PALGRAVE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: A NEW CANON Frank Herbert’s Dune A Critical Companion Kara Kennedy Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon Series Editors Sean Guynes Independent Scholar Ann Arbor, USA Keren Omry Department of English University of Haifa Haifa, Israel Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon provides short intro- ductions to key works of science fiction and fantasy (SFF) speaking to why a text, trilogy, or series matters to SFF as a genre as well as to readers, scholars, and fans. These books aim to serve as a go-to resource for think- ing on specific texts and series and for prompting further inquiry. Each book will be less than 30,000 words and structured similarly to facilitate classroom use. Focusing specifically on literature, the books will also address film and TV adaptations of the texts as relevant. Beginning with background and context on the text’s place in the field, the author and how this text fits in their oeuvre, and the socio-historical reception of the text, the books will provide an understanding of how students, readers, and scholars can think dynamically about a given text. Each book will describe the major approaches to the text and how the critical engage- ments with the text have shaped SFF. Engaging with classic works as well as recent books that have been taken up by SFF fans and scholars, the goal of the series is not to be the arbiters of canonical importance, but to show how sustained critical analysis of these texts might bring about a new canon. In addition to their suitability for undergraduate courses, the books will appeal to fans of SFF. Kara Kennedy Frank Herbert’s Dune A Critical Companion Kara Kennedy Auckland, New Zealand ISSN 2662-8562 ISSN 2662-8570 (electronic) Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon ISBN 978-3-031-13934-5 ISBN 978-3-031-13935-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13935-2 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To all those who have gladly lost themselves in another world S e ’ P erieS ditor S reface The infinite worlds of science fiction and fantasy (SFF) dance along the borders between the possible and the impossible, the familiar and the strange, the immediate and the ever-approaching horizon. Speculative fic- tion in all its forms has been considered a genre, a medium, a mode, a practice, a compilation of themes or a web of assertions. With this in mind, Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon offers an expansive and dynamic approach to thinking SFF, destabilizing notions of the canon, so long associated with privilege, power, class, and hegemony. We take canon not as a singular and unchallenged authority but as shifting and thoughtful consensus among an always-growing collective of readers, scholars, and writers. The cultural practice and production of speculation has encompassed novels, stories, plays, games, music, comics, and other media, with a lin- eage dating back at least to the nineteenth-century precursors through to the most recent publications. Existing scholarship has considered some of these media extensively, often with particular focus on film and TV. It is for this reason that Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy will forgo the cinematic and televisual, aspiring to direct critical attention at the other nodes of SFF expression. Each volume in the series introduces, contextualizes, and analyzes a single work of SFF that ranges from the acknowledged “classic” to the should-be-classic, and asks two basic, but provocative questions: Why does this text matter to SFF? and Why does (or should) this text matter to SFF read- ers, scholars, and fans? Thus, the series joins into conversation with both scholars and students of the field to examine the parameters of SFF studies vii viii SErIES EDITOr’S PrEFACE and the changing valences of fundamental categories like genre, medium, and canon. By emphasizing the critical approaches and major questions each text inspires, the series aims to offer “go-to” books for thinking about, writing on, and teaching major works of SFF. Haifa, Israel Karen Omry Ann Arbor, MI Sean Gynes c ontentS 1 Introduction 1 Place in Science Fiction 3 Cultural Impact 5 Herbert’s Life 6 Herbert’s Other Works 9 Historical Context 11 References 15 2 Power, Politics, and Religion 19 Feudalism 20 Imperialism 21 Machiavellianism 24 Religion 27 Political Systems 31 References 32 3 Ecology and the Environment 35 The Science of Ecology 36 The Environment and People 38 The Ecologist 40 The Hero 44 Ecological Science Fiction 45 References 46 ix x CONTENTS 4 Mind and Consciousness 49 Characterization 50 Human Potential 52 Soft Science Fiction 60 References 61 5 Heroes and Masculinity 63 Archetypal Hero 64 Departure from the Archetype 68 Limitations of the Hero 70 Criticism of Heroes 72 Complex Heroes 74 References 76 6 Women’s Influence and Control 77 Religious Agency 78 Embodied Agency 81 Political Agency 84 The Hero’s Debt 87 Feminist Speculation 87 References 88 7 A Complex World 89 References 95 Bibliography 97 Index 109