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Frank (Patrick) Herbert (1920-1986) | |
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American science-fiction writer, who became famous with his ecological novel DUNE (1965), set in a world of giant sandworms. The epic adventure won the first Nebula for Best Novel, shared the Hugo, and gained a cult status among science fiction readers. Herbert's bestseller was followed by five sequels. Often Herbert's stories dealt with great cycles of development, environmental as well as cultural. --"Why do you test for humans?" he asked. Frank Herbert, Jr., was born in Tacoma, Washington. At that time his father, Frank Herbert, 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. In 1928 the family moved to Burley to a small farm. 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, a teenager. They divorced in 1945; next year he married Ann Stuart, whom he had met in a creative writing class. In 1946-47 Herbert studied at the University of Washington, Seattle. By late 1947 he was employed as a feature writer for the Tacoma Times. Herbert was a reporter and editor on a number of West Coast newspapers and wrote speeches for politicians. In 1972 Herbert worked in Vietnam and Pakistan as a social and ecological studies consultant. From 1970 to 1972 he was a lecturer in general and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Washington. Herbert also wrote, directed, and produced the television documentary 'The Tillers', which was based on his field work with Roy Prosterman in Pakistan, Vietnam and other countries. Until 1972, when he began to write full-time, Herbert published socially engaged science fiction. In the 1950s his short stories appeared among others in Startling Stories. Editor after editor rejected his stories. During the next decade, he still continued as an infrequent contributor to science fiction magazines, producing fewer than 20 short stories. As a novelist Herbert started with THE DRAGON IN THE SEA (1955). Originally it appeared 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. In Dune Herbert plunged into an alien future centered around a complex interplanetary civilization. Herbert's idea date in the late 1950s when he studied a governmental ecological project designed to halt the spread of sand dunes on the Oregon coastline. The book sold over 12 million copies, was translated into several languages and adapted for the screen.Herbert examined inside a frame of an entertaining Space Opera several themes - the development of psi powers, intergalactic politics, religion (especially Zen Buddhism), functions of an alien ecosystem, and messianism. In the first part the reader meets Paul Atreides, the hero, whose adventures follow the logic of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale 'The Ugly Duckling', in which natural talents triumph over ostracism and hostile environment. 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, who is 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. In the second part Paul finds his true self in the sand planet Arrakis, where the citizens, Fremen, live like Bedouins in the desert. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, a spice that is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and extends life. Paul takes the Fremen name 'Muad'Dib'. Part three describes Paul's way to power, foretold by the Bene Gesserit Order. He rides a sandworm and drinks the Water of Life, a poisonous but mind-altering drug. Along the saga Atreides makes his metamorphosis into a kind of 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." (Brian Aldiss & David Wingrove in Trillion Year Spree, 2001). The film version of Dune (1984) was directed by David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Kenneth McMillan, Sting, Sean Young. The screenplay was also written by David Lynch. Dino De Laurentis was the producer. Lynch had made before the cult film Eraserhead (1976) and The Elephant Man (1980), but Dune was considered failure - especially it was mocked by U.S. critics, but 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." (from Novels into Films by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, 1997) Lynch's next film, Blue Velvet (1986), and the television series Twin Peaks restored his fame as one of the most original modern directors. - Dune (television mini series, 2000), dir. by John Harrison, starring Alec Newman, Saskia Reeves, Barbora Kodetová, Julie Cox, William Hurt, Giancarlo Giannini, Ian McNeice. All of the novels in the series focused on relations between individuals in conflict over political power. In DUNE MESSIAH (1969) the central problem is Paul's wish to have an ordinary family life with his beloved Chani. "While writing the third Dune book," Herbert later said, "I first realized consciously that I had to be entertainer above all, that I was in the entertainment business." In HERETICS OF DUNE (1984) the planet Arrakis is becoming desert again, 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." (from Chapter House Dune) 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. 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. Herbert died on February 12, 1986 after 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, appeared 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, ed. 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, ed. by Brian Herbert (1988); Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by Brian Herbert (2003) - For further information: The Science of Dune - Selected works:
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