Frank Herbert is not an English graduate, nor does he ever pretend to be a talented writer. Part of the magic of this novel, a classic in soft science-fiction, is that Frank breaks one of Stephen King’s cardinal rules on writing: do not share the thoughts of different characters within the same chapter. Frank. Who was most definitely aware of this arbitrary rule, not only made his mission statement in this introductory book his life’s work, but was so bold as to switch between different character’s thoughts within the same paragraph.
The effect is quite disorienting. Like a bad trip of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD, or acid to some), the effect makes this book appear impenetrable to most readers at first. I will admit that when I first glanced through this book back in the early 2000s, I was intrigued but simply could not make it past the first few chapters. I was still stubbornly stuck in the mindset of reading every book word for word, to make sure the effort counted.
But by the year 2018, while forced into a state hospital in Atascadero, California, I simply had no other books to read. The hospital had a small library where residents in the hospital could peruse during our down time. I was not in the mood to read books but with literally nothing to do, I found a few Maxx comic books (issues numbers 1, 2, and 4 – 3 was missing)and then made my way to Frank Herbert’s book.
Whatever the reason, this time the book was not nearly as impenetrable. Perhaps through connections to his ghost the book began to reveal itself as I was made aware of the technique Herbert was employing to create this disorienting effect that makes his book so hard to read at first. I do not think it would be wrong for many English graduates and literature enthusiasts, Dune is not an easy book to read. Rebellion is a cause Herbert believes in as an outdoorsman. He himself was kind of a lazy student. More concerned with eating and trying to get out of harsh abuse from parents who were too young and uneducated to raise a child without being monsters, he cared about people who found meaning out of this need to not follow the rules.
What intrigued me more as a religious student, however, is less the rebellious nature of a writer who lacks consistency, and more of an Islamic allure of a region on the globe that few people take the time to appreciate. I met a woman who claimed to be the wife of Ishmael back in the early 2000s while under the painful drug Serroquel. We rested with each other for a few days through a somatic relationship in which we shared an empathetic connection with our hearts. Living with my father, he turned off the heat and recommended I purchase a heated blanket.
This woman, whom I believe revealed herself as Kadija, asked me to look up Islam on the website Wikipedia. I explained I believed in Christ but did not follow Yeshua too closely, as I simply rejected the heresay that Jesus is God, a satanic teaching that began sometime in the early 1990s. She asked if I could ever follow this religion, to which I responded I would consider, but probably would convert later in my life.
Dune was being rumored to be adapted by a director at the time this occurred, probably circa 2012 or 2014. Listening to my older brother James, I tried to watch director David Lynch’s Dune for the third time, and as I told James every time,.was such a disappointment I nearly puked wondering what the hell Reddit users saw in his film adaptation. The visuals are murky, the walls in some scenes bright orange and green, purely an expression of the hatred Lynch felt at himself for betraying his own need to make original art and not to play in other people’s sandboxes.
For what it was worth. Herbert, who was practically on his deathbed and months away from the grave, was kind enough to give The film his approval. But what he saw in the film was probably a reflection of later B-film style humor he was incorporating into his baffling God Emperor of Dune, in which Herbert probably recognized how Lunch was showcasing the history of cinematic science-fiction with what was probably a more perverted depiction of the Barron.
People are offended that Lynch and Herbert would make homosexuals the villains in their tale but historically im Arabian literature, homosexuals have always been the bad guys. By definition, they rape men by forcing themselves into their anuses without consent. To deny this narrative is to completely misunderstand the narrative that every homosexual must accept they have gone through in their own life.
The act of being gay is not what makes the Barron and the Harkonnen family bad guys. It is their lust that goes unchecked that makes them disgusting. Rather than believe in romance and actual affection for other men, they simply demand they get what they want which historically was how homosexuals acted (and too many, still act.this way today). According to a pastor at a church I attend occasionally (New Life on Oregon, Ohio), homosexuality is a sin. This is a belief I have to admittedly agree with as a bisexual.
Homosexuals tend to offend with their need to rebel. Usually as a way of protesting a culture that bullies them with insults, it is a behavior that often goes unchecked and manifests itself in ugly ways later in adulthood. We call this type of behavior faggoted, because these homosexuals act like a bundle of sticks. A joke in Norway folklore is that a stick that sticks with other sticks, aka a bundle of sticks, which by definition is a faggot, cannot be broken. The response is to take that bundle and throw it into a flame. A faggot cannot be broken, but they most certainly can be burned. Like a flamer who needs to cool off, that is how one gets a faggot to calm their tits and act less offensive to cultures who have no time with their need to share their emotions to a world because for the first time in their life they get to announce who they are.
