“Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.”

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

“It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.”

— quotes from Frank Herbert

The centennial of Frank Herbert's birth is upon us and respects must be paid. Oddly enough, I've seen scant commemorations around the Interwebz. Perhaps ol' Frank is just too stale, too pale and too male to be celebrated, despite the Villeneuve Dune movie being filmed as we speak.

Of course, Herbert's novel, Dune, is why most of us care that this is his centenary. While he was not a one-hit wonder, exactly, the vast majority of Herbert's success and acclaim flowed from that one novel.

But what a novel it is. I reread it for the third time a few years ago. Just as I felt the first time I read it--barely starting high school--this was Burroughs' "Mars Trilogy" on steroids. Not necessarily better, but certainly bigger, far grander in scope. You also had the pseudo-historical depth and complexity of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings along with elements of Asimov's Foundation and Doc Smith's "Lensman" series. All of that, but with a certain Howardian sensibility lurking just off-page.

Is not the Imperium of the Padishah Emperor tottering and decadent? Doesn't the card-table upon which the whole rigged Game of Thrones is played deserve to be upended? Paul Atreides is motivated by a thirst for vengeance and a will to power to do just that.

REH's Bran Mak Morn also sought to bring down an empire by any means necessary. He took to bed Atla the were-woman and bargained with the Worms of the Earth. Atreides rode Worms of the Sand, unleashed the Fremen upon the galaxy and took Princess Irulan--the spawn of his enemy--as his bride.

One can only wish that Herbert had put these words in Paul's mouth: "There are no weapons I would not use against the Imperium!"

Was not Paul the Lisan al-Gaib, or "voice of the outer world" to the Fremen? That title is strangely similar to one of Robert E. Howard's most famous poems, "A Word from the Outer Dark". In my readings of Dune, I always took "the outer world" to indicate "off-planet". In other words, "outer space" or "the outer dark". Here are the last stanzas of REH's poem:

Higher the walls of Nineveh
And prouder Babel's spires-
I bellowed from the desert way-
They crumbled in my fires.

For all the works of cultured man
Must fare and fade and fall
I am the Dark Barbarian
That towers over all.

The Fremen are nothing if not barbarians. Throughout history, barbarians have been the outsiders, the outliers. In crucial areas, their tech level may actually exceed that of the "higher" cultures they attack. However, tech level has little to do with it. "Barbarian" is a state of mind.

"I bellowed from the desert way-

They crumbled in my fires."

Did not Paul use nuclear fire to pierce the Shield Wall mountains, allowing his desert-bred barbarians to slake their blood-lust?

Fundamental to the Dune universe and the birth of the Imperium is the Butlerian Jihad, in which humans wrested back their sovereignty from AI overlords. New ways--human ways--were devised to compensate for the loss of computers and their two-edged "help". It is no coincidence that three of the most important and popular SFF authors of the twentieth century--Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert--all raged against the Machine. Despite the blandishments of transhumanists, every gain in mechanity involves a certain loss of humanity, of true reality. On this centennial of Frank Herbert's birth, it is best to remember that.