Dune — Frank Herbert

Everywhere I went, in both physical and virtual worlds, this book kept popping up. When I went home for winter break, my dad explained a reference a movie had made to Dune and told me that it was an acclaimed science fiction novel. Then a few weeks ago while scouring my news feed my friends status alluded to Dune. I took it as a sign from the universe that I needed to devote some quality time to the exploration of a new and promising story.

My expectations are quite elevated. I love science fiction as an examination (and projection) of how humans would act in situations wildly different to the earthly circumstances that we experience on a day-to-day basis. What is always striking, however, is not the extraordinary differences, but the similarities stemming from the thorough understanding of humanity that good science fiction authors possess. The themes that exist by virtue of human characters. I am only on page 76 and many of these themes are already presenting themselves — family dynamics, education, political strategy and, most interesting to me, environmentalism.

must… keep… reading… 

“Many have marked the speed with which Muad’Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.” p. 65, 66