Revisit Dune ( the whole 6 book series)
The epic of Dune has had me enthralled ever since I first picked it up in February 2000. The largeness and scope of the story as well as its underlying morality (shown in the guise of Bene Gessirit(BG) amoralism) and finally its great hope for humanity. I have now reread the series 4 and 1/2 times and I still get an enormous amount of insight into the present, especially in the age of Gore/Bush/Kerry/Rove/Limbaugh etc.
At one level its a story about master manipulators who don't seem to care about humanity in general, except in terms of how to use them ( us). But I think this view misses the greatness of Frank Herbert's (FH) project. In book 6 (Chapterhouse Dune) the true goal of the BG is revealed as none other than creating the conditions in which the humans cannot be removed from the Universe, by self annihilation or any other means.
The beautiful rendition of humanity's gifts and assets are held up in separation from our collective faults and tendencies towards self destruction. Our capacity for endless creativity and bringing novelty to the world are worth saving no matter how 'bad' we can be. That this Hope can be held up in the face of our endless capacity for pettiness and egoism, as shown in the story, only makes the power of the message more useful to the present where we seem to be steering away from any kind of collective or universal understanding of morality. In the age of the justification of torture and grand scale public thievery as seen in the banking scandals of 2008 and the apparent destruction of any recognizable meaning for 'accountability' or 'justice'.
For me, Dune shows how the momentary disturbances of present history don't count in the long run. As long as we remain existent in the universe then we will evolve and all our suffering will be 'worth' it because the gift of life and the goodness of being alive are their own justification. Life cannot be captured in words. This is the lesson of Humberto Maturana, Count Alfred Korzybski, G.I. Gurdjieff and all the Masters. This is also the massage of Frank Herbert.
At one level its a story about master manipulators who don't seem to care about humanity in general, except in terms of how to use them ( us). But I think this view misses the greatness of Frank Herbert's (FH) project. In book 6 (Chapterhouse Dune) the true goal of the BG is revealed as none other than creating the conditions in which the humans cannot be removed from the Universe, by self annihilation or any other means.
The beautiful rendition of humanity's gifts and assets are held up in separation from our collective faults and tendencies towards self destruction. Our capacity for endless creativity and bringing novelty to the world are worth saving no matter how 'bad' we can be. That this Hope can be held up in the face of our endless capacity for pettiness and egoism, as shown in the story, only makes the power of the message more useful to the present where we seem to be steering away from any kind of collective or universal understanding of morality. In the age of the justification of torture and grand scale public thievery as seen in the banking scandals of 2008 and the apparent destruction of any recognizable meaning for 'accountability' or 'justice'.
For me, Dune shows how the momentary disturbances of present history don't count in the long run. As long as we remain existent in the universe then we will evolve and all our suffering will be 'worth' it because the gift of life and the goodness of being alive are their own justification. Life cannot be captured in words. This is the lesson of Humberto Maturana, Count Alfred Korzybski, G.I. Gurdjieff and all the Masters. This is also the massage of Frank Herbert.
posted by xthplanet at 12:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home