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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   28265 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 4, 2024

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Thanks for your analysis, but I think you got a bit schizo at the end trying to symbologically analyze the two houses. And the Agamemnon thing is frankly house mythology; history from our time is barely remembered in the year 10000. A huge chunk of the conflict in DUNE is a straightforward critique of imperialism in the Middle East over oil; CHOAM is OPEC.

Apollonian and Dionysian juxtapositions are a motif in theater going back to ancient Greece, i.e. per Wikipedia "the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make (Apollonian) order of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, though he dies unfulfilled." You don't have to be schizo to see how this plays out in Dune. Paul's father Duke Leto is even named after the mother of Apollo. House Harkonnen is probably the single best scifi interpretation of the Dionysian out there.

And of course, Paul himself is related by blood to both houses.

CHOAM is barely in the movie, the resource-struggle takes a backseat to those themes.

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