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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2021 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Sci-Fi club: general discussion

I would argue that Lynch's Dune was close enough to count. But then, I'm not obsessive about Dune. It's a paint-by-numbers jesus story set on Planet Arabia in which the evil white people steal the oil from the noble Wahabi. All the ornithopters and sandworms in the world don't change that.

That there isn't a Dune fan alive who considers the movie good enough is a lot of why I tend to not get along with Dune fans.





OftenBen  ·  2020 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That hurts.

The bits I have seen of Lynch's fever dream are absolutely awful.

kleinbl00  ·  2020 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Donald Kingsbury, in the fairly-forgettable novel The Moon Goddess And The Son, spent an easy ten pages railing on Dune and what bullshit it was. I'm not that bad, but to me, Dune takes what's interesting about TE Lawrence and wraps it in a ham-fisted sci fi tale.

Everyone I've ever met who feels strongly about Lynch's Dune also feels that Herbert's Dune is God's Gift to Sci Fi and the minute you attempt any objective discussion someone's sizing you up for a stake and stacked firewood.

And that is why there will never be a "good" adaptation of Dune - those who demand it have long since lost the horizon.

OftenBen  ·  2020 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Your point about high expectations is a valid one.

I think in objective discussion we can say that no novel is perfect. Dune has its flaws though I think 'ham-fisted' is a point of experience and perspective. Give me your particular set of experiences relating to the creation and production of media and I would probably think similar things about Dune. I'm still on the audience side of the curtain so I'm allowing myself to enjoy the smoke and mirrors and ignore the wire that's really making Peter Pan fly, full admission.

And I think that in objective discussion we can say that Dune has had a pretty powerful impact on science fiction writing, writers and culture in general. (Pardon the quality of this link, it was the first I could find that had the full episode.) The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy had an episode that was a shot for shot of God Emperor of Dune, as one example. For that and tons of other influences, I think that Dune deserves better than Sting and fever dreams.

kleinbl00  ·  2020 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I first saw Lynch's Dune in theaters and I first read the book when I was ten. I'd had no media production experience whatsoever when I experienced it. The movie was cringe-worthy when I saw it; not even being nine was prophylactic against "for he is the quizat haderach!"

But the book is no better.

The basic bones of Dune are the basic bones of Le Morte d'Arthur; they match Campbellian monomyth as well as anything.

I've never heard of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. That's okay. Most people have never heard of Dune. And not to twist the knife or anything, but those who have heard of it know the David Lynch version.