Dune
Since the syllabus says that we are allowed to discuss technological movies in our weblogs, I'll take it that I can talk about good books as well. I first encountered the Dune world when I was sent Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by some friends in the US while I was living in Spain. The book was very big, so I don't think I made my way through the entire thing. It was only until last year that I found the first book of the original Dune series in the local library. I devoured the book and all of its sequels and also the later Jihad and House series. I liked them as much as I did because the world takes a very unique approach in futuristic science fiction. Many series show technology making humans invincible, some have technology overtaking humans and laying waste to them. Dune, on the other hand, takes its own approach: it has humans making perfect computers (called machines), being overrun by them, conquering control back from them and being layed waste in the process, rising from the ashes with a religious hate of machines, and finally coming to terms with technology as a legitimate form of intelligence.
I think many lessons can be learned from the Dune series. One of the most important is that no matter what technology does to humans, there will with almost certain probablity always remain a human remnant. If worse comes to worst, oh well, time and life go on; it's not the end, there's always more! Also, the series deeply analyzes the interactions between social groups. It has the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, the Tleilaxu flesh merchants, the Spacing Guild, the good and the bad nobility, the Fremen of Arrakis (aka Dune), and many other groups. It does it an exquisite job of weaving plots within plots, setting a science fiction standard that has rarely, if ever been reached. I highly recommend the series if you like good plot and a treatment of technology from a non-fatalistic (but neither a fawning) perspective. (!Warning: the series is significantly graphic in several parts)
Posted at 12:07AM Dec 06, 2008 by advargas in General | Comments[0]