I go by stories getting an allowance of one Contrived Coincidence, though it usually comes at the beginning as part of the setup (see Elfen Lied for one of the best examples of how well this can work).
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Yeah. In this case, I think he and Halleck never meeting again would have been worse—Halleck was too important a person in Paul's life to just drop off the radar.
edited 24th Sep '10 11:25:46 PM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.
Chapter 45:
Irulan’s pretty clear this time, saying that Paul’s taking the Kwisatz Haderach test by drinking the poison is how the prophecy that he’d be both dead and alive happened. I love it when a plan comes together.
Chani has been called back to Paul, but first meets Jessica, which doesn’t do much for her suspicions of why she’s here. Jessica also drags her through a formal greeting ritual, unsure how to break whatever news it is. Finally, after much more of this she gets to how Paul is in a coma and she hopes Chani can revive him, though she doesn’t know anything about how it happened and suspects the Harkonnens somehow slipped poison to him. And she’s grasping at straws by sending for Chani, with no idea how it can actually help.
Chani sees Paul, and Jessica exposits that it’s been three weeks, and some of the Fremen are suspicious that he’s dead and Jessica is trying to delay their draining his water. I really can’t get involved, though, since it’s so obvious that he’ll survive this. She’s fought back by telling them Paul is gathering his powers before the final battle, which of course is pretty darn near the truth. Chani figures it out, just from it being something Paul might try, and he immediately wakes up upon getting a little more. Not sure how that works.
A rather unexpected Crowning Moment Of Funny with this exchange: “How could you do such a foolish thing?” “He is your son.” Turns out the experience had a Year Inside, Hour Outside effect, and now that Paul knows about this he swallows much more of the water and shares minds with Jessica to get into the forbidden mind area that will make him the Kwisatz Haderach. Oh, just go with it. Though since Paul isn’t the viewpoint for this chapter we don’t get to see it, which is probably for the best as everyone can imagine something different.
Paul explains it as something about giving and taking, and he’s now at the exact midpoint between the two, but hell if I know what he’s talking about. And one of the Fremen has been spying on them the whole time, so now everyone will know what he can do. He also saw that right now, all the villains are in orbit over the planet with the Spacing Guild as yet stopping anyone from landing, despite engineering the situation by spreading the stories of Muad’Dib and lowering everyone’s fares. And now he plays his trump card: with a small portion of converted Water of Life, he can cause a chain reaction that will kill all the sandworms and spice, so first the Guild needs to take care of him before anyone else can do anything. Seeing as there’s a bunch more books after this I doubt that will actually happen, but it makes a nice setup for the climax.
Seeing as there’s a bunch more books after this I doubt that will actually happen
Chapter 46:
Not much from Irulan here, just talking about how important Arrakis is right now.
Paul and the rest have camped outside Arrakeen, where they spot the huge tent that the Emperor and his personal guard are staying in. Plus women and servants, which Paul smartly sees as a sign of overconfidence. His plan regarding the two Sardaukar has started as they’re on their way back to the city, but we’ll still be waiting a bit to find out what it is, except that it involves rocket launchers. There’s a bit of fun small talk between Paul, Halleck, and Stilgar, before things get serious as Paul is planning to use atomics to destroy the canyon wall protecting the town, no longer feeling obligated by the Imperial laws against it while Halleck is. He’s also happy to recruit the untrained townspeople who Rabban has instilled so much hate in as his first wave. There’s Character Development for you.
The Sardaukar arrive back at the base, along with their information that Paul is Muad’Dib. This is to give the Emperor a chance to cut his losses, but instead he splits the difference and raises a CHOAM flag, refusing to show allegiance that he’ll have to stick with to either side. Paul outlines more of his pretty cool strategy: there’s a big storm coming, so all their enemies will be inside leaving their vehicles untended. The storm will also destroy their shields, so he has snipers prepare shots on those vehicles before they lose visibility. As they take positions, he’s a bit of an extra bastard by making Halleck blow up the wall.
The storm arrives, and everyone gets to their jobs. It’s a very exciting sequence with a whole bunch of stuff happening and Paul desperately trying to retain control over it all, even though some of his orders like abandoning their equipment go against the Fremen lifestyle. But we’re slammed with a sudden Tearjerker of a half-received message that seems to indicate Alia has been captured while Leto II was killed, causing Paul to again think of himself as bringing death everywhere he goes. Hopefully the fight to come will get us more upbeat again.
