As The Worm Turns:

reflections on

Frank Herbert’s Dune Saga

by Gary W. Wright

        After too many years, and spurred on by the release of the Iatest attempt by Canadian film artist Denis Villeneuve and a talented cast and crew to transform the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Philip K. Dick toasting and Robert A. Heinlein roasting Franklin Patrick “Frank” Herbert jr. indie docufiction novel Dune [December 1, 1965] into a feature film, I re-read Dune and the rest of Herbert’s epic Dune Saga and was pleased to discover that they were all better and more timely than before.  Indeed, after too many decades of exuberant nonsense about the arrival of neo digitally enhanced “cyberpunk” people and of the birth of an “artificial intelligence” that was about as likely as the birth of intelligent toasters, it was very refreshing to read a novel that quickly summed up and dismissed the computer age by noting, sarcastically and succinctly, that “…once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.  But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them” [Herbert 17] spoken shortly before the end of Chapter One by the sinister, commanding, duplicitous and Wicked Witch of the West evoking and implicitly linked Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam of the mysterious and extrasensory power [ESP] aided Bene Gesserit “Sisterhood”.  Two succinct and dismissive sentences that hopefully accurately foretold that the “magical” computer age that humanity was currently suffering through would be as brief, mistaken and tragicomic as the one that humanity suffered through before coming to its collective senses long before the events of Dune, when computers and computer people were overthrown in a religious and sociocultural revolution called the Butlerian Jihad that led to an emphasis on creating a better and more devout, aware, sensitive, developed, intuitive, insightful, imaginative, intelligent, emotional and vital humanity that just kept on going for five hundred more riveting pages into an ancient feudal future that revealed what that expanded and heightened humanity would look, think, feel and talk like some eight thousand years from now after humanity had long fled a nuclear ravaged Earth and spread across the universe, banned its madcap Mutally Assured Destruction [MAD] nuclear weapon philosophy that was all the rage when Herbert was writing the novel between 1960-65, and re-embraced more courageous hand to hand combat between rival armies to solve conflicts rather than the insanity of nuclear weapons.  How refreshing and reassuring to also find in this ancient future that books, many of them written and/or edited by the jilted, embittered and pensive Bene Gesserit Princess Irulan, were still around and as important as ever and written on paper, albeit ridulian crystal paper.

“You will feel pain in this hand within the box…

[a pain designed] to determine if you’re human.”

        Significantly, after sharing this affirmation of man over machine, Reverend Mother Mohiam then forced her young listener Paul Atreides at pain of death to stick his hand into a vaginal pain amplifier box she was holding pointedly in her lap and successfully endure an incredible amount of pain to affirm his own vital humanity and to test to see if he was a superbeing known as the Kwisatz Haderach, a symbolic rape that took away his “virginity” and left him a more enlightened, adult and truly human being.  A full and vital humanity that young Atreides desperately needed, for Dune took place in an ancient feudal future where an Emperor and his court and minor aristocrats and all of their attendants and sychophants had returned, leading to an oppressive neo-imperialist era that caused a hard pressed but ultimately triumphant and very religious Orange Catholic fused neo-Islamic “Zensunni” uprising to break out on a desert world called Arrakis that was nicknamed “Dune”, a desert planet that reminded us that Mars had long symbolized the world of the sly fi establishment by the publication of Dune but whose indie status implicitly affirmed that Arrakis symbolized indie sly fi writers like Dick and Herbert who were not a part of the sly fi establishment in those days.  Significantly, this religious and sociocultural uprising was eventually led by the mysterious, visionary and prescient young messiah Duke Paul Atreides, also known variously as Paul-Maud’dib, Maud’dib, Usul, the Lisan al-Gaib and the Kwisatz Haderach. 

Interestingly, Duke Atreides was initially born and raised as an oxymoronic Orange Catholic on an Earth-like and Canada cadenced world called Caladan before emigrating to Arrakis with his fearless father Duke Leto Atreides, whose first name curiously evoked the Greek goddess Leto, a consort of Zeus who gave birth to the twins Apollo and Artemis, and his mother, the rebel and implicitly Glinda the Good linked Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica and the rest of the loyal members of House Atreides to Dune and taking over control of the planet on the orders of the proud, haughty and implicitly Great Oz linked Galactic Emperor, Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.  However, after a shocking sneak attack by the Emperor and his brutal Sardaukar “terror troops” and his sinister ally, the twisted and pedophilic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and the equally brutal and violent soldiers of House Harkonnen that killed Duke Leto and most of the soldiers of House Atreides but left Paul and Lady Jessica alive, Paul-Maud’dib was inspired to lead the devout, tenacious, fearless and indomitable Fremen tribes of Arrakis to victory over its brutal and hated planetary Governor Rabban Harkonnen, the nephew of Baron Harkonnen, the Baron himself, his soldiers, and their allies, the Emperor and his impious imperial legions of Sardaukar terror troops and Reverend Mother Mohiam and the rest of the ambiguously religious and all female Bene Gesserit Sisterhood that supported the Emperor; and, at a wary remove, the other titled aristocracy and the even more wary, mysterious and implicitly flying monkey linked Spacing Guild that actually preferred spice travel to space travel and quietly controlled them all, an exultant triumph helped along by the addictive spice melange that was treasured by all of the players of Dune. 

A treasured spice melange that was fittingly named, as melange was a French word meaning “mixture”, and Dune was indeed an inspired and inspiring mixture of elements and themes taken from diverse sources.  Indeed, the name of Duke Paul Atreides affirmed the novel’s fondness for fusion disparate elements together, for the Orange Catholic Christian name of Paul evoked the equally embattled and determined St. Paul of the early Catholic church, while the Atreides surname evoked Atrides, which meant “…son of Atreus”, the demi-god father of the legendary Greek heroes Agamemnon and Menelaus, fittingly linking the epic novel to the equally epic and allegorical Homer poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.  In addition, Dune evoked the allegorical James F. Cooper indie docufiction novels featuring the raised by Mohicans Thirteen Colonial/early American frontier scout Nathaniel “Natty” Bumppo; the allegorical, despairing and implicitly age of Empire battling Herman Melville indie docufiction novel Moby Dick [1851]; the allegorical, Victorian England roasting and machine hating Samuel Butler indie docufiction novel Erewhon [1870], from which author the machine hating Butlerian Jihad presumably took its name; the allegorical H.G. Wells indie docufiction novel The War Of The Worlds [1898], which established Mars as the de facto home planet of the sly fi establishment to this day; the allegorical John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and John Greystoke, Tarzan of the Apes indie docufiction novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, with the John Carter books reaffirming the implicit link of the sly fi establishment to Mars; the allegorical Ray Bradbury indie docufiction novel The Martian Chronicles [1953], which also affirmed the implicit link of the sly fi establishment to Mars; more than a dash of the allegorical T.E. Lawrence book The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom [1926], a book about the Great War Bedouin revolt in the desert of the Middle East which helped topple the Turkish Empire and which inspired the allegorical David Lean docufeature film LAWRENCE OF ARABIA [1962]; and, last but not least, the allegorical L. Frank Baum indie children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz [1900], with its four great deserts surrounding the wonderful world of Oz inspiring the desert world of Dune.

“‘I have been a stranger in a strange land,’” Halleck quoted.

        Significantly, however, below the surface of the novel’s desperate and determined battle to have a devout, expanded and vital humanity triumph over small minded, greedy and cruel imperial control lay an equally desperate and determined implicit battle to have more devout, expanded and human indie sly fi triumph over the equally small minded, cruel and controlling sly fi establishment.  For Duke Paul Atreides was implicitly linked to Dick, an implicit link affirmed by the novel’s allusions to the allegorical Dick indie docufiction novel Martian Time-Slip [1963] and by the novel’s obsession with proving and maintaining a vital humanity, a favourite theme of Dick.  In addition, the loyal and implicitly Scarecrow linked Atreides right hand man Gurney Halleck was implicitly linked to Alfred Bester, an implicit link to Bester affirmed by the novel’s allusions to the allegorical Bester indie docufiction novel The Stars, My Destination [1955], and the loyal and implicitly Tin Man linked Atreides swordmaster Duncan Idaho was implicitly linked to the equally indie sly fi writer Harlan Ellison.  Last but not least, the troubled and conflicted House Atreides head physician and infamous traitor, Suk Doctor Wellington Yueh, was implicitly linked to Anthony Burgess, given the novel’s allusions to the allegorical and implicitly William S. Burroughs roasting indie docufiction novel A Clockwork Orange [1962].

For his part, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV was implicitly linked to Heinlein, an implicit link to Heinlein affirmed by the novel’s allusions to such allegorical Heinlein indie docufiction novels as The Puppet Masters [1951], Starship Troopers [1959], Stranger In A Strange Land [1961] and Farnham’s Freehold [1964].  Herbert also implicitly roasted Heinlein’s good friends Isaac and Janet Asimov in Dune in the form of the Emperor’s good friends, the eunuch Count Hasimir and his Bene Gesserit wife, Lady Margot Fenring, an implicit interest in the Asimovs affirmed by the novel’s allusions to Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy [1951-53]. 

