Desert Power: A Chronological Comparison of Dune and Its Relationship With Contemporary American Views Towards Islam

Abstract

This study sets out to examine the relationship between Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic Dune and contemporary American views towards Islam. It investigates the first Dune novel (1965), the 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch and the most recent reworking by Denis Villeneuve, entitled Dune: Part One. I posit that a chronological comparison of their historical contexts can illuminate how Americans viewed Islam in the 1960s, the 1980s and today. This is inspired by John Rieders thoughts on the science fiction genre as “historical and mutable.” I approach this study by close reading the texts of the three works in question and then confronting my findings with secondary literature on the contemporary American views of Islam. David Greenham’s conceptualization of close reading is helpful here, especially his thoughts on the adversarial context. In this study, I also use reviews of both film adaptations in order to illustrate my results. The concept of world-building as theorized by Mark Wolf is central to this analysis. This means that I focus on the building blocks of the Duniverse, not on plot or character development. Language features prominently, because it is important for the construction of imaginary worlds. Two final significant concepts here are drawn from adaptation studies: an archival and teleological reading of adaptations. Here, recent research by David Amadio on Dune (1984) helps our thinking about the Islamic and Arabic elements of Dune (1984) and Dune: Part One. This study finds that consumers use already existing knowledge to “fill out” an imaginary world and that this influences how a world is seen. This suggests that dominant ideas of Islam are mirrorred in Dune. Finally, this chronological comparison identifies numerous areas for further research on Dune and its historical contexts.