(Picture supply: Warner Bros and Legendary Photos)
When Dune: Half Two got here out this spring I felt known as to the theater like a sandworm drawn by a thumper (IYKYK). As a science fiction fan, I needed to see the newest blockbuster adaptation of Frank Herbert’s traditional 1965 novel. I can not consider one other science fiction franchise that so clearly attracts on Arabic terminology, Islamic theology, and stereotypically “Center Jap” tradition. The a long time since Herbert printed the primary e-book within the Dune sequence embrace U.S.-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and issues over reliance on spice—oh wait, I imply oil—proceed to drive U.S. home and overseas coverage. The problems Herbert raised in Dune resembling faith, politics (particularly the hazards of charismatic leaders), and colonialism—in addition to ecology and local weather change, points largely ignored by the latest movies—proceed to carry nice significance right this moment.
As a scholar of Islam who additionally teaches school programs on science fiction, race, and cultural appropriation, I had issues in regards to the depiction of Muslims in Dune: Half One (2021). As an alternative of assuaging these issues, watching Dune: Half Two introduced them into sharper focus, particularly since these two movies have mixed for over $1 billion in income worldwide. Numerous persons are consuming Dune, and I’ve vital issues about what precisely they’re consuming by way of messages in regards to the Fremen who function stand-ins for Arabs and Muslims.
In Dune’s model of humanity’s far future, the desert world of Arrakis is the supply of spice, probably the most priceless substance within the galaxy as a result of area navigators use it to move ships from one system to a different. The galaxy is managed by an emperor who pits completely different noble Homes in opposition to one another. Arrakis’s indigenous folks, the Fremen, have been persecuted for generations by Home Harkonnen who occupied the planet with an imperial mandate to mine spice. Envious of Home Atreides’ rising energy, the emperor instructions them to take over spice mining on Arrakis whereas conspiring with Home Harkonnen to slaughter Home Atreides in a sneak assault. The ruler of Home Atreides, Duke Leto Atreides, desires a extra equitable association with the Fremen as a part of his plan to harness “desert energy.” His teenage son, Paul, arrives having unusual desires and instinctively is aware of find out how to put on a stilsuit (Fremen know-how that captures the physique’s moisture, permitting the wearer to drink it later to outlive the desert). His mom Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit, a strong monastic order of ladies who’ve labored for millennia to govern the breeding strains of the royal homes in order to provide the Kwisatz Haderach, a male Bene Gesserit with extraordinary powers.
Within the opening scene of Dune: Half One, the viewers sees Paul learning up on Arrakis. He learns that the Fremen “are fierce and unreliable.” But when Paul arrives it’s clear that the Fremen see one thing particular in him. Crowds of individuals wearing what I can solely describe as Hollywood’s Orientalist creativeness of Arabs, clamor that Paul is the “Lisan al-Gaib.” Jessica tells Paul that “Lisan al-Gaib” is a Fremen phrase which means “Voice of the Outer World” (the precise Arabic phrase interprets extra precisely to “voice of the unseen”), and says that “these folks have waited centuries for the ‘Lisan al-Gaib.’ They see you, they see the indicators.” Paul is unconvinced, responding: “They see what they’ve been advised to see.” This can be a reference to the Bene Gesserit getting ready the best way for the Kwisatz Haderach. Their missionaries planted myths and prophecies over the millennia in order that when the Kwisatz Haderach comes alongside, everybody acknowledges him as such. It’s a method by which Herbert depicts faith within the books as a harmful instrument to govern the lots.
(Picture supply: Warner Brothers)
Paul and Jessica survive the Harkonnen sneak assault and flee to the desert. They search refuge amongst the Fremen, and are accepted by the Fremen chief Stilgar, who believes that this boy is certainly the “mahdi” (Arabic for “the guided one,” a time period drawn from Islamic theology referencing a prophesied messianic chief). Paul then meets Chani, who’s actually the woman of his desires, and defeats Fremen warrior Jamis in an honor duel, killing Jamis although he himself had by no means beforehand killed earlier than. This scene is essential to Paul’s transformation from sheltered youngster to messianic warrior. The scene additionally conveys the Fremen sense of justice, that violence is a approach of fixing issues.
