Four Questions

1.  How does Herbert's use of language in Dune provide both a sense of familiarity on an alien world and is this familiarity hinder the novels estrangement? 

2. How does the Arthur C. Clarke's time in Imperial India affect the ways he views imperialism in Childhood's End?

3. How does exposition help or hurt the flow of a story, such as in Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark or "The New Atlantis" by Ursula K. Le Guin? 

4. In most science fiction stories, subjunctivity, or the meaning of the words in a sentence, creates a world much different from ours. Compare two authors and their use of subjunctivity to create "word-images" in their stories. 

Paul's Loss of Innocence

The loss of innocence is something that a person can find reading any book, and it is particularly one of the most common storytelling devices in literature. When Paul Atredes’ father is kidnapped and dies in Dune, at that exact moment Paul becomes the new Duke of the house of Atreides and must assume the complete mantle of responsibility, all at the age of fifteen. Even his mother, Lady Jessica, realizes this when she says “There is no more childhood in his voice.” (317, Herbert). I believe that, in a sense, this is the most extreme case of loss of innocence I have ever read in a novel. Paul is becoming something else entirely, almost a prophet and he combines his roles as Duke, Mentat, Kwisatz Haderach, and Bene Gesserit into the one Muad’Dib. I like to think that the “Muad’Dib” persona that Paul creates for himself perfectly signifies that this young boy is no longer able to play games, not have a care in the world, but he is a man with responsibilities and obligations now and he understands this. One can even say this alludes to the story of Jesus and how as a young boy he was thrust with the responsibility of being the son of God. Paul’s transformation into “Muad’Dib” is also interesting because I feel that since he was a child, he was trained in all these different forms of mental, physical, and spiritual aspects and when his father dies and he assumes command he immediately is able to use all of his training at once to keep himself and Lady Jessica safe. Paul’s character develops in such a short amount of time, and when we looking to the mind of Paul we see how calculated his every step is and how, even at fifteen, he knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Paul has skipped growing up and growing into his own person and has become a full-fledged adult. I’m interested to see more of this “skip” explored and Paul’s feelings on how he has stopped being a child and started being a man. 

Herbert, Frank. Dune. The Penguin Group, 2005. (Print)

Choice in the novel Dune

In the novel Dune by Frank Herbert, there are a number of themes and ideas presented by Herbert himself such a politics, environmentalism and more to be extrapolated from our world into his future world, where people are order in what one could call a feudal system and people are put their places as Dukes or Mentats (basically human computers) and I believe another theme that should be discussed would be choice. Present in the novel are opportunities to make certain choices (or not make said choices) and I think it presents an interesting conflict, such as Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto and Lady Jessica, fulfilling the prophecy of being the “Kwisatz Haderach” who is the “male who can truly become one of us” (41) meaning he becomes the leader of the Bene Gesseirt and can transcend space and time with his mind. Paul is also told he may become a Mentat as he is told by his fathering saying he “…may have Mentat capabilities” (74) and that the choice is his “whether to continue or abandon the training” (74). Even as a young boy, Paul has so much choice thrust upon him such as fulfilling a prophecy which he may have no choice or being a human computer and going to school for a very long time. All of his decisions, whether to ignore the prophecy, training, or whatever it may be, as a 15 year old boy this is a lot to have on one’s mind. These choices are also going to have a lot of effect on other people and he must decide what to do. The Lady Jessica is also presented with a slight predicament, when she discovers the peaceful irrigation room hidden where the Atreides are staying on Arrakis, a dry desert planet where water is extremely scarce. There is so much water to douse the plants, it is said it could “…support a thousand people of Arrakis – maybe more” (116). Lady Jessica has the choice of informing the Duke and the Fremen of this room, but the question is should she? If she does, the room could support thousands for water and make life a bit easier, but would the water run out, or could they build another room such as the same and maybe that can produce water to? There are so many options Lady Jessica has and each has its benefits and its cost and it all comes down to the choices these characters make, and how it will affect their future.

Herbert, Frank. Dune. The Penguin Group, 2005. (Print)