Written in the Sand

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Written in the Sand

Episode 3 Dune Book 1, Chapter 1 - part two

I apologize for the lateness of this, our third episode. I have left a note to my future self that the holidays require material finished and ready to go in advance. In addition to the normal pressures of producing this podcast while celebrating the holidays, I decided to start restructuring the website. If you visited before, you may note that the resource links now are located under each episode post and the beginning of the episode transcript is now in the post. A bit of work on top of the normal writing, recording, and editing, so it was a lot of things going at once with limited time. Still, I will try to avoid these types of delays as much as possible in the future.

We are going to start off this episode with an additional bit of an embarrassment for me. I'm going to announce a correction. Two episodes in and already having to do this. But, that's okay because it offers me a great opportunity. In our last episode I talked about accepting mistakes, and then I proceeded to make one – and a very stupid mistake, at that.

You might even know what it was, especially if you're Jewish. Yeah, it turns out that Hanukkah does not have 10 days in it. Such a simple thing to check, and yet I did not check, and (to make it worse) as I was writing it down, I knew I should check. But I still didn't. I was rushing and I didn't feel like taking the time to make sure. I literally had this conversation in my head that I should check the number of days in Hanukkah (it's 8, by the way) while another part of me said no, because I had to get things finished. Seriously, it would have taken 10 seconds to do, but I stubbornly refused.

I actually suspect that I sabotaged myself on purpose. Remember when I mentioned that there's something inside me that knows things that I don't consciously think of? Well, in closing an episode about being stubborn about admitting mistakes, what better way to demonstrate that than to stubbornly make an obvious and stupid mistake? So at my own expense, I get to demonstrate a mini lesson about owning mistakes, and leaving them up for the world to drive it home. In addition, I have an opportunity to say that you should never be afraid to face a setback and turn it into something better than it was.

Okay, now that all the mea culpa's are over we're going to move on into the main body of the episode. We are going to start talking about the text of Dune, chapter 1.

This chapter is amazing! There is so much information going on in here that it is going to take me multiple episodes to go through it. I'm going to start by giving a bit of the history of Dune, which is alluded to towards the end of chapter 1, however we are going to give more specifics than are given there.

First off, I have to talk a bit about the extended universe presented by Kevin J. Anderson and Frank's son, Brian Herbert. Just like the David Lynch movie and other books in the Dune series, there is a divide amongst Dune fans about these. And I admit they even within myself I am very conflicted about them.

As far as the main storyline goes, there is some closure to the plot that was abruptly cut off by Frank Herbert's death. For 20 years, fans of the series could only speculate on where this series was intended to go. A cliffhanger dangled at the end of book 6 but no resolution was in sight. Then, came the announcement that the outline for Dune seven had been discovered in a previously unknown safe deposit box where it had sat for two decades.

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Written in the Sand

Dune, Book One, Chaper One part 1

I want to take some time to establish a policy about direct quoting from the books. I'm going to limit how much I do that because I want to encourage you to actually read them yourself. Open them up, even just to get a refresher; it'll be fun. This episode we'll be looking at a very small section of Dune chapter one, and that is the opening quotation.

Yes, really.

I know...you're looking at the timer on the player and wondering how someone could spend that much time on just one paragraph, but I honestly believe it's an important one. This is something of a foundation episode. Last episode was to set the stage for the podcast. This one is more about setting the stage for the actual material.

The quote itself opens up with the idea that beginnings are a time for balance and there are certain things I think should be emphasized in the beginning because we don't know each other.

We can assume quite a number of things with varying degrees of accuracy. I can reasonably predict that we are all human, beyond assumptions like these everything gets a little fuzzy, doesn't it? It's because we have different backgrounds we need to go over this.

We need a common baseline, and that requires a certain mode of perspective and that is what this quote is about and therefore what this episode is about. If you need that refresher on the actual words of the quote feel free to pause and go check it, I'll wait. If not, here's the gist:

Paul existed in his own time. He was born on Caladan but Arrakis will always be his place.

Yeah, I'm going to pull ½ an hour or so out of that.

Paul has his place. Everyone has their place. Place is so much more than location, a place has its own natural rhythms and familiar sites. A location has its culture and it has moments that are impressed upon those that call it home. Those people are unique to that place, they are familiar faces, they speak familiar language, and they follow familiar routines. But just because you live in a place does not mean you fit there.