***
The Dune-iverse has many tendrils. After the preliminary novel’s success, Herbert printed 5 extra books to hold the story ahead. Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J. Anderson co-authored sequels and prequels. David Lynch directed the primary movie adaptation in 1984, the SyFy Channel produced a TV mini-series in 2000, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Half One (2021) and Dune: Half Two (2024) took the franchise to its hottest and worthwhile heights since its inception virtually sixty years in the past. To this point solely the SyFy Channel’s 2003 Youngsters of Dune carries the story past the primary novel, though experiences point out that Villeneuve is ready to direct a 3rd movie that might cowl the fabric in Herbert’s second novel, Dune Messiah. A prequel sequence, Dune: Prophecy, is because of stream on HBO Max this fall.
I first thought the variations would turn into much less Orientalist over time, however have discovered the other is true. Orientalism, a time period popularized in 1978 by Palestinian-American scholar Edward Mentioned, describes the West’s development of the “East” as anti-modern, irrational, static, and effeminate (amongst different issues). That is in distinction to the “West” as trendy, hyper-rational, dynamic, and masculine. I watched David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation with a buddy who noticed, “I’m actually not getting any type of ‘Arab vibe’ from these Fremen.” Properly, sure, they weren’t very Arab in any respect! The 2000 SyFy channel’s adaptation is extra Orientalist than David Lynch’s model, however much less so than the Villeneuve movies. What accounts for this inverted arc?
My idea is that within the Nineteen Fifties and thru 1965 when Herbert was researching and writing Dune, Muslims had been largely absent from the consciousness of mainstream America. This meant that he may use Islam and Muslim communities as a reference for the epic mythology he was crafting as a result of it wouldn’t be acquainted to his viewers. The gap — the weirdness, the exoticness — is a key think about what made Dune interesting.
Dune: Half Two is the place the motion actually will get going, with each sandworms and Orientalism hitting house. Paul learns the methods of the desert, together with not solely find out how to stroll with out attracting the mammoth sandworms but in addition ultimately find out how to journey one. He takes the title “Muad’Dib,” impressed by the Arrakis desert mouse. We’re advised the time period means “instructor of the desert,” however after all that is one other Arabic time period that may be translated straightforwardly as “instructor.” The Fremen chief Stilgar encourages Paul to embrace his messianic future although Paul himself doesn’t need to. “The Mahdi is simply too humble to say he’s Mahdi,” Stilgar tells a gaggle of brown-faced turbaned males with giant bushy beards, all of them smiling broadly and nodding their heads in response, the proper Orientalist picture of the irrational “Arab” fanatic. Stilgar gapes at all the things Paul does then gasps “as it’s written,” or “Lisan al-Gaib” or “the Mahdi.” The viewers laughs, as a result of a long time of this Islamophobic and Orientalist trope inside Euro-American literature and cinema inform us to snort (and since the viewers’s different choice is to be scared of the Fremen/Arabs). This grew to become a common meme that circulated after the movie’s launch, by which folks make enjoyable of Stilgar for believing in Paul. Listening to the viewers within the theater laughing at Stilgar was the second when my issues about Dune: Half Two actually got here into focus.
Paul reluctantly embraces his future and leads the Fremen to victory over their oppressors. The Fremen depart Arrakis to take their jihad/holy conflict to the remainder of the recognized galaxy underneath Muad’Dib’s rule. Within the e-book we see a mixture of phrases: jihad, holy conflict, and campaign. The Villeneuve movies use “holy conflict” and drop any reference to jihad or campaign, partly as a result of the writers felt that, within the time that has handed for the reason that e-book got here out, Arab communities have turn into a lot much less unique to an American viewers. This shift can be a half-hearted try at sidestepping the hyperlink between the Fremen and Muslims.
