a reply to:
UNIT76
Hey Unit. Interesting thread. I've got a bit to say about your interpretation, but first I wanted to put this in here, cause this got me after all
that went before:
read the bible too, somehow it's all in the bible (the more you look in the other direction; the collected works of the occult world, the more the
bible will actually make sense)
the bible even says "test all things, hold fast to that which is good" (best advice i ever got)
I'm stuck with visual after visual of "the training they have had, beyond most people's imaginations…", and then you go and write that. And you are
so right, I think. There are so many layers upon layers going on, and some of what you're exposing seems to be like the gorgeous succubi, slinking up
to you and winding herself all around you, seducing you despite your brain screaming in warning. If you can look at these parts of life as testing
and come through them, then perhaps we are "worthy" of knowing deeper knowledge. I hold on to that thought, anyway, or else I'd have to say there is
no longer any point to anything than pure hedonism, seeking of power and status, feeding egos and sensory perception, etc.
And in a way, this brings me round to what I want to say about this movie. I didn't see this version, myself, and I must say the symbolism are more
just blatant, much repeated signs we see more and more of in popular culture.
The butterfly/monarch connection, etc. The Baphomet shapes. But even some of this is cheapening the richer meanings behind it, as well, though it's
not my particular bent. My point is, even this evil, satan thing is becoming blatantly caricaturistic, cartoonish, as though poking fun of it, though
some will still be highly attracted to it and seduced by it. I must say, you are very good at spotting all that stuff, though.
Unfortunately, it looks to me as though it's ruined what was really a fine book. It was actually a trilogy of three books by Frank Herbert. And the
older movie I saw of it left a lot to be desired if you loved the books. It was also quite different than the books. It would be a very hard movie
to make, really, without making three movies, one for each book and sticking to the books as closely as possible, which isn't done.
I think one reason why is that the beginning set up for the plot of Dune is quite applicable to today's ethical considerations about technology,
augmentation of humanity, transhumanism, etc. Making the movies this way takes the seriousness out of it, and rather pokes fun at the books.
Such as: At the beginning of the first book, we are introduced to the Bene Gesseret. They are a female priesthood, all powerful, and extremely
political, but for necessary reasons. At that point, the empire, space with many planets filled with all kinds of life and cultures, had been at war
with computers, which had become sentient, interlinked,and taken over the entire empire. All "naturally occurring" life, at that point and for some
time, had become slaves to the AI. And the AI was its own singularity that ruled absolutely everything. Somehow living organisms coalesced, as
slaves will do as "everything wants to be free," and a thousand years or somesuch of war had gone on. Because the AI was very adept at faking natural
life, and morphing when needed (sort of like Mr. Smith in Matrix or whatever that slinky thing was in Terminator---maybe I'm getting my movies mixed
up, anyway) this was a long, hard fought and bloody war.
Out of this the Bene Gesseret was born. Most probably because women held the key for human survival, and humans were somehow the apex of natural born
life, though no one around here would believe something like that these days. These women trained intensely from almost birth,and were purposefully
addicted to the spice, turning their entire eye blue. The combination of having been born by a Bene Gesseret mother or many generations of them, and
their addiction to the spice, gave them special pre-cognitive abilities, superkinetic abilities, all kinds of neat superpowers and superintellect.
However, they were stingently taught in ethics and morals, to lead the course of humanity….. Also, when these women were pregnant, their children,
of necessity became imbued with spice while in the womb, and there was a cellular memory exchange in vitro, where the generations of Bene Gesseret
priestesses before had done the same with the then bearing mother, and all memory was known to the child from the ancestors,
in vitro. Of
course, some of the children probably didn't make it out of the womb sane, to start with. And male children surviving this were rare. This was the
secret of the specialness of Paul Atreides. He was the first son born to a Bene Gesseret priestess since the computers had been defeated and the
empire had come back to human rule. So, he was to be the messiah they had waited for…..
I won't bore you any more. But I think you'll see that the books are hardly what they are selling in that movie, sadly.
tetra50
edit on 4-8-2014 by tetra50 because: (no reason given)