Chapter 47:
Irulan seems to describe Muad’Dib knowing that Alia is still alive because they have the same powers. I’m sure it’ll become clear soon enough.
It’s finally time to meet the Emperor, and right away he gets a Kick the Dog as w see he makes servants carry his throne around everywhere he goes, even though he has those suspensor-lifts that Harkonnen uses. And Mohiam’s also there; oh, this will be sweet. Irulan’s there too, with a pretty good description of Virginia Madsen so kudos to the casting people again. He’s meeting with Harkonnen, who’s completely unnerved to be in front of him, a rather startling image that drives home what a big deal this guy is.
Hawat has been sent to infiltrate the Fremen and is almost out of time to receive his latest antidote injection, but there’s no way he’ll end up like that. The Emperor has lost patience with how long the takeover of Arrakis has been going on and is here to wrap things up himself. Uh, yeah, good luck with that. Alia is brought in, with a fun bit of both Harkonnen and Mohiam being instinctively put off by the Creepy Child. And she’s completely calm as she repeatedly insults everyone and makes Badass Boasts, including that she let herself be captured. Oh, it’s going to hit the fan now.
The Emperor has a bit of a Villainous Breakdown, with Harkonnen’s incomplete plan with Rabban now having convinced him that Harkonnen and Leto were working together the whole time. And Mohiam joins him after just looking at Alia a bit too long, unable to stand that she has all of Mohiam’s memories. Giving Alia more of a chance to be awesome with a Shut Up, Hannibal!: “You babble, old woman. You don’t know how it was, yet you rattle on like a purblind fool.”
After Alia and the Emperor argue a bit, the attack begins, and Alia gets her Crowning Moment Of Awesome even among everything else she’s pulled so far when she stabs Harkonnen in the palm with a gom jabbar she’s apparently been wearing the whole time. Bonus points for calling him Grandfather, and it being so similar to Feyd-Rautha’s attempt. She runs out as the attack continues and grabs a knife to join the fight herself. Coolest two-year-old ever.
The doors burst open, letting the Emperor see just how screwed he is as a “massed wall” of sandworms are part of the attack. The Emperor, Mohiam, Irulan, and the two Guild members are pushed to the relative safety of their ship, and devise some plan involving Fenring, who I guess is also here. Well, why not, we do have just one chapter left to wrap this bad boy up.
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I forgot how fast the climax happens—just a few chapters.
Check out the films' version of it; each film adds something amusingly bad, and the Lynch version has a rock score.
edited 26th Sep '10 11:08:44 PM by harmattane
Ce ne pas un post.
Chapter 48:
The final word from Irulan is all about how impossible to understand Muad’Dib’s motives are since he thinks on a level so far above humans, something that really could have backfired for Herbert if the book had been less well written. Just remember when the Lost writers had the chutzpah to say in dialogue that the show was too good to be comprehended by a human mind. Luckily, that’s not the case here.
Paul, Halleck, and Stilgar enter the palace, with a nice bit of conversation about how far they’ve come. Paul turns off Halleck again when he seems to worry more about the equipment lost in the battle than the lives, but it’s only because Paul is so distracted by the Dark Messiah vision still being there. As well, Alia has actually planted a message from the near future that she’s killed Harkonnen. Quite the One-Scene Wonder here. Plus, a neat throwaway bit where Halleck again comes up with an appropriate quote, so much that it strikes home a bit too much for Paul.
A Sardaukar is brought in, and his clearly being past the Despair Event Horizon gets Paul to consider the negative effects of never losing. Fodder for later books, I’m guessing. He’s sent with another offer to the Emperor to surrender, and I actually don’t know what the result will be, or even how much closure this chapter will give considering the sequels. Paul is worried when he sees the Fremen in actual worship of him now, though it’s unfortunately interrupted with the news that Rabban was simply killed somewhere offpage. I really get the feeling here that the story had gotten too big for its own good, forcing some less than satisfactory resolutions.
Jessica arrives and is a bit put off as well by Paul’s coldness, though he also gets the chance to do something of a Screw You, Elves! on her, hopefully as a warm-up for meeting Mohiam: “How would you like to live billions upon billions of lives? There’s a fabric of legends for you! Think of all those experiences, the wisdom they’d bring. But wisdom tempers love, doesn’t it? And it puts a new shape on hate. How can you tell what’s ruthless unless you’ve plumbed the depths of both cruelty and kindness? You should fear me, Mother. I am the Kwisatz Haderach.”
