A primer on Dune

…if you’re seeing the film without reading the book first.

Villeneuve’s Dune is “hard” science fiction, a genre that is full of concepts so esoteric that it is difficult to communicate them in film. I know because before we went to the cinema, I had to explain my fascination with it to my partner. In what follows, I will try to avoid spoilers but provide the elements you need to know to understand what is happening. At the end, I will speculate on what it means, which is none too clear in the novel and certainly not in the film.

The political order of the human galaxy is akin to feudal Europe. There is an Emperor who must balance the forces of the aristocracy, some 30 “houses” that have evolved over thousands of years. He appoints aristocrats to govern certain planets, but they must agree to his requests; if they don’t, they can band together to fight the Empire. Two houses – the Atreides and the Harkonnen – have been feuding for centuries.

To enforce his will, the Emperor has the Sardaukar warriors. Recruited as survivors from an anarchic prison planet, they pledge a blood loyalty to the Emperor. They are feared as the most ruthless and murderous force in the known universe.

Beyond explosive devices and lasers, weaponry for hand-to-hand combat is a balance of knives and forcefield armors and shields. Because a shield can only be penetrated slowly, old fashioned projectile weapons are useless – only slow-boring darts can be shot from a distance. With this in mind, all aristocrats are heavily trained in knives and the martial arts.

Beyond the aristocratic houses,  there are additional powers. On the one hand, the Spacing Guild holds a monopoly on interdimensional travel – folding space – and so are indispensable to the maintaining the galactic order in trade and transport.

On the other hand, the Bene Gesserit represents a combination of a religious, scientific, and military sisterhood. They advise the powerful and provoke awe and fear with their incredible abilities, such as “the voice”, a hypnotic command that impels others to obey, or the near-complete control of their bodily functions – they have even conquered death by aging. Secretive and enigmatic, they also pursue an opaque agenda of their devising.  In my opinion, it is one of the most vital creations in all of science fiction.

Because events take place 30,000 years in the future, the galactic order has become stagnant, seemingly repeating patterns of power struggles. The human race has also evolved, to the point that speciation is a possibility. For example, the Spacing Guild’s navigators no longer appear human; having lived in zero-gravity space, they can no longer walk on a planetary surface but are instead blobs of mind, their thought mobilized to navigate space.

Other developments should be noted. There are no intelligent computers because of the Butlerian Jihad, which was fought to destroy human-like machines. As a result, calculations are carried out by human computers, or Mentats, who are highly trained in logic and statistics. In addition, due to their intimate contacts with the great houses, doctors can be conditioned and certified as safe by the Suk order.

As in all science fiction, there is a X factor. The spice. It is a mysterious, highly addictive substance that can be found only on Arrakis. It prolongs life for up to 300 years and is a hallucinogen that expands consciousness – without it, the Bene Gesserit would lose their uncanny abilities, as would the Spacing Guild’s navigators. Dune opens with the passage of the stewardship of Arrakis from the Harkonnen to the Atreides – it is for control of the most valuable product in the universe.

Arrakis, known as Dune, is also a character in the book. The entire planet is a desert, its dominant life form are giant worms that can swim in the sand. The worms are creatures of instinct and do not exhibit intelligence or self-awareness. They are the source of the spice and shape the ecology of the planet. The native humans on the planet are the Fremen, about whom little is known with precision; they are survivors, toughened by the planet and a brutal hierarchy of leadership, as determined by the ability to fight.

For their part, the designs of the Bene Gesserit may be coming to fruition. For thousands of years in complete secrecy, they have been selectively breeding members of the great houses. Their goal is to produce an individual that can connect actions in the present with precise consequences in the future. This individual – the Kwisatz Haderach, who must be male – would become the sisterhood’s ultimate instrument, a means with which to literally control the destiny, indeed the evolution, of the human species.

To come into these abilities, the Kwisatz Haderach will require not just exposure to the spice, but to its poisonous derivative, the water of life. With their control of body chemistry, a few choice Bene Gesserit sisters have been able to drink the water of life and survive, but so far, no male has succeeded in doing so.

Finally, in their manipulation of religion to further their ends, the Bene Gesserit have disseminated a myth about a messiah, the Mahdi, who will come from another world and lead the Fremen to paradise. The subtleties of Fremen culture are among the great treats of the book.

These concepts are what you need to know to set the stage for the story that will unfold. You will be able to understand what is going on in the film and, if you wish, to interpret its meaning. In 5 subsequent novels, there are many additional civilizations that emerge, each with particular (and extremely recondite) strengths, as well as anticipated, if radical, challenges to the galactic order. But the concepts sketched above govern it all.

My interpretation of what it means. The human race has reached a stage of stagnation that is determined by our genetic heritage. We seek power by means of violence and guile, but within a limited range of action, rendering us vulnerable to unknown challenges. The Kwisatz Haderach will be an individual who can see and at least attempt to transcend this determinism, creating new possibilities of being, of survival. “The future will open.”