Dune's Desert
The Relevance of Locale
In considering the relevance of locale to a story, what could be more appropriate an example than that of "Dune" by Frank Herbert? There's the barren wasteland of Giedi Prime, the opulent wonders of planet Kaitain and the water world of Caladan. The peoples of these planets are in many ways products of their respective domains. The brutishness of the Harkonnen matches the barren unnaturalness of the planet. The contrived and elegant beauty of the Emperor's world of Kaitain mirrors the facade of refinement and breeding which masks a more sinister nature beneath. The ancestral world of House Corrino, Salusa Sucundus, more closely reflects the actual harsh fierceness of the imperial family's brand of rule and politics. The planet Caladan is water rich and capable of sustaining its inhabitants without much in the way of technical contrivance.
So where, in all of this, does the planet Dune fit? Dune is a planet more harsh than the anscestral home of the Corrinos, more barren than Giedi Prime, and more truly rich than the planet Caladan. However, the wealth of Dune, Arrakis, as it is otherwise known, isn't necessarily only in the rich supply of melange, "the spice." Each society in the Landsraad, the assembly of noble houses in the Imperium, depends on the spice extensively for one thing or another. It's the native people, the Fremen of Dune, which are the wealth of the planet. They are a people suckled by the harshness of its deserts, trained in the survival it teaches and more fierce than any fighting force in the known universe. Fierce but not brutal. Trained but not controlled. Suckled but not coddled. These are a people that could no more be native to any other planet than the great worm of Arrakis can survive in water.
The story of the marriage of the House of Atreides with the wild Fremen of Dune could not unfold on any other planet in the Landsraad nor could the combined roots of Fremen ancestry be better complemented had their forefathers settled on any other planet. With the sand worm of the planet being so integral to the plot of the novel and unable to exist on any other world, there would be no riveting page-turner to keep a reader up all night. The importance of water would have no relevance if this tale were told on Caladan, Geidi Prime, Salusa Sucundus or Kaitan. Without the barren desert sands of Arrakis, there could be no "Dune."
Are you a Dune fan?
Have you read the books, watched the movie, both or neither?
Frank Herbert was a noted writer of science fiction. His novel, "Dune," is his masterwork. His writing career was long and distinguished. The focus of his writing seemed to revolve around a number of interrelated themes of which politics, religion and power were most prominent. The novel "Dune" is touted as one of the best selling science fiction novels of all time.
The Place for Setting in Writing
Setting is the place and time of story. http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/10/15/setting-the-place-and-time-of-story/
variations in degree of sharing detail in establishing the setting
© 2014 Tanya Jones