There is a big misconception that science fiction is about the future.
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ARE ALWAYS ABOUT NOW
Whether authors intend it or not, speculative fiction is always a commentary on the present. Ironically, often more than a lot of contemporary fiction.
One of my favorite short stories by Asimov, and I wish I could find it again, had miners working in space with essentially, nanotechnology. But the conflict of the story was about women working in the mines, which was eventually solved with a priest. Women in the mines turned out to be fine, so long as there was somebody there to marry everybody! This is what I’m talking about. Successfully predicted nanotechnology, but thousands of years from now, everyone will act like it’s the 1950s…
Frank Herbert was particularly topical, whether he intended to be or not. He anchored Dune in politics, government, religion, power and those evolved to match the world from the 50s to the 80s.
So I did a little thought experiment. Here’s how I think Dune would have been different if Frank Herbert had been writing in 2020.
METOO COMES TO DUNE
The Bene Gesserit warrior concubines of the Dune universe had a lot of conflict in 98 hours, but questioning the ethics of their sacrifice wasn’t one of them.
Things like consent and bodily autonomy in and gaining power through sex with powerful men would all have been fascinating themes to explore if it was being written now. There’s a lot of conflict within the Bene Gesserit, but not one woman refused their assignment as they definitely would have now!
SECRET SOCIETIES WOULD HAVE NOT SO SECRET SCANDALS
Sex would rear its ugly head again in the other warrior disciplines. Most of the eastern contemplative communities to spring up in the 60s that were aped so favorably in Dune have almost universally been rocked by sexual scandals. Yoga, Buddhism, martial arts, the New Age. You name it and someone’s got caught doing something with somebody and the shine is definitely off.
GOVERNMENT WOULD STILL SUCK
Dune started as an empire and ended as a broken empire. At no part, did anyone get any more rights. And unfortunately, I don’t think this would have changed in 2020. If anything, his prophecies about tyrants seem only more and more accurate as time goes on.
PEOPLE WILL WORSHIP ANYTHING NOW
The deep antipathy towards religion in Dune I don’t think we have changed in 2020, but I do think it would have spread beyond just the official religions of Dune.
In 2020 with a wellspring of cult research and cult-like groups have greatly expanded our definition of religion.
We have wellness, political, beauty, and diet cults now. And sometimes we have diet cults that morph into political cults or vice versa. They all have the trappings of high demand group with fervent followers, but with none of the traditional religious expression. It’s a fascinating phenomenon. These days, religion does not stay its lane and it wouldn’t in Dune either.
PLANTS MATTER…MORE THAN EVER
People read climate change into Dune, which I don’t think was the case when he wrote it in the 60s. Yes, the environmental movement was just getting its start, but the focus really was on getting noxious chemicals out of our air and water and food supply.
Did people know about climate change? Yes! People have known about climate change for centuries! But it wasn’t a part of the national consciousness.
If you were written today, I think it would have been more of a critique or a metaphor for climate change. The desiccated planet as metaphor is just too perfect.
DRUGS ARE A HEALTH PROBLEM!
Drugs (Spice) probably changed the most in the book from this amazing thing that granted everybody powers to a kind of shameful addictive weakness.
Today, it’s morphing, (rightly!), into a medical problem with a raft of failed policies behind it. So perhaps that same tension between the realm of criminal and the realm of health would infect Dune.
What story do you think would change if it was written now?