Thus, given these literary implications, the triumph of Atreides, Lady Jessica, Halleck, his orphan and implicitly Dorothy linked Fremen dream girl, Chani, his “abomination” Munchkin kid sister, Alia Atreides, the implicitly Cowardly Lion linked Fremen naib Stilgar and the fanatical Fremen over the Emperor, the Count, the Harkonnens, their legions of callous and brutal Harkonnen soldiers and remorseless and implacable Sardaukar terror troops and their staid, uncreative, status quo supporting, impersonal, dispassionate, aloof and all female and editing and writing luving Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and all male Spacing Guild allies implied a triumph of brilliant and innovative but mostly ignored and unknown, poor and struggling indie sly fi writers like Bester, Dick, Ellison, and Herbert and their equally ignored and despondent but fanatical fans over established and successful sly fi Titans like Asimov and Heinlein, their legions of callous and stodgy fans and their staid, uncreative, status quo supporting, impersonal, dispassionate, aloof and their mainstream and all female editor and all male publisher allies of the era, an exultant triumph helped along by those elusive and amorphous “sandtrout” ideas that crawled around in the subconscious beneath the conscious surfaces of the minds of indie sly fi writers that slowly but surely grew and transformed into larger “sandworm” short stories, bigger novellas and huge and heady novels that, if successful, would produce lots of money like the sandworms produced lots of addictive and valuable melange, as long as the writers, like the sandtrout and sandworms, avoided the water of death, alcohol, that so often plagued them.  Indeed, the fact that Paul’s parents, Duke Leto and Lady Jessica, moved the teenaged Paul from the green and fecund planet of Caladan to the desolate desert planet of Arrakis before the brave and unflinching self sacrifice of Leto left Paul alone with his mother affirmed that the novel was addressing Dick on one level, reminding us that Dick’s parents moved him as a child from green and fecund Chicago to desolate desert California before their separation and Dick’s life alone with his single mother. 

In addition, on another level, the difficult and embattled triumph of Paul also implicitly symbolized the hope that Dick might not just triumph over Asimov and Heinlein in the then ghetto sly fi literary world, but also over established writers in the mainstream world, as Dick had tried and failed to do with the allegorical indie docufiction novel The Man In The High Castle [1962].  For Dick also implicitly roasted Vladimir Nabokov in the form of the Evil and pedophilic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune, an implication affirmed by the novel’s allusions to the allegorical and implicitly Alfred Hitchcock roasting Nabokov indie docufiction novel Lolita [1951], making it fitting that the Baron was killed by Paul Maud’dib’s kid sister, the “weirding abomination” Munchkin girl Alia, shortly before the end of Dune, evoking the death of the Wicked Witch of the West-played by Margaret Hamilton-at the end of the allegorical and implicitly Canadian Prime Minister William King and German Chancellor Adolf Hitler roasting Victor Fleming film THE WIZARD OF OZ [1939], implicitly making the Baron’s death a symbolic death of the Wicked Witch of the West given that the Wicked Reverend Mother Mohiam lived to plot more Wicked plots another day, in the end.  Last but not least, Stanley Kubrick was also implicitly roasted in the form of the Baron’s ambitious nephew Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, an implication affirmed by the novel’s allusions to the allegorical and implicitly Lean addressing Kubrick docufeature film SPARTACUS [1960] and the allegorical and implicitly Hitchcock roasting Kubrick indie docufeature film LOLITA [1962]. 

Significantly, this implicit allegorical intent of Dune also explained the creepy and symbolic “rape” of young Atreides by the Reverend Mother Mohiam on Castle Caladan in Chapter One with the vagina evoking pain amplifying box in order to test his humanity and to see if he was the messianic male “Kwisatz Haderach” that the Bene Gesserit was always trying to breed, create and control.  For the unusual test reminded us that then and now most editors for publishers are women, thus making them the first to read manuscript submissions from male authors to determine if these submissions were sufficiently courageous, sensitive, imaginative, intelligent, insightful, strong and, above all, vitally human enough to be published as books and the first to determine whether a new Cooper, Dickens, Twain, Verne, Wells, Hemingway, Kerouac, Tolkien or Herbert had arrived to their surprised delight who would be the latest bestselling male author and, in this case, a sly fi writer-the !Kwisatz Haderach!-who would be read just as eagerly by male and female readers in the mainstream world as by male and female readers in the sly fi world.  !Shai halud! 

Dick certainly seemed to think so, for he implicitly replied to Dune by implicitly linking Herbert to post-apocalyptic San Francisco Police Department runaway android hunter Rick Deckard in the indie docufiction novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? [1968].  Indeed, the novel’s Voigt-Kampff empathy test to distinguish between androids and humans evoked the Reverend Mother Mohiam’s pain box test for humanity in Chapter One of Dune, affirming the implicit Herbert addressing intent of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?  The fact that Deckard was caught between his wife Iran and his adulterous android luver Rachael in the Dick novel reminded us that Atreides was caught between the Emperor’s beautiful blonde daughter, Princess Irulan, and his fearless Fremen dream girl Chani in Dune, reaffirming the implicit link of Herbert to Deckard in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?  The fact that Deckard met Rachael on a trip to Seattle reaffirmed his implicit link to Herbert, reminding us that Herbert was living in the Seattle area by the time of the release of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?  Thus, the fact that Deckard found it hard to differentiate a new and improved version of a Disney animatronic person evoking android and a low functioning man from a regular human being with his Voigt-Kampff empathy test while out hunting down some runaway androids mostly in the San Francisco area implied that Dick doubted that it would be as easy to test for humanity in reality as it was in Dune.

““Grief is the price of victory,” Jessica said.”

        Curiously, Dune also eerily and presciently anticipated the arrival of the righteous and indomitable Gardevil.  For like Usul’s top and John the Baptist evoking Fremen commander, I am still Gar after all these years, and still ready and eager to leap into frenzied literary battle with my favourite symbolic crysknife pen and a fanatical shout of “Maud’dib!” roaring from my lips.  !Kull wahad!  Just as curiously, and perhaps fittingly, Ellison was one of the first literary artists to respond to Dune, implying that Heinlein would triumph over Herbert in the long run like the implicitly Heinlein linked TickTockMan possibly triumphed over the implicitly Herbert linked Harlequin at the end of the allegorical indie docufiction short story ““Repent, Harlequin!” Said The TickTockMan”” [December 1965].  And as befitting a novel that featured such assertive, bewitchingly beautiful, confident, educated, intelligent, and physically strong women trained in all of the latest fighting and writing techniques, Dune also implicitly inspired Ursula K. LeGuin to respond to the book in the allegorical and implicitly Dune and Herbert roasting indie docufiction novel The Left Hand Of Darkness [March 1969], reminding us that the first name of Ursula evoked that of Irulan, implying a link between Irulan and Ursula, whose writing Herbert implicitly did not like, given that Irulan was also an anagram of “urinal”.  An implicit response to Dune from LeGuin that no doubt inspired Herbert to finish the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Dick and Ellison toasting and Heinlein roasting indie docufiction novel Dune Messiah [October 1969].

“They are surface truth.

As well ignore what lies beneath that surface as…”

        Significantly, we soon discovered that, while overthrowing the implicitly Heinlein linked ex-Emperor Shaddam IV at the end of Dune, the neo and implicitly Dick and Great Oz linked messianic Emperor Paul-Maud’dib Atreides had left Shaddam alive and embittered on his prison/Sardaukar training planet of Salusa Secundus.  We also soon discovered that Paul-Maud’dib’s visions in Dune of his victory on Arrakis and his ascension to the Imperial Lion throne setting off a bloody Fremen led jihad that swept the universe and killed untold billions of people had come true, to the shocked, embittered, conflicted and haunted dismay of the new Emperor, implying that Herbert was warning Dick and his most devoted readers that the emergence of a writer who would lead indie sly fi to acceptance by the sly fi establishment and its readers, and the mainstream establishment and its readers, and also pave the way to greater success for all sly fi writers, would be an equally wrenching, traumatic, troubling and catastrophic experience that would change that trailblazing author and sly fi forever. 

Last but not least, we also quickly discovered that the bloody and brutal jihad and Emperor Paul-Maud’dib’s divine imperial reign had inspired a conspiracy to kill him and replace him with the dethroned Shaddam IV by the Bene Gesserit, represented by the implicitly LeGuin linked Princess Irulan and the implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked Reverend Mother Mohiam; the “dirty” and implicitly homosexual literati linked Bene Tleilaxu and their Face Dancers, represented by Scytale, who implicitly affirmed the homosexual nature of the Bene Tleilaxu by disguising himself as a young Fremen woman throughout much of the novel; and the implicitly mainstream publisher and flying monkey linked Spacing Guild, represented primarily by an once human and now transformed and fish-like Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator named Edric, whose name fittingly evoked editing and Dick and who was implicitly linked to Nikko the flying monkey king-played by Pat Walshe-in THE WIZARD OF OZ.  A malevolent and multi-layered plot that failed and led to the deaths of almost all of the plotters, including the implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and, alas, to the loss of the eyes of Emperor Paul-Maud’dib and to him being forced to rely on his visionary ESP sight to “see”, in the end.  Significantly, one of the few conspiracy members not to die was Princess Irulan, who was won over to the cause of Emperor Paul-Maud’dib, leading to a triumph of writing and books as well as a triumph for Emperor Atreides and his vast universal Empire, for the literate and literary princess continued to edit and write books, continuing the pleasing importance placed on books, reading and knowledge in the far ancient future and the open link of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood to writing and editing books that began on the first page of Dune with its leadoff quote from the pretty Princess that was taken from her Manual Of Muad’dib [10,20?].