Related to that and just as important, everything has its own time to exist. Some people and ideas shine in their existence while others will barely sparkle. The phenomenon that Paul becomes can only happen on Arrakis and a thing that we will tackle in much more detail later on is that Paul can only fulfill his purpose within the time period he lives. My basic point with this is that some people are lucky enough to exist in the place and time where they can reach their full potential.

Does Einstein develop a theory of relativity if he's born in the Amazon Jungle 500 years ago? Instead of the thought experiment of the train, is it the thought experiment of the flying monkey or the falling tree? Or crouching monkey, falling tree? And who does Amazon Einstein tell? Does it become legend or is it just the crazy ramblings of a wild-haired shaman forgotten by a culture with no printing press or recording device? Being ignorant of physics and mathematics, does he invent something just as brilliant that is actually useful to his tribe and does he then get remembered as a demigod, or does he live his life and die with no achievement at all – not even worth a footnote in history?

Do we in the modern world even have the theory of relativity if Einstein isn't a patent clerk in 1905? Without it, what journey does science take? A person needs his time and a time needs its history.

This idea that everything has its place in space and time, is a concept so basic you would hardly think it's worth mentioning.

WRITTEN IN THE SAND

Episode 1: Introduction

Beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

-Dune, first sentence

And what better way to begin? Welcome to the introductory episode of Written in the Sand. This episode will be about explanations and backgrounds because that is what introductions are for.

I would like us to explore some concepts and ideas. And I'll be following a rough foundation set by Frank Herbert's Dune series. There will be more to it than that, but that is the basic platform I'm working from.

The first thing in the beginning is to ask the question: “why? And why is an interesting question. As Douglas Adams wrote, why is so important it has its own letter.

Why explore these ideas? Why Dune? Why would I attempt to do this?

The best answer is to say keep following the podcast, 'cuz it'll be a short series if I can totally answer that right now. The answers to all three aren't separate.

And so I will present an brief overview. Brief is relative, there's a lot coming in future installments that I want to prepare for.

Who was Frank Herbert?

Frank Herbert was an author, a journalist, a political speechwriter, and, according to his granddaughter, a man who didn't like being described by his vocation. I think that he was the type of person who wanted to solve problems as comprehensively as possible but also knew he couldn't do it for us. He was interested in our fundamental impulses, our self-inflicted traps, and the realistic potential of our highest aspirations. And he presented his thoughts in his writings.

He set Dune about 20,000 years ahead of our time. He did this because he wanted us to look at humanity in a time and place outside our perspectives.

If he had set his story in the modern world, we would be too invested in our own prejudices. By removing everything familiar, we can look at the actual issues without conscious or unconscious reactions based on race, culture, religions, national borders, or current political affiliation.

Considering how seriously we take that last one I'll say that He did not present a conservative or liberal stance in the sense that we think of today in America.

He spoke at the first Earth Day, which may make you think that he was some left-wing tree hugger. But, he was also a Republican speechwriter, which would make you think that he was some right-wing nut. Maybe he was both— and neither.

I like to think his life carried him to a certain enlightenment that was beyond politics.

Now it sounds like he was some sci-fi guru trying to start up a religion or something. Except he explicitly denied that and, once we progress a little, you'll realize the idea of that would have actually insulted him.

If you come to this with a partisan perspective, and (let's be honest) almost everyone will, whether it's political, social, or religious; I give you fair warning—there are going to be some rough times ahead.

There are some sacred cows that are going to be treated very badly. Try not to get too excited or angry if I touch on something you have opinions about.

I'm not a great defender of sacred cows anymore. I believe that type of holiness is a lot rarer, and much more common, than we imagine because we look for it in the wrong places.

To help understand what I mean, there is an essay that Frank Herbert wrote called "Listening to the Left Hand". It serves as a bit of a warm-up for realizing that we need to alter how we approach things. I have a link posted on the site and I highly encourage everyone to read it.

Speaking of reading, if you just stumbled in here by accident or curiosity I'm sure you're wondering if you need to read Dune to follow the podcast.

First off, I'm glad you showed up even if you haven't,