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Frank (Patrick) Herbert (1920-1986) |
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Frank Herbert was an American science-fiction writer, who became famous with his ecological novel Dune (1965), set in Arrakis, a world of giant sandworms. The epic adventure won the first Nebula for Best Novel, shared the Hugo, and gained a cult status. Herbert's stories dealt with great cycles of development, environmental as well as cultural. Many critics have noted that Dune could be read as an allegory about the oil politics of the Middle East, equating the fictional drug, the spice mélange of Arrakis, to oil. The novel was followed by five sequels. "The effect of Arrakis is on the mind of the newcomer usually that of overpowering barren land. The stranger might think nothing could live or grow in the open here, that this was the true wasteland that had never been fertile and never would be." (Dune by Frank Herbert, Berkley Books, 1982, p. 477) Frank Herbert, Jr., was born in Tacoma, Washington, to Frank Herbert Sr and his wife Eileen.
At that
time his father, known as "F.H.", operated an auto-bus
line between Tacoma and Aberdeen to the south. Later he worked as an
electrical equipment salesman, automobile salesman, motorcycle
patrolman. Both of his parents drank much. In 1928 the family moved to
Burley to a small farm, established in 1898 as a utopian colony. From early on, Herbert was a voracious reader. He grew
up devouring the books of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice
Burroughs,
and later he ploughed through the complete works of William Shakespeare
and Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time. In addition, he spent a lot of time outdoors, hiking, swimming, and boating. A crucial experience for the development of Herbert's view on human consciousness was his experiment with ESP (extrasensory perception). When he was about 16 years old, he correctly identified an entire deck of playing cards. This inexplicable event was fictionalized in the story 'Encounter in a Lonely Place' (1973). Herbert graduated from Salem High School in 1939 and began his career as a journalist. During World War II served in the U.S. Navy as a Photographer Second Class V-6 in the Naval Reserve. In 1943 he was given an early honorable discharge. He then worked for two years as a copy editor for the Oregon Journal in Portland, Oregon. In 1941 Herbert married Flora Parkinson, still a
teenager at that time, whom he had met while working in Salem. They
divorced officially in 1945; next year he married Beverly Ann Stuart.
She was a fellow student at the same creative writing class at the
University of Washington, Seattle, where Herbert studied in 1946-47. By late 1947 Herbert was employed as a
feature writer for the Tacoma Times. His financial situation was not good, but in the mid-1950s, following the publication of his first novel, he was able to pay old debts, including some of the child-support payments owed to his ex-wife, Flora. Herbert was a reporter and
editor on a number of West Coast newspapers, and in addition, he wrote
speeches for Guy Gordon, a conservative Republican senator, and later
he worked in public relations for Republican congressional candidate
Phil Roth. He received $4,000 for the film rights to the novel Under Pressure (1955-56). The movie was never realized. While working for the San Francisco Examiner
in the 1960s, he befriended the Zen-master Alan Watts (1915-1973), who
used to invite Herbert over for dinner and conversation. Like Aldous Huxley
(1894-1963), Watts was one of those writers and artists living in the
West Coast, who had taken a serious interest in mind-expanding drugs
and had experimented with LSD. Herbert opposed the Vietnam War. After Watergate he said: "Nixon taught us one hell of a lesson, and I thank him for it. He made us distrust government leaders. We didn't mistrust Kennedy the way we did Nixon, although we probably had just as good reason to do so." ('Frank Herbert: Science Fiction Author' by Pat Stone, Mother Earth News, published on May 1, 1981) From 1970 to 1972 Herbert was a lecturer in general and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Washington. He wrote and directed the television documentary The Tillers (1973), which was based on his field work with Roy Prosterman in Pakistan, Vietnam and other countries. 'Looking for Something', his first sf story, Herbert sold to Startling Stories. However, editor after editor rejected his early fiction. During the next decade, he still continued as an infrequent contributor to science fiction magazines, producing fewer than 20 short pieces. As a novelist Herbert started with The Dragon in the Sea (1956). Originally it was published in serialized form in Astounding under the title Under Pressure. The futuristic submarine thriller predicted worldwide conflicts over oil consumption and production. Dune World was first published in Analog (December 1963-February 1964), with illustrations by John Schoenherr. Before the work appeared in book form, Herbert rewrote much of his text. Dune was first rejected by nearly twenty publishers. The book eventually sold over 12 million copies, was translated into several languages, including Finnish and Swedish, and was adapted for the screen. Nevertheless, it was not until he was writing the third Dune book, Herbert first realized consciously that he had to be entertainer above all, that he was in the entertainment business. The idea for the story dates from the late 1950s when
Herbert studied a governmental ecological project designed to halt the
spread of desert sands on populated areas on the Oregon coastline.
