Ogami's Shadow Gallery!

[Ogami]

 

My new favorite movie.

[Ogami]

Family life of the Royal Creche is difficult for many people to understand, but I shall try to give you a capsule view of it. My father had only one read friend, I think. That was Count Hasimir Fenring, the genetic-eunuch and one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium. The Count, a dapper and ugly little man, brought a new slave-concubine to my father one day and I was dispatched by my mother to spy on the proceedings. One of the slave-concubines permitted my father under the Bene Gesserit-Guild agreement could not, of course, bear a Royal Successor, but the intrigues were constant and oppressive in their similarity. We became adept, my mother and sisters and I, at avoiding subtly instruments of death. It may seem a dreadful thing to say, but I'm not at all sure my father was innocent in all these attempts. Royal Family is not like other families. Here was a new slave-concubine, then, red-haired like my father, willowy and graceful. She had a dancer's muscles, and her training obviously had included neuro-enticement. My father looked at her for a long time as she postured unclothed before him. Finally he said: "She is too beautiful. We will save her as a gift." You have no idea how much consternation this restraint created in the Royal Creche. Subtlety and self-control were, after all, the most deadly threats to us all.

 

"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan

 

I knew you would enjoy the politics, sexuality, geography, geology, philosophy, gender issues, language.

 

I can tell I'm on the cusp of a reread.

 

The Dune series is my favorite series as an adult. I first read them in 2002 and have since read them four times through, I believe.

[Ogami]

 

[Ogami]

You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. This power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably must face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.

 

From "Maud'Dib: The Religious Issues"

by Princess Irulan

 

See, THIS is the stuff that lights me up about Dune.

 

By all accounts, Herbert was an atheist, agnostic at best, yet at the core of his book isn't just a religious man, but a BELIEVER, further, one who is caught up in supernatural elements. (Though Herbert would probably disagree and explain all of them away with the spice)

 

I've never made the connection before between Allan Moore and Frank Herbert, but I am making it now. Two men intent on finding biological explanations for the numinous.

[Ogami]

There is also the Fremen/Arab connection that continues to amaze me in light of recent events.

 

 

Herbert uses the words jihad, Ramadan, & hajj so many times the point becomes a sharp one.

 

I've been keenly aware, since my first reading was post 9/11.

 

I do wonder how much Herbert would continue to romanticise Arabic/Islamic culture in his own mind.

 

I also love that Herbert understood that once humans figured out the biggies in life, we would still be fighhting over simple necessities: water, spice, land.

 

And (self edited spoiler) in later books.

[seanfingh]

 

Welcome back, bro. This is great.

[Ogami]

There is also the Fremen/Arab connection that continues to amaze me in light of recent events.

 

 

Herbert uses the words jihad, Ramadan, & hajj so many times the point becomes a sharp one.

 

I assume Herbert was greatly influenced by T.E. Lawrence. The plight of the Fremen has the noble romanticism of that era.

 

But then I often wonder if the spice, with it's addictive and visionary properties, is a reference to the Muslim dependence on the Koran. It's not hard to imagine blue-eyed terrorists, walking out of synch with the rest of humanity in their own reality.

 

I get the T.E. Lawrence connection, but the spice seems connected to the hippie/LSD hope of a brighter tomorrow to me.

 

You may have a point. There is another racial group that makes a big impact in the latter books, and they fit in nicely with your thesis. What with being cousins and all. You know, Semites.

 

(They rhyme with "shoes")

[Ogami]

Welcome back, bro. This is great.

 

Thanks, brother. I'm all caught up now.

 

How many quintupples did you deny me?

[Park]

[Jeffro.]

[Park]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9257540/a-tribute-ray-harryhausen-godfather-visual-effects-24-frames

 

This was the writer you were talking about earlier Nate.

[Ogami]

 

Wrinlked

[Ogami]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9257540/a-tribute-ray-harryhausen-godfather-visual-effects-24-frames

 

This was the writer you were talking about earlier Nate.

 

Yep, that's him.

[TupennyConan]

 

I knew you would enjoy the politics, sexuality, geography, geology, philosophy, gender issues, language.

 

 

The book ends with Jessica & Chani meditating on concubinage vs marriage.

 

Gender issues & religion's impact on politics & the violent, retributive philosophical underpinnings of all three, Nate.

 

The book's focus is the religious question & explores its bearing on messianic figures, prophecy, prescience, racialism, bloody jihad, feudalism, capitalism, shamanism, & tribalism. Probably a bunch of other isms like environmentalism & so forth.

 

Jessica implores more than once that we 'pray.' My question is pray to whom or what?

[TupennyConan]

As for sex, House Atreides is so coldly efficient in breeding that there's little room for passion. I mean, does anyone really believe the Paul/Chani love story? It's dry like Arrakis.

 

The Baron's the only sexual character.

[dover]

 

In response to your gif...

 

An upper and lower bidet.....

 

 

[dover]

Never read Dune. I'll get it at the library for the next trip.

 

 

[Park]

 

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/74016/the-simpsons-break-out-a-breaking-bad-couch-gag

[Ditch Fahrenheit]

Despite his vision, Rommel was not given the resources to protect the spice.

[Jeffro.]

 

In response to your gif...

 

An upper and lower bidet.....

 

 

 

You're the first person to comment on that gif. I got more responses when I chose Landru as my avatar.