        Curiously, the main difference between Dune and Dune Messiah was the return of the implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked and loyal Atreides man and swordmaster Duncan Idaho.  For the body of Idaho had been carefully preserved and brought back from the dead by the wily Tleilaxu as a ghola with eerie metal eyes that affirmed his implicit link to the Tin Man after he was killed fighting the Sardaukar during the Harkonnen and Sardaukar invasion of Arrakis that decimated House Atreides and replaced them with the cruel and violent planetary rule of House Harkonnen in Dune.  Alas, during the reviving process, the creepy Tleilaxu implanted the ghola Idaho with a mnemonic command that would trigger him to kill Emperor Atreides when a certain phrase had been uttered.  Then they changed his name to “Hayt” and sold him to the Spacing Guild, confident that the Guild would give the Idaho ghola as a gift to Emperor Atreides, which they did.

        Luckily for Paul-Maud’dib, he overruled Hayt’s buried mnemonic command to kill the Emperor, defeating his “haytful” and inhuman ghola side and transforming him back into the Emperor’s luving, loyal and fully human companion and protective swordsmaster Duncan Idaho in one of the most moving scenes of the novel.  A closing climatic scene that was the epitome of the emphasis on developing a full, vital and devout humanity devoted to the principles of the Butlerian Jihad first seen in Dune, for it was the Emperor’s soothing and inspiring words to Hayt “…free yourself from the ghola, Duncan…You’re human.  Do a human thing” [Herbert 308] that liberated Idaho forever.  Thus, with Idaho freed from hate and liberated to luv and live freely as a fully human being, Herbert implied that Ellison needed to stop hating in order to be truly luving and human, as well. 

        Surprisingly, Dune Messiah ended with Chani dying after she gave birth to the twins Ghanima and Leto II, messianic and J.D. Jedi anticipating twins that reminded us that Dick had a twin sister named Jane who died six weeks after they were born to reaffirm the implicit link of Atreides to Dick.  A death in birth that traumatized Emperor Paul-Maud’dib Atreides and encouraged him to sneak out of Sietch Tabr and wander off into the desert alone, consigning the blind to the desert in keeping with Fremen tradition so that the Fremen would accept Alia as the new temporary Regent and his son Leto II as the new Emperor, in time.  And so young Atreides rose from married hero to widowed zero in two novels, again implying that Herbert was warning Dick and the sly fi community to be wary of wishing for a sly fi messiah who would lead to the genre being accepted by the mainstream, for fear that they just might get their wish and their beloved and quirky little literary club would lose its sense of a special and unique community, as unique and special as a Fremen sietch community. 

Making it ironic indeed that Herbert was soon seen as that mainstream conquering sly fi Messiah, given that Dune and Dune Messiah slowly became more popular over the Sixties and Seventies and were embraced by both the sly fi establishment and the mainstream literary establishment.  No doubt leading to greater interest in the allegorical Herbert indie docufiction novel Hellstrom’s Hive [April 1974], which allowed Herbert to complete a Human Insect Trilogy that was kicked off by the allegorical indie docufiction novels The Green Brain [January 1966] and continued by The Santaroga Barrier [November 1968].  Curiously, Hellstrom’s Hive featured another implicitly Ellison linked character in the form of secret agent Edward Janvert who had to infiltrate a remote human insect community hidden away in southeastern Oregon whose underground human ant lair and vats to break down human ants after death evoked the underground sietch caverns with their corpse dissolving and water preserving death stills of the Fremen in the Dune Saga. 

Just as curiously, the leader of the human ants, Nils Hellstrom, and the rest of the human ant colony pretended to be film artists who specialized in making documentaries about insects to fool regular people in the wild Outside world, openly linking them to film art.  In fact, given that most of Hellstrom’s hive was hidden underground in a vast and labyrinthine subterranean community filled with shaven headed and lookalike female and male human worker ants who were kept in line with electric stun wands, evoking the equally shaven headed and lookalike female and male human citizen inmates who were kept in line with drugs, sexual deprivation and electric stun staffs in the equally vast and labyrinthine subterranean community of the allegorical and implicitly Kubrick roasting Lucas indie docufeature film THX 1138 [1971], the implication was that Hellstrom was linked to Lucas.  In addition, hive residents Old Harvey and young Saldo were implicitly linked to old Hitchcock and young Steven Spielberg, respectively.

At any rate, Herbert’s swelling popularity and mainstream embrace led to Herbert being awarded a one million dollar advance for a novel that would complete a Dune Trilogy, the largest advance ever given to a sly fi writer up until that point.  A huge advance that inspired a wary Herbert to bring the Dune Trilogy to a fitting trimax and implicitly reply to The Left Hand Of Darkness in the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Dick and Ellison toasting Herbert indie docufiction novel Children Of Dune [April 1976].

“How simple things were

when our Messiah was only a dream,

he thought.”

        Indeed, Herbert quickly implied that he was responding to The Left Hand Of Darkness on the third page of the novel.  For as Stilgar reassured himself that Leto II and his twin sister Ghanima were sleeping peacefully in their chambers one restless and pensive night in Sietch Tabr nine years after Paul-Maud’dib disappeared into the desert, he also reassured himself that some of his more bitter and Dark thoughts, like wondering if he should kill the twins for the betterment of the universe, “…came from the left hand of the damned, not from the right hand of the blessed” [Herbert 3].  Herbert also quickly and implicitly affirmed that he was indeed warning Dick and the rest of the clubby and chummy sly fi community including himself to be careful what they wished for, for during his sleepless and worried patrol of the chambers of the twins Stilgar mused wistfully and bitterly over the changes brought by Paul-Maud’dib that ended the familiar and traditional Fremen way of life hidden away on Arrakis and led them off planet to conquer the universe, a loss of the old ways that was in many ways the main theme of the novel.

        However, while familiar and chummy old ways were being left behind, old and familiar characters like Stilgar returned in Children Of Dune.  Like the Lolita evoking Alia, the younger sister of Paul-Maud’dib and imperious goddess Regent of her elder brother’s Empire until Leto II came of age.  A regal and imperious younger sister who, alas, revealed that her inner world was not as strong as her outer persona, for she quickly allowed herself to be conquered and controlled by the inner malevolent and manipulative ghost of her uncle Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, another familiar character whose haunting and implicitly Nabokov linked presence fittingly evoked and linked the novel to Dune to affirm that Herbert was indeed bringing the Dune Trilogy full triangular circle, perhaps in response to a Nabokov novel released since the publication of Dune that implicitly roasted Herbert.  The implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked Duncan Idaho, the ghola mentat, also soon reappeared, now the husband of Alia and horrified by her possession by the Baron and her inability to understand how easy it was for others like himself to see and despise that possession and her transformation into the new implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked character of the Dune Saga.  The implicitly Mrs. Dick and Glinda the Good linked Lady Jessica and her new and implicitly Bester and Scarecrow linked husband Gurney Halleck also returned from self-exile on Caladan to confront and defeat the Baron possessed Alia with the help of the implicitly LeGuin linked Princess Irulan. 

Even Paul-Maud’dib returned in the form of the mysterious Preacher, a wizened and weathered prophet with burnt out eyes who wandered into Arrakeen from deep in the desert to rail against Alia and the rule and power obsessed Empire and to preach in favour of a return to a devout and vital humanity to reaffirm the novel’s link to Dune.  Heck, Idaho died again as in Dune, and Halleck also fled into the desert again to escape another impious Imperial plot to kill him, found sanctuary again with smugglers and Fremen, and was shocked again to discover that Paul was still alive as in Dune when he met up with the Preacher in the desert late in the novel, reaffirming that Herbert was bringing the Dune Trilogy to a triumphant trimax.  But not simply a trimax that would repeat the end of Dune, for Paul the Preacher was murdered with a crysknife and a Wicked but courageous Alia committed suicide to save her imperfect but vital and expanded humanity and kill the Baron a second time, thus also implicitly killing Nabokov a second time, in the end.

Ghanima “Ghani” and Leto II Atreides also played a significant role in the downfall of Alia and the death of Paul the Preacher that dramatically changed the arc of the story and allowed for an entirely different ending and beginning to Children Of Dune.       An ending that saw Leto II create and wear a living symbiotic super suit composed of sandtrout that gave him super powers, allowing him to defeat all of his enemies, take over the Empire, and take it down his four thousand year Golden Path.  Curiously, as the elusive sandtrout were again implicitly linked to equally elusive ideas that, if nurtured properly, would grow on to become huge and powerful sandworm novels, by wearing a sandtrout supersuit Leto II became one with the ideas underlying allegorical sly fi literary art and set the stage for becoming a huge and powerful sandworm/human hybrid and implicit living embodiment of the allegorical sly fi novel. 

Significantly, Children Of Dune included the most open implication yet that Paul-Maud’dib and Leto II were implicitly linked to sly fi writers.  For 4/5 of the way through the novel, Lady Jessica the Good kicked off a chapter while instructing Shaddam IV’s son and possible heir Farad’n on Salusa Secundus by saying “…[Paul] didn’t really see the the future; he saw the process of creation and its relationship to the myths in which men sleep” [p.452], a shrewd and honest implicit insight into the sly fi writing process that held true to this day.  But perhaps Leto II summed up the artistic process best when he thought to himself late in the novel that “…the only rule governing creativity is the act of creation itself” [Herbert, 563].  A fitting conclusion and emphasis on Ghanima and Leto II Atreides, for the intelligent, imaginative, able, courageous, restless and innovative children presciently foretold the arrival of the equally intelligent, imaginative, able, courageous, restless and innovative Boomer brats who did indeed luv reading and creating sly fi film and literary art and who also went on to challenged the Boomer dominance of the art, cultural, intellectual, historical and political scene.

