DUNE 20th time and still GREAT

Dune by Frank Herbert, I think is the best ScFi ever written.

http://www.dunenovels.com/

Big statement I know but I think it is true!

If you have not read it I would say to you just read the first one, even if you do not read the whole series just read the first one.

I am re-reading it for, I think and this is a conservative estimate, the 20Th time, that works out to once a year since I was 12 and I know there are years when I have read it twice.

And it never gets boring and every time I read it I get something new from it.

In the past the one of the things that has always resonated with me is the Litany against Fear from the Bene Gesserit rite;

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

That has brought me comfort over the years and has helped me be less fearful. But this time as I was reading the book a new thing stood out for me.

The first Law of Mentat is;

"A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it."

And now I have a new idea to mull over in my life and see how this helps me change.

I find it amazing that a person could create in his head a universe of such depth and layer and history. That from a place on earth, because that is the start, he could imagine a future like this for humans. Our history is interwoven in this future, bits of us make it into this realm.

Maybe that is why it is so easy to follow. Maybe we can see that our future could go something like this.

I have a deep fondness for the Bene Gesserit, a school of metal and physical training mainly for female students. I would love to be a Bene Gesserit, although I have deep reservations about their work, in their quest to keep humane bloodlines safe, they have forgot the "humane' and seek out the Divine. The Kwisatz Haderach.

I have deep feelings of love for many of the people in this book. Yes I know I just called them people and not characters, but to me over the years they have become real. I feel a savage joy in their victories and I still cry when some of them die. I feel for the Lady Jessica and her place in the world, I want a different path for the Duke Leto, I feel for Dr Yueh, knowing what the Harkonnens can do you understand how he does what he does. The Dukes main men are men I would like to drink with. And Alia, the one who was awoken early, for her I feel such empathy.

And they aren't even the main characters!! Are you starting to see the pull?

Since Frank Herbert's death more books have been added to the world of Dune. I like these books and they add to the fabric of the legend. But they do not have the touch of a Master. His son Brain Herbert and author Kevin J Anderson just do not have his tone. But that is to be expected and I think they have done a wonderful job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Herbert

I really look forward to reading some of Brian Herberts non Dune novels.

This is an article I found on line and I think it will do a better job then me at sharing one the ideas that I find most interesting in his books.

http://baheyeldin.com/literature/arabic-and-islamic-themes-in-frank-herberts-dune.html

Also there is the group of Hidden Jews that are in his books, I found this wonderful and amazing. To me it rang true, that no matter what happened to them or how they where hounded they survived.

A warning though, if like me you go and google this be very careful. A bunch of wanker white power idiots and anti-Semite F&#@ers have hi-jacked this aspect of his work and you might like me end up on a page that makes you sick.

There is so much I would say about these book and why I love them, but as always my inability to express how I feel in words eloquently pulls me up and I just say to you read this book, give it a try and see what you see.

At some other point I will get on to the David Lynch movie. I really liked it but other fans hate so it will be a whole other post!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(film)

Avatar

Magic in Movies.

I saw Avatar today and I loved it.
It is every childhood dream I had of different made up worlds that could just be around the corner or under a leaf.
It was the Swiss Family Robinson Tree on steroids.
It was my fairy dreamland made alive.
It was an underwater dream scape on land.
It was pretty and beautiful and grand and wonderful.
It was an imagined world made alive.
I am so happy that some very few blessed people in our world are granted the talent to be able to bring the imagined to life for us.
Do I wish I was one of those people?
Yes I do.
But I am not, so I am just happy to the bottom of my bones that some people are able to do it and that they think big.
It is a tale that has been told many times, so not a new story.
But a story told in a new visual way.
The characters are all archetypes, so not new to us.
But because they are archetypes instantly familiar to us.
It is a metaphor and didactic,
but still wonderful despite this.
It has bits and bobs borrowed from every war, love, battle, cross cultural film ever made,
but not boring.
Even the cadence of the Pandoraian Natives is familiar, sounds like North American Indian cadence.
But even that harks back to a story already told and not learned from.
We have all seen the small worthy group beat the bigger badder foe,
so nothing new there, but still not boring.
There is said to be nothing new under the Sun, and that may be so,
But James Cameron gave us a new Sun to look upon and for that I am thankful.
I love love love love love love love love love Cinema and this is just one reason why.
We as humans are not so bad I think, even though we do vile evil things at times, if we can still make beauty for others.

http://www.avatarmovie.com/index.html

OLD SCHOOL

Love In a Cold Climate

I had read about the Mitford Girls many years ago and found their family and life fascinating. They really did live a life that seems today unreal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitford_family

I knew that Nancy was a writer but had never seen her work in print. With the new release of the classic orange and tan Penguin Books selling for only $9.95 I decided to finally give one of her books a go.

