>>5662842If I had to open Dune with a single quote, I would use this one, cited by Frank Herbert in the lengthy appendices of the novel where he describes the common creation of the Bene Gesserit and Space Navigator Guild
(...)
Out of those first ecumenical meetings came two major developments:
1. The realization that all religions had at least one common commandment:
>“Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.”This quotation exactly captures the Dune novel - I believe it is entirely absent in the films. The strange thing about this quotation is it could equally apply to the entirety of Brideshead Revisited, why the protagonist Charles Ryder (after a gay episode with Sebastian) eventually renounces his love for Julia and embraces his art, which leads curiously and ineluctably to war. There is also an echo of the need for primitivism or savagery to nurture courage, virtue - whether it is the parched dunes of Arrakis, or the interesting parallel of Charles Ryder only achieving great distinction after journeying to the jungle of South America to reinvigorate his paintings. There are character parallels too - the rapacious and accomplished ambition of Baron Harkonnen is a similar archetype to the war profiteer and politician Rex Mottram, the principal romantic rival for Charles Ryder's (interestingly in the 2008 Brideshead film Rex Mottram's nationality is changed from Canadian in the novel to American, just to make it more obvious he wants to "do well" from the anticipated war against Hitler). Baron Harkonnen is hinted at having debauched tastes in Dune (Harkonnen is the father of Lady Jessica, Paul's Mother, hence Paul Atreides ancestry comes from him) and this also echoes the father figure of Lord Marchmain in Bridehead Revisited. When the visual conceits of these stories are peeled back, whether it is waistcoats or stillsuits, manor houses or space palaces, the essential elements are very similar indeed.