        Alas, ironically, and unfortunately and fortunately for Herbert, he was indeed the mainstream seducing sly fi Messiah that the sly fi community had dreamed about and Children Of Dune was indeed the book that seduced them, for the novel easily fulfilled all of the hopes that his publisher had in it that led to that record $1 million dollar advance by being the first of Herbert’s “runaway bestsellers” and by spending weeks on the NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller List, the first sly fi novel to ever do so.  In fact, according to Herbert’s eldest son Brian in the foreword he wrote for the Ace premium edition of Children Of Dune [2019], his father’s publisher at the time, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, quickly sold out of the 75,000 copies they had optimistically printed for the initial release of the trimax of the Dune Trilogy in April of ’76, and over 100,000 copies after the second printing only months later.  Two paperback printings of the novel the following year added some two million more body, heart, mind and soul expanding copies of Children Of Dune to the world.  A huge success that forced the obdurately indie writer to leave his secluded hideaway near Seattle and go on a twenty-one city cross nation book tour, an U.S. tour that included at least one tv talk show appearance.  The mainstream matrix had him, a mainstream which had clearly enthusiastically embraced Arrakis and made the planet its own as it had earlier embraced Mars, Oz and the Middle-Earth of the indie docufiction novels of J.R.R. Tolkien, implicitly linked to Imperial planetary ecologist Doctor Liet-Kynes in Dune, given that there was a “Tylkien” hidden in the name of Liet-Kynes [Herbert, pp. xi-xii].

Just as ironically, given that established sly fi Titans like Asimov and Heinlein were implicitly roasted in the Dune Trilogy, Children Of Dune paved the way for Asimov, Heinlein and other icons like Arthur C. Clarke to also become accepted by the mainstream and appear on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list with their own memorable sly fi novels in the years to come.  Clearly, sly fi was indeed leaving behind its chummy and clubby oddball club status and being embraced by the mainstream, an implication affirmed the following year when world audiences also eagerly embraced the Dune Trilogy evoking, allegorical, computer generated imagery [CGI] enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Spielberg roasting Lucas indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE [1977], and the allegorical and implicitly Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau roasting Spielberg docufeature film CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND [1977].

        Significantly, leading the way in the eager embrace of Children Of Dune, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE were the bratty children of the Boom, making it presciently fitting that the Atreides children Ghani and Leto II played such prominent roles in Children Of Dune.  Clearly, a whole new generation had indeed emerged on the scene, an exuberant new Boomer brat generation that embraced sly fi like it embraced a digital world full of computers, CGI and video games that was turning the world into a real life sly fi film or novel, causing them to embrace Herbert as their sly fi Messiah as much as Lucas, eagerly read and ponder the heady and mind expanding Dune Trilogy, and just as eagerly rush to bookstores and libraries in May of 1981 to purchase or sign out copies of the allegorical and Ozian themed Herbert indie docufiction novel God Emperor Of Dune [May 1981].

“A copy is worse than nothing…

I am their only hope.”

        Fittingly, the novel immediately revealed in an excerpt from a speech by Hadi Benotto that not only had the reign of the God Emperor Leto II’s Golden Path lasted for almost the four thousand years that he had foreseen, but that he had, with the help of Ixian machinery, fittingly become an author of the allegorical two volume epic The Stolen Journals [14000], affirming the implicit link of Leto II and Paul-Maud’dib to sly fi writers.  In fact, late in the novel we discovered that the God Emperor had also written books under the Great Flood evoking pseudonym of Noah Arkwright.  Significantly, however, the preface that revealed the literary creation of Leto II also revealed that the reign of the God Emperor, had already been overthrown and was now being looked back upon from a Golden Path free future, preparing readers for the overthrow of the God Emperor at the end of the novel. 

Soon after, we discovered that the implicitly Great Oz linked God Emperor Leto II lived in a huge palace on Arrakis and had transformed from implicit embodiment of elusive and slippery sandtrout ideas into the implicit embodiment of more confident, bold, developed, insistent, indomitable and towering sandworm novels, for he had become a massive and dragon evoking sandworm with a human face and withered human appendages, literally putting a face on the blockbuster beast.  An implicit embodiment of the blockbuster novel that had not lost its imperfect but vital and likably unlikable humanity that was overthrown, in the end, after much heady and weighty philosophizing with his attendants, by a righteously furious youthful Rebellion that evoked the equally youthful and exuberant Rebellion in the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy that was led by another implicit and implicitly Dorothy linked Boomer brat, Siona Ibn Fuad al-Seyefa Atreides, the latest strong Dune woman and a distant descendant of Duke Paul Atreides.

Indeed, the fact that the timorous and squeaky voiced Topri helped Siona and her companions affirmed the allusion to the STAR WARS Rebels, for Topri evoked the equally timorous and squeaky voiced Lucas.  However, Herbert did not imply that the closing victory of Siona and her Rebellion equated with a victory of Lucas and his STAR WARS Classic Trilogy over the Dune Saga and himself, but a victory of the Dune Saga over Lucas and the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy.  Indeed, Herbert implied in God Emperor Of Dune that the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy was just a lesser copy of the Dune Series, an implicit conviction that he began to voice in interviews at the time.  An implicit conviction that I noted in chapter three of The Wizard Of Force did not have much merit…

        Not surprisingly, before the overthrow of the God Emperor, and after almost four thousand years, Arrakis had changed dramatically due to terraforming, eerily losing its fierce Fremen and sandworms.  Curiously however, aside from the missing Fremen, human society had changed little throughout the universe during that time, for the God Emperor Leto II had used his divine power and his all female Fish Speaker soldiers and priestesses that had replaced the all male Fremen legions to prevent any uprisings from disturbing the enforced peace, tranquility, boredom and stagnation of his Golden Path reign as if Herbert was symbolically repaying mainstream society for ignoring sly fi writers for so long, making it fitting that his favourite major domo, Moneo, had a name that evoked monolithic and the money and power enjoyed by the spice controlling God Emperor.  This surprising lack of change was increased by the fact that Leto II still retained the ability to not simply remember but to channel the many personalities within him like Paul Maud’dib, the Lady Jessica and Duke Leto as he had revealed in Children Of Dune; had retained the literature luving and implicitly editor linked Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the implicitly homosexual Bene Tleilax, the machine luvers of Ix and the implicitly publisher linked Spacing Guild, but had drastically reduced all of their power and influence; and had also retained the Atreides fondness for gholas of the implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked Duncan Idaho, the stalwart swordmaster of the Atreides, for no less than two Idaho gholas returned in God Emperor Of Dune.  Gholas of Idaho created yet again by the Bene Tleilax aka the “dirty” Tleilaxu, whose implicit link to homosexuals in general was affirmed by the revelation that their Face Dancers were unable to reproduce.  The implicit link of Duro Nunepi, the Tleilaxu Ambassador to Arrakis, to Burroughs, reaffirmed the implicit link of the Bene Tleilaxu to homosexuals.

        Curiously, along the Golden Path, the Bene Gesserit were openly linked to editing via editor’s notes in some of the reports used to advance the novel and by passing mention of their mysterious Chapter House and its archives.  Just as curiously, after a Fish Speaker named Nayla helped Siona and Duncan kill Leto II and transform him back into sandtrout, ending the God Emperor’s reign, the novel ended with a future minority report epilogue by Benotto which evoked the allegorical Dick indie docufiction short story “Minority Report” [1956], implicitly affirming the interest in Dick in the Dune Saga and bringing the novel full circle to the Benetto prologue that began God Emperor Of Dune.  Even more curiously, Herbert did not have long to wait for reaction to God Emperor Of Dune.  For the same month it was published, William “Cyberpunk” Gibson implicitly roasted him in the form of a Yakuza assassin in a “stupid” Hawaiian shirt in the presciently twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie tech noir short story “Johnny Mnemonic” [May 1981], an implication affirmed by the story’s allusions to Dune Messiah.  Thus, given that the Yakuza assassin was killed by the eponymous Johnny Mnemonic’s friend Molly Millions, a fittingly strong woman to rival the strong women of the Dune Saga, Gibson implied his hope that success would kill Herbert, in the end. 

Significantly, the rise and fall of Leto II, the God Emperor of Dune, presciently anticipated the rise and fall of Lucas.  For after another Skyrocking year in 1981 with the resounding success of the eerily and presciently twilit, allegorical, Ozian themed, implicitly William Friedkin addressing, Lucas executive produced and Frank Marshall produced Spielberg indie docufiction film RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK [1981], things began going dramatically downhill for Lucas the following year.  Thus, it was fitting that Hellstrom’s Hive was presciently reprinted in April of ’82.  For the isolated human insect colony of Nils Hellstrom hidden away in southeastern Oregon evoked the equally isolated Skywalker Ranch film colony that Lucas was then building in a remote location north of San Francisco, an evocation made more fitting by the fact that the novel’s allusions to THX 1138 reminded us that Hellstrom was implicitly linked to Lucas.  In addition, the beautiful and bewitching presence of Fancy, a sexually alluring, arousing, instigating and controlling Hive honey with a fondness for breeding with Outsiders and aspirations to be a Hive Mother, prepared the way for equally beautiful, bewitching, arousing and controlling women in the next Dune indie docufiction novel.

