Dune Reread Notes

With the release of the new Dune film and all the conversation around it, I figured I’d try rereading it, with the following question in mind:

What is Dune actually saying?

Yes, I know what people say it’s about. And, I’ve heard the quotes from Frank Herbert saying it’s a warning about charismatic leaders. But, is that what it’s actually about, and does that warning actually work? After all, I’ve also heard Herbert thank Richard Nixon for showing us that we can’t trust government. That was certainly… a take… at the time. It’s even more of one in the wake of the Reagan, Bush II, and Trump administrations.

These are my notes from the reread. I give no promises they are intelligible to anyone other than me. These are just what I jot down as I read, and the thoughts I have as I think back through the chapter. I may go back through and try to clean them up a bit, but I also give no promises on that.

I also give no promises what I get out of Dune is going to match what anyone else is going to get out of Dune. I’m old and have opinions.

My third non-promise is that I’ll finish this. Part of why this site exists is that I wanted to play around with Github Pages. If you are reading this, then my playing around has been successful. There is a good chance I’ll grow bored of doing a deep read of a novel I’ve read twice before, and this will be abandoned. We’ll see.

Contents:

Indices and tables