Norman Spinrad Interview

[JustSomeGuy]

I just read through this thread for the first time. Nice!

SR: Now that Brian and Anderson's new book "Paul of Dune" is set in between DUNE and DUNE MESSIAH, not just a sequel or a prequel, but an "interquel" if you will, do you think Frank Herbert's Dune Legacy is in danger ? Will these new books "devalue" the DUNE trademark and so taint Frank's literary Legacy ?

NS: Who knows? In the long run, it depends on the critics, readers, and publishers. One thing Brian and Kevin can't ever do is put the byline "by Frank Herbert" on their stuff. That "Dune" is now a trademark I find disgusting, and the more it is devalued, the better. That trademark has little or nothing to do with Frank Herbert's literary legacy.

[dunaddict]

One thing Brian and Kevin can't ever do is put the byline "by Frank Herbert" on their stuff.

Except here in the Netherlands...; Lower left corner. ("Jagers van Duin" = "Hunters of Dune")

[gurensan]

One thing Brian and Kevin can't ever do is put the byline "by Frank Herbert" on their stuff.

Except here in the Netherlands...; Lower left corner. ("Jagers van Duin" = "Hunters of Dune")

PICTURE HERE!

Ohhhhhhh the horror.

[Naïve mind]

A very belated thanks for this interview, SandRider

[Frybread]

Seven years later and I still enjoy reading this interview from time to time!

[SandRider]

It was the high-point of my personal Jihad. I'd never done anything like that before. It WAS pretty cool.

[Cpt. Aramsham]

NS: Knowing Frank's political philosophy, I once asked him how he could keep writing this royalist stuff. He told me he planned to end the series with a novel that would transition to a fictional universe of democratic rule.

I've always been a little skeptical of this statement, but I just came across corroboration in an interview with Frank Herbert himself that I'd never noticed before:

Now I'll tell you something interesting in MY reading of history: Every time we have pulled the lid off the human desire to govern our own affairs, to be free of government, we've had a renaissance of some kind. We've had a social renaissance, we've had a political renaissance, an artistic renaissance. Every time in history we've unleashed this, we've gone forward by leaps and bounds. So I'm saying, "All right, this is what history says to me. So why don't we do it again?" That's what I'm playing with in the seventh Dune book: moving toward showing the kind of governments that finally evolve out of the situation I have created.

Though it sounds like what he was envisioning was less "democratic rule" and more a kind of libertarian/anarchist utopia.

[georgiedenbro]

Now I'll tell you something interesting in MY reading of history: Every time we have pulled the lid off the human desire to govern our own affairs, to be free of government, we've had a renaissance of some kind. We've had a social renaissance, we've had a political renaissance, an artistic renaissance. Every time in history we've unleashed this, we've gone forward by leaps and bounds. So I'm saying, "All right, this is what history says to me. So why don't we do it again?" That's what I'm playing with in the seventh Dune book: moving toward showing the kind of governments that finally evolve out of the situation I have created.

Though it sounds like what he was envisioning was less "democractic rule" and more a kind of libertarian/anarchist utopia.

I would be quite suprised if the "democratic" government he was going to suggest is anything like what Western countries have now. But I would also be suprised if it was a government-free situation. It sounds like what he's saying here is that when people *think* they're done with government that's really when they're finally open to reforming it, but that the idea of actually having no overarching government won't happen (or can't work). It's especially tough to imagine Dune 7 was going to be a 'people rule themselves' scenario when you stop to think about the power of Siaynoq and later on the double-imprinting. I think the idea is that some force is needed to rule you, and that if it isn't a feudal despot then it's got to be something on a smaller scale but that controls you just as much. If we're going to look at this SAT-style, I would suggest that as Siaynoq is to Duncan/Murbella's imprinting, so would the feudal government's be to X, where X is the result in Dune 7. What exactly that might be is a question.

[lotek]

I always felt the way the Bene Gesserit ran Chapterhouse was what Frank had in mind.
Instead of acting after events to modify their outcome, you'd create a self sustaining system where each individual action is part of a whole.
Maybe not said like that, but hopefully you get the gist.

[nullvac]

I know that I'm very late to this thread but I'd like to say that I'm a huge fan of Spinard's "The Iron Dream". Just like Dune Messiah it takes all the Sword and Planet tropes that we know and love from Conan and John Carter and turns them upside down. The part towards the end where

people willingly sterilizing themselves at concentration camps

was hilarious. It did start to drag on at certain places though.