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[KID]

Ever been watching TV when a Dune reference pops out of nowhere? And you're all like, Hot damn, I can't believe they just said that? Isn't that feeling awesome?

Examples: Earthworm Jim, The animated series: Peter Puppy recites the Litany Against Fear. In two separate episodes.

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Billy is subjected to various tests, one of which is the Gom Jabbar. "It burns!"

I wish I could think of more, but I can't. Anyone else got some?

[Scytale]

My User names a nod to Dune...

[Fiddler]

So it is!  I never linked the two until now.  I had completely forgotten about that character haha.

[Orbert]

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Billy is subjected to various tests, one of which is the Gom Jabbar. "It burns!"

I saw that one! It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title. Technically, they got it wrong (the Gom Jabbar is the poison needle, not the box) but I gave them props for it anyway.

In the movie Beetlejuice, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis' ghosts can't leave their house because it's in the middle of a desert full of sandworms. They don't look quite like you'd expect, but they're definitely Dune-inspired.

Han Solo was a spice smuggler. Also, Obi-Wan Kenobi is clearing using Voice against those guards outside the cantina in Episode IV. Anakin uses Voice on the dope dealer in the bar in Episode II. Lucas was a huge Dune fan.

[Liz]

They asked questions about Dune so much in Knowledge Bowl (and it was always the same questions too) that I, having never read it, could answer them. That is all kinds of sad.

[Blue Kitty]

wasn't there an episode of Billy and Mandy were Mandy was a worm and she ruled the world because she owned all of the spice, ro something like that

[McTaggart]

I couldn't be bothered finishing the book. I read the first seven eighths of it win much alacrity, but got near the end and just didn't care. I still reference it and spot other people's references though.

[Scytale]

I really like some of the political and philosophical insights Herbert offers, particularly in the later books. Dune Messiah is my personal favorite there is a really good passage in there about Paul's monopoly on the spice being a form of Hydraulic Despotism and it goes onto talk about control of hydrocarbons etc...

God Emperor is my other favorite book, I actually quoted a passage from it as my high school yearbook quote (yeah shameless nerd) where Leto is talking about how he has turned planets into prisons and by keeping the population motivated he keeps them ignorant of this fact. It has a really good quote something like "The possesion of  wealth is freedom, but its pursuit is slavery". My Dune Novels are at my parents house so I can't really cross reference that, but back when I was a young high schooler I thought that was one of the more profound things I'd ever read.

[Orbert]

Herbert said that from the beginning, he wanted the story to have many levels to it, one of which was exploring politics, culture, religion, and other aspects of social science. He sure did that, and it seems to me that as the saga went on, there was practically more allegory than story. By Heretics and Chapterhouse, we were deep into the exploration of how a person becomes a myth, and ultimately the basis of a religion, which he started with God Emperor.

[mberan42]

Yeah, see, that's why I never read beyond the first book. I didn't want to read all about myths and religion and politics. I wanted a good sci-fi book.

[Orbert]

Totally understandable. I was fine through God Emperor, but I was getting kinda bored by time I got to Heretics, thinking "What the hell happened to the story?" By the fifth book, it's thousands of years after Paul, though we're still following the Atreides family line, and Duncan Idaho is on his 25th ghola or something, but it seemed pretty useless. Those two connections were the only thing tying back to the original story. Then I realized what it was he was doing, and kinda got into it that way, but it's sure not for everyone.

[mberan42]

Is Arakkis ever terraformed?

[Orbert]

I honestly don't remember. Incredibly, it doesn't actually play a major part in the big picture.

[Scytale]

Yeah it eventually changes its name to Rakkis after it is terraformed and it does play a sort of huge roll in the story, big part of Leto's Golden Path...

[Orbert]

Ah, that's right. It's important during that one book, God Emperor, but when I said "the big picture" I guess I meant the whole saga, which spans several thousand years. In the first book, water is hugely important, and the idea of terraforming (I guess that's applicable here, though I never thought of it that way) was a goal. Then they figured out that water everywhere = no sandworms = no spice = bad. By the end of the story, whether or not they ended up transforming the planet didn't seem to be such a big deal.

[supersheep]

It has a really good quote something like "The possesion of  wealth is freedom, but its pursuit is slavery".

That sounds suspiciously like something from "Wealth and Commonwealth" by Henry Demarest Lloyd (which I read part of for US History this term).

Also, I first saw the film last night... Is it just me or does it seem to skip over HUGE chunks of story after they meet Stilgar and that? (Bear in mind that I haven't read the book - just another one of the Dune books.)