One of the enduring problems I have with Dune - not the movies, not the first book, but the entire series of books penned by Herbert and his successors - is how central the three dominant Abrahamic faiths figure into the storylines. More than 20,000 years from now.
I think it was fundamentally unimaginative of Frank Herbert, but then again this is the guy who gave us a Macguffin of divination through psychedelic worm poop.
I remember the revelation of Dune being not that it was something Sandworms produce (such as poop) but the worms themselves (not that far removed)
But I expect you were mostly being more figurative than literal there.
@Chancerubbage IIRC spice was the fungal byproduct of sandtrout shit and water. Sandtrouts are the larval worms (the "little maker" in Chakobsa).
@flargh I suppose I got my shorthand notion from the Lynch Film.
@flargh WHERE ARE THE SCIENTOLOGISTS???
@Eggfreckles with Xenu, finally.
@flargh LONG LIVE THE GALACTIC CONFEDERACY!!!
@flargh @Eggfreckles We can only hope.
This is a lot to, um, digest:
“a Macguffin of divination through psychedelic worm poop”
–@flargh
@flargh Bret Devereaux also takes issue with the whole concept of tough environments breed tough men, he uses the Fremen as a major example.
https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-part-i-war-at-the-dawn-of-civilization/
@flargh “divination through psychedelic worm poop” is a phrase I need to use more often. Possibly print on a T-shirt.
@flargh Frank Herbert’s ghola would say “I gave you drug mutated precog FTL pilots, a millennial-long secret plan by space nuns with mind control and their own kung fu to save humanity, and humans who can calculate possibilities quicker than AWS, but I lack imagination for thinking God has some legs? Excuse me while my original body rolls in its grave quicker than a sandworm with a maker hook in its segments”