Originally he planned to write a magazine article. "Before long,"
he said in an interview, "I saw that I had far too much for an article,
and far to much for a short story . . . I had an enormous amount of
data, and avenues shooting off at all angles to gather more, and I was
following them." (The Worlds of Dune: The Places and Cultures that Inspired Frank Herbert by Tom Huddleston, Quarto, 2023, p. 10) Inside a frame of an
entertaining Space Opera, Herbert examined several themes – the
development of psi powers, intergalactic politics, religion (especially
Zen Buddhism), functions of an alien ecosystem, and messianism. The
narrative scope and gradeur of vision can be compared with that of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. In the
first part the reader meets Paul Atreides, the outsider hero and future
Messiah. As the story unfolds, it the turns out that his life follows
the logic of Hans Christian Andersen's
fairy tale 'The Ugly Duckling', in which inborn qualities (genetics),
not outside conditions, determine one's fate. But the twist is that
Paul Atreides' story is a story of corruption. Many critics have been unanimous in the view, that Dunehas
an anti-colonial position. American imprerialism and the political
situation in the Middle East are transposed into the far future, in a
way which shows that imperialism is a timeless historic phenomenon.
Herbert said in an interview in 1981: "There is definitely an implicit
warning in a lot of my work against big government . . . I think
it's vital that men and women learn to mistrust all forms of powerful,
centralized authority." (The Worlds of Dune: The Places and Cultures that Inspired Frank Herbert, p. 144) Primarily the story is about control and exploitation, and the need for
a Messiah, who will lead his followers into a better future.
But revolution ends up with a new religion, intolerant towards all who
refuse to accept its dictation. Brian Herbert said: "Among the
dangerous leaders of human history, my
father sometimes mentioned General George S. Patton, because of his
charismatic qualities – but more often his example was President John
F.
Kennedy. Around Kennedy is a myth of kingship formed, and of Camelot.
His followers did not question him, and would have gone
with him virtually anywhere." (Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert, Macmillan, 2003) Paul
is the son of Duke Leto and his concubine Jessica,
members of the House of Atreides, who are opposed by the Harkonnes. He
undergoes a painful initiation at the hands of a reverend mother, member of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. (As models for the
Sisterhood Herbert used his Irish Catholic maternal aunts, who had
attempted to force religion on him in his childhood.) With Jessica Paul
escapes a Harkonnen plot. Paul finds his true self
in the sand planet Arrakis (also known as Dune). There the citizens, the Fremen, live like
Bedouins in the desert and ride on huge, deadly sandworms. Their secret
is that the worms are the sole source of mélange, a spice that is
necessary in order to navigate through hyperspace and grants psychic powers and extends
life. As a side efffect of the saturation of the blood of the Fremen
with the spice, their eyes are totally blue. The production of mélange
generates a means for controlling
galactic societies. Paul takes the Fremen name 'Muad'Dib', but Herbert also uses the term mahdi, the word for the prophesied redeemer of Islam. Moreover, there are unmistakable similarities between the physical environment from which Islam began to spread through the known world and Arrakis' barren landscape and lack of water. Paul's rise to power has been foretold by the Bene Gesserit Order. He rides a sandworm and drinks the Water of Life, a poisonous but mind-altering drug, which works like LSD. Along the saga Atreides makes his metamorphosis into a kind of tyrannical god, his destiny culminating in God Emperor of Dune (1981), "perhaps the least complex of the Dune novels in its plotting, yet all the more satisfying for that." (Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction by Brian Aldiss & David Wingrove, House of Stratus, 2001, p. 462) The film version of Dune (1984) was produced by Dino
De Laurentiis and directed by David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan as
Paul Atreides, with Francesca Annis, Kenneth McMillan, Sting, Sean
Young. The screenplay was also written by David Lynch, who struggled to
build up a coherent story line and managed to produce a draft which
Herbert accepted. However, one of the crucial changes was that Paul
seeks to "conquer" the sand-dwelling worm, instead of riding on top of
the monster in a symbiotic act. Before this production Lynch had made Eraserhead
(1976) and The Elephant Man (1980), both acclaimed by
critics. Dune was considered failure – especially it was mocked
by U.S. critics, though in Japan and Europe it found success. "But
even Lynch's trademark touches cannot fully compensate for perhaps the
film's gravest weakness: the simplification of the key
characterizations. Paul's (Kyle MacLachlan) seizure of the emperor's
throne lacks the ambivalent tone presented in the novel. Herbert's deep
suspicion of messianic fervor makes Paul's victory far less triumphant
than Lynch would have his audience believe." (Novels into Films: The Encyclopedia odf Movies Adapted from Books by John C.
Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, Checkmark Books, 1999, p. 69) Lynch's next movie, Blue
Velvet (1986), and the television series Twin Peaks restored
his fame as one of the most original modern directors. A more
thorough adaptation of Dune was a made by John Harrison, who
wrote and directed a three part television mini-series (2000), starring
Alec Newman, Saskia Reeves, Barbora Kodetová, Julie Cox, William Hurt,
Giancarlo Giannini, Ian McNeice. Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part One,
premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2021.
"To call this "Dune" a remarkably lucid work is to praise it with very
faint damnation. Perhaps reluctant to alienate the novices in the
audience, Villeneuve has ironed out many of the novel's convolutions,
to the likely benefit of comprehension but at the expense of some rich,
imaginative excess." (Justin Chang, in Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2021) All of the novels in the series focused on relations between
individuals in conflict over political power. Another central theme was
the effects of an ecological disaster on an interplanetary scale. In Dune Messiah
(1969) the central
problem is Paul's wish to have an ordinary family life with his beloved
Chani. Following a conspiracy Paul is blinded and he loses his wife,
shortly after she gives birth to their twins, Leto II nad Ghanima. The
famed editor John W. Campbell, Jr., rejected this volume
because it undermined the heroic image of Paul Atreides. The planet Arrakis is becoming desert again in
Heretics of Dune (1984),
sandworms are dying, and the children of Dunes children practice the
new power of a heresy called love. Chapterhouse:
Dune (1985) ended the series. Arrakis has been destroyed. The
heirs to Dune's power have colonized a green world, and they are
turning it into a homely desert. But power corrupts: -"Isn't it odd, Dama . . . No reaction;
continue. . . . how rebels all too soon fall into old patterns if
they are victorious? It's not so much a pitfall in the path of all
governments as it is a delusion waiting for anyone who gains power." (Ibid., Berkley Books, 1986, p. 167) Herbert's other works include Hellstrom's Hive (1973), in which a human hive has evolved through centuries in North America. In this society the individual's existence is of minor importance. The Dosadi Experiment (1977) was a spy thriller set in a universe populated by several conflicting alien races. Additional themes are psi powers and total mind transference. The White Plague (1982) was about a madman, who creates a disease that kills only women. Until
1972, when he began to write full-time, Herbert
published socially engaged science fiction. He divided his time between
his house on the island of Maui, Hawaii, and farm in Olympic Peninsula,
Washington State, where he developed his "ecological demonstration
project". When visiting his son in Port Townsend, he flew on a private
jet – he couldn't bear to ride a commercial jet with all the crowd.
After the death of his wife in 1984, Herbert married Theresa
Shackleford. In the 1970s and 80s' Herbert worked with Bill Ransom
(1945-), and published with him The Pandora trilogy – The Jesus Incident (1979), The Lazarus Effect (1983), and The Ascension Factor (1988), which
explored the relationship between God-"protected" human stock and the
natives of Pandora. Frank Herbert died of massive pulmonary embolism on February 12, 1986, after a long treatment for cancer. He left behind extensive notes about Dune and in 1999 appeared a prequel to the series, Dune: House Atreides, written by Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son, in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson. Brian has also published with his father Man of Two Worlds (1986) and edited other Herbert's works. Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert, came out in 2003. For further reading: Herbert's Dune and Other Works by Louis David Allen (1975); Frank Herbert by David M. Miller (1980); Frank Herbert by Timothy O'Reilly (1981); The Dune Encyclopedia, edited by Willis E. McNelly (1984); Frank Herbert by William F. Touparce (1988); A Frank Herbert Bibliography by Daniel J.H. Levack (1988); The Notebooks of Frank Herbert, edited Brian Herbert (1988); Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert (2003); The Science of Dune: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind Frank Herbert's Fictional Universe, edited by Kevin R. Grazier (2007); 'Postcolonial Science Fiction: The Desert Planet' by Gerald Gaylard, in Science Fiction, Imperialism and the Third World: Essays on Postcolonial Literature and Film, edited by Ericka Hoagland and Reema Sarwal (2010); A Dune Companion: Characters, Places and Terms in Frank Herbert's Original Six Novels by Donald E. Palumbo (2018); Science Fiction and the Dismal Science: Essays on Economics in and of the Genre, edited by Gary Westfahl, Gregory Benford, Howard V. Hendrix, and Jonathan Alexander (2020); Discovering Dune: Essays on Frank Herbert's Epic Saga, edited by Dominic J. Nardi, and N. Trevor Brierly; foreword by Timothy O'Reilly (2022); The Spice Must Flow: The Story of Dune, from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-fi Movies by Ryan Britt (2023) Selected works:
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