KJA: Writing Dune for His Inner Younger Reader, After All?
Posted By SandChigger on February 12, 2008
I’ve just been listening to Kevin warble on in that podcast interview mentioned a couple of weeks back. (See, Jakob, I haven’t forgotten!) While discussing the transition between Dune and Dune Messiah with host Shaun Farrell, Kevin reveals that he was disappointed with it:
It’s almost like, at the end of Dune, Paul is about to launch this great jihad, and then, you know, war is going to sweep across thousands of planetary systems. And then the next book sort of opens up with “And now that that’s all over with, we’ll get to the politics.” Right? And the younger reader going through, and, “Wait a minute, you skipped the best part!” So now we’re writing that part. (33:22-45)
So there you have it. Kevin is writing this new, “Pallidune” (There, bitch, that original enough for you?) series of interquels simply to placate the lingering disappointment of his own Inner Younger Reader. And using the assumption that there are enough other disappointed dimwits out there that also didn’t get it (that Dune isn’t an adventure story) to justify another trip (with webdumb Brian in tow) to the cow shed.
A lot of us have suspected that The Hacks Twain have been writing for a YA audience. When I suggested as much to Kevin in an email, he reacted quite indignantly. (And rather emotionally, like it hit a nerve?) Whether it was true in the past, it seems true now.
(Kevin’s part of the podcast extends from 9:06 to 40:50, more than a half-hour of his high-pitched whining to wade through. I’m sure there will be some other gems spread through the manure, so stay tuned for more later!)
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I like the part where he says that FH skipped “the best part.” I guess I always thought that was the least important part, but since KJA has now written more Dune than FH and writes for the better parts then I guess by the transitive property he’s now the greatest Dune author! Suck it OH’ers!
This is hardly surprising.
When I was young, I had a similar feeling of curiosity about the Djihad and many other classic SF elements like the battle for Arrakeen or Miles Teg’s attack on the Honored Matres. When I grew older, I realised that this curiosity (and Frank Herbert’s refusal to satisfy it) is one of the things that make Dune a real masterpiece. Many of the most dramatic events take place outside the reader’s view and are therefore delegated to his imagination. This ultimately makes Dune a story about humans, not about some chunks of metal.
KJA proves his stupidity und inability to grasp the brilliance of Dune once more with this kind of comment. At least he is documenting his thoughts so everyone can see that he is an idiot.
YA me arse, more like the 9 and 10 year old audience the frakin hack!!!!!!!!
Rob
Was that webdruid doing the interview???
No, Web Druid (of The Signed Page fame?!) is Shawn (C. Speakman). This guy is Shaun.
Like there were any bloody way to spell it besides S-E-A-N.
I didn’t touch on this in the actual post, but I think there may be a problem in perception by Kevin (and Brian, when he’s awake?) about Paul’s attitude toward the Jihad; “about to launch” almost sounds like he thinks Paul wanted it. Have to wait and see, tho.
Speaking of Web Druid and his activities:
There’s also a part in the interview where Kevin discusses his involvement in the design of the covers for his books. He states that he and Brian work fairly closely with Stephen Youll in his Dune covers, something Web Druid confirmed (after Byron had poo-pooed it) back when we were discussing the implications of the worm in the water on the Sadworms US cover. (WebD does Youll’s website, you may remember.)
Something we all now know to be true, of course, but which Kevin wouldn’t admit to before Sadworms was out.
What a joke! I was 15 (young adult) when I first read the Dune series. The transition from Dune to Dune Messiah was GREAT for my young mind. To that point, most sci-fi I encountered was of the vroom-vroom pow-pow Star Wars/Star Trek kind (yes I know Star Trek occasionally transcended itself but for the most part was just a series of good/bad morality plays). Skipping all the “CGI” moments in Paul’s Jihad helped my young self realize just how banal and commonplace all the large-scale violence was (both fictional and real-life).
I’m sure one of you guys knows this – Do either Brian or Kevin have children? Have they forgotten what it is truly like to be a “young adult” or are they just going by the mass-media image of teens as pop-culture obsessed cretins?
And not to mention GEOD – which with its near total lack of “action” and preponderance of, well, pondering turned me on to proper literature as a transformative experience.
When I say proper, I mean in relation to my previous non-school-related fare which consisted of the aforementioned space operas, comic books and maybe some Stephen King.
I think part of the problem is a generational disconnect between the older SF authors, who tended toward writing science fiction that makes use of… science. The younger authors (by that I mean mainly under the age of 50) grew up in a world that has changed faster and faster each year, as regards science and technology. I adore Star Trek, but admittedly it got audiences used to technobabble, instead of real science. Sadly, authors picked up on that and the younger ones have tended toward the lazy use of technobabble instead of thoughtful extrapolation of present-day science and scientific theories.
Of course, KJA doesn’t seem to care for technobabble much, either; he’d rather use magic and special effects. After all, you never know when somebody will think his Dune books are actually worth the trouble of filming.
Anderson is a child trapped in the body of a not-particularly-attractive middle aged man. It must have been so frustrating for him to read Dune and finding all the “good bits” missing. I#m surprised he made it to the end of Dune. Or maybe he didn’t. Perhaps he’ll drop a few more hints on his repressed sexuality in his next literary creation.
What makes you think he’s repressed?
New motto for all things in terms of new Dune:
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
(Basically, I’m just restating my view that Kevin’s too stupid to intentionally destroy the Duniverse.)
@ Sandchigger.
He’s a repressed fag, why else Mephistus Cru?
Oh ho ho! That’s a bit blunter than I expected.
What’s weird is you’re the second person to express that opinion in the last 24 hours. (The other person was rather short in stature and expresses himself sometimes in verse.)
Hmm….
There’s something about his writings which shrieks “give my buttocks some light relief”. That Mephistus Cru character was an offensively campy queen who dropped below the radar (or gaydar) of most readers, but to me it seems Anderson was using the diversion tactic he’s used all his life when his sexuality was questioned.
Not that I particularly care which way he swings, the thought of having sex with him makes me feel ill.
Then stop thinking about it!
I haven’t been able to stop after I saw his meat and two veg prodding the table at that booksigning.
He looks like a herd of horses ran over him whilst leaking their shit on his face. And he can’t write.
Oh well, looks like I’ve killed this thread.
I honestly cant remember reading a book with Mephisto Cru in it. Which one was that? And if he was gay, did KJA (in a wicked fit of self loathing) make him a bad guy?
Mephistus Cru was the etiquette adviser hired by Vlad Harkonnen to give him a touch of class. It was in one of the House books, where Vlad was throwing a tea party (what is it about Anderson and tea parties). He wasn’t a bad guy, he was just an object of ridicule and barely concealed contempt.
He was killed by drowning in a big vat of shit.
Fags of Dune get a really raw deal.