Re-Reading God Emperor of Dune
May. 5th, 2024 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiOne commenter on a YouTube video said Leto II was their favorite character in literature. I liked him, too, when I read the Dune books back in high school, and that prompted me to pick up God Emperor again, as it is the main book telling his story. I enjoyed the book moderately, both then and now but can better articulate a response now. So here goes.
Spoilers for Dune books up to God Emperor.
My “Grades” for God Emperor of Dune
Concept: A
The idea of Leto as a human-Worm composite and a preborn identity with billions of lives in his head across thousands of years, working to shepherd the human race through a possible extinction event and onto a future where humanity will be equipped to survive in perpetuity is unique and endlessly fascinating.
Character of Leto II: A-
Great concept and mostly executed well, convincingly preternaturally knowledgeable yet in a cobbled-together way that is different from the wisdom of a Buddha, who has progressed as a single identity across millions of lives. He sometimes comes off as petulant/egotistical/immature, and I can’t quite tell how much of this is intentional vs. a weakness in writing. (More behind the cut below)
Other major characters: B/B-
They’re okay. They have consistent, individual identities. They sometimes say intelligent things. They almost necessarily come off as ignorant kids next to Leto, a tricky writing problem. (More below)
Worldbuilding: A/A-
The Dune universe is one of the best created out there. This book carries that on. It feels internally consistent and plausible. The A- is for a certain lack of detail and some stuff that just sits odd, like humans are going to colonize multiple universes? Maybe a word on how?
Prose: B
Herbert’s language is functional and flows well, often with nice turns of phrase, idioms, sayings, etc. He writes omniscient POV with lots of barely announced flashbacks, like “He thought of the other day when...” and the next several pages are a few days before the scene you were just in. I find this a bit jarring, but I’m sure he had his reasons.
Plot: C-
This book has no momentum, no (effective) rising action, setbacks, turning points, moving up to a clear climax, all that stuff. If a good plot is like a symphony building to a crescendo, this plot is like the same tune played over and over with occasional higher and lower notes. I have thoughts on why below the cut.
The Plot and Character Pickle
Herbert had a hard task here. He wanted Leto to be the protagonist (so I do), but Leto is hugely “overpowered.” In conventional narrative, a protagonist needs to have a conflict they struggle to deal with. Leto has no significant conflict. He sees most of the future; he’s pretty sure the Golden Path is going to be okay. He knows he’ll die relatively soon and isn’t too sad about it. I think Herbert tries to inject conflict via Leto’s love for Hwi and desire to marry her even though he knows it’s politically dangerous, but a) it’s hard to sell that he falls so hard, so fast, and b) again, what’s at stake? He and Hwi die. He’s basically ready for that: no conflict.
Faced with getting to keep either character integrity or plot conflict, Herbert clung to character integrity; i.e. he didn’t make Leto stupid (much) to manufacture conflict, and for that I sincerely thank him.
If I could recommend something to Herbert now, I might recommend he drop the idea of writing a novel about Leto and write an Always Coming Home for Leto’s era instead. He loves the epigraphs, the journals. He could have created an in-universe mosaic of textual fragments, folktales, short stories from particular characters’ lives, etc. As a form, I think it could have worked better.
As to the character of Leto, it’s sometimes hard to tell when Herbert is intending to show a weakness/limitation or is just not up to the task as a writer. For example, in his journals, Leto goes on and on about how humans never see X and Y pattern in history, despite the fact that humans throughout our own history have been writing about some of these patterns for centuries. Is that Leto being (understandably) petulant, or is it Herbert dumbing down humanity to make Leto look smarter?
There’s no way to answer this without an external observer with enough credibility to somewhat challenge Leto, and none of the “ordinary humans” who are the only other characters can serve this role. They may say, “He’s immoral!” but is that a legit criticism or just their failure in understanding?
Thus, my second rec for Herbert would be, stop wasting the potential great character of Ghanima. Instead of telling us she’s potentially (almost) as awesome as Leto and then using her for nothing but having babies, bring her back to be a proper interlocuter. There are multiple possible ways to achieve this:
* Have her become a worm too (after having some kids). Yes, this would require some rewriting of the plot logical of Children of Dune, but it wouldn’t be too hard.
* Bring her back as a ghola (one can assume her preborn memories would transfer over).
* Have some character manage to get access to the water of life and awaken to ancestral memories, including Ghanima’s (she was effectively born a Reverend Mother). Maybe Ghanima’s identity could take her over—maybe this could even be sort of “okay” if the character was/became suicidal or something.
Side Notes
I do not understand Herbert’s obsession with Duncan. Why does everyone want to breed with him? Why is Leto so hell bent on Duncan’s having yet more descendants after he’s already had thousands? What’s so special about his genes, which the story explicitly says are inferior to the present-day Atreides lineage. If he’s the “wild card” who keeps introducing wildness (even after his genes have been in the population for millennia?), why aren’t they doing the same thing to Chani? Doesn’t she genetically serve a similar role?
Hwi is not a bad character exactly, but she is a light update of the angel in the home: “God bless her for her sweet compassion.” And how many clothes did she bring from Ix?
Duncan is rabidly homophobic for reasons that are not clear to me. (Sudden revelation: is it because he grew up under the Harkonnens, who are brutal pedophiles?) The overall book is more mildly homophobic in a fundamentally Freudian way, but it would have been great to see more thoughtful exploration of same-sex attraction.
