The (apparent*) race-swapping of Liet Kynes, played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster in the 2021 Dune adaptation, is a well-known and contentious subject. But the adaptation also, perhaps inadvertently, makes another swap: Gurney Halleck is portrayed by Josh Brolin, who is white. The problem? Gurney Halleck is a brown, and possibly black…

I examine the origins of the Golden Path and its relations to the restoration of indigenous knowledge, by way of ancient Egyptian mythology and MENA irrigation practices, and the related dangers of spirituality (by way of Abomination) with respect to the Islamic concept of the alam al-mythal (and maybe it…

I dissect the relationship between law and modernity in the context of Fremen customs and ecology. I make a wild discovery (hitherto unacknowledged, as far as I’ve found — kull-wahad!) about Herbert’s esoteric Biblical references to the “Beast from the Earth” in The Book of Revelation, and speculate on the…

Reading Children of Dune, Entry 1: Qur’anic Passages; Race & Fremen Customs; Tradition & Change (pp. 1–29) Over the coming weeks, I will post reading journal entries as I revisit Children of Dune (CoD). …

Over the coming months, I will post a series of essays as I reflect on the broader themes of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels and re/read them (starting with Children of Dune). This page consists of a table of contents for the series. As I post new essays, I will return…

Last year, I tweeted about Frank Herbert’s Dune and its apparent white savior problem. Unexpectedly, the Twitter thread went viral, and, following the numerous responses, I collated and developed the thread into a long-form essay (here on Medium). The tweet was intended as a discursive intervention: I’d felt that many…

Do you think Dune is a white savior narrative*? Well, you’re wrong. To accept that interpretation is to re-inscribe an account of the novel promulgated by adolescent white boys since the first of Frank Herbert’s Dune books came out in the 1960s. Spoilers ahead. * [For an explanation of how…

Something in particular has, more than anything else, kept me up at night after the Trumpocalypse: Only days after the election, PEN America promoted Ayaan Hirsi Ali across its social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr). Ali has called for a “war on Islam,” which she dubbed “the new fascism” and…