Newsletter #4 - Dune Hits Different When You Live In Arrakis
Happy Sunday,
Yes, I too am mourning the US exit from the World Cup in Qatar. If the team would have played like they did versus England, they could have won last night. Instead, they got out-coached, shredded by the Dutch, and bounced unceremoniously from the tourney.
This week I reflect on a recent talk I attended about the upcoming Dune sequel, why I used to hate but now love the books, and what it’s like to be in the presence of an all-time great in their field. Thanks for subscribing and if you’re enjoying the newsletter, share it with someone.
Being from Tacoma, there’s a near civic obligation to like Frank Herbert’s Dune. He has roots in my hometown. He went to the high school where I used to teach. There’s even a park named after his book. I think the park was going to be directly after him but he was posthumously milkshake ducked.**
Unlike the rest of my nerdy adult friends, I didn't read Dune at thirteen. Instead, I spent my teens reading Tolkien (like a respectable person) and then took a very regrettable near decade slide into the Ryan-verse (I acknowledge the error of my ways). Okay, that’s not quite true. I tried to read Herbert when I was younger and found it dull and impenetrable. I also vaguely remember watching David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of the book. It was bad then; upon revisiting it last year, it aged like buttermilk.
I have a theory about great books: You have to read them at the time it’s right for you. I loathed Gatsby in grade eleven. But when I picked it up while backpacking in Colombia, it became one of my favorite novels I ever read. I couldn’t read Dune when I was younger. Now that I’m older, living two hours from the desert that serves as Arrakis, it hits different. Herbert imagined an entire universe and a history (spanning 15,000 years) as deep as anything ever put to paper. Dune is remarkable–it’s white-savior nonsense, but it’s white savior nonsense par excellence.
But however good the book is, Denis Villeneuve’s film is better. When it came out, we went opening night… and the next day… and then the following weekend. I was absolutely mesmerized by the way the film looked and sounded. This wasn’t how I envisioned it from reading the book, it was better. That never happens! The sets, the music, the costumes, the dampness of Caladan, the Zimmer score, the menace of the Sardaukar–all of it, perfect.
They started shooting Dune II in UAE’s remote Liwa Desert earlier this month. So the cast and crew are all in town. My wife and I even made a half-hearted effort to find the set deep in the desert. This past weekend, I went to a talk given by Patrice Vermette. He’s the Academy Award winning production designer for Dune and the sequel.
He was joined by Mary Parent, who co-produced the film. I was struck by Parent’s immersion into Herbert's lore; she talks about Dune with the depth of a r/FrankHerbert moderator. The two hour talk was a treat. Vermette is the MJ (or choose your own G.O.A.T.) of what he does. It’s rare you get to be in the presence of literally the best person in the world at what they do, especially not in such an intimate setting.
I have been thinking about the talk all week. He contrasted, with some pride, his work with some of his contemporaries. At length he discussed his hesitancy to use CGI, instead preferring to use practical effects when possible, but also how this clashes with the realities of modern studio filmmaking. It was a good metaphor for the everyday compromises and tradeoffs we make in life. Trying to please everyone is a one-way trip to an ulcer and an aneurysm. We have to make the decisions that work and sometimes make peace with the results.
**Milkshake Duck - Wikipedia
A Quick Note about the Bowlings Abroad Travelogue - My wife and I moved to Abu Dhabi in 2019. Part of the reason we decided to move 7,500 miles from home were the travel opportunities unleashed from being here. You can get to South Asia, Central Europe, and North Africa, each in three hours (the flight time from Seattle to San Diego or 85% of the way to Chicago).
In the most recent post on the travelogue, my wife talked about a recent trip we took to Al Ain, where her sister relocated earlier this year. Al Ain is like Guadalajara, Mexico–it is the beating cultural heart of the country. Rather than the high rises and construction cranes of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain is exactly what you imagine when you picture a city in the Middle East in your mind. She wrote about our time there and the around the world cuisine experience we had: Korean. Moroccan, Ethiopian, and Indian.
Recommendations for the Week
I am re-reading Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone, a book by Sarah Jaffe. It sounds like a self-help book but it absolutely is not. It’s a wholesale rebuke of modern capitalism, 24/7 work culture, and unreasonable employment conditions that arose in the post-war US. It's a great reminder how much of the advantage has shifted from labor to capital over the last forty-ish years.
As the holidays approach, I am reminded of an episode of Tech Won’t Save Us from last year entitled Don’t Give the Gift of Surveillance. It's a good reminder, the gifts we give loved ones may expose them to involuntary surveillance by Big Tech and exposure to law enforcement.
Speaking of holiday shopping, I also recommend buying audiobooks for the holiday’s. I started doing this last year and I enjoy the waste-free nature of it. It’s also fun to gab with them about the book afterward (assuming they read it). Purely coincidentally here’s MY book Wishlist from LibroFM.
I don't care if you like Star Wars or not–you should watch Andor. It's possibly the best thing on TV right now.
See you next week!
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share the newsletter with their friends.