Not surprisingly, while most readers and audiences missed the implicit Lucas roasting intent of Hellstrom’s Hive, they quickly woke up when a helicopter crash killed actor/writer/director Victor “Vic” Morrow and illegally hired and employed child extras Renee Chen and Myca Le in the early morning hours of July 23, 1982 on the George Folsey jr. produced John Landis set of the twilit, allegorical, Marshall executive produced, Kathleen Kennedy associate produced and Landis and Spielberg produced Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller docufeature film TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE [1983].  For Lucas made the mistake of affirming after the TZ disaster that he would still work with Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg on a sequel to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, infuriating young J.D. Jedi audiences who were already outraged by the TZ disaster and who insisted that Lucas should be on the side of Good and Light like his Jedi Knights in the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy and not working with Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg. 

Youthful fury increased when Lucas whisked Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg to London to begin production on the Indy sequel, and then hit new heights of outraged fury when he revealed that the title of the eagerly awaited trimax of the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy would be STAR WARS EPISODE VI: REVENGE OF THE JEDI, leading to an indomitable letter campaign from outraged J.D. Jedi youth from around the world that heaped scorn on the suggestion that Jedi sought revenge rather than fought in self defense and urged Lucas to change the title before the release of the final film.  A righteously furious letter campaign and unexpected anti-Lucas fervor that made it presciently fitting that later in ’82, Herbert affirmed the implication in the ending of God Emperor Of Dune that he hoped that his literary rebellion would triumph over the cinematic Rebellion of Lucas and affirmed the implicit roast of Lucas in Hellstrom’s Hive by implying that Lucas and his film art were as much of a plague on world audiences, particularly female audience members, as the real plague that killed only women that was released on humanity by the insidious and implicitly Lucas linked American bioterrorist John R. O’Neill in the allegorical indie docufiction novel The White Plague [September 1982], another “runaway bestseller” whose success was no doubt subconsciously helped by the anti-Lucas spirit of the times and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy, THX 1138 and the allegorical Lucas indie docufeature film AMERICAN GRAFFITI [1973]. 

Significantly, and to the celebratory relief of young audiences, the determined and indignant letter campaign worked and led to Lucas eventually conceding defeat a few months before the release of the trimactic, twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Spielberg roasting Richard Marquand indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI [1983] on the ne’er to be forgotten day of May 25, 1983.  Alas, the dismal film and its Munchkin Ewoks that made the film come across as a filmmercial for intergalactic teddy bears disappointed, depressed, embittered, outraged and broke the hearts of young audiences and made them more anti-Lucas than ever before.  Indeed, most young fans at the time dropped Lucas forever, bringing the Skyrocking career of the man that many now derided as “Lord Stinkious” crashing down in flames.  An anti-Stinky and equally anti-Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg spirit that was only increased by the equally dismal and infuriating twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, Lucas executive produced, and Kennedy and Marshall produced Spielberg indie docufeature film INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM [1984].  All of which caused young audiences to be pleased by the news that the Dune Saga had inspired indie Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis and his aspiring film producer daughter Rafaella to persuade rising film artist David Lynch to create a quirky moving painting of Dune that would hopefully cleanse the Temple Theatre of Lucas and lead audiences, film art and film artists out of the Twilight Zone.  Making it fitting that Herbert returned to bookstores and libraries and stoked anticipation of the Lynch moving painting and surprised devoted readers yet again by revealing that God Emperor Of Dune was the bridge novel-literally, as it ended with Leto II falling to his doom off a bridge on Arrakis-and kicking off a new Dune Trilogy with the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufiction novel Heretics Of Dune [April 1984].

“Life cannot find reasons to sustain it,

cannot be a source of decent mutual regard,

unless each of us resolves to breathe

such qualities into it.”

• Chenoeh: “Conversations with Leto II”

        Significantly, and despite the liberating death of the implicitly Great Oz linked God Emperor Leto II at the end of God Emperor Of Dune and the fact that Heretics Of Dune took place fifteen hundred years after the events of the former novel, the main players of the Dune Saga were still around and two of them, the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilax, were stronger than ever.  Indeed, after being barely mentioned in God Emperor Of Dune, the literature luving, editing and writing and intelligent, strong, disciplined and confident Bene Gesserit Sisterhood leapt out of the shadows and confidently took centre stage, their mysterious and fittingly named Chapter House revealed as a planet that housed their Archives and where they oversaw breeding and manipulating genetic bloodlines again, implicitly trying again to breed a popular male writer who would appeal to both male and female readers.  Curiously, and to affirm the implicit link of the Sisterhood to literature luving and editing writers, two of the Bene Gesserit, the middle aged, prolifically breeding and Siona Atreides descended Darwi Odrade, and the head of Chapter House Planet, Mother Superior Alma Mavis Taraza, were implicitly linked to Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro, respectively, making it fitting that Caladan, now known simply as Dan, had a Canada evoking cadence.  It was also fitting that another, younger and also Atreides descended Sister, the Odrade resembling and sexy, sultry, sensual, seductive and implicitly Glinda the Good linked Lucilla, turned out to be the author of “The Atreides Manifesto”, openly linking the Bene Gesserit to writing again.

Just as significantly, the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood oversaw the training of yet another implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked and Mentat heightened Idaho ghola boy on Gammu, the new name of Giedi Prime, putting them in conflict with the implicitly homosexual Bene Tleilax, who were soon revealed by Tylwyth Waff, the creepy Bene Tleilax Master of Masters, to be devout and fanatical Muslims on a sacred mission to convert the people of the universe to Islam, reminding us of all of the links of the Fremen of Arrakis to Islam in the first three novels of the Dune Saga.  A fitting evocation of the fierce and “Zensunni” Fremen, for back on Arrakis-now called Rakis-an implicitly Dorothy linked neo-Fremen orphan girl and descendant of Paul Atreides named Sheeana had appeared who could talk to, pacify, command and ride the sandworms that were descended from the sandtrout that the God Emperor Leto II had dissolved into at the end of God Emperor Of Dune.  A startling worm commanding and riding sight and sound that had caused Sheeana to emerge as a rival to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and be worshipped as divine by the Priests of the Divided God on Rakis.

Curiously, and in a fictional case of politics makes for strange bedfellows, while not trusting or liking each other, the Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilax formed a reluctant and wary alliance to take on and take out an even more hated new enemy, the Honored Matres, who were Evil and Wicked Witch evoking females returning to the mainstream of the universe after fleeing into the far reaches of the universe in the Famine Times and the Scattering that took place after the death of the God Emperor.  Wicked, aggressive and ultraviolent females who were as angry and as nasty as young audiences after the TZ disaster and who were wiping out the old Imperial order with as much furious determination as young audiences and readers were wiping out New Hollywood and sly fi fiction and film at the time due to the TZ disaster, the infuriating actions of Lucas, and the STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI and INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM disasters, implying that the Honored Matres symbolized outraged young Boomer brats. 

However, unlike the outraged Boomer brats, the Wicked Honored Matres had mastered a thousand and one sexual delights that allowed them to turn men into their helpless and hapless sex slaves and wanted to wipe out the Bene Gesserit, who were often linked to Wicked Witches as well in the first three novels of the Dune Saga, and take over the universe, implying that they were not linked to Boomer brats after all.  Thus, it was not clear who the Wicked Honored Matres implicitly symbolized.  Were they the Dark Side of the Bene Gesserit?  Or, since the now more benevolent Bene Gesserit were implicitly linked to editors and writers, were the Wicked and sex mad Honored Matres implicitly linked to writers like Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel?  Or were they implicitly linked to writers who wrote Harlequin romances, based then and now in Canada?  Were the Honored Matres linked to porn “stars”?  Were they linked to beautiful women impressed with the success of Herbert who were trying to woo him from his beloved wife Beverly, who was battling for her life at the time of the writing of Heretics Of Dune?  Did they presciently anticipate the poor ol’ Gardevella, “…Prom Queen bitch” of the universe?  Or were the nasty and sex obsessed Wicked Honored Matres a mixture of all of the above?  One thing that was sure was that they unexpectedly sexed up the Dune Saga and drew out the sexual insight and jealousy of the Bene Gesserit in response, making Heretics Of Dune the steamiest and cattiest Dune novel yet, a cattiness openly affirmed by the liberation of four mysterious half-man/half-feline Futars from Wicked Honored Matre captivity.  !Meeowwrrrr!

At any rate, the Bene Gesserit were helped in their catty battles with the Wicked Honored Matres by their favourite Atreides descended and loyal Mentat military man, the implicitly Great Oz linked Bashar Miles Teg, who was implicitly linked to Richard Matheson, a writer who wrote teleplays for the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series and also worked on TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, given that his name evoked and had the same cadence as Matheson.  A loyal military man who, at one point, hid the boy Duncan and his Bene Gesserit overseer Lucilla in an ancient and presence hiding Harkonnen no-globe on Gammu, a trio of Duncan, Lucilla and Teg in the no-globe zone that evoked Myca, Renee and Vic in the Twilight Zone to imply that Herbert was one of the many people at the time outraged by the TZ disaster. 

