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/lit/ - Literature

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1015123 No.1015123 [Reply] [Original]

This post (and probably thread) will contain spoilers for the novel Dune. If you don't want spoilers, ignore this thread.


Let us discuss the allegory in Dune.

Water: It is fairly obvious that Frank Herbert used water to represent, well, water. I think he wanted to say that water is precious, and we should be careful with it. (inb4 LOL WATER CYCLE WE CANT RUN OUT OF WATER. No we can't run out of water, but we can put strain on our water system, using more than it delivers.)

Spice: Frank Herbert has always said that it symbolizes drugs. It is addictive and alters the mind. However, the mind alterations seem to be for the better (Paul's visions were enhanced). Is he saying that, although drugs can be addictive, we should be open minded about them? I think so. Although I have never done any illegal drugs, great thinkers like Carl Sagan claim that marijuana is a very good thing and enhances "freethinking".

Also, Spice == Oil? I believe Mr. Herbert has held the firm stance that spice has no purposeful allegory besides mind altering drugs, but come on. I mean, shit is on ARRAKIS (Iraq-is).

And Arrakis == Iraq? I'm not one of those retards who thinks Frank Herbert is a prophet and I believe that the Shaddam/Saddam thing is purely coincidental. However, you can't deny Arrakis bears a large resemblance to Iraq.

Chime in, call me a retard, agree with me, add more shit. This is all the real allegory I was able to catch.

>> No.1015152
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1015152

>>1015123
>marijuana as Spice
I've often pondered the link between the rampant drug use of the 60's and Spice in Dune

But note that I do not recall here to be any distortion of mental functioning mentioned as a side-effecr. It is not a pleasure drug, your allegory is most likely full of shit

>> No.1015165

>>1015152
Um, Paul was able to have visions of past and future when under the influence of spice. However, the more spice he consumed, the more he needed to have the visions. That was a pretty big part of the book.

>> No.1015169

>>1015123
It's about oil and the Middle East. The Fremen are Muslims. Arrakis is named after Iraq (though it is not a direct correlative). The spice/drug correlation is to LSD, which Frank Herbert took. This shit is easy mode, OP.

>> No.1015174

>>1015169
LSD is not addictive. The spice is.

>> No.1015178

>>1015165
Yeah, but that was hardly a self-pleasure kind of thing like most drugs of that time. He never found himself swooning or anything.

but who really knows

>> No.1015183

No, I won't call you a retard, your theories do make sense. I thought about that, the fremen are basically muslim (see the jihad, for instance), the Bene Gesserit are the representation of the Western Church somehow, and I can see the Church being behind everything, trying to control and manipulate every part of the society for its own purposes (as positive as they could end up being).
As spice being a simil to marijuana, definitely not. The only side-effect is the addiction, and that's just when it's used too regularly. Spice only brings benefits.

>> No.1015184

>>1015174
It's not non-fiction, dumbass. Go back to your "hard sci-fi"

>> No.1015185

Spice also comes from ancient worms,who are mostly buried under the sands..."fossil" fuel I suppose.

>> No.1015198

>>1015183
I shouldn't have mentioned marijuana, but instead just left it at mind-altering drugs.

An addiction to spice is more than an addiction to cigarettes. You consume it regularly and then stop, you'll die. Also, as I said before, when exposed to the spice, Paul began to have visions of the future. He also began to require greater and greater quantities of spice to continue having the visions. I haven't read any of the sequels yet, but I have a feeling that he might get to a point where no reasonably consumable amount of spice can continue his visions.