Well, Dune basically deconstructs the messiah myth. It’s not a pretty picture at all.
I disagree. My observation and experience ( of course this is anecdotal to be sure) is that those who spent their formative years during The Great Depression all had some kind of lingering trauma from it. The idea of scarcity and an "underclass" in the Fremen IMHO wouldn't be surprising considering the actual corruption stateside in how rationing worked all the way through WW2. The "desert" of Arrakis was a kind of ocean, and Herbert was in the Navy during WW2 for a brief period.
Sandworms = German U-Boats
Desert = Ocean
Spice Harvesters = Convoys waiting to be killed
Surprise attack on House Atreides = Pearl Harbor
Flawed beloved leader murdered in conspiracy as Duke Leto = JFK
The Great Depression and WW2 were inflicted on the masses at large. A few people made huge decisions that mean countless millions would be slaughtered, suffer and starve. You couldn't escape it. I can see that might be a dull endless drumbeat for Herbert as a practical narrative. And, of course, the timeline that Herbert wrote it all, was steeped in casual drug use that was socially acceptable at the time. I.E. the "spice melange" as a type of enlightenment.
PAUL "Father, I’m here to ask you to join Duncan Idaho’s scout mission on Arrakis. I’d be an asset to him. "
LETO "Out of the question. You’ll travel to Arrakis in a few weeks, like the rest of us.....You’re the future of House Atreides, Paul."
PAUL "....Grandfather fought bulls for sport!"
LETO (looking at tombstone) "Yes. And look where that got him."
PAUL "What if I’m not?"
LETO "Not what?"
PAUL "The future of House Atreides."
LETO "I told my father I didn’t want this either. I wanted to be a pilot."
PAUL "You never told me that."
LETO "My father said, 'A good man doesn’t seek to lead. He’s called to it, and he answers.' If your answer is no, you’ll still be the only thing I’ve ever needed you to be -- my son. I found my own way to it. You might find yours. ( Points to the tombstones) In their memory, give it a try."
My take is I'd assess that as the most critical character dynamic scene in the first Villeneuve film. Duke Leto knows being given charge of Arrakis is a trap. However he is compelled by duty. But is he? For his "duty" to his people, the sacrifice he didn't make was to marry into House Corrino. That would have solidified their union and alliance permanently. Instead he took a concubine, where Paul is the product of Lady Jessica also refusing her duty as a Bene Gesserit ( choosing to have a son and not a daughter)
Leto implies there is a choice, but there isn't one. He's manipulating his own son. It's the part of Paul that becomes more troubling as the series goes on, that he becomes all the things that his father would abhor.
For "duty". But the irony is Paul himself is the product of two very powerful people refusing their duty to their own people.
Imagine Herbert in the middle of an ocean. Waiting for U-Boats to come kill him and other young men like him, who didn't have a choice at all. Where there's an air of gross manipulation at work. Forced into duty. Pieces on a chessboard that are expendable, like cannon fodder, for the whims of a larger game by a few select players. What is the price of free will? In the Dune universe, what little you have only comes after you've robbed it from others in exchange. IMHO, Paul is a manifestation of young men who were thrust into a role that robbed them of everything.
Obviously all of Herbert's public interviews and engagement could never talk about any of this. Even if he wanted to do it. Now I could be wrong on my premise. But deep down, I don't think I am. There's a chilling quote by Franklin Roosevelt,
"War is young men dying and old men talking"
And if I wanna know more lore etc. thats what wiki’s are for.
doing way better than anyone expected.
