Dune

The backcover of this first book in the chronicles describes Dune as a ‘stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics‘, in what is ‘undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.’

I fully agree with this claim, although I like Star Wars too (more for its vast alien universe and action, less for its black-and-white, good-and-evil, Jedi-vs-Sith morality). George Lucas himself did once say that it was Dune which inspired Star Wars. And Dune is much, much more sophisticated and draws more parallels to the real world. Ecology, religion, politics, philosophy, and lots of action and plot twists – it’s everything I could have asked for in a book. All my interests… all in one package!

The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called “spannungsbogen” – which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.

“To the working planetologist [ecologist], his most important tool is human beings,” his father said. “You must first cultivate ecological literacy among the people.”

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

“You must gauge the approaching maker carefully,” Stilgar had explained. “You must stand close enough that you can mount it as it passes, yet not so close that it engulfs you.”

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the ecosystem, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

“There’s an internally recognized beauty of motion and balance on any man-healthy planet,” Kynes said. “You see this beauty a dynamic stabilizing effect essential to all life. Its aim is simple: to maintain and produce coordinated patterns of greater and greater diversity. Life improves the closed system’s capacity to sustain life. Life – all life – is in the service of life.”

“The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem,” Kynes said, “is that it’s a system. A system! … A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.”