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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 1860 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 16/04/2010 06:09:49 PM 999 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 17/04/2010 12:08:06 AM 1171 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 17/04/2010 02:33:38 PM 1104 Views
I was using a fairly precise term when I said "ecological" - 18/04/2010 12:13:14 AM 1096 Views
Re: I was using a fairly precise term when I said "ecological" - 18/04/2010 03:34:33 AM 1143 Views
Please read linked interview...as I call bullshit. Also, why are your walls white? - 18/04/2010 05:18:07 AM 960 Views
Re: Please read linked interview...as I call bullshit. Also, why are your walls white? - 19/04/2010 06:15:26 PM 985 Views
That was most of my issue. - 21/04/2010 12:12:56 AM 856 Views
Re: That was most of my issue. - 21/04/2010 06:33:14 PM 835 Views
Re: That was most of my issue. - 29/04/2010 11:38:26 PM 813 Views
Just because something plays a dominate role doesn't make it a theme - 21/04/2010 02:09:42 PM 953 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 914 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 864 Views
Good points - 22/04/2010 09:19:45 PM 897 Views
Re: Good points - 22/04/2010 10:55:21 PM 856 Views
when you call it human ecology I come much closer to agreeing - 22/04/2010 02:16:58 PM 875 Views
Not really sure how Larry's definition is archaic. - 19/04/2010 07:52:27 PM 981 Views
Re: Not really sure how Larry's definition is archaic. - 20/04/2010 07:04:40 PM 832 Views
You're not using "archaic" correctly - 20/04/2010 10:07:31 PM 852 Views
Your patronizing manner aside, that's not "archaic" at all. - 21/04/2010 01:46:50 AM 761 Views
doesn't that regulate the point down to interesting trivia? - 21/04/2010 02:36:38 PM 878 Views
Re: Your patronizing manner aside, that's not "archaic" at all. - 21/04/2010 06:23:24 PM 955 Views
Funny the things people focus on - 21/04/2010 11:24:59 PM 853 Views
Re: Funny the things people focus on - 23/04/2010 05:28:54 PM 857 Views
People who see this as an ecological book are missing the point of the book - 16/04/2010 06:28:40 PM 1339 Views
Books can have more than one theme. Great books almost always do. *NM* - 16/04/2010 07:15:11 PM 432 Views
I agree with that I just never really the ecological theme to Dune - 16/04/2010 10:12:26 PM 1048 Views
Ecology goes more than one way - 17/04/2010 12:12:45 AM 991 Views
There are several points to the book/series - 17/04/2010 12:11:38 AM 1065 Views
Everyone get something different from a book - 19/04/2010 07:01:51 PM 1251 Views
I believe those themes become more pronounced later in the series - 20/04/2010 10:09:36 PM 1001 Views
I remember having hated every single character of this book. Some random thoughts - 17/04/2010 05:08:25 PM 1194 Views
I hope you got to Darwi Odrade - 21/04/2010 03:44:27 PM 873 Views
Re: Frank Herbert, Dune - 17/04/2010 08:05:16 PM 1435 Views
I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 17/04/2010 10:22:27 PM 1237 Views
Re: I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 18/04/2010 04:38:10 AM 1162 Views
Re: I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 19/04/2010 04:04:43 AM 1118 Views
Re: I guess we'll have a few disagreements here, Dom - 22/04/2010 04:31:26 AM 879 Views
I thought all of Dune had begun as a serial in a SF magazine. *NM* - 22/04/2010 01:58:22 PM 372 Views
And Dune Messiah as well was serialized at first, in Galaxy *NM* - 22/04/2010 09:31:54 PM 382 Views
Dune Messiah (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 19/04/2010 08:42:18 AM 1104 Views
Re: Dune Messiah (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 21/04/2010 03:33:46 PM 864 Views
I didn't see that in Alia - 21/04/2010 11:27:22 PM 772 Views
One of my favorite series! - 21/04/2010 03:30:57 PM 781 Views
I didn't "miss it" as much as I chose to deemphasize it - 21/04/2010 11:29:50 PM 705 Views
Re: I didn't "miss it" as much as I chose to deemphasize it - 22/04/2010 04:02:26 PM 818 Views
His style doesn't appeal to me as much, unfortunately - 22/04/2010 09:17:21 PM 704 Views
You might want to track down his short stories one day... - 23/04/2010 02:06:09 PM 929 Views
Children of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 22/04/2010 06:47:04 AM 912 Views
See...I think I made a mistake in my reading of Dune - 22/04/2010 07:26:28 AM 881 Views
Depends - 22/04/2010 08:01:39 AM 792 Views
Re: Depends - 22/04/2010 11:12:15 PM 1042 Views
read something else - 23/04/2010 07:49:34 PM 776 Views
LA Times article on Dune (4/18/2010) - 23/04/2010 10:59:00 AM 735 Views
God Emperor of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 25/04/2010 02:03:37 AM 999 Views
Heretics of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 28/04/2010 06:02:54 AM 754 Views
Re: Heretics of Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 29/04/2010 03:26:28 PM 824 Views
I read the wiki synopses of those two books - 29/04/2010 09:44:07 PM 799 Views
Re: I read the wiki synopses of those two books - 10/05/2010 04:10:49 AM 1131 Views
Chapterhouse: Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 30/04/2010 02:31:10 PM 932 Views
Re: Chapterhouse: Dune (2001 initial read; 2010 re-read) - 10/05/2010 01:24:33 AM 960 Views

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