Herbert’s use of Arabic terminology is a key a part of the Dune sequence, offering an unique layer that retains a lot of the viewers believing this story is ready in a unique world. Once I watched the SyFy channel’s Dune mini-series from 2000 with a buddy with an identical ardour for science fiction and fantasy, I identified each time we heard one thing in Dune that was in Arabic. He was shocked, having thought that Herbert created this language, simply as Tolkien did with Elvish. The comparability between Tolkien and Herbert is productive since Elvish relies on Latin, Finnish, and Celtic languages, and the Fremen Chakobsa relies on Arabic but in addition Serbo-Croat, Turkish, and Navajo. Followers right this moment may count on conlags (“constructed languages”) as half and parcel of high-level world constructing, however that was not the expectation in 1965 (nor in 1914, when Tolkien wrote the primary piece of Center-Earth associated fiction). There’s an extra problem when novels are tailored for the display, with studios hiring linguists to take what has up to now solely existed in written kind and convert these phrases into one thing that actors can communicate.
A recurring query for me has been why I discover Herbert’s appropriation of Arabic problematic, whereas Tolkien’s use of Latin much less so. The core reply is within the debate over cultural appropriation, when an individual from Tradition A takes one thing—language, observe, clothes—from Tradition B, after which makes use of it in methods which are completely different from the unique setting. An instance could be white folks at Coachella sporting each Indian and Native American clothes.
Within the 2000 SyFy channel’s adaptation, the aftermath of Paul’s duel with Jamis cemented for me that the Fremen are supposed to be depicted as senseless quasi-Muslim zealots. At Jamis’s funeral, Chani and different Fremen stand collectively and chant “bi-la kaifa” every time somebody provides up a reminiscence of their fallen comrade. In Arabic, this time period actually means “with out how” or “there is no such thing as a ‘how’,” and is drawn from early theological disputes between the Mu’tazili and ‘Ashari faculties of Islam on find out how to perceive passages of the Qur’an. If the textual content says that God has a hand, or sits on a throne, is that literal or metaphorical? Whereas the rationalist Mu’tazili argue for a mixture of literal and metaphorical understandings, the ‘Ashari’s would reply, “there is no such thing as a how,” which means that the query was pointless. Is that this how Herbert makes use of the time period? No. As an alternative, the Fremen use this phrase to imply “Amen [literally: ‘nothing further need be explained’].” Muslims (even the vast majority of whom don’t communicate Arabic) utter “Amin” within the precise approach that Christians and Jews say “Amen” on the conclusion of prayers, so what accounts for this pointless adaptation? Why not merely use the time period “amen”? As a result of Herbert desires the Fremen to look completely different than white Christians. With their clean faces and use of Arabic, Herbert depicts the Fremen as uncivilized spiritual savages.
Charles W. Mills argues that we are able to take Tolkien’s racial hierarchy (with the Elves on high, Males within the center, and Orcs on the backside) and map that onto a racial hierarchy in our personal world, with the elves as the last word white race, and the orcs as a stand in for all Black and Brown peoples. We are able to debate whether or not or to not name Tolkien’s depiction racist, however for my functions, the distinction right here is that Tolkien mines cultures (particularly pre-Christian pagan Western Europe) that he considers his personal to create Elvish languages, whereas Herbert takes languages from cultures which are definitively not his personal. Therein lies the distinction.
One level I’ll concede is that Dune: Half Two depicts the Fremen debating whether or not an outsider like Paul needs to be allowed to guide them. The Northern Fremen don’t see themselves as fanatic believers in prophecy, whereas the Southerners – embodied in Stilgar – embrace the prophecy of Lisan al-Gaib. “We imagine in Fremen” declares a Northerner. The others reply with bi-la kaifa.
Does a pacesetter—particularly a messianic one—want to be an insider? Can somebody like Paul ever really be taught to turn into Fremen? Can we because the viewers in 2024 see Paul as something apart from a white savior who has come to guide the superstitious indigenous folks to their freedom? Within the SyFy channel’s 2000 adaptation of Dune, Paul feedback to Jessica that the Fremen “have a easy faith.” She responds: “Nothing about faith is easy.” As with faith, so too with cultural appropriation, particularly within the Dune-iverse.
