He who controls the pronunciation...

[featherynscale]

I think I've been watching Dune for a week now. Well, to be fair, we're on Children of Dune now. 6 hours of Dune. I don't think it took me that long to read the book.
So, with all the problems in the world today, what I'm wondering is, who decided that it would be a good idea to pronounce the word for Paul Muad'dib's 'death commandos' as "feh-dyke-in"? In my mind it's always been "feh-dah-keen", like 'fellaheen' and 'mujahadeen' and other words like that. So the viewing has been punctuated by snickers every time Paul says "feh-dyke-in".
10 geek points to me, for complaining about pronunciation of words that don't even exist in real language.
The other thing that bothers me is that the events of Dune seem so timely and topical, and that they probably were timely and topical when the books were being written. It just makes me feel like we haven't made a whole lot of progress in the way we make policy about desired commodities found in desert regions.
Bah, 10 geek points for comparing sci-fi to politics.

Comments

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Children of Dune? They made it into a movie? Or was it tacked on to that six hour remake that I couldn't sit through?

While I loved Dune the book, I didn't like the followups. I forget which one, but it was something about Paul's sister trying to boink the flesh golem that bugged me. It went from awesome novel to pulp fiction in one step. It was like the transition from Aladdin to Aladdin II, just tragic. I was excited that I found like 4-5 followup books at the Denver library, but never got past the first.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

It's a miniseries from the sci-fi channel. It's much better made than their Dune. Or at least, made more like a movie. Their Dune reminded me of a theatre production, which I enjoyed, but I think a lot of people didn't like it.

This one seems to cover Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. It's been a long time since I read either of those, since I didn't like them quite as much as the first one either. It's funny you mention that, since the only things I remember about this part of the story cycle is that Paul and Chani have twins, Chani dies, and Alia boinks the ghola. (I think I phrased it exactly like that talking to Carey and David about it, too - made me giggle.)

Re:

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I think I didn't like the second Dune because it was high ideals and low budget. So it ended up campy. Even the original movie pulled some wierd stuff, glossing over all the buildup so they could get to the battle. So when people died, it didn't seem as tragic as it did in the book. Plus it doesn't give you any clue as to why they would have created the ghola later. (I still say it was a flesh golem with a goofy name ;-)


I had forgotten that Chani died... but the really cool part was when there was some accident and a charred Paul comes out and sees despite his eyeballs being toasted. That was pretty morbid... and at that point, it was walking the thin line between scifi and trying to invent a new religion.

I also hated the spoiled brat that Alia had become... it was like adding Oliver to the Brady Bunch.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nah. Flesh golems are stitched together, ghola are grown in...errr...tanks. (blech.)

Re:

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

True, but I stil think one was pirated off the other, considering the closeness in names. And since I read Gygax first... ::grin::

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yeah - the ghola is a golem-relative... but there were golems before Gygax.

They're part of Jewish legend as early as the 16th century. So, incidentally, is the phrase 'kwisatz haderach', which relates to the ability to either be more than one place at once, or the ability to 'fold space' so as to step from one place to a distant place in no time. I think one of the titles in Dune for the Kwisatz Haderach is "he who is many places at once".