{"id":519,"date":"2007-08-18T14:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-18T14:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stallioncornell.wordpress.com\/2007\/08\/18\/for-he-is-the-frumious-bandersnatch"},"modified":"2007-08-18T14:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-18T14:19:00","slug":"for-he-is-the-frumious-bandersnatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/for-he-is-the-frumious-bandersnatch\/","title":{"rendered":"For he IS the Frumious Bandersnatch!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The end of Harry Potter left me looking for something else to read, and, to ease my withdrawal pangs, I needed a new series I could love just as much as the Hogwarts chronicles. None of the new stuff on the shelves at Barnes and Noble was turning my crank, and I desperately needed a book to take on vacation. So, on a whim, I picked out the 40th Anniversary edition of Frank Herbert\u2019s “Dune.”<\/p>\n

I\u2019d always thought that I\u2019d read the novel “Dune” prior to this year, but I don\u2019t know when or where, and I certainly couldn\u2019t have told you anything about it. The only scene I could recall prior to rereading it this summer was when the Duke dumped a glass of water on the ground and made everyone else follow suit. A few of the moments in the book had a familiar ring to them, but, for all intents and purposes, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was reading this masterpiece for what seemed like the very first time.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say the book is easy to read. Like Harry Potter, “Dune” creates a fully realized fictional universe, which, in detail and scope, is far more expansive than Rowling\u2019s wizarding world. The fundamental difference is that Rowling goes out of her way to make her world accessible to the average Muggle, while Herbert does exactly the opposite. His book is loaded with jargon that requires constant reference to the glossary in the back. I kept asking things like \u201cWhat\u2019s a \u2018gom jabbar\u2019? What does he mean he\u2019s a \u2018mentat?\u2019 And what the Sam Hill is a \u2018Kwisatz Haderach?\u2019\u201d Reading the first few pages was extremely tedious, and it made me wonder if I had actually read the book before or if I had just given up when I realized I neither knew nor cared about Kwisatz Haberdashers.<\/p>\n

Jargon, in my mind, is an elitist storytelling device. It\u2019s designed to be exclusive, and it usually indicates a condescension on the part of the author – \u00a0i.e. if you were only as smart as the guy writing the story, you\u2019d know what was going on. At worst, it\u2019s just plain silly, as in the case with “Battlestar Galactica,” when people use words like \u201ccentons\u201d and \u201cyahrens\u201d to describe seconds and years. We\u2019re suspending disbelief long enough to pretend these offworlders are speaking English, so why clutter the language with incomprehensible nonsense? Centons and yahrens are typical of what James Blish used to call \u201cshmerps.\u201d He pointed out that some writers will describe a fluffy, hopping animal with long floppy ears, soft white fur, and a cotton ball tail as a \u201cshmerp\u201d instead of a rabbit, just to make it sound more alien. To me, a rabbit by any other name is a pretty stupid idea.<\/p>\n

There are a fair number of shmerps in “Dune,” but they\u2019re fully developed, well-thought-out shmerps. Herbert has created a world much in the same way Tolkien has \u2013 it\u2019s clear the world came first, and the story is almost an afterthought. I don\u2019t think Herbert was being silly or elitist in his use of jargon. I think the “Dune” universe existed so clearly in his mind that by the time he started crafting this story, he had almost forgotten how little the rest of the world knew about sietches and such. I\u2019ve never seen a more intricate tale of science and religion, woven together seamlessly like this. Once you get acclimated to the bizarre language and enter Herbert\u2019s “Dune,”\u00a0the book becomes a very rewarding experience.<\/p>\n

Upon completion of the novel, I had a strong desire to see the movie that everyone seems to loathe. I steered clear of it back in \u201984 during the summer of “Gremlins” and “Ghostbusters,” and the impression my friends gave me was that I wasn\u2019t missing much. After reading the novel, I understood very clearly why the movie was reviled, even without having seen it. I came away from the book with the impression that this story was entirely unadaptable to the big screen. So much depends on what\u2019s going on in everyone\u2019s head, particularly Paul\u2019s, that I can\u2019t imagine how you could put it on the screen at all.<\/p>\n

Which is why David Lynch\u2019s “Dune” movie is so singularly remarkable.<\/p>\n

I say that without irony. I loved it. It\u2019s an amazing achievement, and I will likely watch it several more times. But that\u2019s not to say it\u2019s a good movie. It isn\u2019t. But it\u2019s not really a movie, per se. It\u2019s like an illustrated storybook, with moving pictures accompanying the written text.<\/p>\n

Characters stand still as chunks of the novel are voiced over to explain their thoughts. The entire movie is nothing but exposition, and I can\u2019t imagine anyone who hasn\u2019t read the book being anything but baffled unless they stopped the show every few frames to consult the glossary in the back of the book. Still, it\u2019s faithful to the novel to a fault, which shows that Lynch had tremendous respect for his source material. As one who has just completed the book, it’s fun to see Lynch’s cinematic illustrations.<\/p>\n

From a design standpoint, the film is almost note perfect, from the sumptuous emperor\u2019s chambers to the House of Atreides to the rugged stillsuits of the Fremen. (\u201cThe House A-who-ides? Stillsuits? Fremen?\u201d Read the book.) True, they made the Baron Harkonnen a bit too foul for my taste, what with the pustules and the spittle and the heart plugs and all. And what’s with the bug drinking and the cat milking? Geesh. And, yes, the effects are spotty in places, and the mounting of the worm is ridiculous, particularly with the Toto guitar power chord we get at the top. But the miniature work is strikingly effective, even today. I\u2019m glad this movie was made pre-CGI. It\u2019s extraordinarily inventive, and, visually, it holds up pretty well.<\/p>\n

The cast is outstanding, and it was delightful to see a pre-Picard Patrick Stewart in a heroic role. The only thing I’d ever seen Brad Dourif in before “Dune”\u00a0was “Lord of the Rings,” and I’m curious now to see if he performs every role with his right hand at his face and his left hand holding his right elbow, like some demonic Jack Benny. The sore-thumb exception to the great cast rule is Sting, who stinks. He\u2019s a high-school actor in a professional film, and it\u2019s painful to watch him bug out his eyes occasionally to feign menace. I\u2019ve occasionally wondered why his film career never really went anywhere. Now I know. Still, given the high jargon quotient this film carries, it\u2019s amazing how much gravitas this cast is able to milk from lines like \u201cThe spice IS the worm! The worm IS the spice!\u201d And the chick who plays Lady Jessica is hot, even when she\u2019s bald. The creepy kid who ends the movie weirded me out, though.<\/p>\n

In the final analysis, the real reason to love the film Dune is that Michael Bolton bangs a drum in it. I saw him and did a double take. Take a look and tell me that\u2019s not him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Theend of Harry Potter left me looking for something else to read, and, to ease my withdrawal pangs, I needed a new series I could love just as much as the Hogwarts chronicles. None of the new stuff on the shelves at Barnes and Noble was turning my crank, and I desperately needed a book ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}