Dune just isn’t alone amongst science fiction franchises partaking in cultural appropriation. George Lucas used components from Buddhism, Daoism, and Sufism to create the Drive and the Jedi. It’s not the truth that Herbert borrows a lot materials from Arabic and Islamic sources, nevertheless it’s the best way by which he goes in regards to the borrowing that I discover problematic. Maybe I can perceive Herbert’s work as a product of his time, however I don’t see find out how to excuse Villeneuve for perpetuating these stereotypes sixty years later.
Why does all this matter? A standard theme with American science fiction is depicting alien races and new planets as objects that “we” (the implied Euro-American topics of the story) want to beat or not less than civilize (see most of Star Trek). This narrative has penalties in our actual world, not simply with European colonization over the centuries, but in addition right here in what ultimately grew to become the USA with the genocide and close to erasure of indigenous peoples. Paul’s reluctant manipulation of the Fremen matches completely with this narrative. To wield “desert energy,” one should first take management of the desert folks.
Books, TV, movie, music: these are all highly effective types of cultural manufacturing that serve both to perpetuate or problem dominant narratives we use to construction our society, develop public coverage, and normally, make sense of the world. Constancy to the supply is a continuing query with variations. Dune may very well be achieved with out taking part in Stilgar’s devotion (and by extension, Fremen tradition) for laughs, elevating the query: why not depict it in a different way? That Villeneuve made the alternatives he did—and is being rewarded with large business success—reveals Hollywood has an extended approach to go to undo its Orientalist legacy.
Patrick J. D’Silva is Visiting Instructing Assistant Professor of Islamic Research on the College of Denver. He’s co-author (with Carl Ernst) of Breathtaking Revelations: The Science of Breath from the Fifty Kamarupa Verses to Hazrat Inayat Khan (Suluk Press, 2024), and his subsequent e-book focuses on the intersection of faith and science fiction. His web site is www.patrickjdsilva.com.
(Picture supply: Warner Bros and Legendary Photos)
When Dune: Half Two got here out this spring I felt known as to the theater like a sandworm drawn by a thumper (IYKYK). As a science fiction fan, I needed to see the newest blockbuster adaptation of Frank Herbert’s traditional 1965 novel. I can not consider one other science fiction franchise that so clearly attracts on Arabic terminology, Islamic theology, and stereotypically “Center Jap” tradition. The a long time since Herbert printed the primary e-book within the Dune sequence embrace U.S.-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and issues over reliance on spice—oh wait, I imply oil—proceed to drive U.S. home and overseas coverage. The problems Herbert raised in Dune resembling faith, politics (particularly the hazards of charismatic leaders), and colonialism—in addition to ecology and local weather change, points largely ignored by the latest movies—proceed to carry nice significance right this moment.
As a scholar of Islam who additionally teaches school programs on science fiction, race, and cultural appropriation, I had issues in regards to the depiction of Muslims in Dune: Half One (2021). As an alternative of assuaging these issues, watching Dune: Half Two introduced them into sharper focus, particularly since these two movies have mixed for over $1 billion in income worldwide. Numerous persons are consuming Dune, and I’ve vital issues about what precisely they’re consuming by way of messages in regards to the Fremen who function stand-ins for Arabs and Muslims.
In Dune’s model of humanity’s far future, the desert world of Arrakis is the supply of spice, probably the most priceless substance within the galaxy as a result of area navigators use it to move ships from one system to a different. The galaxy is managed by an emperor who pits completely different noble Homes in opposition to one another. Arrakis’s indigenous folks, the Fremen, have been persecuted for generations by Home Harkonnen who occupied the planet with an imperial mandate to mine spice. Envious of Home Atreides’ rising energy, the emperor instructions them to take over spice mining on Arrakis whereas conspiring with Home Harkonnen to slaughter Home Atreides in a sneak assault. The ruler of Home Atreides, Duke Leto Atreides, desires a extra equitable association with the Fremen as a part of his plan to harness “desert energy.” His teenage son, Paul, arrives having unusual desires and instinctively is aware of find out how to put on a stilsuit (Fremen know-how that captures the physique’s moisture, permitting the wearer to drink it later to outlive the desert). His mom Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit, a strong monastic order of ladies who’ve labored for millennia to govern the breeding strains of the royal homes in order to provide the Kwisatz Haderach, a male Bene Gesserit with extraordinary powers.
