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Dune

By Louise Moulton, Oak Flats High School

Internet Resources
Frank Herbert – Exploration of context
Analysis of the elective rubric
Composing and responding – practical activities
Bibliography

Useful internet resources for the study of Dune and genre of science fiction

Context of Frank Herbert

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert
Informative website that includes direct quotes from Herbert himself that you could use in critical analysis.
www.dunenovels.com/bios/frank.html
Biographical information. Be mindful that the composer of the text uses positive and emotive language to describe Herbert’s life and work; why is it important to recognise bias in a non-fiction historical recount?
www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fherbert.htm
Biographical information. The link “The science of Dune” does not work.

Genre Theory

www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html
Daniel Chandler’s comprehensive website is easy to navigate. His language use is aimed at an academic level, which is good for you and your evaluative level of responding. He references key academics in Genre Theory whom you could go onto research for a more in depth understanding of the theory.
http://home.mira.net/~satadaca/genre1.htm
Very academic essay, however, provides a contemporary discussion of genre theory focusing on Hollywood film-making. Long list of films at the end that may interest you as related texts.

Science Fiction

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction
Comprehensive definitions with many links to other resources. It is essential that you use a variety of resources to come to a well-rounded understanding of the conventions of the genre, do not just rely on Wikipedia.
www.scifi.com/
NOT a general Sci-Fi website, but complementary resource to the pay TV channel Sci-Fi. However, a good place to get ideas for related text material and a portal to forums.
www.sfsite.com/
Reviews for current Sci-Fi novels.
www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/SF-Index.html
This website promotes itself as the “Ultimate”, judge for yourself. Sometimes websites with too many links are difficult to navigate and can waste your time.
www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Frank_Herbert
Use this quote bank as a source of practice essay questions. See activity below in “Composing and Responding” to best utilise this site.

Dune

www.sparknotes.com/lit/dune/
Very detailed summaries and critical analysis of the text. A useful online quiz to test your understanding of the text and useful essay questions.
www.dunenovels.com/
Comprehensive and up-to-date site that utilises the medium of the Internet thoroughly. Use it as a portal to textual information, blogs, podcasts and more. Navigating around this site addresses Outcome content 4.1 of the HSC English Extension course, “Students learn to develop sophisticated presentations by engaging in extended independent investigation.”
www.imdb.com/title/tt0087182/
Details of David Lynch’s 1984 film adaptation starring Kyle McLachlan. An interesting comparative text to supplement your studies, but the special effects can detract from the detailed imagery that Herbert crafts with the written word.

Forums and Blogs

www.wordfire.com/blog/blog009.html
This blog entry gives you the email address of a Sci-Fi writer who can give you advice on your own writing – essential for the HSC examination.
www.dunenovels.com/phpBB2/
Excellent list of forums which you can contribute to. Choose the best one that suits our study and ask questions that will evoke responses linking to the elective rubric (see rubric checklist below). Remember, people who take the time to contribute to these forums know a lot about the text and have very interesting opinions.
www.usul.net/forum/default.asp
A devotee of “all things Dune” as created forums for other fans to contribute to. It shows you how the world of Dune goes far beyond that of the very first book that you are studying.

Frank Herbert – Exploration of context

Rather than read through another biographical text, complete the activities below to consolidate your understanding of Frank Herbert’s life and works and the world into which Dune was born.

Activity 1
Biographical information of Frank Herbert
Compare and contrast two web pages that chronicle the life and works of Frank Herbert.

Evaluate the following:

Who is the text author? Who is his or her intended audience? What do you think is the purpose of the text?
To what degree is the text biased? Is the information always very favourable in reference to Herbert’s life and work or is it critical? It is possible the text could be quite objective? How would the type of language used by the composer suggest this to you?
What information about Herbert’s life could be interpreted as having an influence on ideas represented in Dune?
Dune is often described as one of the seminal Science Fiction novels of our time, which is a value judgement. What arguments do the composers put forth that explain the ongoing ‘valuing’ of Herbert’s work in Science Fiction and literature in general?
How useful is each website to your study of Dune and the elective of Science Fiction in HSC Extension 1 English?

Activity 2
1965
Time to explore the year 1965, the year Dune was first published, and the decades after World War II. Not just a time of ‘hippies’ and ‘beehives’, but a time when the Cold War and the ‘Space Race’ were igniting thoughts of an uncertain and very different future from the present.

Use an appropriate Internet search engine to assist you in answering the following:

What were the key political events that occurred in the first half of the 1960s?
What evidence can you find that Science Fiction novels were valued in 1965?
What developments in science and technology since World War II may have had an influence on ideas represented in Dune?
Frank Herbert was American; can you draw any conclusions from the historical and cultural context of 1960s USA that may help you interpret Dune? What did Americans fear most?
Identify the most influential Science Fiction composers of the time. Do they have anything in common in terms of their subject matter?

Activity 3
Explore and investigate at least three significant figures of Science Fiction.

H.G. Wells
Ursula Le Guin
Karl Kroeber
Hugo Gernsback
Robert Heinlen
Ray Badbury
Arthur C. Clarke
Douglas Adams
Isaac Asimov
George Orwell
Aldous Huxley
Anthony Burgess
Stanley Kubrik
Fritz Lang
Jules Verne

Using the rubric to analyse and evaluate your prescribed text and and other texts of your own choosing

The two questions given to you in the HSC examination will be formulated using the Module A rubric from the syllabus and the Elective rubric from the 2009-2012 HSC Prescriptions. The table below separates out the key points that you need to know. It can be used as a tool for study in several ways:

Expand this table in your own learning journal so you can explore each key idea in greater depth when analysing Dune. Examples for each rubric point have been started (you must identify many more) for you as a guide.
Use the table in its current form to summarise Dune at the end of your study to have as study aide just prior to the examination.
Use it as a checklist for analysis and evaluation when exploring related texts of your own choosing.

