Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Q: In the preludes Jessica is almost forced on Duke Leto. Yet in the DUNE classic, we read that the Duke actually sent buyers to purchase her.

A: The Leto/Jessica meeting scene in HOUSE HARKONNEN was actually written by Frank Herbert himself and found in his notes. The events shown in HOUSE HARKONNEN are consistent with the original notes.

Q:How are ships powered in the Butlerian Jihad timeframe? Are they using faster-than-light travel? How can a galactic empire hold together if it takes a month for messages to be sent from world to world?

A:The League ships are faster-than-light, but still vastly slower than the near-instantaneous foldspace ships later used by the Guild. Travel between star systems still takes weeks or months. It's the comparative difference between crossing the Atlantic in a sailing ship or on the Concorde. However, historical vast empires -- such as the Roman Empire and the British Empire -- operated successfully even under such constraints.

The Sons of Idaho wrote:Wait, they actually do claim that the ships are faster than light??

KJA in an email dated Sat, 21 Oct 2006 14:50 -0400 (EDT) wrote:

SandChigger in previous email wrote:...how to reconcile the differences, in story terms, in the depictions of how Leto and Jessica came to be together? Did Frank include any sort of explanation? Or did he intend to go back and change the original passage in later editions of "Dune". (I guess this is the main question for this message.)

Frank wrote the dramatic scene (of Jessica being brought to Castle Caladan and a suspicious Duke Leto putting the knife to her throat) many years after the publication of DUNE. From my reading of the notes and files, it seems likely that Frank wrote that scene when he was working with David Lynch to flesh out the character background. Since we assume he knew what he was doing, and since it was a great scene, that is how we depicted it in House Atreides.

Without rereading the whole novel to answer your question (see the "I don't have the time!" paragraph above), only one sentence in the whole novel DUNE deals with how Jessica and Leto came together -- "Not since the day when the Duke's buyers had taken her from the school had she felt this frightened and unsure of herself." So, "the Duke's buyers had taken her from the school" ... Frank contradicted nine words out of a 195,000 word novel? If that's what gives you heartburn and keeps you up at night, then I'm sorry, my friend, but you need to get a life! <g> And if including that never-before-published scene, written by Frank himself, turns you off to our entire series of prequels, that just seems unreasonable to me. (Sorry if that sounds snippy, but it's very frustrating for me after all the incredible work and sweat and attention we put into writing these novels for somebody to nitpick about something so inconsequential.)

Hiker Hack wrote:(Sorry if that sounds snippy, but it's very frustrating for me after all the incredible work and sweat and attention we put into writing these novels for somebody to nitpick about something so inconsequential.)

SandChigger wrote:

KJA in an email dated Sat, 21 Oct 2006 14:50 -0400 (EDT) wrote:...but it's very frustrating for me after all the incredible work and sweat and attention we put into writing these novels for somebody to nitpick about something so inconsequential.)

Nekhrun wrote:What an ass.

SandChigger wrote:

KJA in an email dated Sat, 21 Oct 2006 14:50 -0400 (EDT) wrote:

SandChigger in previous email wrote:...how to reconcile the differences, in story terms, in the depictions of how Leto and Jessica came to be together? Did Frank include any sort of explanation? Or did he intend to go back and change the original passage in later editions of "Dune". (I guess this is the main question for this message.)

Frank wrote the dramatic scene (of Jessica being brought to Castle Caladan and a suspicious Duke Leto putting the knife to her throat) many years after the publication of DUNE. From my reading of the notes and files, it seems likely that Frank wrote that scene when he was working with David Lynch to flesh out the character background. Since we assume he knew what he was doing, and since it was a great scene, that is how we depicted it in House Atreides.

Without rereading the whole novel to answer your question (see the "I don't have the time!" paragraph above), only one sentence in the whole novel DUNE deals with how Jessica and Leto came together -- "Not since the day when the Duke's buyers had taken her from the school had she felt this frightened and unsure of herself." So, "the Duke's buyers had taken her from the school" ... Frank contradicted nine words out of a 195,000 word novel? If that's what gives you heartburn and keeps you up at night, then I'm sorry, my friend, but you need to get a life! <g> And if including that never-before-published scene, written by Frank himself, turns you off to our entire series of prequels, that just seems unreasonable to me. (Sorry if that sounds snippy, but it's very frustrating for me after all the incredible work and sweat and attention we put into writing these novels for somebody to nitpick about something so inconsequential.)

Q: In the preludes Jessica is almost forced on Duke Leto. Yet in the DUNE classic, we read that the Duke actually sent buyers to purchase her.

A: The Leto/Jessica meeting scene in HOUSE HARKONNEN was actually written by Frank Herbert himself and found in his notes. The events shown in HOUSE HARKONNEN are consistent with the original notes.

I am reading parts of Road to Dune and remembered the Hacks defending the Jessica scene and that it is canon because it was written by Frank ... but in Road to Dune it is stated that:

The following chapters were cut in this fashion and then never re­stored when the novel was published in book form. In one passage here, Frank Herbert mentions that spice has been used for only about a
century, but in later versions, he expands the time frame to span many thousands of years. Many details are inconsistent with the published versions, and these scenes should be considered drafts, not "canon."

Raveem wrote:Er, why are we trying to find a functioning chartered accountant in an ameoba tank?

Raveem.

dunaddict wrote:

Q: In the preludes Jessica is almost forced on Duke Leto. Yet in the DUNE classic, we read that the Duke actually sent buyers to purchase her.

A: The Leto/Jessica meeting scene in HOUSE HARKONNEN was actually written by Frank Herbert himself and found in his notes. The events shown in HOUSE HARKONNEN are consistent with the original notes.

I just love how they don't even answer the original question. Who cares if the scene is consistent with some random note; It has to be consistent with DUNE, you know, that book you might have heard of?
The fact that this FAQ even suggests that consistency with the notes is more important, proves these people are incompetent or don't care enough about Dune to be allowed anywhere near the material.

I am reading parts of Road to Dune and remembered the Hacks defending the Jessica scene and that it is canon because it was written by Frank ... but in Road to Dune it is stated that:

The following chapters were cut in this fashion and then never re­stored when the novel was published in book form. In one passage here, Frank Herbert mentions that spice has been used for only about a
century, but in later versions, he expands the time frame to span many thousands of years. Many details are inconsistent with the published versions, and these scenes should be considered drafts, not "canon."

Oh, now I understand! The prequels should be considered drafts, not "canon". That explains the bad writing....