Omphalos wrote:If you are interested in a decent analysis of things that influenced Lucas when he made Star Wars, check this site out:
http://moongadget.com/origins/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Those interested in Herbert's influence on Lucas pay close attention to this page:
http://moongadget.com/origins/dune.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The author of that site has been trying to get a book deal for some time now. Im pretty surprised that she has not.
I take much issue with a lot of what she says, both about the origins of shakespeare, and in particular her understanding of tragedy. She misrepresents dune also, as clearly demonstrated by this passage:
Herbert borrowed several other riffs from Sophocles, including the blind prophet, the hero becoming blind at the death of his wife, and the flawed person being sent out into the wasteland to die (rather than burdening his family and tribe). Herbert also flirted with the subtheme of incest: if love can only exist between equals, there aren't enough superhumans on Arrakis to go around, so Atreides siblings tend to fall in love: Leto II and Ghani follow the Path of Light, refusing to act on their almost romantic love for each other. Alia is in love with Paul, so she arranges for him to chance upon her when she has no clothes on. This attempt to seduce Paul into an incestuous relationship is evidence that Alia has fallen to the Dark Path.
I suspect she falsely attributes certain aspects of stories and cultural aspects also. Her discussion of Oedipus displays many examples of this. Certainly the idea of being blinded by the death of a spouse, abandoning injured parties to the desert etc, may be
common to both books, but she can assert nothing more than that.
The worst example is her assumptions about Delphi and the origins of prescience. I wouldnt claim to be a scholar but i'm sure there are many earlier examples of supposed fountains of knowledge, particularly of the future. There was an egyptian one, im sure.
The HLP hasnt released Frank's notes yet, Brian hasn't got the handwriting quite right!