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Re: A theme is merely a dominant strain in a story; there can be more than one theme present DomA Send a noteboard - 22/04/2010 04:58:01 AM
And those ecological structures and how they affect the narrative history seems to be a theme in the Herbert novels.


That's indeed one of the 5-6 main themes of the novel as defined by Herbert himself. By that he meant the main ideas he had decided to explore. Rather than writing essays, Herbert used fiction. Most of his novels are speculative fiction in the purest sensse.

Some others "themes" I remember:

- How the scarcity of a vital resource tend to make it the pivot of economy and politics and defined the limit of the possible. It was a topic of exploration inspired by the oil crisis which was already predicted at the time.

- A deconstructiom of the myth of the Hero, worshipped by humans since the beginning of times, in myth and religions and history. Herbert believed that Heroes, especially the Superhero kind, were disastrous for humanity. In Dune, he meant to project this idea on a galactic scale and put the survival of all humanity itself into the balance.

- How the cult of the superhero too often lead to theocracy, and how mixing up religion and politics constantly lead to fanatism and disaster. Herbert thought theocracy the worst kind of government.

There were a few more, I'd need to look. IIRC, Herbert spoke of that in the foreword to one of the novels in the French edition (his forewords/afterwords, or those of his French publisher aren't in the American editions).

Of course there's minor themes and ideas by the dozen, as in all of Herbert's books.

Among other things, Dune has also fascinated economists in Europe in the 70s.

This message last edited by DomA on 22/04/2010 at 05:01:02 AM
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Frank Herbert, Dune Chronicles (series reviews within) - 16/04/2010 04:11:40 AM 1810 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 16/04/2010 06:09:49 PM 959 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 17/04/2010 12:08:06 AM 1119 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 17/04/2010 02:33:38 PM 1052 Views
I was using a fairly precise term when I said "ecological" - 18/04/2010 12:13:14 AM 1055 Views
Re: I was using a fairly precise term when I said "ecological" - 18/04/2010 03:34:33 AM 1085 Views
Please read linked interview...as I call bullshit. Also, why are your walls white? - 18/04/2010 05:18:07 AM 924 Views
Re: Please read linked interview...as I call bullshit. Also, why are your walls white? - 19/04/2010 06:15:26 PM 922 Views
That was most of my issue. - 21/04/2010 12:12:56 AM 809 Views
Re: That was most of my issue. - 21/04/2010 06:33:14 PM 791 Views
Re: That was most of my issue. - 29/04/2010 11:38:26 PM 761 Views
Just because something plays a dominate role doesn't make it a theme - 21/04/2010 02:09:42 PM 893 Views
A theme is merely a dominant strain in a story; there can be more than one theme present - 21/04/2010 11:21:38 PM 865 Views
Re: A theme is merely a dominant strain in a story; there can be more than one theme present - 22/04/2010 04:58:01 AM 812 Views
Good points - 22/04/2010 09:19:45 PM 843 Views
Re: Good points - 22/04/2010 10:55:21 PM 806 Views
when you call it human ecology I come much closer to agreeing - 22/04/2010 02:16:58 PM 826 Views
Not really sure how Larry's definition is archaic. - 19/04/2010 07:52:27 PM 930 Views
Re: Not really sure how Larry's definition is archaic. - 20/04/2010 07:04:40 PM 788 Views
You're not using "archaic" correctly - 20/04/2010 10:07:31 PM 804 Views
Your patronizing manner aside, that's not "archaic" at all. - 21/04/2010 01:46:50 AM 712 Views
doesn't that regulate the point down to interesting trivia? - 21/04/2010 02:36:38 PM 837 Views
Re: Your patronizing manner aside, that's not "archaic" at all. - 21/04/2010 06:23:24 PM 915 Views
Funny the things people focus on - 21/04/2010 11:24:59 PM 806 Views
Re: Funny the things people focus on - 23/04/2010 05:28:54 PM 819 Views
People who see this as an ecological book are missing the point of the book - 16/04/2010 06:28:40 PM 1286 Views
Books can have more than one theme. Great books almost always do. *NM* - 16/04/2010 07:15:11 PM 413 Views
I agree with that I just never really the ecological theme to Dune - 16/04/2010 10:12:26 PM 997 Views
Ecology goes more than one way - 17/04/2010 12:12:45 AM 945 Views
There are several points to the book/series - 17/04/2010 12:11:38 AM 1024 Views
Everyone get something different from a book - 19/04/2010 07:01:51 PM 1199 Views
I remember having hated every single character of this book. Some random thoughts - 17/04/2010 05:08:25 PM 1155 Views
I hope you got to Darwi Odrade - 21/04/2010 03:44:27 PM 830 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 17/04/2010 08:05:16 PM 1392 Views
I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 17/04/2010 10:22:27 PM 1188 Views
Re: I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 18/04/2010 04:38:10 AM 1115 Views
Re: I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 19/04/2010 04:04:43 AM 1070 Views
Re: I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 22/04/2010 04:31:26 AM 828 Views
I thought all of Dune had begun as a serial in a SF magazine. *NM* - 22/04/2010 01:58:22 PM 357 Views
And Dune Messiah as well was serialized at first, in Galaxy *NM* - 22/04/2010 09:31:54 PM 363 Views
Dune Messiah (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 19/04/2010 08:42:18 AM 1059 Views
Re: Dune Messiah (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 21/04/2010 03:33:46 PM 804 Views
I didn't see that in Alia - 21/04/2010 11:27:22 PM 710 Views
One of my favorite series! - 21/04/2010 03:30:57 PM 730 Views
I didn't "miss it" as much as I chose to deemphasize it - 21/04/2010 11:29:50 PM 654 Views
Re: I didn't "miss it" as much as I chose to deemphasize it - 22/04/2010 04:02:26 PM 761 Views
His style doesn't appeal to me as much, unfortunately - 22/04/2010 09:17:21 PM 659 Views
You might want to track down his short stories one day... - 23/04/2010 02:06:09 PM 885 Views
Children of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 22/04/2010 06:47:04 AM 869 Views
See...I think I made a mistake in my reading of Dune - 22/04/2010 07:26:28 AM 840 Views
Depends - 22/04/2010 08:01:39 AM 741 Views
Re: Depends - 22/04/2010 11:12:15 PM 995 Views
read something else - 23/04/2010 07:49:34 PM 732 Views
LA Times article on Dune (4/18/2010) - 23/04/2010 10:59:00 AM 699 Views
God Emperor of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 25/04/2010 02:03:37 AM 953 Views
Heretics of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 28/04/2010 06:02:54 AM 707 Views
Re: Heretics of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 29/04/2010 03:26:28 PM 769 Views
I read the wiki synopses of those two books - 29/04/2010 09:44:07 PM 753 Views
Re: I read the wiki synopses of those two books - 10/05/2010 04:10:49 AM 1078 Views
Chapterhouse: Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 30/04/2010 02:31:10 PM 889 Views
Re: Chapterhouse: Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 10/05/2010 01:24:33 AM 909 Views

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