Revisiting Dune

I was a teenager the first time I read Frank Herbert’s epic space opera, Dune. While the genre became popular with the Star Wars, I can see how Dune may have set the stage for what has become a multi-billion-dollar franchise. A youth starts out in a sandy planet, realizes and is trained to use special innate powers, and brings a galactic empire to its knees. However where George Lucas’ epic feels campy when I re-watch it, this was certainly not the case when I re-read Dune.

What led me to read Herbert’s novel again? I blame it on DVD documentaries, and easy access to them from the local library system. When I watched Tim’s Vermeer last month, it included a preview of Jodorowsky’s Dune. Not having followed the Dune-iverse, I had not paid attention to the twists and travails in the quest to re-make the Dune movie in recent years. I did watch the David Lynch movie years ago. I hardly remember anything about it (perhaps it was forgettable) and probably was not impressed. It likely paled compared to the Star Wars trilogy. I knew nothing about Jodorowsky’s attempt the previous decade – billed as the “greatest movie never made”. This is the tagline of the DVD documentary.

In preparation to watch Jodorowsky’s Dune, I read Herbert’s original novel (also borrowed from the local library) over Thanksgiving break. The best way to read epic fiction is to block off many hours and immerse oneself in its universe. I was surprised at how much I did not remember about the story, and the new things that caught my attention! While I had a vague memory of the overall storyline and the main factions involved (House Atreides, House Harkonnen, The Fremen, and the Bene Gesserit) and several of the principal characters, I had forgotten the depth of political intrigue surrounding Arrakis. I could not recall why the spice mélange was important, although I did remember the sandworms. I had forgotten the role of the Guild, and I had no memory of Liet-Kynes and his ecological dream. This time around, I found these aspects to be some of the most interesting parts of the book. It makes me wonder if my scientific training has caused me to read everything with a different lens.

There is so much science in the novel. All parts in the book involving Kynes (which I probably read over quickly as a teenager) took new significance. With NASA probes on Mars today, and having watched the Martian recently, it really got my thinking juices going on the prospect of terraforming. How could you change a desert into an oasis? Herbert’s novel reminded me of Miyazaki’s Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind (the manga, not the movie) and its ecological dream amidst war, politics and intrigue. I also took notice whenever chemistry was mentioned, for example in the molecular conversion of poison in the cleansing of the water of life. I call it Mental Molecular Manipulation, and advocate young wizards to learn chemistry to increase their magic prowess.

I had forgotten the crucial role of spice and how it expanded the mind in time and space. Now that I’m a quantum mechanic, I was picking up on all the references to the wave nature of matter, the space-time continuum, reversibility of physical laws, and speculations of the multiverse-consciousness complex. I don’t think I understood the role of the Guild, nor the depth of political and economic importance of Arrakis, until this reading. I probably read the book too quickly the first time, when I was a more impatient reader. Now I savor my fiction! Back then, I never quite understood why the Guild was one of the six factions in the Avalon Hill boardgame. (I might even consider revisiting the boardgame now.) The blending of politics, economics, and space-time navigation is intriguing indeed!

This brings me to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s vision of Dune. I had never heard of Jodorowsky before nor had I seen any of his earlier movies. This documentary showed clips from some of his older work – I must admit that I do not understand it, nor have I any desire to see it. The impression I got comes from my limited understanding of surrealism in motion pictures and not being able to sit through Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (I gave up after half an hour). The documentary mostly consists of the key players working on that first movie adaptation of Dune: Jodorowsky, Seydoux, and several very talented artists recruited by the maestro himself. After Dune failed to launch, the artistic talent would go on to leave their mark starting with Ridley Scott’s Alien.

The culmination of Jodorowsky’s work comes in the form of a storyboard tome (cover shown above). We get to see not just some of the wild and psychedelic concept art, but some amazing storyboarding and layout techniques. Jodorowsky was ahead of his time, and towards the end of the DVD, you can see his ideas influencing the crop of sci-fi movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Star Wars included. The way Jodorowsky recruited his actors is also very interesting with characters such as David Carradine, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger and Orson Welles. His magnetic personality and vision convinced young and capable artists to leave home and country for Paris where they would produce an amazing tome. Technical talent was not sufficient for Jodorowsky, and he searched for the “spiritual” elements of his crew, motivating many of them to do some of their best work for his prophetic vision. A prophet, a messiah, was central to the story – and therefore all aspects would have to be infused with the spiritual.

No movie studio would pick it up, however, and the project came to an end. The probable reason: the eccentricity, perhaps visionary madness, of Jodorowsky the artist. There seems to be some hint of madness in all the great artists, at least that’s the impression I get when reading about them. The scientist in me perhaps doesn’t understand it, but I still got caught up in Jodorowsky’s vision that Dune could be the motion picture that would achieve a cult status far beyond its descendants like Blade Runner or The Matrix. The creativity excited me, even though I’m sure I do not comprehend it. Just listening to Jodorowsky made me want to excel at whatever I did. It reminded me of a great teacher, one that unleashes the potential in students, acolytes and protégés. It motivated to not just be good at what I do, but great at it. And as I revisited Dune, I felt perhaps a small tinge of mania – perhaps a brief vision of what could be. It’s almost as if I had tasted the spice-filled Water of Life to see into the great beyond. Now that’s what great literature should be like!