Within the opening scene of Dune: Half One, the viewers sees Paul learning up on Arrakis. He learns that the Fremen “are fierce and unreliable.” But when Paul arrives it’s clear that the Fremen see one thing particular in him. Crowds of individuals wearing what I can solely describe as Hollywood’s Orientalist creativeness of Arabs, clamor that Paul is the “Lisan al-Gaib.” Jessica tells Paul that “Lisan al-Gaib” is a Fremen phrase which means “Voice of the Outer World” (the precise Arabic phrase interprets extra precisely to “voice of the unseen”), and says that “these folks have waited centuries for the ‘Lisan al-Gaib.’ They see you, they see the indicators.” Paul is unconvinced, responding: “They see what they’ve been advised to see.” This can be a reference to the Bene Gesserit getting ready the best way for the Kwisatz Haderach. Their missionaries planted myths and prophecies over the millennia in order that when the Kwisatz Haderach comes alongside, everybody acknowledges him as such. It’s a method by which Herbert depicts faith within the books as a harmful instrument to govern the lots.
(Picture supply: Warner Brothers)
Paul and Jessica survive the Harkonnen sneak assault and flee to the desert. They search refuge amongst the Fremen, and are accepted by the Fremen chief Stilgar, who believes that this boy is certainly the “mahdi” (Arabic for “the guided one,” a time period drawn from Islamic theology referencing a prophesied messianic chief). Paul then meets Chani, who’s actually the woman of his desires, and defeats Fremen warrior Jamis in an honor duel, killing Jamis although he himself had by no means beforehand killed earlier than. This scene is essential to Paul’s transformation from sheltered youngster to messianic warrior. The scene additionally conveys the Fremen sense of justice, that violence is a approach of fixing issues.
***
The Dune-iverse has many tendrils. After the preliminary novel’s success, Herbert printed 5 extra books to hold the story ahead. Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J. Anderson co-authored sequels and prequels. David Lynch directed the primary movie adaptation in 1984, the SyFy Channel produced a TV mini-series in 2000, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Half One (2021) and Dune: Half Two (2024) took the franchise to its hottest and worthwhile heights since its inception virtually sixty years in the past. To this point solely the SyFy Channel’s 2003 Youngsters of Dune carries the story past the primary novel, though experiences point out that Villeneuve is ready to direct a 3rd movie that might cowl the fabric in Herbert’s second novel, Dune Messiah. A prequel sequence, Dune: Prophecy, is because of stream on HBO Max this fall.
I first thought the variations would turn into much less Orientalist over time, however have discovered the other is true. Orientalism, a time period popularized in 1978 by Palestinian-American scholar Edward Mentioned, describes the West’s development of the “East” as anti-modern, irrational, static, and effeminate (amongst different issues). That is in distinction to the “West” as trendy, hyper-rational, dynamic, and masculine. I watched David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation with a buddy who noticed, “I’m actually not getting any type of ‘Arab vibe’ from these Fremen.” Properly, sure, they weren’t very Arab in any respect! The 2000 SyFy channel’s adaptation is extra Orientalist than David Lynch’s model, however much less so than the Villeneuve movies. What accounts for this inverted arc?
My idea is that within the Nineteen Fifties and thru 1965 when Herbert was researching and writing Dune, Muslims had been largely absent from the consciousness of mainstream America. This meant that he may use Islam and Muslim communities as a reference for the epic mythology he was crafting as a result of it wouldn’t be acquainted to his viewers. The gap — the weirdness, the exoticness — is a key think about what made Dune interesting.
