Stefan MolyneuxVerified account

Herbert not only supposes characters to represent his warring factions and ideology, he supposes morality in the face of ultimate knowledge and writes his way through that, successfully. It's incredible. I think he ruins the case for centralized government just as an afterthought

I don't think so, in a sense he exposes the folly of feudalism (and implictly the "democracy" of lords) while extolling monarchy as the only political system that works long term

He only envisions this "working" with a god-like superbeing at the helm, himself powerless to do any but follow the Path laid out by his very presence in the story, until he is forced to exile himself after engulfing the empire in war and slaughtering millions.

the padishah emperor is the embodiment of the lazy self-interested aristocratic monarch detached from ordinary people/needs, and god-emperor leto 2 is the embodiment of the selfless tyrant working to constrain the aristocrasy

one revelling in the game, one accepting being hated, it leaves room notionally for the ideal compromise in between... it gives you the sense that between these extremes there is a way

Rather, the solution I came to was there was no human form capable of the task of omniscience among the people, that it would become eventually alien and abhorrent for a human to wield that power.

if you study non-western history, you find the single biggest factor in the success of a nation or tribe is morality and moral consistency between leader and people, when this occurs, you end up with 70-95% support for that leader

...but each leader's morals in this story become disconcerned with the individual; You end up with monstrous beings sweeping tides of humans hither and yon, throwing untold millions into the fire in service to their vision. We're never left with recognizable "good governance".

What to keep in mind when reading Herbert's Dune. Written during the Cold War with a 'familiar' cast of characters in the subtext: US, USSR, oil, & Islam. Director Denis Villeneuve is in post-production on the new film based upon the novel.

The Dune books are magnificent. No Dune movie can do them justice. Far too much content for that format. Give them a try, Stefan.