Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I just finished rereading Dune: Messiah and decided to immediately read the five deleted scenes from Road to Dune while it was still fresh in my mind. It has probably been discussed on this forum before, but here are my observations:

- The first deleted scene, the 'original opening' is actually the same as Dune Appendix 3!!!
- The fifth scene is titled 'blind paul in the desert'. But in this scene, Paul is NOT blind.

In all four of the "new" scenes I recognized several identical phrases from the published book. But the scenes themselves don't feel like they belong to the same book:

In the "Alia and Duncan Idaho ghola" chapter, Alia's character is almost completely different. She comes across as the tyrant from "Children of Dune". She shoots a hole in Edric's tank with a lasgun and then stabs his hand with a knife. If I didn't know any better I could have sworn this came from one of McDune's famous pointless torture scenes. Also, somebody throws (!!!) a hunterseeker probe at Alia. Good thing this scene was deleted.

In the "Human distrans" chapter, again, Paul is not blind, although the stoneburner IS mentioned. Apparently Paul's blindness was something that was later added to the story. Also, Bijaz is strangely silent compared to the book. No crazy riddles.

What I liked about the "Conspiracy's end" alternative scene is that Irulan says "The days of the spice monopoly are numbered, and he knows it". In the book the whole 'worm-theft' plot was forgotten.

In my opinion, these aren't must-read scenes. They don't add anything to the story or provide any deeper insight. Too bad.

The Road to Dune is the only New Dune book the OH think is worth buying and where Brian and the HLP (not Kevin because he does not own the notes) deserve credit for publishing because it reveals at least some of the notes (letters and chapters) of Frank Herbert which are an interesting insight into the process of writing the Dune novels.

Nebiros wrote:The Road to Dune is the only book the OH think is worth buying and where Brian and the HLP (not Kevin because he does not own the notes) deserve credit for publishing because it reveals at least some of the notes of Frank Herbert which are an interesting insight into the process of writing the Dune novels.

Really? I don't think I have ever seen a "OH statement" about Road to Dune worth buying. Contradictory to the McDune flock I am of the opinion that every individual makes up his or her own mind. Some find Road to Dune interesting because of the deleted chapters, others, like me, don't give a damn. It is NOT in the Chronicles, so it's not canon and doesn't add any value to my understanding of Dune. The only thing it does is it brings in more money into the leeche's wallets ... and that I will not do (anymore).

The Foreword by Bill Ransom. This is good, he's a guy who knew FH and cared about his work.

Intro by the Hacks. Typical bullshit. "It was like finding a treasure chest... folders, manuscripts, correspondence, drawings, loose notes... crumpled by the weight of their contents" .. Makes you hopeful the book will provide some insignt into FH's creative process..

250 pages of new writing - Spice Planet - "Based on an outline", but where is the outline?!

140 pages of FH - Letters and chapters. Say what you like about this section, this is the reason I picked up a copy (from a discount bookshop)

90 pages of pure hackery. WTF is this shit?



140 pages of a ~500 page book? Yup they care.

The thing that really got me, was that they posted an unpublished chapter from Heretics (iirc) online because "it wouldn't fit" in RTD

Nebiros wrote:The Road to Dune is the only book the OH think is worth buying and where Brian and the HLP (not Kevin because he does not own the notes) deserve credit for publishing because it reveals at least some of the notes of Frank Herbert which are an interesting insight into the process of writing the Dune novels.

Um, ain't so.

We have gone to great lengths in previous threads to show most of the good stuff was copied at the Fullerton archives.

I'm waiting to see the 3000 pages of notes that kja describes in another interview.

If they really want to make some money they could put it out in various volumes.

DuneFishUK wrote:140 pages of a ~500 page book? Yup they care.

Preach it, brother.

I felt totally burned by RtD. I knew going in that I would loathe (and mostly ignore) the "contributions" from Spanky and Bobo, but I underestimated just how useless almost the entire thing turned out to be. "Spice Planet" is arguably the biggest offender — what a complete waste of space.

The deleted scenes were interesting, but ultimately felt like nothing more than DVD extras. Obviously, FH's correspondence, etc., was the most relevant part.

I don't even own a copy any longer. I didn't see the point of letting any of Anderhack's writing leak out and infect the books shelved next to it.

TheDukester wrote:I don't even own a copy any longer. I didn't see the point of letting any of Anderhack's writing leak out and infect the books shelved next to it.

Luckily the FH stuff is all together - I reckon you could fairly neatly chop Spice Planet and the Short Stories off and glue on a new cover.

From the title you'd have expected something that actually looked like what writing Dune as going down a road would have been...

What a fucking rip off to find they'd managed to insert(choice of word intentional)the mouth shit from the two idiots!

I know I should have known, I guess I was just lying to myself there...

Call Frank Walden I am suing for misleading title and moral anguish at the thought of having been conned, again..

DuneFishUK wrote:250 pages of new writing - Spice Planet - "Based on an outline", but where is the outline?!

Exactly. And I think there was mention of some chapter sketches by FH, too, no?

They seem to think that people are only interested in FH's notes & sketches AFTER they've been filtered through the morass of the minds of two moron hacks.

The thing that really got me, was that they posted an unpublished chapter from Heretics (iirc) online because "it wouldn't fit" in RTD

What's this? I don't remember hearing about this.

Sorry - it was from Chapterhouse.

http://old.dunenovels.com/news/ChapterhouseExcerpt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think the it wouldn't fit bit must have been in a forum post somewhere.

SandChigger wrote:

DuneFishUK wrote:250 pages of new writing - Spice Planet - "Based on an outline", but where is the outline?!

Exactly. And I think there was mention of some chapter sketches by FH, too, no?

That might be where I got the idea I was going to get something more Frank et less dumbasses...
I really was expecting something different!

Arseholes...

TheDukester wrote: The deleted scenes were interesting, but ultimately felt like nothing more than DVD extras.

That might be because of the term "deleted scenes." In literature, they're called "first drafts."

But in this case I believe they were scenes deleted when Dune was serialized but not restored for the book version.

The outline for Spice World was copied in Fullerton.

The letters exchange with Frank's editor were copied in Fullerton.

The deleted scenes were also copied in Fullerton.

Doesn't leave much left...

(Keep in mind the journeyman told Freak and others the "best stuff" found in the notes was all published in RoD.

Hard to believe that there wasn't anything good in those 3000 pages of notes they found. You'd think they could at least devote a couple of lines on a shitty website for them, or hand out brochures with some highlights at one of their dipshit book signings for jerks and dumbs.

Mr. Teg wrote:(Keep in mind the journeyman told Freak and others the "best stuff" found in the notes was all published in RoD.)

I'm actually not only okay with that, I think I believe it. Which would be about the first thing I've ever believed from Spanky.

As I've asserted many times, I think that FH's "notes" (meaning the safe-deposit-box version or the boxes-in-the-attic version or whatever lie Spanky and Bobo are telling this week) could be mostly random thought-doodles and other filler-type material. Of use to him, probably — just like my notes are of use to me — but likely just as full of grocery lists, phone numbers for mechanics and dry cleaners, and other mundane items as they are of really breath-taking material for Dune.

I'm sure there's some juicy stuff in whatever legitimate notes there might be. But, overall, I think "The Fabled Notes (Gasp!)" is pretty much a red herring pulled right out of Bobo's ass.

DuneFishUK wrote:Sorry - it was from Chapterhouse.

http://old.dunenovels.com/news/ChapterhouseExcerpt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers, my Good Feeshy Fellow!

Checked it just now and I actually have that in my Dune files. (As an individual file and within my canon search directory. )