this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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The book also wasn't, shocking i know.
Almost like, and hear me out on this, science fiction isn't science, but fiction.
mind blown
A lot of science fiction should instead be called science fantasy.
Which is why I hate the majority of scifi as they aren’t self aware.
Self aware science fantasy can be excellent.
Hard science fiction can also be excellent for different reasons.
So like hitchhikers guide?
Sadly I've never gotten around to reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy however what I have heard is good.
I'm a big fan of the satire in 40k which has novels spanning several genres, so there's almost always a fresh type of novel to dig into, even if they are the equivalent of cheap romance novels but for nerds
I highly suggest you give hitchhiker's guide the time. Not sure if you've read any Terry Pratchett, but IMO Douglas Adams is on another level (and Pratchett is pretty good himself). I ended up reading all his books in like two sittings once I started.
If you haven't heard the original radio drama, i highly recommend. I actually prefer it to the books now. It's on archive.org.
I don't even think science is involved. Dune is straight fantasy.
I mean, honestly, the phenomena in the book were surprisingly plausible.
Obviously the movie took some liberties here and there, either out of necessity or purely for style, but pretty much everything in the book at least has some semblance of a connection to our current understanding of science.
I don't think seeing into the future using drugs and the crazy women cult with power to control people with their voice was really aiming for scientific accuracy.
Best part where they had genetic memories from after the genes were passed.
The books went to some pains to convey that memories after birth were not passed along. Haven't watched this flick though.
No, they weren't going to any lenght to show that, iirc Leto II and some BG admitted to have memories of many deaths, which would be impossible if those were genetic memories. The only one who legitly could have those was the last Duncan since he was ghola made from the amalgam of genetic material from many previous gholas, and even in his case it was explicitly said he had memories he shouldn't have.
It's just magic.
Which is still complete bollocks, of course. Your genes don’t get continually updated with memory data while you’re alive, or even change at all.
Stay off the drugs, Frank.
I mean yeah, genetic memory would kinda suck for the purpose they have in those books, you would just see a million years of childhoods and youths. Alia would probably organised the craziest parties in empire though.
Not really, they mentioned memories of death, so assuming most people do not get concieved after the death of their parents (specifically mothers in case of BG) means those aren't really genetic memories but just magic.
No, spice orgy is one of the many scenes from books that got cut out in the movie. Interestingly, i noticed that Verhoeven read the book very throughly, but the book he read was apparently Messiah and Children, since a lot of scenes and few important characters are cut off, but there is A LOT of things that should be in the 1st book considering what happened in the books 2 and 3, but weren't since Frank Herbert did not plan the books, just wrote on the moment for the most time. Paul in the new movie very often sounds much more like the Preacher from Children of Dune than like Paul from 1st book.
Some people can predict the future there so why not limited telepathy
Yes, that is explained more in books 5 and 6. This was done by the Fremen, and then spread to BG when they started to use the water of life, but that require conscious effort of real Reverend Mother, and i meant the old non-RM memories. Also it would still not included death in most cases since it was done before every time.
In case of Ramallo scene the movie was exactly like the book.
The Bene Gesserit control people by knowing how to modulate their voice to trigger people's base instincts. Like, that instinct that tells you to run when you hear a tiger's roar, or shiver when you hear a whisper. It's just that, cranked up to 11. Iirc, they can only really use the Voice on a person after having studied them to find what they will react to (or if they happen to be particularly weak-willed).
As for seeing the future: Computers were replaced with humans long ago in Dune, but they continued to fill and develop those niches with the human mind. Future-sight is essentially like a supercomputer running a simulation, which is why Paul is able to see the future better when he takes spice, or the Water of Life. By gaining the latent genetic knowledge of his ancestors and thereby having more data to work from, he is better able to run these mental simulations.
The explanations were thorough and fun (in my opinion), just not the most scientific. But I think Dune, like star wars, was always more of a space opera than hard scifi. It definitely does a better job, but if your looking for a better "predict the future with data" scifi story, then foundation is a better fit from that era.
Foundation is awesome. It also has a very fun BBC radio drama on archive.org
Oh so complete fantasy
Well, yeah, it's a fiction novel.