And striking back at Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and possibly Spielberg for causing it, given that Idaho, Lucilla and Bashar Teg eventually fled the no-globe zone and triumphed over their Bene Tleilax and Wicked Honored Matre adversaries in Heretics Of Dune, a possibility perhaps explaining why Darwi Odrade was known as Dar, for the name evoked Dar-played by Marc Singer-in the twilit and allegorical Don Coscarelli indie docufeature film THE BEASTMASTER [1982].  But not without a significant price, given that to save Duncan, Lucilla, the captured Wicked Honored Matre Murbella, and Sheeana, who became not just worshipped but the literal embodiment of art in the novel, and allow them all to escape to Chapter House planet, Bashar Teg, after a tortuous and painful Honored Matre mind probe, unlocked a “bullet time” anticipating ability to move at hyperspeed, sacrificed his life and brought about the destruction of Rakis by death rays blasted from the spaceships of righteously furious Honored Matres, taking out Waff and some Honored Matre invaders of the planet, in the end.  Significantly, this obliteration of Rakis recalled the obliteration of Alderaan by the Death Star of the Evil Empire in STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE, implying again the possibility that on one level the rampaging Honored Matres symbolized equally rampaging Boomer brats of the time, mixed with a good dash of gleefully sexually enslaving and ultraviolent Harlequin porn star nympho.

        Last but not least, Herbert also implicitly roasted Lucas and the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy again in Heretics Of Dune in an elaborate joke.  For at one point late in the novel, Herbert wryly noted that

        …in the time of the Old Empire and even under the

        reign of Maud’dib, the region around the Gammu Keep

        had been a forest reserve, high ground rising well above

        the oily residue that tended to cover Harkonnen land.

        On this ground, the Harkonnens had grown some of the

        finest pilingitam, a wood of steady currency, always valued

        by the supremely rich.  From the most ancient times, the

        knowledgeable had preferred to surround themselves with

        fine woods rather than with the mass-produced artificial

        materials known then as polastine, polaz, and pormabat

        (latterly: tine, laz and bat).  As far back as the Old Empire

        there had been a pejorative label for the small rich and

        Families Minor arising from the knowledge of a rare wood’s

        value.

                “He’s a three P-O,”, they said, meaning that such a

        person surrounded himself with cheap copies made from

        Declasse substances [p. 455].

Thus, Herbert dismissively implied that he was just as unimpressed with STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI as everyone else was at the time.  And no doubt just as hopeful that the twilit and allegorical Lynch indie moving painting DUNE [1984] would cleanse audiences, film art, film artists, and the Temple Theatre and exorcise the TZ disaster when it arrived in theatres on December 14, 1984.

“For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!”

        Indeed, DUNE was the eagerly awaited film event of the year, and I joined my geek colleagues in kicking off the Christmas holidays with a bang by bussing to the Stanley Theatre in Vancouver right after another dreary day at North Delta Senior Secondary School-now known as North Delta Secondary School or plain old NDSS-the Friday night of its release.  DUNE also started well with an intro by the blonde, pretty and literary Bene Gesserit Princess Irulan-played by Virginia Madsen-and a secret meeting on Kaitain between her father, the implicitly Irvin Kershner linked Emperor Shaddam IV-played by Jose Ferrer-and a Third Stage Guild Navigator and his entourage.  Alas, however, when the scene shifted to Castle Atreides on Caladan, and the camera panned from a wave crashing shore and up a rocky cliff and Castle Atreides was revealed to be made of easily burnt and destroyed wood instead of sturdy stone, a shocked and furious collective gasp was heard throughout the until then exuberant and festive theatre, the suspension of disbelief instantly disappeared, never to return, and the mostly young “Gen X” Boomer brat audience became angry, sullen, disenchanted and restive, convinced that they had been betrayed by Lynch like they had been betrayed a year and a half before by Lucas and Marquand, earlier that year by Kennedy, Lucas, Marshall and Spielberg and two and a half years before that by Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg and the decision of Lucas to work with Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg on an Indy sequel. 

Making the angry young audience little interested that the implicitly David Cronenberg linked Kwisatz Haderach Duke Paul Atreides aka “Paul-Muad’dib”-played by Kyle MacLachlan-and his fearless Fremen warriors avenged the death of his implicitly Landis linked father Duke Leto Atreides-played by Jurgen Prochnow-by defeating the blockbuster fortune, glory and power lusting Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and his impious Imperial Sardaukar forces on the desert planet of Arrakis aka Dune to implicitly sweep away the Dark and beastly blockbuster fortune, glory and power lusting side of Old and New Hollywood and to establish a neo eon of higher minded indie docufeature film art.  A cinematic disappointment that made for a bittersweet return to the melange source the following year with the publication of the twilit, allegorical, and Ozian themed Herbert indie docufiction novel Chapterhouse Dune [April 1985].

“…The unclouded eye was better,

no matter what it saw.”

        Not surprisingly, the novel took up where the last one left off with all of the surviving characters from Heretics Of Dune.  One character who died at the end of Heretics Of Dune so that others would live quickly returned, for the living cells of the implicitly Matheson and Great Oz linked Bashar Miles Teg were used to create a clone boy who was nine years old at the beginning of the new novel.  A new novel that mostly took place on the secret and elusive Bene Gesserit homeworld now called Chapterhouse, a planet whose name openly linked the implicit Bene Gesserit editor Sisterhood to literary art.  An openly literary Chapterhouse homeworld that was also being slowly terraformed into a new Arrakis, as Rakis was destroyed by the Wicked Honored Matres at the end of Heretics Of Dune, perhaps Herbert’s way of implicitly boasting that the Dune Saga, after originally being rejected for publication by numerous publishers, had now come to dominate and take over the American publishing world.  Thus, it was fitting that one of the favourite aphorisms of the Bene Gesserit Coda was revealed to be “…seek freedom and become captive of your desires.  Seek discipline and find your freedom” [p. 481], for it came across as the favourite literary art mantra of the famously disciplined Herbert.

        Significantly, the ultraviolent and ultrasexual Wicked Honored Matres also returned, destroying one Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilax world after another in their usual blind and rampaging fury to exterminate both groups for inflicting such a loss on them with the destruction of Rakis at the end of Heretics Of Dune.  Just as significantly, the possibility that on one level the Wicked Honored Matres symbolized the young fans at the time whose outrage over the TZ disaster had caused them to hate and turn their back not just on Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Lucas, Marshall and Spielberg but also on all older creators of sly fi fiction and film was implied once again in Chapterhouse Dune in the wry Missionaria Protectiva Primary Teaching that one should “…enter no conflict against fanatics unless you can defuse them [p. 365].”  Indeed, the fact that soon after this wry comment, the newfound and implicitly Atwood linked Mother Superior Darwi “Dar” Odrade ordered that a valued driver named Clairby be turned into a cyborg to prevent him from dying due to injuries suffered in an ornithopter accident [pp. 384-85] reaffirmed Herbert’s implicit interest in the TZ disaster in Chapterhouse Dune.  And in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Lucas and Lynch roasting James Cameron indie docufeature film THE TERMINATOR [1984], a film which saw its time travelling and Los Angeles Police Department [LAPD] trashing Terminator cyborg anti-hero-played by Arnold Schwarzenegger-embraced by angry and disaffected young Boomer brat audiences. 

The return of the unnamed, glasses wearing and implicitly Landis linked Rabbi with a follower named Jacob who evoked Jacob “Jake” Blues-played by John Belushi-in the eerily and presciently twilit, allegorical and implicitly Lynch and Mel Brooks roasting Landis docufeature film THE BLUES BROTHERS [1980] reaffirmed Herbert’s implicit interest in the TZ disaster and its outraged aftermath, as the two characters had in Chapterhouse Dune.  The fact that late in the novel Mentat Reverend Mother Bellonda would mutter “…twilight thoughts…best we avoid them [p. 439]” in a conversation with Mother Superior Odrade in order to remain committed to preserving and enhancing a vital humanity above all else, in resolute and perennial Bene Gesserit tradition, also affirmed the implicit TZ disaster addressing intent of the novel.  The fact that the captured Wicked Honored Matre Murbella and the young adult ghola of the implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked Duncan Idaho returned to train the new Teg in a no-ship on Chapterhouse created another twilit trio of two males and one female in a Twilight Zone evoking no-zone as in Heretics Of Dune reaffirmed the implication that Herbert was addressing fans outraged about the deaths of Chen, Le and Morrow in the TZ disaster again in Chapterhouse Dune. 

Curiously, however, the reawakened child Bashar Teg failed to command his military forces to a resounding triumph over the Wicked Honored Matres on the planet Junction for the Bene Gesserit at the end of the novel.  Instead, the Wicked Honored Matres defeated Bashar Teg and his forces and were welcomed into the Bene Gesserit ranks so that the latter could transform the hated whores into fully rounded humans, in the end, implying the hope of Herbert that female editors of more literary novels would succeed in lifting the level of Harlequin romance writers, or that time and patience would quell the rampaging rage of Boomer brats.  Just as curiously, the novel ended with Idaho, the worm commanding and implicitly Dorothy linked neo-Fremen orphan girl Sheeana, a Bene Gesserit fittingly and ominously named Garimi and some others fleeing Chapterhouse World in the no-ship to escape the Wicked Murbella’s determination to fuse the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres into one New Sisterhood, and the elderly couple that Idaho had been seeing and hearing in visions revealed as being Face Dancers with god-like powers named Daniel and Marty.  Movingly, following that final, short and mysterious chapter of Chapterhouse Dune came an equally short and moving testimonial by Frank to his beluved Beverly, who died on February 7, 1984 shortly before the publication of Heretics Of Dune.  Mother Superior Odrade also died during the final battle on Junction, making it ironically fitting that Atwood implicitly responded to the second trilogy of the Dune Saga in the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale [August 1985]. 