Speaking of gender-related issues, I do actually agree with Leto that (bar some fundamental change to human physicality) men and women, as a generalization, will always have somewhat separate roles and, therefore, will never be fully “equal” in social status. I think this deserves more discursive exploration in our society, in general.
Spoilers for Dune books up to God Emperor.
My “Grades” for God Emperor of Dune
Concept: A
The idea of Leto as a human-Worm composite and a preborn identity with billions of lives in his head across thousands of years, working to shepherd the human race through a possible extinction event and onto a future where humanity will be equipped to survive in perpetuity is unique and endlessly fascinating.
Character of Leto II: A-
Great concept and mostly executed well, convincingly preternaturally knowledgeable yet in a cobbled-together way that is different from the wisdom of a Buddha, who has progressed as a single identity across millions of lives. He sometimes comes off as petulant/egotistical/immature, and I can’t quite tell how much of this is intentional vs. a weakness in writing. (More behind the cut below)
Other major characters: B/B-
They’re okay. They have consistent, individual identities. They sometimes say intelligent things. They almost necessarily come off as ignorant kids next to Leto, a tricky writing problem. (More below)
Worldbuilding: A/A-
The Dune universe is one of the best created out there. This book carries that on. It feels internally consistent and plausible. The A- is for a certain lack of detail and some stuff that just sits odd, like humans are going to colonize multiple universes? Maybe a word on how?
Prose: B
Herbert’s language is functional and flows well, often with nice turns of phrase, idioms, sayings, etc. He writes omniscient POV with lots of barely announced flashbacks, like “He thought of the other day when...” and the next several pages are a few days before the scene you were just in. I find this a bit jarring, but I’m sure he had his reasons.
Plot: C-
This book has no momentum, no (effective) rising action, setbacks, turning points, moving up to a clear climax, all that stuff. If a good plot is like a symphony building to a crescendo, this plot is like the same tune played over and over with occasional higher and lower notes. I have thoughts on why below the cut.
The Plot and Character Pickle
Herbert had a hard task here. He wanted Leto to be the protagonist (so I do), but Leto is hugely “overpowered.” In conventional narrative, a protagonist needs to have a conflict they struggle to deal with. Leto has no significant conflict. He sees most of the future; he’s pretty sure the Golden Path is going to be okay. He knows he’ll die relatively soon and isn’t too sad about it. I think Herbert tries to inject conflict via Leto’s love for Hwi and desire to marry her even though he knows it’s politically dangerous, but a) it’s hard to sell that he falls so hard, so fast, and b) again, what’s at stake? He and Hwi die. He’s basically ready for that: no conflict.
Faced with getting to keep either character integrity or plot conflict, Herbert clung to character integrity; i.e. he didn’t make Leto stupid (much) to manufacture conflict, and for that I sincerely thank him.
If I could recommend something to Herbert now, I might recommend he drop the idea of writing a novel about Leto and write an Always Coming Home for Leto’s era instead. He loves the epigraphs, the journals. He could have created an in-universe mosaic of textual fragments, folktales, short stories from particular characters’ lives, etc. As a form, I think it could have worked better.
As to the character of Leto, it’s sometimes hard to tell when Herbert is intending to show a weakness/limitation or is just not up to the task as a writer. For example, in his journals, Leto goes on and on about how humans never see X and Y pattern in history, despite the fact that humans throughout our own history have been writing about some of these patterns for centuries. Is that Leto being (understandably) petulant, or is it Herbert dumbing down humanity to make Leto look smarter?
There’s no way to answer this without an external observer with enough credibility to somewhat challenge Leto, and none of the “ordinary humans” who are the only other characters can serve this role. They may say, “He’s immoral!” but is that a legit criticism or just their failure in understanding?
Thus, my second rec for Herbert would be, stop wasting the potential great character of Ghanima. Instead of telling us she’s potentially (almost) as awesome as Leto and then using her for nothing but having babies, bring her back to be a proper interlocuter. There are multiple possible ways to achieve this:
* Have her become a worm too (after having some kids). Yes, this would require some rewriting of the plot logical of Children of Dune, but it wouldn’t be too hard.
* Bring her back as a ghola (one can assume her preborn memories would transfer over).
* Have some character manage to get access to the water of life and awaken to ancestral memories, including Ghanima’s (she was effectively born a Reverend Mother). Maybe Ghanima’s identity could take her over—maybe this could even be sort of “okay” if the character was/became suicidal or something.
Side Notes
I do not understand Herbert’s obsession with Duncan. Why does everyone want to breed with him? Why is Leto so hell bent on Duncan’s having yet more descendants after he’s already had thousands? What’s so special about his genes, which the story explicitly says are inferior to the present-day Atreides lineage. If he’s the “wild card” who keeps introducing wildness (even after his genes have been in the population for millennia?), why aren’t they doing the same thing to Chani? Doesn’t she genetically serve a similar role?
Hwi is not a bad character exactly, but she is a light update of the angel in the home: “God bless her for her sweet compassion.” And how many clothes did she bring from Ix?
Duncan is rabidly homophobic for reasons that are not clear to me. (Sudden revelation: is it because he grew up under the Harkonnens, who are brutal pedophiles?) The overall book is more mildly homophobic in a fundamentally Freudian way, but it would have been great to see more thoughtful exploration of same-sex attraction.
Speaking of gender-related issues, I do actually agree with Leto that (bar some fundamental change to human physicality) men and women, as a generalization, will always have somewhat separate roles and, therefore, will never be fully “equal” in social status. I think this deserves more discursive exploration in our society, in general.
