Journal Entry 1 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Sunday, May 02, 2004

The best Sci-Fi novel ever. And I would love to defend that in conversation with anyone. Dune is about so much, but ultimately about politics.

Caution:
DO NOT READ LATER DUNE BOOKS!

Herbert, you must understand, cannot actually write. This story just fell out of him sui generis, as my family's current theory goes. 

Journal Entry 2 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Sunday, May 02, 2004

Pre-numbered label used for registration.

Acquired at

The Traveler Restaurant: Food and Books
I-84 Exit 74 MA/CT Line
Union CT 06076
1-860-684-4920

Journal Entry 3 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Buying copies of Dune is something I do. I did it long before I met BookCrossing, even, and I am ecstatic to be able to distribute not just copies of this book but also journals on it. You can see other Dune copies of mine here (2), here (3) and here (4). 

Journal Entry 4 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Friday, July 02, 2004

I swear, reading this book is a homecoming. I love it. This is my sixth time reading Dune. I am alternating it with Sharon Shinn's Archangel, to force myself to read both books at a reasonable speed. In truth, the system is diminishing my enjoyment of Archangel. Nothing compares to Dune.

I know every scene by now. I know so many nooks and crannies in the many, many characters. They are so real to me. I have told my boyfriend I believe in Dune, that somehow deep down I believe it reflects a reality, that the world Frank Herbert writes of exists. It is too real not to exist. These characters live in more than just the pages of the book. Things happen to them between scenes. They have histories. They have futures--and I'm not talking about Dune Messiah. A man caught in his own dream in a Twilight Zone episode frantically explains to another character, "A dream forms its own reality--it's complete! It has a past, and, as long as you keep dreaming, a future!" I don't have a place in the Dune world for myself. I am not any character, and I cannot write extra parts for myself. But I can still experience the world as an observer, and I know how the voices sound, and I know the smells and the sights and the feel of the sand on my face. I love this book. I always will. 

Journal Entry 5 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Friday, August 27, 2004

Only just now finishing the sixth time through Dune. (Archangel bit the dust long ago--it was okay.) What can I do with this book but rave? I am in the last chapter, the final confrontation, and again I am reminded of one of my favorite features of this novel: not everything turns out all right.

My favorite example of this is Stilgar, the Fremen naib who becomes "a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib." "I have lost a friend to gain a worshiper," Muad'Dib muses sadly. Herbert understands the cost of religion, the cost of destiny. He understands some men make their fate while others are made or unmade by it. Stilgar was a great leader who becomes a mere follower, still able to give orders but no longer able to imagine his people without his lord.

Chani is another casualty, albeit a stronger and less defeated one. Dune shares with one of the most powerful movies I know, Mystic River, a strange and unexpected ending, with a fierce and fully lighted focus on the women after a relatively male-dominated story. I never understood why until I saw the SciFi Channel's adaptation of Dune in December 2000. Almost the parting shot of that mini-series is Irulan standing, tall, thin, a great pillar of a woman, a pillar of strength and determination and a will to the future. (What an ally she could have been!)

The women are real. This is more than "Behind every strong man stands a woman," although that is part of it. Jessica is a strong force of the power Paul learns to wield (and to weird). Chani is his heart. She is the force that keeps him human, as Jessica stranges him. Irulan is also real; although she first appears in the flesh only at the end of the book, we already know how potent a force she is in Paul's legacy. The world Paul creates is created also, and is lived, by these potent forces who do not just happen to be female. They show how Paul's world came to be and what it leads to.

And yet, as I said, Chani is a casualty. "There are no innocent anymore," Muad'Dib tells his mother. "Tell that to Chani," she replies. That young woman is perhaps the only truly good character I can identify in all of the world of Dune. She lives for love, love for her people and her planet and her life as well as for her man. She lives what must be lived, does what must be done. Chani kills casually for Muad'Dib and also sheds tears at the death of his (her) son. She is an extension of Muad'Dib's will, and yet not within his control. There is a sense that she is cast aside at the end although Muad'Dib assures Chani, "You'll never again leave my side." Perhaps it is her values that are downtrodden. She is innocent, and she pays the price of it.

There was once an online magazine called The 11th Hour, which just as it bit the dust unleashed a wonderful interpretation of the Dune saga. One feature of this interpretation is the implication that Herbert wrote Dune for his wife--at least, I think that's what they say (it's three and a half years since I read this). The love that holds the characters together is more than just fancy. Read up on it.

And happy travels.

Jinnayah 

Journal Entry 6 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Mailed off in WritinReader's Books I Enjoyed BookBox yesterday, November 2, to bookaholic2. 

Journal Entry 7 by WritinReader on Thursday, January 20, 2005

Got this from the Books I Enjoyed Bookbox which made it home yesterday. Thanks! 

Journal Entry 8 by WritinReader at Mammoth Cave Camp Store in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky USA on Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Released 7 yrs ago (3/15/2005 UTC) at Mammoth Cave Camp Store in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

left out in front of post office area 

Journal Entry 9 by AnonymousFinder on Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Just picked it up, nothing to say as yet.

CAUGHT IN MAMMOTH CAVE KY USA