originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
This was a new thing, intensity without weight, no clear flavors at all. Yet he saw it in all its dimensions, endless possibilities of adjectives stretching away across the centuries. For every instant of reality there existed countless projections. An invisible palate within remembered the false pasts beer, soda, food wines. Was he Bob Parker or the Kwisatz Haderach, product of centuries of breeding for good taste? For a moment he panicked, then thought: “I’ve not brought my mind to rest at its beginnings. How can I taste chaos?”
Setting aside preconception, he examined the wine in Prana Bindu suspension-awareness, seeing it simply for what it was. No oak, no bergamot, no gobs of anything.
He felt the pressure of mass unconsciousness, the burdening sweep of Merlotkind across the universe. The Bene Spectorate, swimming in this tide, a corporate entity trading in points, trapped in the torrent as he was. A wrong selection here could precipitate a jihad of untold proportions, nations tearing down edifices of false taste, planets ripping up their oak forests.
“87”, he pronounced.
--Frank Herbert
originally posted by MLipton:
Bravo, Xian. For no reason in particular I decided during this pandemic to revisit the Dune series and am only now concluding Chapterhouse.
Well played!
Mark Lipton
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I gave up after the second one, back in college. The first was a lot of fun in the overwritten style of sf/fantasy favored at the time. The second seemed tiresome. Did they really get better after?
Too suspenseful for me. Plus I can never resist a poke at the 100 point system.originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
This was a new thing, intensity without weight, no clear flavors at all. Yet he saw it in all its dimensions, endless possibilities of adjectives stretching away across the centuries. For every instant of reality there existed countless projections. An invisible palate within remembered the false pasts beer, soda, food wines. Was he Bob Parker or the Kwisatz Haderach, product of centuries of breeding for good taste? For a moment he panicked, then thought: “I’ve not brought my mind to rest at its beginnings. How can I taste chaos?”
Setting aside preconception, he examined the wine in Prana Bindu suspension-awareness, seeing it simply for what it was. No oak, no bergamot, no gobs of anything.
He felt the pressure of mass unconsciousness, the burdening sweep of Merlotkind across the universe. The Bene Spectorate, swimming in this tide, a corporate entity trading in points, trapped in the torrent as he was. A wrong selection here could precipitate a jihad of untold proportions, nations tearing down edifices of false taste, planets ripping up their oak forests.
“87”, he pronounced.
--Frank Herbert
I was with you to the end. Masterful.
My ending would have been: “He paused for a moment, then turned and disappeared into the vines.”
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I gave up after the second one, back in college. The first was a lot of fun in the overwritten style of sf/fantasy favored at the time. The second seemed tiresome. Did they really get better after?
Yes. But if you don’t like the style, you don’t like it. FWIW, the second is the hardest to get through. The real thread that carries the books as a set IMO is in the third and fourth books. The popular focus has always been on Paul, maybe because of the movie made before Herbert completed his set. But Paul was not the core thread, he was a trigger.
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I gave up after the second one, back in college. The first was a lot of fun in the overwritten style of sf/fantasy favored at the time. The second seemed tiresome. Did they really get better after?
Yes. But if you don’t like the style, you don’t like it. FWIW, the second is the hardest to get through. The real thread that carries the books as a set IMO is in the third and fourth books. The popular focus has always been on Paul, maybe because of the movie made before Herbert completed his set. But Paul was not the core thread, he was a trigger.
I may be past my sell by date for appreciating them anymore. When I reread Lord of the Rings really only ten or so years after I had graduated, I was shocked by how much I was put off by the false epic tone when the action started and the twee gentility of hobbit life. It all worked much better in the movies for me.
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
originally posted by MLipton:
Bravo, Xian. For no reason in particular I decided during this pandemic to revisit the Dune series and am only now concluding Chapterhouse.
Well played!
Mark Lipton
As good as the others are, Heretics and Chapterhouse as a pair are the best IMO.
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
This thread impelled me to check out an audiobook version of The Children of Dune from the local library. Imaginative plot development, more turgid narrative, but, listening between the lines, as it were, over and over again I hear three letters being repeated: lsd, lsd, lsd.
Looking at the bookshelf today in said library, I also noticed that Herbert's son has made something of a cottage industry out of Dune sequels, prequels and books of lore. Has anyone here sampled them? Any merit?