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House Harkonnen - the Dune discussion

Joined
2/7/08
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The Dune discussion. Who (and what) I like:

Piter de Vries (mentat)
Bene Gesserit
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Gurney Halleck
Suk medicine
Mentat training
Spice
 
Gom Jabbar
The Reverend Mothers
Duncan Idaho
Alia
Mentat training
Fremen
Paul Muad'Dib
Spice

I believe Scifi channel made a mini series a couple years ago. Really excited to see I'm not the only one who loves this classic
 
Duncan Idaho
...
Mentat training
...

The weapons training at Ginaz (Idaho was a Ginaz swordmaster) was phenomenal -- if you could (literally) survive the 8-year training program. However, I would (literally) trade an arm and a leg for mentat training.
 
The Dune discussion. Who (and what) I like:

Piter de Vries (mentat)
Bene Gesserit
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Gurney Halleck
Suk medicine
Mentat training
Spice

I would add the "Religions of Dune" to the list. I've always wanted learn more about how Herbert drew elements Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and others in creating the Fremen religion. I'm no religious scholar so I'm sure I completely missed some of the more subtle allusions.
 
The weapons training at Ginaz (Idaho was a Ginaz swordmaster) was phenomenal -- if you could (literally) survive the 8-year training program. However, I would (literally) trade an arm and a leg for mentat training.

It's been a while since I read House Harkonnen but if memory serves me right, didn't Idaho help repel an attack on the school at some point during his training?
 
I believe Scifi channel made a mini series a couple years ago. Really excited to see I'm not the only one who loves this classic

Ever since the Lord of the Rings movies, I've been praying for Peter Jackson to begin work on Dune. One can hope...
 
It's been a while since I read House Harkonnen but if memory serves me right, didn't Idaho help repel an attack on the school at some point during his training?

Yeah, many (most?) of the newly-minted graduates died repelling the attack -- the attack was led by (if memory serves) some scion of a Great House who got kicked out of the training program.

Incidentally, Sardaukar training was quite intense as well -- of every 11 recruits, only 6 would physically survive the regimen (quoting from memory).

The religious element of jihad is fascinating, and seems to be true to the Islamic interpetation of an all-consuming conflagration against injustice that is unstoppable.

I didn't like the film version of Lord of the Rings -- too much wrong with it (Tom Bombadil expunged, Denethor as a selfish glutton, the red eye of Sauron ridiculous, the elves and hobbits not quite right, the balrog not looking like a terror at all, and above all the absence of a sense of distance and grandeur). Likewise with the film version of Dune. Haven't seen the miniseries.
 
The Galacian girls do it for pearls,
And the Arrakeen for water!
But if you desire dames like consuming flames,
Try a Caladanin daughter!

(Gurney Halleck)

(Caladan was the home planet of House Atreides)
 
If memory serves me right, Alia was more feared than Paul as she had tasted the Spice while still in the womb. I don't remember if she had to go thorough the Gom Jabbar test
 
If memory serves me right, Alia was more feared than Paul as she had tasted the Spice while still in the womb. I don't remember if she had to go thorough the Gom Jabbar test

Wasn't the Gom Jabbar test only administered to males?
 
I read the books many years ago, including the prequels (no Butlerian Jihad and nothing post-Chapterhouse). Re-read the first book recently. I feel I should re-read the rest, as much of the finer points of characterization and politics were lost on my young mind.

I enjoyed the two SF mini-series. One was made for Dune, and another for Dune Messiah/Children of Dune (under the name Children of Dune). It was very interesting to see the realization of Paul's dream in Dune and then the perversion of it in CoD.
 
Wasn't the Gom Jabbar test only administered to males?
Gom Jabbar test was administered by the Bene Gesserit to their acolytes. As far as I remember, the books never mention how often males are tested with it.
 
Gom Jabbar test was administered by the Bene Gesserit to their acolytes. As far as I remember, the books never mention how often males are tested with it.

Right. The Gom Jabbar first makes an appearance early in the book when House Atreides is preparing for the move to Arrakis.

I was actually thinking of the truthsayer drug, the effects of which only the Bene Gesserit were able to withstand. Paul, of course, became the first male (the Kwisatz Haderach) to consume the drug and survive.
 
I couldn't get into the first book, but did most of the prequels. Hard for me to judge but I did enjoy the prequels even if they seem a bit predictable. One day, I plan to reread book 1 and the entire series. Probably after I am done with my MFE.
 
If you have time, read Dune. Worth more than all the prequels together and would take a lot less time.
 
If you have time, read Dune. Worth more than all the prequels together and would take a lot less time.
I did read Dune, but I didn't enjoy it that much. I think I will like it better 2nd time around.
 
It's more a discussion of politics and economics -- transplanted to a galactic setting -- than hardcore science fiction. For me, mentats and their training remain of prime interest. I see quant training as the first faltering step on the road to full-fledged mentat training; an excerpt from a Wikipedia article:

Unlike computers, however, Mentats are not simply calculators. Instead, the exceptional cognitive abilities of memory and perception are the foundations for supra-logical hypothesizing. Mentats are able to sift large volumes of data and devise concise analyses in a process that goes far beyond logical deduction: Mentats cultivate "the naïve mind", the mind without preconception or prejudice, so as to extract essential patterns or logic from data and deliver useful conclusions with varying degrees of certainty. They are not limited to formulating syllogisms; they are the supreme counselors of the Dune universe, filling roles as menial as archivist and clerk, or as grand as advisor to the Emperor.
 
"They tried and died."

The part that stuck with me the most was the idea that to see the future is to become trapped by it, and how prescience can bind humanity.

In regards to seeing the future, it was interesting in that Muad'dib couldn't see the future with any sort of certainty. He was merely able to see the possibilities.
 
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