Homosexuality itself can be defined as a sin because as the book of Deuteronomy warns, “Beware a man who sleeps with another man like a woman”. The Torah specifically does not use the words ‘homosexual’, ‘gay’, or ‘lesbian’ in the King James Bible. It specially makes sure to impart that when a man sleeps with a man like a woman, they are treating that man like a woman, and not a man. The word homosexual does not impart any connotation of love or romance, but simply is defined as a sexual attraction to the members of the same sex.
My understanding of the word comes from the New American Heritage dictionary, which can be quoted defining the word homosexual as thus;
Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.
n.
Nowhere in that definition does it suggest or explicitly state (literalism) anything about romance or love. It simply states that a homosexual has a sexual orientation to a person of the same sex, which quite literally means people.who are sexually attracted to other people like themselves. If one disagrees with assessment of a choice in sexual preference, and even faggots will tell you calling yourself a homosexual is a choice, them the response is maybe they hate women because they choose to disgust themselves.
The biggest irony on all of this is uncritical anger over a historically accurate representation of Islam. Nowhere in the book does Herbert even refer to the Harkonnen family members as gay or homosexuals. If we really want to be honest, they are closer to pansexual in that they will literally fuck anything that moves, which is an ultimate expression of greed. The question of their family is why they double down on this iniquity, to the point that Herbert literally argues that their unchecked behavior becomes encoded into their genetics.
A savior will impart that one can choose to change their behavior, but that is an individual choice that one has to make on their own. Herbert suggests this teaching in his slimmer sequel Dune Messiah, in which the author goes out of his way to insist the readers get the message that following in the footsteps of Muhammed does not automatically make one a hero.
We could explore this introductory book that is the Bible of soft science-fiction to many, but if that is the case, I as an educator might want to continue this thematic and religious exploration of what really is a fascinating retelling of Islamic history to western audiences who probably were not even followers of Christianity yet. Herbert lived on the West Coast of the United States of America in the 1960s, and undoubtedly dealt with some of the most retarded faggots and hippies one honest to God cannot believe actually exist. Watch a documentary like Robby Starbuck’s movie “The War on Children”, and you will want to weep at the biggest adult babies who are so butthurt over a bad southern Baptist joke, in which a chauvinist and maybe sexist man simply says, “Woman are not allowed to talk”.
In Islam. This is actually an acceptable teaching, and a major reason why men and women are segregated by biological determiners. Men sit on the left, and women sit on the right. The joke is meant to put a woman in their place. By definition, a woman has a smaller brain than a man, and thereby is too stupid to keep their mouth shut and listen when their emotions get hurt because they are not allowed to talk. This is a form of biblical authority, as expressed by Apostle Paul, when he states that men should be the ones leading a congregation (I lack a source for this paraphrase by trust my reverend at New Life).
Such is the drama Frank Herbert, an intelligent author lacking any actual formal education beyond a Western American high school, had to deal with in his own household, as his wife greedily began lusting over a t-bone steak as Frank simply told his wife, “you are getting fat, bitch”. This drove his wife into a tailspin of fury as his son Brian undoubtedly had to watch all of this. In amazement of how dumb American women behave. They only eat when other people eat, and are so far up Queen Victoria’s own asshole they cannot realize what modernism is, let alone contemporaryism.
We impart all of this to offend progressives, because bigotry is a universally undetstood language understood by open to discussion children and thoughtful men and women who want to be included in afemiv discussions they are too inarticulate to handle. If one can simply reject their parent’s political party and get over their unfounded hatred of the word “Republican”, they will begin to understand their need to be represented by a representative who can at least relay the information to these Democrats who simply must practice patience. The USA is a Republic, most definitely at the federal level, and as Arabic countries grapple with identity crisis and misrepresentation in the most repulsive council the United Nations (should called United Countries – because borders matter), then maybe the Arabian empire can finally dissolves as Arabic countries find a way to make themselves a Republic, and not a democracy.
My biggest complaint with the Bush administration during President George W. Bush’s time as a president was the most idiotic statement that American Marines were bringing Democracy (which is simply defined as rule of the majority 🤢🤮🤮🤮🫩) to these countries, when these bigoted and hateful soldiers, quite possibly foreign terrorists themselves, should have been declaring we are going to bring these countries a Republic.
But if we are to discuss international politics, that perhaps is a discussion for a season of Star Trek, and perhaps Star Wars as well. Herbert saw further, going as far as ten thousand years between books, as he simply gave up on finishing this book franchise by himself in his current lifetime. A Buddhist who probably wanted to experience birth again, it is his son Brian Patrick Herber who carries this torch for a franchise that is quietly rivaling Tolkien’s own behemoth the Middle Earth franchise for most intriguing fantasy series.
Find more of these discussions on the Verse Universe YouTube channel. Over at: https://youtube.com/shorts/GTB-6_ekJGA?si=he6gO2bfjLwKRFeN
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