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alreadyreadthatfanficI tried to read Dune for the first time about nine? eight? years ago. At the time, I was doing a student practice working in a stuffy basement lab (the charm of old university buildings struggling with lack of space), and my time consisted mostly of spending 2h of setup and them sitting around very still while the computer took readings, keeping eye on everything so the sample wouldn't die. The point is, there was very little to do but to take out my ereader and pass the time. The lab had no wifi, and back then mobile data would cost me, so I had to preload my books to the device.
So it was notable that I got so frustrated with Dune that I actually decided to stop reading it.
By now, I don't remember the specific passage that made me close the file. I just remember being very frustrated! (I feel like it might have been one of passages about genetics or precognition that made me give up on the book in the end, but I cannot be sure). I was disgruntled, too; Dune was the very first book I stopped reading before getting to the ending. Even if a book was so-so, I would usually read just to find out what happened at the end. But Dune was different.
About a year ago, when the new movie was teased, a friend lend me their copy when I admitted that I never read the whole book. Of course, by then I've forgotten most of the plot, so I started reading from the beginning.
Several times.
Never got far.
The book wasn't all that engaging to me, although I also attribute it to the fact that I'm much busier. I just generally had better things to do than slough through Dune.
In the end, I went to watch the movie without reading the (whole) book. I actually like it just fine! The music and scenery were VERY good. I loved the mood and the vibes. Afterwards, I had a feeling like not much happened, which objectively is not true, but the movie has that vibe. There seems to be a lot of stillness, a sense of waiting. (It is also very dark, literally. In cinema it's not so bad, but there are scenes that should have some more light so you can clearly see what is happening). I will go see the second one for sure.
But it's very much a movie I like to be looking at, specifically. Which brings me to my final attempt to get through the book.
My friend, bless her, suggested I listen to audiobook and gave me hers. So I finally listened to the whole book. And the second one, just to make sure.
Nine years later, I can give the final verdict:
I do not enjoy Dune.
The funny thing is, intellectually, I do feel there is a lot of interesting things! A lot of thing I very much enjoy discussing - the world-building and the moral and philosophical dilemmas presented in the text especially. But as interesting as those aspects are, the real stumbling blocks for me are the characters.
Ending of the second book beautifully encapsulates my feelings toward Paul. There is a point in the later half second book where Paul goes to a secret meeting. I was either not listening closely enough, or missed something, but (spoiler alert) Paul by that time is foreseeing his own death; so I though he would die during the meeting and the rest of the audiobook will be probably fallout from his death. When everything happened and Paul was injured but survived, my gut reaction was a betrayed, But you were supposed to die!
Obviously, by that point I had enough of Paul. Over the span of two books he failed to ender himself to me, or have my sympathize with his position. The moment where I like him the most is the moment of his death, but I was appraised of the plot in the later books (my friend was like, do you want me to tell you? and I was all, please do, I sure as hell won't read it) and apparently he doesn't really die, so ultimately even that little regard was earned under false pretences.
I do not enjoy Dune because I do not enjoy the characters in the Dune. The only one that actually tugged at my heart was the Heit/Gunray Duncan Idaho (EDIT: the one character I didn't completely dislike, and I still got the name wrong) in second book, but you just know nothing good is going to happen to him later, so he's not enough to keep me engaged. When I forget about how much I dislike the characters, I am actually curious about the plot, but, dear heavens above, they're all so unlikeable and I cannot bear with them. There's this mixture of massive hubris and complete pitifulness most of them have that feels to me like a red cloth to the bull. It targets the anger centres of my brain with pinpoint precision. Paul's constant monologue of "this is happening because of me, I am such fucking big deal, and you know I would like to stop it but I know I will fail anyway so nothing matters and I'm just gonna do X, Y and Z because I saw I was gonna do it while high and obviously my precognition powers mean I know best", just makes me go, "well if there's no point in trying then just fuck off!!!".
It's actually really fascinating! The tragedy of precognition! The questions of agency! The struggle against your own fate!
If only the characters didn't push all my rage buttons!
I told my friend that Paul is like a man who is going up the stairs, and the stairs are very clearly labelled "Attic" and after every step he moans how the Attic is the worst, he doesn't wanna go to the Attic, but then takes the next step. And in the end he's standing in the Attic and still moaning about how could this happen to him?!
In conclusion: oh, worm?
So it was notable that I got so frustrated with Dune that I actually decided to stop reading it.
By now, I don't remember the specific passage that made me close the file. I just remember being very frustrated! (I feel like it might have been one of passages about genetics or precognition that made me give up on the book in the end, but I cannot be sure). I was disgruntled, too; Dune was the very first book I stopped reading before getting to the ending. Even if a book was so-so, I would usually read just to find out what happened at the end. But Dune was different.
About a year ago, when the new movie was teased, a friend lend me their copy when I admitted that I never read the whole book. Of course, by then I've forgotten most of the plot, so I started reading from the beginning.
Several times.
Never got far.
The book wasn't all that engaging to me, although I also attribute it to the fact that I'm much busier. I just generally had better things to do than slough through Dune.
In the end, I went to watch the movie without reading the (whole) book. I actually like it just fine! The music and scenery were VERY good. I loved the mood and the vibes. Afterwards, I had a feeling like not much happened, which objectively is not true, but the movie has that vibe. There seems to be a lot of stillness, a sense of waiting. (It is also very dark, literally. In cinema it's not so bad, but there are scenes that should have some more light so you can clearly see what is happening). I will go see the second one for sure.
But it's very much a movie I like to be looking at, specifically. Which brings me to my final attempt to get through the book.
My friend, bless her, suggested I listen to audiobook and gave me hers. So I finally listened to the whole book. And the second one, just to make sure.
Nine years later, I can give the final verdict:
I do not enjoy Dune.
The funny thing is, intellectually, I do feel there is a lot of interesting things! A lot of thing I very much enjoy discussing - the world-building and the moral and philosophical dilemmas presented in the text especially. But as interesting as those aspects are, the real stumbling blocks for me are the characters.
Ending of the second book beautifully encapsulates my feelings toward Paul. There is a point in the later half second book where Paul goes to a secret meeting. I was either not listening closely enough, or missed something, but (spoiler alert) Paul by that time is foreseeing his own death; so I though he would die during the meeting and the rest of the audiobook will be probably fallout from his death. When everything happened and Paul was injured but survived, my gut reaction was a betrayed, But you were supposed to die!
Obviously, by that point I had enough of Paul. Over the span of two books he failed to ender himself to me, or have my sympathize with his position. The moment where I like him the most is the moment of his death, but I was appraised of the plot in the later books (my friend was like, do you want me to tell you? and I was all, please do, I sure as hell won't read it) and apparently he doesn't really die, so ultimately even that little regard was earned under false pretences.
I do not enjoy Dune because I do not enjoy the characters in the Dune. The only one that actually tugged at my heart was the Heit/
It's actually really fascinating! The tragedy of precognition! The questions of agency! The struggle against your own fate!
If only the characters didn't push all my rage buttons!
I told my friend that Paul is like a man who is going up the stairs, and the stairs are very clearly labelled "Attic" and after every step he moans how the Attic is the worst, he doesn't wanna go to the Attic, but then takes the next step. And in the end he's standing in the Attic and still moaning about how could this happen to him?!
In conclusion: oh, worm?