Dune: Half Two is the place the motion actually will get going, with each sandworms and Orientalism hitting house. Paul learns the methods of the desert, together with not solely find out how to stroll with out attracting the mammoth sandworms but in addition ultimately find out how to journey one. He takes the title “Muad’Dib,” impressed by the Arrakis desert mouse. We’re advised the time period means “instructor of the desert,” however after all that is one other Arabic time period that may be translated straightforwardly as “instructor.” The Fremen chief Stilgar encourages Paul to embrace his messianic future although Paul himself doesn’t need to. “The Mahdi is simply too humble to say he’s Mahdi,” Stilgar tells a gaggle of brown-faced turbaned males with giant bushy beards, all of them smiling broadly and nodding their heads in response, the proper Orientalist picture of the irrational “Arab” fanatic. Stilgar gapes at all the things Paul does then gasps “as it’s written,” or “Lisan al-Gaib” or “the Mahdi.” The viewers laughs, as a result of a long time of this Islamophobic and Orientalist trope inside Euro-American literature and cinema inform us to snort (and since the viewers’s different choice is to be scared of the Fremen/Arabs). This grew to become a common meme that circulated after the movie’s launch, by which folks make enjoyable of Stilgar for believing in Paul. Listening to the viewers within the theater laughing at Stilgar was the second when my issues about Dune: Half Two actually got here into focus.
Paul reluctantly embraces his future and leads the Fremen to victory over their oppressors. The Fremen depart Arrakis to take their jihad/holy conflict to the remainder of the recognized galaxy underneath Muad’Dib’s rule. Within the e-book we see a mixture of phrases: jihad, holy conflict, and campaign. The Villeneuve movies use “holy conflict” and drop any reference to jihad or campaign, partly as a result of the writers felt that, within the time that has handed for the reason that e-book got here out, Arab communities have turn into a lot much less unique to an American viewers. This shift can be a half-hearted try at sidestepping the hyperlink between the Fremen and Muslims.
Herbert’s use of Arabic terminology is a key a part of the Dune sequence, offering an unique layer that retains a lot of the viewers believing this story is ready in a unique world. Once I watched the SyFy channel’s Dune mini-series from 2000 with a buddy with an identical ardour for science fiction and fantasy, I identified each time we heard one thing in Dune that was in Arabic. He was shocked, having thought that Herbert created this language, simply as Tolkien did with Elvish. The comparability between Tolkien and Herbert is productive since Elvish relies on Latin, Finnish, and Celtic languages, and the Fremen Chakobsa relies on Arabic but in addition Serbo-Croat, Turkish, and Navajo. Followers right this moment may count on conlags (“constructed languages”) as half and parcel of high-level world constructing, however that was not the expectation in 1965 (nor in 1914, when Tolkien wrote the primary piece of Center-Earth associated fiction). There’s an extra problem when novels are tailored for the display, with studios hiring linguists to take what has up to now solely existed in written kind and convert these phrases into one thing that actors can communicate.
A recurring query for me has been why I discover Herbert’s appropriation of Arabic problematic, whereas Tolkien’s use of Latin much less so. The core reply is within the debate over cultural appropriation, when an individual from Tradition A takes one thing—language, observe, clothes—from Tradition B, after which makes use of it in methods which are completely different from the unique setting. An instance could be white folks at Coachella sporting each Indian and Native American clothes.
Within the 2000 SyFy channel’s adaptation, the aftermath of Paul’s duel with Jamis cemented for me that the Fremen are supposed to be depicted as senseless quasi-Muslim zealots. At Jamis’s funeral, Chani and different Fremen stand collectively and chant “bi-la kaifa” every time somebody provides up a reminiscence of their fallen comrade. In Arabic, this time period actually means “with out how” or “there is no such thing as a ‘how’,” and is drawn from early theological disputes between the Mu’tazili and ‘Ashari faculties of Islam on find out how to perceive passages of the Qur’an. If the textual content says that God has a hand, or sits on a throne, is that literal or metaphorical? Whereas the rationalist Mu’tazili argue for a mixture of literal and metaphorical understandings, the ‘Ashari’s would reply, “there is no such thing as a how,” which means that the query was pointless. Is that this how Herbert makes use of the time period? No. As an alternative, the Fremen use this phrase to imply “Amen [literally: ‘nothing further need be explained’].” Muslims (even the vast majority of whom don’t communicate Arabic) utter “Amin” within the precise approach that Christians and Jews say “Amen” on the conclusion of prayers, so what accounts for this pointless adaptation? Why not merely use the time period “amen”? As a result of Herbert desires the Fremen to look completely different than white Christians. With their clean faces and use of Arabic, Herbert depicts the Fremen as uncivilized spiritual savages.