Alas, Herbert also died soon after the publication of Chapterhouse Dune on February 11, 1986, almost exactly two years after Beverly, preventing him from completing his second Dune Trilogy.  And so it stood for decades, until, perhaps prompted by the return of Lucas to the Temple Theatre with the STAR WARS Tragic Trilogy [1999-2005] or the many allusions to the six Dune novels in Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Matrix Trilogy [1999-2003], Herbert’s son Brian Herbert decided to collaborate with Keven J. Anderson and use an outline left by Frank for the final novel of the second Dune Trilogy to complete that trilogy in the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufiction novel Hunters Of Dune [August 2006], fittingly published in the twentieth anniversary year of the death of the elder Herbert, the Dreamer of Dune.

““Memory is a weapon

sharp enough to inflict deep wounds.

-The Mentat’s Lament””

        Curiously, Herbert and Anderson did a good job, eerily recreating the prose style and some of the spirit of Frank Herbert’s Dune Saga, if not the brilliant and indomitably iconoclastic heart and mind and soul of fearless and phenomenal Frank.  A recreated and rebooted saga that saw the implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked Duncan Idaho, the implicitly Dorothy linked neo-Fremen orphan girl Sheeana, the implicitly Matheson linked young ghola of Bashar Miles Teg and the rest of the people they fled Chapterhouse planet with at the end of Chapterhouse Dune, which included the four ferocious, part man/part feline fubar Futars, the glasses wearing and implicitly Landis linked Rabbi and his followers, including the Jake Blues evoking Jacob and seven sandworms that evoked the seven novels so far of the Dune Saga fleeing on the stolen and Noah’s Ark evoking no-ship now dubbed Ithaca through the depths of space and in and out of parallel universes throughout the novel to evade the hopefully sympathetic and implicitly Glinda the Good linked Norma Cenva aka the Oracle of Time and the creepy old Face Dancer couple Daniel and Marty met at the end of Chapterhouse Dune, both of whom wanted the ship.  This gave Hunters Of Dune a Star Trek feel, for this story thread evoked the equally endless space travels of the storied Enterprise.

Significantly, along the star trekkin’ journey, eight Good and mighty Munchkin gholas of the implicitly Dick linked Paul Atreides, Chani, Leto II, Lady Jessica, Thufir Hawat, Stilgar, the implicitly Tolkien linked Dr. Liet-Kynes and Dr. Wellington Yueh were created from human axlotl tank volunteers by Scytale, last of the implicitly homosexual linked Tleilaxu Masters, for Idaho, Sheeana and Teg to help them battle the Oracle of Time and the Outside Enemy at Kralizec, the final battle at the end of the universe, gholas that increased the determination of the Oracle of Time and Daniel and Marty to capture the Ithaca.  Curiously, but fittingly, these eight mighty Munchkin gholas were overseen by the Gardevil anticipating and implicitly writer/editor linked Bene Gesserit Proctor Superior Garimi.

        Meanwhile, the shrewd, intelligent, strong, courageous, indomitable and implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked Murbella, ex-Honored Matre turned Bene Gesserit and Mother Commander of the implicitly editor/writer linked New Sisterhood back on Chapterhouse world supervised the transformation of the planet into a new Arrakis and gathered an equally strong, courageous and indomitable all female New Sisterhood all wearing an united black unitard and molded them into a disciplined, determined and well trained Valkyrie army that evoked the Starship Troopers/Sardaukar/Fremen/and Fish Speakers of earlier novels.  Once ready for action, the Wicked Mother Commander Murbella planned to use the exuberant, determined and deadly Valkyrie army to subdue the rest of the rebel Honored Matres who still evoked outraged and rampaging Boomer brats and who were still implicitly linked to Harlequin Romance writers and indie writers like Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel and/or porn stars on the worlds they had conquered in order to get them out of the way so as to be able to concentrate without distraction on fighting the Outside Enemy when they arrived in the planetary systems of the Old Empire. 

Along the way, the pragmatically Wicked Mother Commander Murbella found out in a vision that the Honored Matres were descendants of female Tleilaxu axlotl tanks who had been liberated by the Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers in the Scattering after the death of God Emperor Leto II.  This finally explained why the Honored Matres were a fusion of Bene Gesserit and Fish Speaker, and why when they fled the Outside Enemy to the safety of the Old Empire they exterminated the Bene Tleilaxu in furious revenge for being used as human breeding tanks.  Significantly, this vision also revealed that before fleeing in furious desperation to the Old Empire, the Honored Matres had attacked and destroyed a planetary outpost of sentient machines, setting off their equally furious wrath and causing them to attack the Honored Matres, wipe out their worlds and chase them back to the Old Empire, along the way being dubbed the Outside Enemy, finally revealing the identity of these mysterious malefactors.

Just as significantly, it turned out that the sentient machines of the Outside Enemy were helped along by the new, improved and ultra sneaky Face Dancers who had been introduced in Heretics Of Dune and were difficult to detect because they resembled humans so closely, implicitly linking them to androids or to equally difficult to detect people created with improved computer graphic imagery [CGI] for film art.  In fact, these sneaky Face Dancers had infiltrated and taken over the known universe of the Old Empire and were preparing the way for an invasion by the vast sentient machine space armada of the Outside Enemy, who turned out to be led by the equally mysterious and creepy old couple Daniel and Marty.  A creepy old couple who made Khrone, one of the sneaky new Face Dancers, take a Lost Tleixaxu named Uxtal to Tleilax and force him to create gholas of the implicitly Nabokov linked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and the implicitly Dick linked Paul Atreides aka Paolo via human axlotl tanks.  Curiously, and ironically, when the memories of his previous life returned, the Baron ghola was haunted by the inner ghost of Alia Atreides, who had killed him as a Munchkin abomination girl and who had been haunted by the inner ghost of the Baron as a troubled and implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked adult.

As for Uxtal, with his mission accomplished for Khrone, his Honored Matre supervisor, Matre Superior Hellica, and the implicitly Nikko the flying monkey king linked Edrik the Spacing Guild Navigator then forced the Lost Tleilaxu to create eight Evil munchkins of the implicitly Lucas linked Waff, Master of Masters on Tleilax, the first of which survived and was taken away by Edrik in a Guild Heighliner when he promised to create potent melange for the Guild Navigators at the end of the novel.  A more potent melange that Edrik and the rest of his implicitly publisher linked Spacing Guild would need, for the creepy old couple Daniel and Marty were revealed in the end to be the even more creepy machine couple Omnius, a vainglorious and implicitly Great Oz linked A.I., and his robot major domo Erasmus, leaders of a rebooted blockbuster machine attack on humanity that would make up for their first defeat by a vital humanity in the Butlerian Jihad thousands of years earlier. 

Significantly, the names of Omnius and Erasmus reminded us that the first short stories of Gibson, including the implicitly Herbert roasting “Johnny Mnemonic”, were published in the early 1980s in OMNI magazine, a more upscale magazine published by PENTHOUSE magazine publisher/editor Bob Guccione to improve his reputation.  This in turn reminded us of the monthly Penthouse Pets of PENTHOUSE, a raunchier version of the equally monthly Playboy Playmates of PLAYBOY, suggesting that the ultrasexual Honored Matres were actually inspired in part by the Penthouse Pets rather than Harlequin romance writers or porn stars.  At any rate, Hunters Of Dune ended with Omnius and Erasmus launching a massive machine space armada at the Old Empire to annihilate all of the worlds filled with imperfect but vital humanity, setting readers up for a final climactic showdown between man and machine in the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed Anderson and Herbert indie docufiction novel Sandworms Of Dune [2007].

“The fate of our race

depends on the actions

of an unlikely collection of misfits.”

• from a Bene Gesserit study

of the human condition

  Significantly, the novel kicked off with a bang and a wail with a ghola of the abominable Alia of the Knife being born from an human axlotl tank on the still fleeing and wandering no-ship Ithaca.  Curiously, however, soon after the rebirth of Alia, a ghola of Gurney Halleck was killed when the axlotl tank where he was being recreated was destroyed by an unknown saboteur.  While the implicitly Ellison and Tin Man linked ghola of Duncan Idaho led the frustrated search for the elusive saboteur throughout the starship Ithaca, the implicitly Lucas linked Waff released new ultraspice producing seaworms on the ocean planet of Buzzell.  Meanwhile, back on homeworld of the New Sisterhood, the implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked Mother Commander Murbella watched in horror as an Outside Enemy released plague tore through and killed most of the inhabitants of Chapterhouse planet, including her youngest daughter Gianne, with the exception of the Reverend Mothers.  All too fittingly, given the implicit link of the New Sisterhood to editing and writing, this nightmarish sentient machine created plague evoked the plague of digital books that was tearing through the publishing world and destroying paper books at the time of the release of Sandworms Of Dune.

  As all of these events transpired, the implicitly Glinda the Good linked Norma Cenva aka the Oracle of Time continued her determined quest to find the wandering Ithaca before the implicitly Gibson linked Erasmus and the ominous and implicitly OMNI magazine linked Omnius.  The Oracle also affirmed the implicit link of Erasmus to Gibson, for the ghostly Oracle evoked the equally ghostly presence of Anna Kalmann-played by Barbara Sukowa-who haunted the cybermachine world of the near future in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Gibson scripted, and implicitly Kubrick addressing Robert Longo docufeature film JOHNNY MNEMONIC [1995].  Speaking of the wily robot and the Evermind leader of the machines, the implicitly Dick linked ghola Paolo Atreides and the implicitly Nabokov linked ghola of Baron Vladimir Harkonnnen were brought from Caladan to the sentient and Emerald City evoking machine city of Synchrony on the home world of the machines to face Erasmus and Omnius, the booming voiced, and implicitly Great Oz linked Omnius.

