EDIT FORMAT
2007
Inner Themes of Frank Herbert's Dune: The Ecological Dilemma
January 11, 2007 by Seth Mullins Seth Mullins
The first of an incredibly popular series, Frank Herbert's Dune is a novel that can be read and
enjoyed simply as a grand adventure and human drama. Much of the book's power lies in its ability
to provoke thought, however, and a reader's pleasure is immeasurably enriched when he or she is
able to delve into the deeper themes that are at work within the story. One of the most prominent of
these themes is ecology and the delicate balance that must be maintained in order for ecosystems to
exist.
Frank Herbert provided the perfect backdrop for ecological speculation by setting the main stage
for his story on a desert planet. Arrakis, as the world is called, holds two precious substances that
serve as anologs for the limited natural resources that exist on our own world: water, which is so
scarce that humans survive by recycling their own moisture, and the geriatric spice melange that
provides heightened awareness to the navigators of space, the priestesses of the book's central
religion, and to the protagonist, Paul Atreides (Muad'Dib). Herbert wrote in a preface to a later
volume, Heretics of Dune (when he was recounting the genesis of the original), that "water was to
be an analog for oil and also for water itself, a substance whose supply diminishes each day." He
was not content in merely drawing analogies, however.
The precarious balance of life systems on the world of Dune - and the implications for the rest of the
universe - illustrate the delicate problems that confront ecologists. They are forced to think in terms
of systems and relationships as opposed to singular elements. Within Dune, the system is very
intricately woven. On the surface, it seems simple: an ecologist, Liet Kynes, has dreamt of a
centuries-long process that would transform arid Arrakis into a lush world. His ambition is then
taken up by Paul Muad'Dib, who makes a similar promise to the planet's natives, the Fremen.
It is later revealed to Paul, however, that the spice melange - upon which all the very mechanisms of
the Empire depend - is actually created by the giant sandworms that roam Arrakis. The sandworms
require water at a very early stage in their lives; by the time they are adults, however, it is deadly
poisonous to them. They are only able to survive on Arrakis, a planet so arid that any other desert
on a world with surface water would be moist in comparison. Thus, to transform the conditions on
Arrakis with the introduction of water would lead to the extinction of the sandworms and,
consequently, no more spice.
Such a model, embedded within a story that's bracing in its own right, quite aptly sums up the
ecological dilemma of our world. Frank Herbert offers no simple solutions, but his story does
remind us to take into account the entire picture of a living system. We can serve one part,
exclusively (for example, the needs of our own species), only at great cost to the whole.
S. Mulling: Inner Themes - The Ecological Dilemma, 2007
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