I reread Dune recently, for the first time since middle school. It is not as good as I remembered it. It's certainly readable, but it's awkward in places and th

I reread Dune recently, for the first time since middle school. It is not as good as I remembered it. It's certainly readable, but it's awkward in places and there are whole sections that barely make sense. Also, much which was probably groundbreaking in the 1960s is now just standard trope. To a contemporary reader (or to me, at least) it seems like an amateur application of a formula, even though it's really the original formula itself in all its Alpha 1 glory, without any subsequent refinements. I think the best way to approach it is as an important cultural artifact, as opposed to a novel you really want to read.