Paul gets even darker as he announces his plan to marry Irulan just to stick it to the Emperor. He and Chani have a Tearjerker moment over their son, then it’s reported that the Guild members are there. Paul isn’t worried, since the Guild navigators are now entirely dependent on mélange and thus at his mercy with his preperations to destroy it all. Hawat has asked to be left with the Harkonnens, and Paul is still suspicious thanks to one vision of this moment where Hawat kills him. I’m really not buying it now.
All the remaining villains come in, and Paul is put off his game by Fenring, having never seen him in any visions. And according to Jessica he’s a eunuch; that’s kind of an odd detail to throw at us now. Hawat is allowed to come next to Paul, and he’s somehow already learned he was wrong about Jessica. So Halleck’s subplot there got a good payoff but Hawat’s is a big "Shaggy Dog" Story. He had been given a poison needle by the Emperor (they really like that method in this book) but as the poison finally kills him he has another Dying Moment of Awesome: “See, Majesty? See your traitor’s needle? Did you think that I who’ve given my life to service of the Atreides would give them less now?”
The Emperor gets a very nice Oh, Crap! description: “Eyes that had never admitted fear admitted it at last.” Paul gets the Guild members to send the ships away by threatening to destroy the spice again, bitches out the Emperor on how all this is his own fault for his role in the plot, and finally the Screw You, Elves! we’ve all been waiting for when Mohiam steps forward and deigns to forgive Jessica for Alia. And boy is it epic, and it really deserves to be quoted in full:
“You’ve never had the right or cause to forgive my mother anything! Try your tricks on me, old witch. Where’s your gom jabbar? Try looking into that place where you dare not look! You’ll find me there staring out at you! Observe her, comrades! This is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, patient in a patient cause. She could wait with her sisters - ninety generations for the proper combination of genes and environment to produce the one person their schemes required. Observe her! She knows now that the ninety generations have produced that person. Here I stand…but…I…will…never…do…her…bidding! For your part in all this I could gladly have you strangled. You couldn’t prevent it! But I think it better punishment that you live out your years never able to touch me or bend me to a single thing your scheming desires. I’ll give you only one thing. You saw part of what the race needs, but how poorly you saw it. You think to control human breeding and intermix a select few according to your master plan! How little you understand. I remember your gom jabbar. You remember mine. I can kill you with a word.”
Now that’s a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for you. And also one for Jessica, who in the middle of it does her own talking back to Mohiam for the first time in her life. Paul demads he marry Irulan as the only proper penance for all that’s happened, and even gets Mohiam arguing for him. But Halleck reminds him that he was promised personal revenge, and Feyd-Rautha is here right now. But after more insult trading, Paul decides to do it himself, under that old kanly proviso. And he rejects Jessica’s advice about the possible paralyzing word, so Feyd-Rautha will die entirely from his own fault, with far more of a chance than he gave anyone else. Awesome.
Feyd-Rautha takes the Emperor’s own knife into the fight, but there’s that overconfidence that comes from never having lost that Paul noticed before. And Paul realizes that it’s his death here which will result in the Dark Messiah vision; not quite the Prophecy Twist I was expecting, but a pretty good one. And even as the fight starts, he manages to seriously freak out Mohiam by calling Feyd-Rautha “cousin,” and her reaction also lets us know Feyd-Rautha has a daughter, another possible Chekhov's Gunman for future books. And his Sherlock Scan reveals a hidden weapon on Feyd-Rautha’s hip, though his visions have been gone for a while so he still doesn’t know what it is.
Paul is able to unnerve Feyd-Rautha just by staying silent in the face of numerous taunts, but it’s still a hard fight that involves the same molecule rearranging trick Jessica did, plus the poison needle is actually on the other hip than Paul suspected, Feyd-Rautha having deliberately made him suspicious. And that Chekhov's Skill finally pays off when Paul makes sure the needle is immobilized before he makes the killing strike, through the jaw into the brain. Add one more Crowning Moment Of Awesome to the pile.