I enjoyed her work the way I enjoy Evelyn Waugh.

http://www.evelynwaughsociety.org/

Both of them write intimately of a time and place and a world we will never know. They write about that world with love and disdain. They mock it and at the same time you know they have a deep fondness for it because it was their world.

While reading Love In A Cold Climate I was constantly thinking it was really a bit a of a bio, if you read any of the many books about the Mitford family you will know what I mean. The story is set in the stately homes of England and the people are all what we would call posh. It is about the relationships within a sprawling family and the journey of one, Polly, to find love.

I don't really care that much for Polly, but I do enjoy all that goes on around her and within her family.

If you enjoyed movies like Gosford Park or Brideshead Revisited or like to peak at a different world you might get into this.

Ferd from Youtube.....must know more!

I don't know who this person is but they could be my cyber soul twin. Enjoy the link below and you will see why I think I have found my long lost cyber soul twin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSUDevqvx1E

Bright Star

When I love a film it is hard for me to express how I feel about it. It will hit me in such a personal way that I become almost mute by it. This is how I felt about Bright Star. Everything in the movie was beautiful, the way it was shot, the acting, the music, the light, everything.

http://www.brightstarthemovie.com/default.aspx


After watching this film and crying for the beauty of it, I can only hope that John Keats and Fanny Brawne found a place of wild flowers and sun to spend their eternity in.

Ben Whishaw stands out for me in particular as he conveys the elven aspect that many people commented upon about John Keats. And Abbie Cornish broke my heart as Fanny Brawne.

It is a wonderful film, go see it.

the inbetweeners

The inbetweeners is peeing yourself funny. It is very blue so if you a sensitive don't watch it! I love it. Hard and nasty as only teens can be, it freaks me out that this is how it is for teens today, but reading the Facebook pages of my under 20's friends it probably is real to life!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wnnUmiTZNY&feature=related

It is starting soon on one of the free to air digital channels so if you don't mind naughty check it out!!

I Found Her part1

I found her. Or at least for a moment I thought I had finally found her.
In that vast food court in a soulless shopping centre in the middle of my hunting ground sat at last the girl of my dreams.
Round but not obese, worn down, tired looking and defeated by her sad life.
Everything in her posture said “kick me” and they are always the ones we look for.
Don’t believe the hype about us all been fucked up by our Mothers “oh Oedipus” we are not, well not all of us.
She looked neither like my mother or any woman I had ever known. None of them do.
What they all have is that inner thing that always tells them they are useless. It is like a spark to us, a little dark light that shines just for us.
And at last here she sat. Hunched over her food like she were ashamed to be eating.
And why not, aren’t girls told every day that they are fat, food is bad, skinny is good, to say you enjoy eating in this day and age is like admitting you like sex with hookers.
It’s great for me, inbuilt media driven loathing of self has given me a whole new world of fun.
So I sat and I watched and I let myself feel that first warm glow of love spread.
That early warm feeling of pure love before all the meanness and sex comes on.
The feeling a normal boy might have had for his some what foxy pre-school teacher.
I was getting all long and languid, a cat in catnip gooiness spreading over me, when something bad happened.
She sat up straight. Her shoulders went back and her head up. She scanned that food court for who ever was looking, not seeing me she did not tuck her head back down like most fat girls would; instead she started to eat like some freaking Queen of Sheba. My beautiful trampled target was gone and some bolshie chick sat in her place.
It was like a slap to your balls with a head masters bat.
I had wanted her, she looked so good, she had shiny hair and great teeth and trim little finger nails on her fat little fingers.
She took care of herself and not all my girls did.
But why that change? How could she be the ‘one’ and in a flash not be the ‘one’. Fuck her I might just kill her anyway.

I Found Her part 2

My sister always tells me I am been paranoid when I tell her people watch me eat in food courts. But she is skinny mo minnie and is used to people watching her do most things because she is hot.

But people really do watch fat people eat in food courts and today was bad. Who ever that person was they gave me the willies. It went past the normal sideways look to see what fatty was eating. This was an intense boring a hole in my head look.

