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  • #1

    started reading Dune

    Inspired by Brians comments in the SMAC manual, ive strarted reading Dune by Frank Herbert.

    I find the beginning slow going (gom jabbar? Finding if youre human?) but skipped ahead to the ecology of Dune - cool and (not surprisingly) SMACish - terraforming, giant sandworms, etc.

    Anyone else have thoughts on how the book relates to the game?
    "A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.” Martin Buber
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  • #2
    There is a tiny problem: the worms in Dune are hundreds of meters long. Dune was good with lots of atmosphere, but it can be a bit obscure.

    The mindworms in SMAC are a dead ringer for another book, where masses of little semi-sentient worms attack and cause psychic paralysis. I think the name of the book is The Jesus Incident - I'll look in my library this evening. It even has Lab One (destroyed), a crazy unethical scientist, and a pitiful remnant of humanity struggling to survive on an alien planet that is Gaian/conscious via interconnected kelp (sound familiar?). There are so many parallels that it makes me think of copyright infringement. Brian did give credit to this book in his SMAC manual as inspiration.

    Hydro

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    • #3
      The beginning of Dune is one of the best bits...it's after when it gets slow
      Testing to see if people are human or animal is a brilliant concept, and I love the Reverend Mother She's so palpably neutral that it's almost evil.
      "Love the earth and sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown . . . reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency" - Walt Whitman

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      • #4
        I would not go so far as to describe the Rev. Mother as neutral, she's an elitist, an unsuprising trait in someone trained in a sect devoted to eugenics.

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        • #5
          oh, the other thing in Dune that seemed Smacish was the use of the term 'vendetta". I returned the book to the library however. Couldnt find "the jesus incident"
          "A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.” Martin Buber

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          • #6
            After finally getting my butt in gear I checked my library. The Jesus Incident was written by Frank Herbert with Bill Ransom and published in 1979. I found this copy in a used book store a number of years ago. Perhaps its similarity to Dune isn't such a coincidence?

            Hydro

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