Another day another messiah. Another day another superhero. Superheroes are a consistent feature of the human imagination, human need, human longing.
Back in the second century AD the inflated claims of Christianity, as we know it today from the canonical version of the Bible, had not become established.
Jesus as a superhero was by no means fixed in character or powers in those days.
In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a child disperses water that Jesus has collected. Jesus kills this child. At age one he curses another boy, which causes the child’s body to wither into a corpse.
In other “gnostic gospels”, Jesus has somebody else crucified in his stead, impregnates the “virgin” Mary, and sells his own twin into slavery.
Two thousand years ago, man had not invented science fiction. At that date man thought space was a physical canopy above the earth, and so early Superhero authors had to set their tall stories on the earth, since the earth was all they knew.
Why do you like Dune, why did Herbert concoct the story, why were the books and films so successful?
The subconscious is a strange thing – perhaps you too have a desire for “super-heroism” to be true. Even if not, many of us clearly find something about Dune amuses us, attracts us, interests us.
And so now to “truth”. Eventually, the early Christian Church bigots kicked out all the inconvenient gospels and said the only true version of their super-hero Jesus “Christ” was contained in what we now call the Bible. In that version JC is a real good guy and certainly did not impregnate his own mother or kill others out of sheer spite or anger.
Do superheroes “really” exist? The Church believes so. Others may take a more balanced view: no, I do not believe that JC or any other superhero exists or ever has existed.
But our longing for something beyond the physical world we can prod and measure does have some justification in reality. In the sense I have so often spoken about. That the world is far more mysterious than we pygmies can yet imagine and that while there may be no “god” as such, perhaps we have the power to become “godlike”. There certainly seems to be godlike power out there somewhere. To me at least.
That has always been my take on the matter.
And Dune? What is it? On one level it is simply a fun story, an amusement. On another level it takes on a very much more significant shape which can sometimes have very severe consequences. ”Good” ideas, like communism have a plethora of Superheroes but usually have horrendous consequences. The communist Superheroes far outdid the Nazis in terms of mass slaughter. The desire for a Superhero was of course also cruelly exploited by the Nazis who seemed to offer a paradise, a way out for a Germany impoverished by Versailles, Weimar and hyper inflation. Hitler and his cronies were worshipped before it all went disastrously wrong.
Christians twisted a good folk tale into what has often been an instrument of hideous cruelty and murder, and so have other religions which shall remain nameless. Lest I receive a bomb through my letter box or have my head cut off by an insane extremist. Lest I receive a police visit for hatred or prejudice of some sort or another against what is fast becoming an unassailable orthodoxy.
So Dune and stories like it point out tantalising images of possible, imaginary utopias. Which we have always sought.
If I wax lyrical as usual, you will understand that this is a topic of great interest to me. Since I believe the issues go far far wider than one story, one book, one attempt to explain our world and to explore possibly better places or incarnations.
Weltanschauung 
The interesting thing about Dune is if you keep reading past the first book, it becomes not just a superhero story, but a deconstruction of that story, a warning. Beware of heroes! They will not be good for you.
Of course, none of the subsequent books are as popular as the first one, where Herbert did hint that it wasn’t just a hero’s story, but it was too nuanced and lost on most people. Which is why readers typically feel broadsided by the second novel.
I find it interesting that Villeneuve plans to take his movies through Dune Messiah and then stop. I wonder how popular that third movie will be.
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Hilarious – no I had not read past the first book. but that certainly heavily underlines the points I was making. We all want messiahs and super heroes – or at least a magic wand. But it always goes horribly belly up.
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Dear Mike and Anthony,
Well, the danger of hero-worship has not been lost on us who comprehend the calamity of not just what happened in the soon-to-be Nazi-led Germany impoverished by Versailles, Weimar and hyperinflation, but also in the present the likes of Trump as the symbolic messiah who is going to lead his misguided supporters, sycophants and funders to glory on Earth and the promised land! There could very well be more chaos inflicted by the forthcoming Trump presidency (were he to be elected again), chaos (both domestically and internationally) that might be far worse in scope and duration than that which finally culminated in the infamous riot at the Capitol.
