Dune is also super orientalist, i.e., the fremen can’t get anything done until Paul the colonizer helps them. And their belief system has basically been molded by the bene gesserit, meaning that the dark hordes/unwashed masses have no agency and are just playthings of ruling elites, a very lib take on things.
Disagree. This is a very superficial take. Herbert does not just superficially take Middle Eastern aesthetics because he thinks they look cool. He engages meaningfully with Islam and the world around it as he construct his future.
Here's a good article that addresses this idea: https://www.tor.com/2021/10/18/the-muslimness-of-dune-a-close-reading-of-appendix-ii-the-religion-of-dune/
Also, it's not just the fremen who are molded by the Bene Gesserit: the entire galaxy has been shaped by their religious manipulation.
Similarly to my other comment, also when you continue on in the series Paul is shown to be very wrong and is essentially responsible for destroying the Fremen as a culture which is depicted textually as a tragedy and a bad thing.
Yeah, my favorite quote from the book about this is:
Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptacle for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad in it.
I have seen a friend become a worshiper, he thought.
Which, considering that due to his Prescience, Paul knew that this would happen, and chose that path anyway. Its some subtext, but Paul only superficially saves the Fremen, which in actually destroying them.
The Museum Fremen of the 4th book is the final nail in the coffin; where the crysknifes are plastic, the Fremen are actors, and outside the cave 'Rakis is a temperate paradise.
Dune is also super orientalist, i.e., the fremen can’t get anything done until Paul the colonizer helps them. And their belief system has basically been molded by the bene gesserit, meaning that the dark hordes/unwashed masses have no agency and are just playthings of ruling elites, a very lib take on things.
Disagree. This is a very superficial take. Herbert does not just superficially take Middle Eastern aesthetics because he thinks they look cool. He engages meaningfully with Islam and the world around it as he construct his future.
Here's a good article that addresses this idea: https://www.tor.com/2021/10/18/the-muslimness-of-dune-a-close-reading-of-appendix-ii-the-religion-of-dune/
Also, it's not just the fremen who are molded by the Bene Gesserit: the entire galaxy has been shaped by their religious manipulation.
Similarly to my other comment, also when you continue on in the series Paul is shown to be very wrong and is essentially responsible for destroying the Fremen as a culture which is depicted textually as a tragedy and a bad thing.
Yeah, my favorite quote from the book about this is:
Which, considering that due to his Prescience, Paul knew that this would happen, and chose that path anyway. Its some subtext, but Paul only superficially saves the Fremen, which in actually destroying them.
The Museum Fremen of the 4th book is the final nail in the coffin; where the crysknifes are plastic, the Fremen are actors, and outside the cave 'Rakis is a temperate paradise.
That's a good point, the Bene Gesserit manipulated every place just in case they find one of their members stuck there.
Oh yeah, definitely. Very racist in the "but I think ______ is cool, how can I be racist?" kind of way.