The Emperor tries to play his last hand and sets Fenring against the exhausted Paul, but it turns out the reason Fenring hadn’t appeared in any visions is that he could have been the Kwisatz Haderach himself but was too introverted to try. He refuses due to this sudden bond, and sends the Emperor into full Villainous Breakdown again, punching Fenring in the face, and Paul announces that he’ll be sending the Emperor to Salusa Secundus, though he’ll be terraforming it just like Arrakis by sending the Fremen out into the universe. With one more nice Screw You, Elves! when Mohiam objects: “You will think back to the gentle ways of the Sarkdaukar!”
Then it’s back to Irulan, plus the Emperor’s complete stockholdings in CHOAM as a dowry, Halleck being put on the board representing Caladan, and titles for every surviving Atreides man. Paul promises Chani that though she won’t have a title, which she doesn’t want anyway, all his love and future children will be with her. And in the final paragraph, there’s one hell of a Brick Joke: Irulan will write all those books about Muad’Dib because it’s the only kind of intimacy she can have with him.
That’s it for Dune, but I’ll be giving one more post reviewing the whole book. Stay tuned.
Yeah, that's the joke with Irulan : she's completely irrelevant despite her narration. Which is why adaptations giving her a bigger role in the plot are missing the point.
Will you be continuing with the other books ? They're certainly worth it...
Dune has been called the Lord of the Rings of sci-fi, but that's probably just because that was the only real possible comparison at the time. It's far closer to A Song Of Ice And Fire with the ever-mutating Xanatos Speed Chess and the equal focus on characters and world-building. Though it does have a much lighter tone; despite the heroes going through some bad situations, you're never really in doubt that they'll win in the end. Luckily, the process of how that happens is still compelling enough that I didn't mind the trip getting there.
The one real flaw is that the story gets a bit too big for its own good. The final chapter, even as the longest one in the book, feels a bit rushed as Herbert shoves one resolution after another toward us, inevitably resulting in some of these being less than satisfactory. Particularly annoying is that the supposed Chekhov's Gun of Jessica's crysknife ends up never getting used. Though this does bring me to ask: is there any word on what Herbert's plan was for the book? Did he write it as a standalone work, or was it always intended as the beginning of a series? As it is, it straddles the line quite nicely much like the original Star Wars: there's plenty left open for future installments, but there's still enough closure that the book could have stood on its own if he didn't get to write any more.
I'll definitely be reading the other books, at least the ones Herbert wrote himself given what I've heard about the ones his son has been churning out. I won't be L Bing them, but I probably will give updates after I'm done with each one.
edited 27th Sep '10 11:23:03 AM by Eegah
Unfortunately, the sequels are a disappointment (I'm not the only one with that opinion). Instead of continuing with the same characters and dealing directly with the aftermath of Paul's victor over the emperor, in the next book Paul becomes an author avatar, Irulan becomes a major character, and entirely new ones are introduced in a conspiracy that just isnt believable.
I think there’s a global conspiracy to see who can get the most clicks on the worst lies
Dune was originally going to be a single novel divided into several books, which grew too big and eventually became the trilogy Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. The first novel creates the messiah figure, the rest explores the consequences of having a messiah. The later novels expanded on the universe in different ways, set thousands of years later, and some themes and organisations carry on, but the "Dune trilogy" is the story that Herbert originally set out to tell. (It's a very uneven trilogy in length - if you consider that Dune as being in three roughly even books, Messiah would originally have been just book 4, and Children books 5 and 6.)
I confess, I didn't like the sequels as much as the first story, but that's because things do become darker. (I was only 11 when I first read them.)
After checking out the end of the miniseries, it actually did improve one thing over the book by giving Rabban an onscreen death, and a really good one. But the rest I could take or leave. Especially puzzling is the treatment of Irulan. She's not only an actual character but a likable one, stuck in a bad situation and doing all she can to figure out her father's dirty dealings. Yet we're apparently still supposed to feel good about her getting the shit end of the stick.
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I agree. Changing the role of Irulan in that film made the ending seem undeserved, not that it was very fair to begin with.
by giving Rabban an onscreen death, and a really good one.
As some of you might know from my previous LBs, I'm actually Ryan Lohner, writer for The Agony Booth (actually one of two who have been there from the start, along with founder Albert Walker). And while waiting for my next subject The Last Airbender to be released on DVD, I've decided to do a recap of David Lynch's Dune film. Here's a sneak peek at the introduction (including some information on the sequels that I trust you all on, and minus the HTML code so you don't go crazy trying to read it).
