Unique?

Dune is praised in such extravagant terms that I think that a comparison with Poul Anderson is valid. 

"DUNE is the finest, most widely acclaimed science fiction novel of this century. Huge in scope, towering in concept, it is a work that will live in the reader's imagination for the rest of his life."

-back cover blurb on Frank Herbert, Dune (London, 1974).

"DUNE seems to me unique among SF novels in the depth of its characterization and the extraordinary detail of the world it creates. I know nothing comparable to it except THE LORD OF THE RINGS."

-Arthur C. Clarke, quoted on the back cover of Dune (see above).

Dune might be the "most widely acclaimed" sf novel but I think that every other statement above is way over the top.

At SciCon '70 in London, Guest of Honour James Blish and his wife, Judy, wore Muslim and Hindu garb for the Fancy Dress event. When Brian Aldiss (I think) asked Blish about this "mixed marriage," Blish replied, "What I represent is Frank Herbert trying to work out what he is doing." When I asked Blish about this, he pointed to a difference between the settings of Arrakis and Giedi Prime although, since these are two different planets, maybe that is ok? But I think that Blish's point was that, instead of being shown a coherent interstellar civilization, we are just seeing discordant settings that are really from different parts of Earth's past.

But I think that there are valid points to be made about incoherence in Dune. Herbert ignores the rule - or at least the soundly based literary convention - that any continuous narrative passage should be narrated from a single point of view. When two or three characters converse, Herbert's text jumps back and forth between each of their viewpoints. 

Whereas Poul Anderson sympathetically presents the viewpoints of religious believers, in Dune religion seems to be merely a cynical instrument of social control and also involves unexplained syncretistic terminology: Zensunni; Buddislamic; Orange Catholic. We expect substance but get only these labels.

Scenery on the planet Caladan

Castle Caladan is "...the ancient pile of stone that had served the Atreides family as home for twenty-six generations..." (Dune, BOOK ONE, p. 9)

"Jessica crossed to the window, flung wide the draperies, stared across the river orchards towards Mount Syubi." (p. 11)

"Windows on each side of her overlooked the curving southern bend of the river and the green farmlands of the Atreides family holding..." (p. 12)

"She saw and yet did not see the evening's banked colours across the meadow and river." (pp. 26-27)

These are stage settings in no way comparable to the detailed descriptions regularly given by Poul Anderson.

Mentats

Computers have been banned. Human beings called Mentats have been specially trained to perform some computational functions. One Mentat says of the ancient thinking machines:

"'They were toys compared to me,' Piter snarled. 'You yourself, Baron, could outperform those machines.'" (p. 23)

Surely Piter's claims are absurd, particularly the one about the Baron?

Here's the deal. I will see how far I can get with rereading Dune. Inspired by films and hype, I am giving it a chance. This might result in further blog posts.