Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I've usually been a "token" female amongst other Dune groupies........why is that? Is geekdom generally reserved for men? Don't get mad - I said "generally". I'm a Star Wars geek, also.......but not a Trekkie. I am an artist (a painter), mother and grandmother ---see! How many grandmothers do you know who are Sci Fi fans? I live with my hubby in South Central Indiana.

Me - In high school (in the 70s) my friends were reading LORD OF THE RINGS but it didn't sound like something I'd get into, so I picked up Dune. I've read the original 6 in order about 6 or 7 times over the years. My hubby and daughter don't understand why. Isn't it funny how you become so immersed in the Duniverse that you find yourself applying FH's terminology to your own life? Example: I just had the adab, the unbidden memory. Though, I've never felt the need to recite the Litany Against Fear. Like a lot of you, I've been phoned from more than one bar by more than one person with a Dune or SW trivia question no one there could answer.

I did read the o-t-h-e-r Dune novels. I am a purist, though and wasn't overly impressed. But I can say that I've read them. They did not expand my perception of the Dune universe however, I didn't permit them to. They didn't feel "Frank-Herbert-y".

My favorite book of the series? COD. Why? I guess it's because we're already imprinted with Dune's history, the Fremen, the principal characters, the political goings-on, and such - and now we're into the souls of this story's inhabitants.

Does anyone else wonder what the Caladian whales look like with all that fur? I'd love to see one.

Well, it's been nice meeting you. I hope this is mutually beneficial

can't help it, gotta say it ....

spidey-sense .... tingling ...

artistagent116 wrote:Well, it's been nice meeting you. I hope this is mutually beneficial

More beneficial than the other site you registered on today. Hi.

artistagent116 wrote:How many grandmothers do you know who are Sci Fi fans?

Twelve!

No, wait ...

None!

(Welcome)

Achlan wasachlan!

Cream & sugar in your spice coffee? (Keep your baklawa close or 'Rider will swipe it when you're not looking. )

Hi there, artistagent116!

I'm not a grandmother yet, but I'm old enough to be, and my son is 24 already (where do the years go?)

I felt the same in the Dune vs LotR argument - I could never get into the world of Hobbits, yet felt right at home on the desert planet.

As for the female-to-male ratio - well I dunno, but I was also the only female in my 'varsity class of Physics majors. There's probably some psych babble reason there.
Anyway, welcome to the most Dune-knowledgeable forums around!

PS Whale fur? I've always imagined it to be very short fur, for what it's worth.

Hellooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

My ex-wife moved to Bloomington, but Ill not hold it against you that you live in a tainted part of the nation.

I was rereading the part of Dune where Jessica discovered the garden, and I was struck for the first time how the architecture was reminiscent of the Shire.

Welcome, we can always use more ladies around the joint to round out all the raging testosterone junkies.

Welcome Home!

hihihi artistagent116

Welcome on board. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Welcome

Welcome!

CoD is my favorite, too.

Well Met and Welcome, grab a spice beer and join in

We will do our best to spread the Mutual Benefit of loving frank's works!

Im partial to GEOD, am on the long side of my reread (lost count) and enjoying HOD Immensly (again).

Welcome!

Welcome aboard. As for whale fur I've always thought of the old bearded whale from the "here there be monsters" days.

I imagined them like normal whales with fur like seals:

Do you think they're indigenous to Caladan (and therefore not really mammals) and humans just applied the "whale" name to them, or were they brought to Caladan from Earth (or some other settled world) and they either mutated or someone messed with their genes?

SandChigger wrote:Do you think they're indigenous to Caladan (and therefore not really mammals) and humans just applied the "whale" name to them, or were they brought to Caladan from Earth (or some other settled world) and they either mutated or someone messed with their genes?

I got the impression that most life is terran but for a few exceptions like sandworms.

Kynes' halucination of his father spoke of "inserting adapted terraform life" so I assumed that was common practice.

No way to know, really. The odds of alien life being edible are probably quite low, so humans would have to take Terran food plants and animals along with them wherever they settle.

And you can always traipse la-la-la-lly down morpork's Gilded Path and assume that ALL "alien" life in Dune is Terran in origin.

Let's not get crazy now... but the majority of the fauna FH mentions ARE terran and adapted. Thorses and Laza Tigers for example.

I'm thankful FH leaves some things up to our imagination, unlike some authors.

Freakzilla wrote:Let's not get crazy now... but the majority of the fauna FH mentions ARE terran and adapted. Thorses and Laza Tigers for example.

I'm thankful FH leaves some things up to our imagination, unlike some authors.

I, too get the impression that the flora and fauna in the series are terran-based and subsequently adapted as per each planet on which they were transplanted. In fact, it was a source of frustration during my first read-through of the series. I was hoping for hugely mutated or radically specialized alien creatures to read about. I was young, give me a break! When I had "matured" though, I realized that this tale simply doesn't require a focus on weird and unusual animal or plant life. The characters and story are compelling enough as they stand.

One of the things about the Duniverse is that humanity is the the only sentient species, and life is rare in that universe. There are the noted examples of Extra-Terrestrial life forms i. e. Sandworms and some of the flora from Ecaz if I'm remembering correctly. I'm wondering though if FH intended all animal life to be terran in origin. One could classify sandworms as plants seeing as they exhale Oxygen right? And interestingly enough there extra terrestrial plants have some very interesting applications for humans. Such as the spice (spice n. any of a class of pungent or aromatic substances of vegetable origin, as pepper, cinnamon, or cloves, used as seasoning, preservatives, etc.) or Sapho. I think FH was still hopeful to the idea of "mind-expansion" by natural chemical means.

This welcome thread got off topic

No, they are not a plant because they produce O2, that's not the definition of a plant by a long shot. Plants photosynthesize.

Sandworms are animals.

IIRC there is some language stating that teh action of the sandworms bodies across sand produces oxygen too. Been a while since I looked that though.