One could indeed say that we live in interesting times, but often for the wrong reasons. It is all quite a big mess in danger of getting bigger still. I agree with you that ”Good” ideas, like communism have a plethora of Superheroes but usually have horrendous consequences. Yet, capitalism has often fare very badly too. As for other reasons as to why I am not very optimistic about (the outcome of) our superhuman ability (imagined or otherwise) in allowing humans to become a very dominant species on Earth, and also our modern technology, which has made us god-like, as well as the failings of both communism and capitalism, you can find these reasons being provided in great detail in my highly analytical and multidisciplinary post entitled We have Paleolithic Emotions; Medieval Institutions; and God-like Technology“, published at
This is a very substantial and topically important post dealing with the fundamental problems and the existential crisis of the human species, looming ever larger.
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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Most interesting and thank you for your comments. I agree with all you say and will go and read your article.
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How great it would be if life was utopian. But the overall setup is the opposite of utopian, what with just about every creature/organism feeding upon other creatures/organisms.
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Quite so. Evolution I can understand – the selfish gene I get. What I do not get is how a bunch of apparently rational individuals can create a benign god when, if such a god existed, he made a crass and cruel mess of his creation. As a species, we need to stop “eating” each other and everything around us. At least we have sentience – in which case it is our duty to create a better world. But I’m not holding my breath.
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Herbert wrote Dune as a warning against fanatical hero worship and the human tendency to give over power to a charismatic leader who then leads them into a fascist dictatorship. Very relevant to current times! Paul starts off seeking revenge for the death of his father, and wanting to liberate the oppressed Fremen of Dune, but it morphs into a bloody jihad. Unfortunately the sequels to Dune which document the progression of Paul into an evil godlike emperor of the galaxy are much less readable in my opinion. I reread Dune in preparation for the release of Dune Part 1 and planned to read at least three of the sequel books. But I gave up halfway through the second, Dune Messiah. Found it less compelling as story telling and too depressing. My sons both raved about Dune Part 2, even had a debate about whether it was a bigger cultural milestone than the first Star Wars movie, and certainly understood its message about charisma and fanaticism. I’ll hopefully find time to see it this week.
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Just as I assumed then, in my rant! How very interesting. And how very, very, very relevant.
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My brain doesn’t have the attention capacity to read huge volumes like Dune so I’ve not read the book (which when put on its side could seat a family of four for dinner), which is why I have a tendency to gravitate towards film and TV (missing of course the richer depths of themes and characters).
I enjoyed the Part One a lot, a visually stunning piece accompanied by a great a soundscape and intriguing foundational plot line.
However, I did not enjoy the second as much, becoming sleepy for the first half and then amused in the second, on the basis that for me, it turned into “Life Of Brian: A Space Oddity”.
There were several times when I half expected Jessica to turn round and say to the acolytes “He’s not the Muad’Dib, he’s a very a naughty boy, now piss off!” as well as Paul asking Stilgar to “Now, fuck off!”, who responds “How do you want us to fuck off, my Lord?”.
Ultimately, the end confirms (to me at least and maybe my book-less mind doesn’t fully understand what’s at play here) that there are no such things as heroes, that certain folks start off with good intentions and are eventually corrupted by the ego, power and the control of others, so Dune is a very much human problem, albeit in a different time and space.
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You are so right in what you say. So very right. I think the really good guys don’t seek political power: what’s that quote about rendering unto Ceasar? They didn’t want revolution. Same with the tubby little Indian in the loincloth. But of course others then took the cudgel up (at least in the case of Christianity and Islam) and whoomf… murder, mass slaughter and mayhem. As to book reading I don’t think it’s necessary. So don’t feel bad about it. At heart we all know full well it’s about ‘doing unto others’ and that’s all that needs to be known. The trouble is of course we can’t put it into practice. I love your quotes! I’m firmly on Jessica’s side.
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Excellent review. I’m definitely looking forward to watching this one soon. I’m a massive fan of the first film which I have always considered a sci-fi classic. I love the way in which it depicted Middle East countries. I’m curious to see how sequel would fare in comparison to the original. Here’s why I loved the first “Dune”:
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Wonderful review once again. I had an opportunity to finally see this film and wow I absolutely loved it. A spectacular sequel that managed to find ways to surpass the high standards which were set by its predecessor. I loved authentic depictions of the Middle East in the film as well. Here’s why I adored it:
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