6 ms·

Whilst Dune brought a lot of fantastic concepts to sci-fi, I also sometimes feel like it brought one of the worst ideas to the genre as well; make up a load of

Whilst Dune brought a lot of fantastic concepts to sci-fi, I also sometimes feel like it brought one of the worst ideas to the genre as well; make up a load of random words so everything feels more alien. Its all made worse by the fact that, in an effort to rid the book of stilted exposition, the meanings of the words are explained once or twice in passing mentions, and seem to be replacements for real words fairly arbitrarily (you try to remember one word only to find its never mentioned again, another it turns out is vital to the plot). Though I guess that is to be expected of anything which has has such a vast influence on a genre, no book is perfect.

dualboot 5y ago
I agree. When this method is overused it can be difficult to grok the material.
- Scarblac 5y ago
  I smurfed what you smurfed there.
the_af 5y ago
Most words in Dune aren't random though. They are alternative spellings of Arabic words (in some cases, the real world spelling), some French, etc.
- bodge5000 5y ago
  From a bit of research this does appear to be true, at least partially, although the meanings are also a bit different. Either way, the affect was the same, both in terms of how it influenced others and how it felt to read. Though it does make me wonder how it treats the arabic translations. The obvious answer would be to keep the words the same, but if thats the case then the use of different languages would seem a bit arbitrary. Maybe English words are used in the Arabic translations (though I doubt it)
  - jstx1 5y ago
    The books use the word jihad extensively. We know at least that is getting changed to crusade/struggle.
    - bodge5000 5y ago
      yeh thats a good point, probably should have joined the dots based off that
  - the_af 5y ago
    > Maybe English words are used in the Arabic translations (though I doubt it) It wouldn't make much sense, because the Fremen are Arab-inspired, or at least, Middle Eastern. Arrakis is a desert planet toyed with by colonial powers. Any other interpretation would change the work so much it would become a completely different book.

dualboot 5y ago

I agree. When this method is overused it can be difficult to grok the material.

Scarblac 5y ago
I smurfed what you smurfed there.

the_af 5y ago

Most words in Dune aren't random though. They are alternative spellings of Arabic words (in some cases, the real world spelling), some French, etc.

bodge5000 5y ago
From a bit of research this does appear to be true, at least partially, although the meanings are also a bit different. Either way, the affect was the same, both in terms of how it influenced others and how it felt to read. Though it does make me wonder how it treats the arabic translations. The obvious answer would be to keep the words the same, but if thats the case then the use of different languages would seem a bit arbitrary. Maybe English words are used in the Arabic translations (though I doubt it)
- jstx1 5y ago
  The books use the word jihad extensively. We know at least that is getting changed to crusade/struggle.
  - bodge5000 5y ago
    yeh thats a good point, probably should have joined the dots based off that
- the_af 5y ago
  > Maybe English words are used in the Arabic translations (though I doubt it) It wouldn't make much sense, because the Fremen are Arab-inspired, or at least, Middle Eastern. Arrakis is a desert planet toyed with by colonial powers. Any other interpretation would change the work so much it would become a completely different book.