A Tale of Two Worlds
Well its been a long time since a written a blog, so I'm thinking of a review session... To start it off, I just finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert, and might I say an amazing book, with an awesome story. I mean I had seen the movie, but the reading the book makes u enjoy the magnificent story even more. It's so much like the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein. The two authors are so similar in their writing. They both created their own legacy, by creating distinct worlds that have traditions and cultures different than we know. Yet we can relate to the characters, the authors created, and their actions, as well their feelings. Middle-earth and Arrakis, created by Tolkein and Herbert respectively, are worlds so amazing that truly shows the brilliance 
and intelligence of these men. Another power these men possessed was dedication, these masters of literary work were so devoted that they even created new languages, idioms, and dialogues to fit their world, and make it seem even more real, and to some surreal.Middle-earth, and Arrakis are amazing pieces of creation, that are different in one another, yet very similar in their projection. Middle-earth is divided into smaller nations with different people and different cultures, take Rohan for example, much different than the elves and other men. Dune is different in that sense, showing that Arrakis is composed of a similar people all around the world. The desert people, or Fremen as they are known, are the inhabitants of the world, where they are about to be taken over by Imperial forces of the universe.
These two different worlds are the same in the sense of the conflicts that occur. Both novels have two main types of conflicts, the man vs. self conflict, that builds and changes the character to face his destiny. Aragorn becoming the King of Gondor, and Paul becoming the savior of Arrakis, Muad'ib. The other conflict is that
of good vs. evil at a large scale, Orcs vs. Elves and Men, and in Herbert's novel, Fremen vs. the outworlders.So, as this post was A Tale of Two Worlds, a play on the famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, it is sort of different than the Dickens' novel. You see in A Tale of Two Cities, it was the best of times for London, and the worst of times for Paris. But in Lord of the Rings and Dune, it was the worst of times, that was later changed to the best of times. Anyhow, I would just recommend both of the books to anyone who has the desire to read, as most of you know the books are long, but were definitely enjoyable and fun to read. Till the next one... enjoy.
posted by Tabish Talib @ 2:32 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Dune is so much more than that. It is a commentary on the colonial and post colonial era in human civilization. The Universe is goverened by a few "houses" which are analogous to the colonial powers who rule their dominions and feud with each other. Their main objective is to control the trade of the "spice" which is analogous to the old colonial spice trade and the post colonial oil trade. The Planet Arakis is a desert planet, much like Arabia, and the people there have a very distinct culture much analogous to the arabs. They value water more than the spice they have, they have strong bonds to tribes and they believe in a prophetic Messiah, even the word Muadib is very close to Mahdi. The Fremen overthrow the colonial occupiers, with the help of a former colonial himself, like Lawrence of Arabia, who rallies the tribes together. He talks about "Desert Power" like many have talked about in the real world, and in the end, spice is what is central to the whole universe, just like oil is today. Frank Herbert wrote it at a critical time, just when the Arab world had discovered this precious resource. I love the novels, both for the story and also the bigger point Herbert wanted to make with his story.
Post a Comment
<< Home