this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026

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Worldbuilding

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I know some people say they don't read speculative fiction because it's "not realistic" well guess what 😜😂 (cdn.masto.host)

submitted 7 months ago by NickEast_IndieWriter@mastodon.art to c/worldbuilding@lemmy.world

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I know some people say they don't read speculative fiction because it's "not realistic" well guess what 😜😂 @bookstodon @books @worldbuilding @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop#Dune#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever #GiveMeAllYouveGot#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #BookLove

Photo of Baron Harkonnen from the 1984 Dune film.
Caption:
I quite like the 1984 film version of Dune, but the characters are a bit far fetched. An obese, orange, diseased peadophile starting a war for his own selfish needs.
Come on.

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[–] lemonhead2@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago (4 children)

in dune all space travel relies on spice which is only found on a desert planet inhabited by fremen who start a holy war.

how far away from that are we?

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[–] raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie 17 points 7 months ago

@lemonhead2 @NickEast_IndieWriter That was deliberately based on Arabs and oil.

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[–] hayvan@piefed.world 7 points 7 months ago (1 child)

And the underdog gains the upper hand by threatening to cut off the space oil supply.

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[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 2 points 7 months ago

I can see they are in desperate need of freedom.

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[–] StarkRG@myside-yourside.net 1 point 5 months ago

@lemonhead2 @NickEast_IndieWriter And then we find out that "spice" is actually worm poop. (or maybe worm dandruff, I forget, it's been a couple of decades since I read it)

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[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Frank Herbert totally invented all of this stuff out of thin air and didn't have any historical precedent to work with at all.

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[–] BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca 5 points 7 months ago*

I mean, obviously the holy war and spice was based on the Middle East and oil, but getting "fat orange pedophile god-king" right is a pretty incredible coincidence. And would be Lynch's prediction, not Herbert's (at least the orange part).

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[–] cranachan@universeodon.com -2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

@Diplomjodler3 @NickEast_IndieWriter not true, the inspiration was clearly rooted in Middle Eastern culture, Islam and for “spice” read oil.

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[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Whooosh

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[–] Cellari@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

Wait I just found out that guy is called Baron V. Harkonnen, where the V stands for Vladimir. Borderline prophecy the Dune books if you ask me, and it's frightening. :D

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[–] Grabthar@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Ah, so the sleeper has awakened!

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 months ago

The story is more critical than just that. Paul, the hero figure of Dune, is treated as the Messiah, and the people put total faith in him. This leads to a holy war across the universe, because people trust charismatic leaders too much. It's a lesson that, no matter how much you like a leader, they always need to be questioned.

Luckily, for the Dune universe, this all happens because Paul actually is good (maybe, if what we hear about it is true, though I believe we're supposed to question this too). He sees that the people are too trusting of charismatic leaders, so he must use this and cause massive damage, in order to teach humans to question their leaders and to think for themselves. Paul actually can't give up his last bit of humanity to do this though, as he actually is too good of a person, and his son has to do it instead.

[–] khleedril@cyberplace.social 2 points 7 months ago

@NickEast_IndieWriter @bookstodon @books @worldbuilding @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop At least he's not trying to fool anybody with his hair.

[–] woe2you@beige.party 1 point 7 months ago

@NickEast_IndieWriter @bookstodon @books @worldbuilding @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop You forgot to tag #horseriding #bitcoin and #golf there.

[–] raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie 0 points 7 months ago

@NickEast_IndieWriter @bookstodon @books @worldbuilding @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop Actually most popular fiction isn't very realistic:RomanceDetective / MysterySpyThrillers / AdventureWesterns (not popular now).Non SF & F horror.RobinsonadesA novel need not be one genre, that's a publisher/marketing thing.There is a spectrum between SF - fantasy - paranormal etc.Dune and especially the early Pern novels are far more Fantasy than SF.Even a lot of autobiographies are fiction or fantasy!