing himself and those around him - He becomes so fixed and mindful that he loses the relationships, the companionship, and everything else that once made him happy... - You see this begin to playout near the end of the book with his interactions with Stilgar and even his Mother - With Stilgar, you see Paul even recognize that Stilgar, the man who saved he and his mother by breaking Fremen norms by bringing them in, taking Paul under his wing, believing that he truly is the *Lisan Al-Gaib*, to the point where Paul is just directing him with such unfettered authority that Stilgar is reduced to this husk as the future Governor of Dune and tangible leader of the Fremen people. - With his mother, Jessica, you can see pretty fairly on that *she really can't control* Paul... Early on in their escape from Arrakeen and introduction to the Fremen ways, Jessica is heavily involved in guiding Paul... But this changes... In the end, Jessica is in a similar place to Stilgar - she is merely there serving a function for which Paul has already orchestrated... Eventually, to the point where she leaves him - she returns to Caladan - I liked how the Fremen prophecy of *Lisan Al-Gaib* was intentionally planted in an effort to make way for the Kwisatz Haderach - It was noted many times that this was a Bene Gesserit function: members of this team would laid down prophecies over centuries across the universe in hopes that one day, as it did for Paul, those propehcies would actually become "true" and people on that planet would accept them as so - igniting the power not only behind that particular individual, but the Bene Gesserit in general - this was always their "shadow motive/intention" - Obviously, the downside here was that Paul was too much for the Bene Gesserit and their thousands of years of artisanal breeding that led them to this moment was a shit show 🤣 - At one point in the book, Paul sort of asks him Mom if it is prophecy or manipulation? I think that is a great take. And I'd agree with Paul - manipulation to serve the Bene Gesserit desires. - Makes you wonder/question how much prophecy exists in our world in the same form - planted for pure manipulation ## 👎 What I Didn't Like * I think for some, the elevated language can be a bit of a challenge * Not only is it a long book (mine was around 800 pages), but the word choice can be dense for some * It is written to a "9th grade" level, but I honestly find that hard to believe * If anything, the challenging word usage is primarily cosmetic - you can generally get the gist of what the author is driving. * Therefore, the elevated language serves as more of a representation of the advanced minds of most people, given it is the year 10,000+ * There were times where the lack of universe building made the world more complex * For example, the general unawareness of the Corrino house threw me - even though that has been the reigning emperor's house for some time * # ☘️ How the Book Changed Me %% How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book. %% * # ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes > # 📚 Books Referenced - --- # 📒 Notes