And they were not checking me out in a good way. I know those looks too. There is a look that men who like their ladies round give, a kind of timid looks because they are not sure how they will be received. Anyway this was not one of them.

It was gooey in a bad way and so I sat up, ate my food like I had a right to, like I owned that place. I have to say I am lucky I have that “thing” in me. That inbuilt whatever it is that makes me not really care that I am chubby. I still prefer been me with me size 16 roundness, then my friends who are a size 6 and won’t wear togs to the beach.

But I was blue at the start of the meal, the job is boring me and the hours blow and I was starting to let myself get low, so I suppose I should thank the looker, whoever it was today, because as soon as you put your head up and your shoulders back you start to see things better and I did today. And as Scarlet says tomorrow is another day.

I Found Her Part 3

I am all bent out of shape.
I wanted her, but she went and morphed on me.
I ended up following her anyway.
I thought if I was lucky she might change back into the trampled little fatty I first saw in the food court.
But no such luck, so no fuck for me.
I followed her to work and she just shone there.
All those people doing what she said and loving it.
Where does that sort of attitude come from in a girl like her?
That was why I loved this new media soaked world of the naughties.
Woman now have no sense of self.
It is all packaged up and given to them by their favourite brand.
But not her.
When I first killed one of my girls it was a different world.
Woman knew who or what they where.
They were Good Girls or they were Bad Girls.
They were Saints or they were Whores.
They were Mothers or they were Spinsters.
And not much else.
I still can’t say what I liked most,
The Bad Girls who thought that they got what they deserved.
Or the Good Girls who where almost indignant at what was happening to them.
Bless.
But this one pisses me right off.
She’s fat so meant to be unhappy.
Her hair is dark, not blonde like it should be for success.
She is far too smart and does not hide it around men,
So will never do well in the real world.
She will probably have to start up some sort of
At-home-online-organic-safe-for-the-whales-be-a-better-you-type-business.
I should save her from that, it might be more humane if I did kill her.

I found Her part 4

I have had to go to the police to file a report. Someone is following me. I know it sounds mad but there is someone following me. Everyday for the past two weeks in this book I have at some point mentioned feeling like someone is looking at me, following me or hovering.

When I was a social worker I would use the Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker as a reference for women I worked with who thought they might be in trouble. I know all the warning signs so I went to the police.

I think the little saint must be looking out for me. When I walked in the cop shop a police officer who I worked with as a social worker was there. So when I walked in randomly off the street and said I needed to report I was been followed he did not brush me off as a loony. I know there is nothing they can do. But at least if something happens they will have a record of it.

I Found Her part 5

So my fat little friend is not stupid either.
She went into a police station today.
I don’t know what she said but I know I will have to back off for a while.
I have followed fatties for months and they have never known.

How does she?
I want to know her.
I want to know what makes this one so different.
But I will have to wait now.
Can’t do the deed when people are looking, like a coy matron would not pee in public.
I don’t want to kill her like the others, they are casual sex and she is a committed relationship.
I know I will kill her in time, I have to, she has got my goat and I want it back.
This is when I wish there was a Sex Killing for Dummies or a Facebook page for us.
Everyman and his dog has a Facebook group but not us.
No, there is no Facebook page for us.
I don’t even know if I have met another me,

I have had suspicions before but how do you start that conversation?
I like to kill for fun, how about you?
And fuck Dexter and his writer.
We are not in any way noble or containable.
We are just bad and have always been and will be till the world ends, Amen.
I might just start that Facebook page.
Most people would think it was a gag.
But someone out there might be able to tell me what to do in this situation.
Maybe one of me has fallen for one of them before and they will tell me what to do.
I read the books about us and some of us are married but their wives always seem so dumb and sheep like.

I don’t think my fatty would miss the fact that I killed for fun.

I Found Her part 6

Things seem to back to normal now. No one is watching me anymore. This is good, but also creepy. What if they watched me go to the cop shop, and that is why they stopped? I went through all the usual suspects in my head and could not come up with the Kayser Soze in my life. One of my ex’s is a bit mad, but in a self destructive way, not in a hurt me way. It can’t be someone from work, all that kind of weirdness ended when I stopped doing case work.

Would some random person really see me and just start to follow me? Who does that anyway? No that is just made up bad movie stuff. I know the stats; if a woman gets killed it is normally by someone she knows. I mean really is there some physco killer out there who goes in for short chubby brunettes!?