Charles W. Mills argues that we are able to take Tolkien’s racial hierarchy (with the Elves on high, Males within the center, and Orcs on the backside) and map that onto a racial hierarchy in our personal world, with the elves as the last word white race, and the orcs as a stand in for all Black and Brown peoples. We are able to debate whether or not or to not name Tolkien’s depiction racist, however for my functions, the distinction right here is that Tolkien mines cultures (particularly pre-Christian pagan Western Europe) that he considers his personal to create Elvish languages, whereas Herbert takes languages from cultures which are definitively not his personal. Therein lies the distinction.
One level I’ll concede is that Dune: Half Two depicts the Fremen debating whether or not an outsider like Paul needs to be allowed to guide them. The Northern Fremen don’t see themselves as fanatic believers in prophecy, whereas the Southerners – embodied in Stilgar – embrace the prophecy of Lisan al-Gaib. “We imagine in Fremen” declares a Northerner. The others reply with bi-la kaifa.
Does a pacesetter—particularly a messianic one—want to be an insider? Can somebody like Paul ever really be taught to turn into Fremen? Can we because the viewers in 2024 see Paul as something apart from a white savior who has come to guide the superstitious indigenous folks to their freedom? Within the SyFy channel’s 2000 adaptation of Dune, Paul feedback to Jessica that the Fremen “have a easy faith.” She responds: “Nothing about faith is easy.” As with faith, so too with cultural appropriation, particularly within the Dune-iverse.
Dune just isn’t alone amongst science fiction franchises partaking in cultural appropriation. George Lucas used components from Buddhism, Daoism, and Sufism to create the Drive and the Jedi. It’s not the truth that Herbert borrows a lot materials from Arabic and Islamic sources, nevertheless it’s the best way by which he goes in regards to the borrowing that I discover problematic. Maybe I can perceive Herbert’s work as a product of his time, however I don’t see find out how to excuse Villeneuve for perpetuating these stereotypes sixty years later.
Why does all this matter? A standard theme with American science fiction is depicting alien races and new planets as objects that “we” (the implied Euro-American topics of the story) want to beat or not less than civilize (see most of Star Trek). This narrative has penalties in our actual world, not simply with European colonization over the centuries, but in addition right here in what ultimately grew to become the USA with the genocide and close to erasure of indigenous peoples. Paul’s reluctant manipulation of the Fremen matches completely with this narrative. To wield “desert energy,” one should first take management of the desert folks.
Books, TV, movie, music: these are all highly effective types of cultural manufacturing that serve both to perpetuate or problem dominant narratives we use to construction our society, develop public coverage, and normally, make sense of the world. Constancy to the supply is a continuing query with variations. Dune may very well be achieved with out taking part in Stilgar’s devotion (and by extension, Fremen tradition) for laughs, elevating the query: why not depict it in a different way? That Villeneuve made the alternatives he did—and is being rewarded with large business success—reveals Hollywood has an extended approach to go to undo its Orientalist legacy.
Patrick J. D’Silva is Visiting Instructing Assistant Professor of Islamic Research on the College of Denver. He’s co-author (with Carl Ernst) of Breathtaking Revelations: The Science of Breath from the Fifty Kamarupa Verses to Hazrat Inayat Khan (Suluk Press, 2024), and his subsequent e-book focuses on the intersection of faith and science fiction. His web site is www.patrickjdsilva.com.