Rubric instruction	Example from the text	Evaluation of meaning and technical devices use to shape this meaning through the conventions of Science Fiction	Quote/Evidence
In this elective students explore texts that represent a spectrum of imagined worlds.	Outer space Other planets: Arrakis (Dune), Caladan. Thousands of years into the future – 10,191 ‘Church’ and state firmly merged for political power
Developments in science and technology, and their acceptance as progress, are at the core of science fiction.	Space travel Telepathy, mind powers, the ‘weirding way’ Stillsuit, stilltent, ornithopter	Pseudo-scientific jargon
Science fiction texts may challenge the degree of acceptance of science and technology, and provoke controversy and debate about possibilities and the ramifications for humanity.	Human control over the environment Scarcity of resources – water is precious and life source on Arrakis Space travel linked to religion – Butlerian Jihad “god of machine-logic” Genesis reinterpreted Fremen rebellion		“…space gave a different flavour and sense to ideas of Creation.” P. 574 “During this period, it was said that Genesis was reinterpreted, permitting God to say: ‘Increase and multiply, and fill the universe and subdue it, and rule over all manner of strange beasts and living creatures in the infinite airs, on the infinite earths and beneath them.’”
These texts present a dynamic range of concerns.	Social commentary Religion Power Political structures – Feudal and Imperial Ecological control and ramifications of that control Gender Hero as saviour
These texts present a dynamic range of styles and textual forms.	Dune is an epic narrative Structure: Map, Books I, II, and III, Appendices, Terminology of the Imperium. Narration: third person omniscient which can switch to first person indicated by italics Each ‘chapter’ is orientated with an excerpt from Princess Irulan’s historical texts.	Herbert’s structure and narrative style enhance the authenticity of his imagined world. We suspend our reality easily and believe in the historical, religious and political structures he has created.
Science fiction texts reflect changing contexts and values.	Reliance on science and technology Religion vs. science Environmental change and control; ecological disaster Individual vs. the state
They may experiment with aspects of time and challenge and disrupt traditional perspectives on human form, morality, behaviour and power.	Bene-geserit Baron Harkkonen The ‘weirding-way’ Space travel - Sardaukar The Fremen Melange (spice) Mentat

Composing and responding – practical activities

Conventions of science fiction
Expand the following table to deconstruct Dune and related texts of your own choosing. Use it as a planning tool for your own imaginative compositions.

Title of text: _____________________________________________
Composer: ______________________________________________
Medium of Production: _____________________________________

Term	Example and Analysis
NEW/IMAGINED WORLD Future Space Alternate reality
HERO Hero’s journey Saviour Gender (Archetypal characters)
POWER & POLITICS Imperialism; feudalism Types of power Who has it? Who doesn’t have it? Who wants it? Misuse of power
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Developments Power Misuse Control/Chaos
RELIGION Created religious structures Challenges to Christianity Parallels to real religions Allusion Imagery Intertextuality
DICHOTOMIES (Binary Oppositions) Good vs. Evil Science vs. Religion Individual vs. State
AUTHENTICITY Each text gives the impression that they are an account of true historical events: Maps History (Appendices) Truth Philosophy, proverbs, sayings (real and imagined) Verisimilitude (the appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability
SYMBOLISM/ICONIC IMAGES Omnipresence Being closely watched by those in power “The Eye”
CLASS STRUCTURES Imperialism Dictatorship Rebellion of the repressed
CAUTIONARY TALE/SOCIAL COMMENTARY Where human society is headed Perceptions of freedom
MYTH MAKING Proverbs, sayings, philosophies.

Essay practise

“It (Science Fiction) is a literature that speaks of both the fears and the hopes of its times and of the times it sees emerging.” - Ann Arbor.

Evaluate this statement in reference to your prescribed texts and at least TWO related texts of your own choosing.
“What does it mean to suppose a government overwhelmingly more powerful than the citizenry? How can the act of invention change a person? Does the world look the same through the eyes of another?” - Erik Rabkin.

Evaluate this statement in reference to your prescribed texts and at least TWO related texts of your own choosing.
“The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.” - Frank Herbert.

Evaluate this statement in reference to your prescribed texts and at least TWO related texts of your own choosing.

Creative writing practice

I think science fiction does help, and it points in very interesting directions. It points in relativistic directions. It says that we have the imagination for these other opportunities; these other choices…Humans tend not to see over the long range. Now we are required, in these generations, to have a longer range view of what we inflict on the world around us. This is where I think, science fiction is helping. I don’t think the mere writing of such a book as Brave New World or 1984 prevents those things which are portrayed in those books from happening. But I do think they alert us to that possibility and make that possibility less likely. They make us aware that we may be going in that direction.

- Frank Herbert

Compose an imaginative text using the above text as a significant source of inspiration for your imagined world which challenges and provokes controversy.

Bibiliography

Board of Studies NSW (1999) Stage 6 Syllabus English Preliminary and HSC Courses.

James, E. and Mendelsohn, F., (Editors) (2003) The Cambridge Companion of Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.

Palumbo, Donald E., (2002) Chaos Theory, Asimov’s Foundations and Robots, and Herbert’s Dune: The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction, Greenwood Press, Westport CT.

Rabkin, Eric S., (1983) Science Fiction: A Historical Anthology, Oxford University Press, New York.

Wolfe, Gary K., (1986) Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy, Greenwood Press, Westport CT.

Websites
www.dunenovels.com/bios/frank.html
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert

All other website references are directly available and accessible throughout the body of the text. No information has been paraphrased from text available on these websites.