I saw someone say the #book #Dune made them see the multifaceted nature of Islam.
The book isn't about Islam. It is set in the far future where all religions have evolved into unrecognisable forms. But the book is highly critical of all power structures and the characters are caught within those structures.
The Bene Gesserit sisterhood literally plant religion into primitive civilisations so whenever they return to those people they will automatically have religious authority.
You also have mention of the Orange Catholic Bible.
Dune is full of great ideas. The story is simple and the ending is slightly disappointing, but it's an ending all the same.
I think one part that stood out to me is [small spoiler] the camp character who was supposed to be the 'chosen one' but turned out not to be. He has the chance to kill Paul, and he could do it, but he decides not to because of some personal affinity with him.
Paul isn't the most powerful. The book shows how power in many ways comes from people's belief in that person: their worship, their support.
Let's talk about how #Dune influenced #StarWars
Dune is a story without computers, and Star Wars too in a sense has no computers. Yes, there are droids and computer operated craft, but there is none of the surveillance and communication technology that comes with computers (at least in the original #movies).
This is what makes those worlds compelling. People can hide in far off lands. Space is like tales of old with adventurers sailing ships and boarding vessels ...
You see, in many ways stories are more fun if you limit technology. Technology is the know-it-all spoilsport that likes to take the easy route.
It's like having a great detective novel then just using forensic science to find out who the killer is before the detective gets to lead you on a path of mystery.
@lydiaconwell Is that probably why books set before the 90's are still nice to read? Sometimes even nicer than books set in the modern age? Same counts for movies.
@lydiaconwell And usually the AI tries to kill you. Clunky or not.
@trinsec The #movie Videodrome is really good. It's basically a revenge movie with elaborate, surreal murders. It involves VHS tapes and analogue TV and I don't think it could work today. The updated version would be someone sitting in front of their laptop, maybe downloading strange content and hacking websites to get it.
It wouldn't quite be the same.
@lydiaconwell WarGames (1983) probably falls into the same category: It couldn't be done today like that anymore.
@trinsec Yes. One flaw in old #scifi is that they strangely didn't predict computerised communication and file storage. They predicted AI and video screen communication but the computers tend to be a bit clunky.
So you get scifi that goes on about microfilm and microfiche instead of one small device with millions of books stored on it.