  As for Waff, he was rewarded by the implicitly Nikko the monkey king linked Edrik for successfully releasing the ultraspice producing seaworms on Buzzell by being allowed to return to the devastated world of Rakis and release genetically engineered and armour plated sandworms that could break through the sterile and glass-like surface of the world, burrow beneath into the more hospitable sand and begin the slow and patient transformation of Rakis back into Arrakis.  Alas for Edrik, after dropping off Waff, he was soon killed by Face Dancers commanded by Khrone, the leader of the sneaky new CGI evoking and/or implicitly android linked Face Dancers.  Edrik out of the way, Khrone took the first load of “ultraspice” that Waff had delivered to Edrik, and had the dead Navigator’s Guild Heighliner obliterated. 

  Curiously, after too many years cooped up in their spacefaring ark, Stilgar and Liet-Kynes and most of the Jews were also gratefully left by Idaha and Sheeana on a more hospitable, fecund and Eden evoking planet than Rakis that had already begun to be terraformed by sandworms released by Bene Gesserit sent out by Odrade.  Just as curiously, the Rabbi did not remain with his fellow Jews, preferring instead to stay on the wandering starship Ithaca.  Alas, he was also soon revealed to be the sneaky new Face Dancer saboteur that Idaho and everyone else on the no-ship had been looking for for years.  Surprisingly, Thufir Hawat also turned out to be one of the sneaky new Face Dancers, and working in tandem with the Rabbi.  Even worse, the Rabbi managed to kill the lamentably garish Proctor Superior Garimi, take over the controls of the Ithaca and send the starship on a foldspace jump, despite the best and fatal hyperspeed efforts by Bashar Miles Teg to stop him.  The foldspace jump took the Ithaca to the sentient machine home world, where the no-ship was quickly captured by the machine space fleet and taken to the flowing liquid metal Emerald City of Synchrony, leading to a multi-climactic conclusion.

  Indeed, all hell quickly broke loose, starting with the young Baron Harkonnen ghola killing the Alia ghola with a poison knife in revenge for his murder by Alia with the equally poisonous gom jabbar at the end of Dune.  The Paolo ghola also soon killed the Paul ghola in a presciently anticipated duel with a thrust to the heart with the same dagger of Shaddam IV used by Feyd-Rautha in his knife duel with Paul at the end of Dune, a sight so shocking that it brought full memories back to the Chani and Jessica gholas.  Meanwhile, the Leto II ghola released the seven Dune Saga novel evoking sandworms from the hold of the no-ship and rode the largest, Monarch, to victory against the machines with his memories returned with help from the awareness of himself in the worms and with his Golden Path assured.  Ironically, as Leto II rode to victory, the Paolo ghola destroyed himself when he celebrated his victory over Paul with an overdose of ultraspice that turned him into a frozen with prescient visions Tin Man. 

  Soon after, the implicitly Burgess linked ghola of Doctor Wellington Yueh betrayed his Suk training once again by killing the Baron ghola with the same dagger used by the Paolo ghola to kill the Paul ghola.  Then, to the surprised relief of Dr. Yueh, Jessica and Chani, the Paul ghola repaired his mortal heart wound and returned to life, revealing to their surprise that his returned memories and prescience had revealed that Duncan and not Leto II or himself was the true final Kwisatz Haderach who would lead humanity to triumph in the final battle of Kralizec.  Chani, Jessica, Dr. Yueh and the reader had barely time to absorb this when the implicitly Glinda linked Oracle of Time suddenly showed up with a thousand free and Navigator guided Heighliners that had not been eliminated by Khrone and his Face Dancers to dress down the implicitly Great Oz linked Omnius and take him and his booming voice to another universe where he could do no more harm to humanity. 

A disappearance that impressed Erasmus so much that he sent out the wireless signal that killed all android Face Dancers across the universe including Khrone.  The sneaky new Face Dancers out of the way, Erasmus then persuaded Duncan to embrace a neo eon of humans and machines living in peaceful co-existence just as at the end of the Matrix Trilogy complete with nods to the Matrix Trilogy to implicitly affirm that the films had indeed influenced the decision to write Hunters Of Dune and Sandworms Of Dune.  Significantly, to ensure this neo eon, Erasmus also persuaded Duncan to merge with him to become a biodigital Kwisatz Haderach-the Digitz Haderach-a biodigital fusion that allowed Idaho to supervise and control all of the nonliving sentient machines as well as all of the living sentient beings of the universe.  Significantly, the fusion of Erasmus and Idaho also “killed” Erasmus and caused the indie robot to ironically assume the guise of the elderly woman Marty at the moment of “death”, implying that Anderson and Herbert believed that Gibson was more man than machine.  Thus, with Idaho triumphant, Anderson and Herbert, and perhaps even Frank, given that the novel was inspired by notes left behind by the Dreamer of Dune, implied that they believed that Ellison was a better and more influential literary artist than Dick or Gibson, in the end.  And more influential than Lucas, given that after the “death” of Erasmus/Marty, the implicitly Lucas linked Waff was hunted down and killed by real sandworms on Rakis after his eight genetically engineered and armour plated sandworms failed to thrive and died on the devastated planet, eight neo-sandworms that reminded us that Lucas was most famous for AMERICAN GRAFFITI, THX 1138 and the six films of the STAR WARS Classic and Tragic Trilogies.  !Cyb’halud!

Curiously, this biodigital transformation evoked Leto II merging with sandtrout at the end of Children Of Dune, making it fitting that after rampaging through Synchrony with his super seven sandworms, Leto II returned to the Ithaca, said goodbye to Sheeana and then merged forever with the seven sandworms to continue his eternal Golden Path.  And so the Dune Saga ended with a truly grand finale that turned its back on the war against machines so important to fearless Frank, a grand finale that may have inspired Villeneuve to don the co-writer/director hats to create the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature artbuster DUNE [2021], released on September 3, 2021. 

“Almost there.”

Alas, Villeneuve continued his incensing approach to film art in this otherwise visually spectacular film by implicitly linking Spielberg to the young intergalactic Messiah Paul Atreides aka “Maud’dib”-played by Timothee Chalamet-first and only born son of the implicitly Lucas linked Duke Leto Atreides-played by Oscar Isaac-and his loyal and implicitly Kennedy linked Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica-played by Rebecca Ferguson.  Indeed, the sight and sound of the loyal and implicitly Landis linked soldier and troubadour Gurney Halleck-played by Brolin-steadfastly supporting Paul and the rest of House Atreides throughout the first half of the film reminded us that Landis had also loyally supported Spielberg and taken the blame for the TZ disaster on himself to save the film art career of Spielberg, affirming the implicit link of Spielberg to Paul.  The presence of the loyal, thoughtful and implicitly John Williams linked Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat-played by Stephen M. Henderson-also by the side of Paul and Duke Leto throughout the first half of the film reaffirmed the implicit link of Paul to Spielberg and Duke Leto to Lucas.  An implicit interest in Lucas that was also affirmed by the presence of the tall, commanding, fearless, loyal, Lucas luvin’ and implicitly Bigelow linked master Atreides swordsman Duncan Idaho-played by Jason Mamoa.

Thus, the sight and sound of young Atreides travelling to the unforgiving but unimaginably wealthy desert planet of Arrakis aka “Dune” with his parents, Halleck and Hawat and, to his surprise, becoming reluctantly and slowly accepted and embraced like Idaho by the planet’s fearless and indomitable Fremen, particularly the implicitly Coppola linked Fremen naib Stilgar-played by Javier Bardem-and the implicitly Amy Irving linked Chani, literally the girl of Paul’s feverish adolescent dreams-played by Zendaya-as their prophesied messiah, leading to hopes that he could lead them to a triumph over the beastly, soulless, and blockbuster loot lusting Harkonnen and perhaps Cameron linked Imperial forces, who returned after the arrival of House Atreides on the planet to massacre them and then lay waste to the planet in their madcap quest for profits from the life extending and consciousness expanding spice melange produced by the giant phallic sandworms of Arrakis, implied the belief of Villeneuve that Spielberg and not Iger was indeed the one who had led global film artists to a triumph over the TZ disaster and ushered in a daylit neo eon of CGI enhanced film art.  Indeed, the film’s allusions to the STAR WARS Classic and Tragic Trilogies, the TZ disaster, the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Landis docufeature film ANIMAL HOUSE [1978], and to the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Spielberg docufeature films CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND [1977] and E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL [1982] affirmed the implicit Kennedy, Landis, Lucas and Spielberg addressing intent of the film. 

Bibliography

Gibson, William.  Burning Chrome.  New York: EOS, 2003. 

Herbert, Brian and Kevin J. Anderson.  Hunters Of Dune.

        New York: Tor Books, 2007.

-----.  Sandworms Of Dune.  New York: Tor Books, 2008.

Herbert, Frank.  Chapterhouse Dune.  New York: Ace, 2019.

-----.  Children Of Dune.  New York: Ace, 2019.

-----. Dune.  New York: Ace, 2019.

-----.  Dune.  New York: Ace, 2021.

-----.  Dune Messiah.  New York: Ace, 2019.

-----.  God Emperor Of Dune.  New York: Ace, 2019.

-----.  Hellstrom’s Hive.  New York: Bantam Books, 1982.

-----.  Heretics Of Dune.  New York: Ace, 2019.

-----.  The White Plague.  New York: Berkley Books, 1982.