Dune

Most sane people already recognize that. But everyone that keeps it going is basically going "I'm not owned! I'm not owned!" as they try and justify the money they've spent on it.

It's basically a bunch of scammers and cultists trying to rope in more suckers.

Let's say I have a slip of paper with "One Raven Wilder Dollar" written on it. I manage to convince someone that Raven Wilder dollars are a real currency, and they trade me one U.S. dollar for it. That's a scam, because no one will actually accept a Raven Wilder dollar as payment, making the scrap of paper worthless.

Except, suppose that person manages to convince someone else that Raven Wilder dollars have value, and gets them to accept the paper slip in exchange for, say, a pack of gum. You could say that's simply the victim of the scam perpetuating the scam to someone else.

But then the vendor who took a Raven Wilder dollar as payment convinces yet another person to accept it as payment, too. And that person does the same thing to another person. And they to another, and they to another, on and on and on and on.

If that goes far enough, the Raven Wilder dollar ceases to be a scam and becomes a legit currency. People accept it as payment, convinced they'll be able to use it to pay others ... and they're right, because everyone else is convinced of the same thing. That's the principle that all fiat currencies are based on; cryptocurrencies aren't special in that regard.

Okay, I think we've officially strayed off topic now.

Yeah, we have a crypto topic in OTC, and this stuff has been covered extensively there.

Getting back on topic; I think that proposed Dune film sounded fascinating. I can see why it was never made - 14-hour movies are a tough sell- but it's definitely an interesting idea.

I have some doubts about the quality if the plan involved basically hijacking the copyright by buying a book.

I'm talking about the proposal the book was written for.

Oh, I see. Yeah, 14 hours would definitely put it in the experimental art category.

I mean, at that point just make a 14-episode series.

Exactly, and Dune lends itself much better to serialization than to movie adaptation, complex as it is.

Just got to the part where someone set off a Stone Burner and apparently it's really unclear who set it off since there's been multiple people asking who was responsible

Very minor spoiler: It's not really relevant. The effect of the burner is to blind everyone nearby and its purpose is to discredit Paul with the Fremen due to their superstitions about blindness.

It doesn't work because Paul uses his prescient vision to replace his eyesight, making himself even more of a mystical figure.

Of course, the fact that he is relying prescience to an even greater degree has the tradeoff of locking him even more into the future he sees with it. The trap of prescience.

funny meme◊

Those early book covers were hilarious

There are so many different depictions of Leto II. Nobody can really agree on what exactly a sandworm hybrid would look like.

heh maybe one day they'll somehow adapt the character to film

I thought they did, in the Children of Dune miniseries. I remember a scene with the baby sandworms crawling on Leto II (with real janky CGI) but I don't remember much else. I need to rewatch that.

Even when I first watched miniseries, before I had read the books or knew the context, I got the impression that he hadn't finished transforming at that point. So right now he just looks like a normal guy with some weird armor that is actually larval sandworms, but in a thousand years who knows if he'll even look different from a normal sandworm.

But the miniseries was good, sketchy CGI aside.

I actually recommend both miniseries. The first one has this odd really theatrical style to it, but they're both worth the experience.

Children of Dune gives Leto II the sandtrout skin, but that's only the beginning of his transformation.

You know, I don't know why it took me so long to realize Leto II was a Moses analogue. A prophet who goes into the desert, receives a revelation about a golden future for humanity, helps free his people from one tyrant, but ultimately does not live to see the new future he builds for humanity.

Granted, Leto II manages it by becoming a tyrant himself for thousands of years...

worst Moses ever!

To be fair, it worked. He does eventually manage to lead the people out of the proverbial desert — namely their terminal dependence on the desert world of Arrakis and its spice. And because of him, humanity was able to reach its Promised Land, a Golden Path free of prescience and tyrants.

But to do it, he not only played Moses but the Pharaoh as well.

Edited by M84 on Mar 27th 2024 at 10:51:47 PM

Evil Moses.