Dune. Every science fiction fan knows about it, even if they haven't actually taken the time to read it. Frank Herbert's magnum opus has attained a legendary reputation as the best-selling sci-fi series in history, and the genre's equivalent to The Lord of the Rings.
Which I actually think does it a disservice. Outside hardcore fantasy fans, the majority opinion these days (which I happen to agree with) seems to be that for all of J.R.R. Tolkien's skill at world building and the massive influence his works have had, the book itself is a bit on the dull side, filled with paper-thin characters and highly intrusive pieces of exposition.
You'll find none of that in Dune. It's a fascinating story that still manages to feel fresh all these decades later, populated with numerous compelling characters and a constantly evolving power struggle that will have you on the edge of your seat. Even scenes which simply have two people talking have a level of gravitas and veiled threat, but if you pay attention you'll never be confused except when you're supposed to be.
It's not a perfect book. Herbert's less than tolerant views of homosexuality are a little too apparent at times, and the story eventually gets a bit too big for its own good, so that the final chapter feels very rushed with one subplot resolution after another after another thrown at us. But these are minor enough concerns since the rest is so good, to me at least.
Herbert wrote four sequels and was planning more before his death, but was never quite able to equal the magic he had with the first book. And the less said about his son Brian's shameless attempts to milk the cash cow, the better. But we'll always have that first book to treasure.
Which brings me to the subject of this recap. Naturally, Hollywood smelled huge potential in making movies out of these books, but producers had to wait a while given that science fiction films at the time were mostly seen as the realm of zero-budget schlockfests. Then along came Star Wars, which proved that such a film could be a massive success under the right circumstances. The search was on for the writer and director who could be trusted with such a potential moneymaker. What they got was David Lynch.
To me, like most people, Lynch is the very definition of a hit or miss director. When he's good, he's very good indeed, creating disturbing yet thoughtful films, often on his favorite subject of the seamy underbelly of seemingly rosy societies. It's here that you get films like The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, and The Straight Story.
But then there's the times he gets way too full of his own pretentions and produces self-conciously artsy and confusing films like Eraserhead, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Dr.. When you manage to make a lesbian relationship between Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring among the most boring things ever committed to film, something is wrong.
And finally there's his adaptation of Dune, the one true black sheep of his career. Not only is it his only adaptation of a novel, but his only science fiction and special effects heavy film as well. And boy does it show, as you get the impression that Lynch spent most of the shoot just flailing around with no clue what he was doing. And it's really a shame, as the movie sports a very impressive cast who definitely could have put on great interpretations of the book's characters if they'd been given a writer and director who knew what to do with them.
Interestingly, accounts vary wildly on how seriously Lynch took this film. Some say he was very excited at the prospect of becoming a commercially successful director and hoped to create a franchise to rival Star Wars. Others insist he didn't care at all and only took the job to get financing for Blue Velvet, as was specified in his contract.
Whatever his intentions, the film is a mess. It's a textbook example of how not to turn a novel into a movie, showing no concern at all for people who don't already know the story. In fact, it's so bad at this that several theaters resorted to handing out "cheat sheets" with a plot summary and character descriptions to anyone who bought a ticket.
But at least it's an endlessly fascinating mess. While watching it, you'll find yourself constantly wondering just what the hell was going through the minds of anyone involved with the production during filming of the current scene. Maybe if you haven't read the book you'll just find yourself bored by having no idea what's going on or why you should care, but if you're in the right mood it makes for one hell of a viewing experience that you won't forget any time soon.
edited 27th Sep '10 9:04:16 PM by Eegah
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Nicely written—I'll definitely be reading the full recap. It'll be fun to see another person's take on the movie after having gone through it with similar intentions myself. When do you expect the recap to be posted?
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The Ant King
I liked Mulholland Drive...
But anyway, it looks good.
edited 28th Sep '10 3:12:37 AM by Myrmidon
Kill all math nerds
It'll be done by next month; I'm keeping to recapping five minutes a day, which will take 27 days to fill in the time until Last Airbender is released. Though then it goes to Albert for editing, which could take any amount of time.
Hey, that's cool. I actually didnt know that about you, I'll spend some time over there sometime soon.
I think there’s a global conspiracy to see who can get the most clicks on the worst lies
It always struck me as very, very lucky and improbable that Paul and Halleck would just so happen to meet, in one place at the same time, on that entire planet.
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