For The Record

[Seraphan]

Not to mention why write two trilogies of unnecessary prequels (not even necessary with their mangling of FH's intentions in their sequels)?

Is there any word given to their gap-filling? Inter-quel?

Yes. Paul was the optimistic hero at the end of Dune and in Dune Messiah he's become a dark tyrant. The question they try to and fail to answer is: "How Paul became so dark?"



Morons.

Anyone with some reading comprehension skills would have realized that Paul was never really an "optimistic" character, having always reminding himself that he has a terrible purpose and that even as the story enters into its finale Paul realizes that even without him as a person that the jihad would continue in his name.

I'll say it again even though it doesn't need repeating: they're morons.

Yup, just check McNelley's interview with Frank Herbert and it's all there, by the author's own words.
Oh yeah and the hacks are morons, yes.

[SandRider]

When I was writing Dune there was no room in my mind for concerns about the book's success or failure. I was concerned only with the writing. Six years of research had preceded the day I sat down to put the story together, and the interweaving of the many plot layers I had planned required a degree of concentration I had never before experienced.

It was to be a story exploring the myth of the Messiah.
It was to produce another view of a human-occupied planet as an energy machine.
It was to penetrate the interlocked workings of politics and economics.
It was to be an examination of absolute prediction and its pitfalls.
It was to have an awareness drug in it and tell what could happen through dependence on such a substance.

Potable water was to be an analog for oil and for water itself, a substance whose supply diminishes each day.
It was to be an ecological novel, then, with many overtones, as well as a story about people and their human concerns with human values, and I had to monitor each of these levels at every stage in the book. There wasn't room in my head to think about much else.

Looking back on it, I realize I did the right thing instinctively. You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.
There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader. If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned money (energy) for your book, you owe that person some entertainment and as much more as you can give.

Frank Herbert (April 1984)

I can't find my copy of Heretics anywhere - can someone check this and tell me if the quote is correct & complete ?

[Seraphan]

Here: http://www.jacurutu.com/viewtopic.php?t=241[/url]

[SandRider]

Thank you ! I thought that quote was much longer, and included the "are you starting a cult ?" line - but I just couldn't remember. Glad to know it was posted here and by a reliable source ....