Honestly my biggest gripe with the series is it does the “feudal monarchy in space” trope unironically, which I hate because a feudal-style monarchy could not actually function at any scale on even a planetary level never mind a multi-planetary level.
I really really really wish sci-fi writers would stop trying to make space monarchies a thing.
I wish writers would stop trying to inject royalty into any and every theme in general. Partly because they often end up whitewashing what monarchy is like to present kings or queens as troubled leaders facing dire threats who are trying to do right by their people. (To be clear, I’m not saying this happens in Dune. It’s been too long since I read it to remember. It’s more so modern stuff that I’m thinking of.)
Even as someone writing a medieval fantasy setting right now I’m trying to avoid filling the world with nothing but monarchies - with those monarchies I am depicting being more accurate to history and less romanticized.
From my ttrpg experience, you can deromanticize aristocrats to the point where damn near every one of them enthusiastically shows off his prized PeasantGrinder9001 with live serfs thrown in for extra effect and people will still act as if they are ultimately well intentioned, legitimate leaders who are just a little out of touch maybe and they just need some gentle persuasion to do better for their subjects that they obviously care about. Monarchybrain runs deep.
I find it strange that so many monarchies in the West were overthrown by literal violent revolution and yet the revolutionaries kinda wimped out when it came to anti-monarchy propaganda thereafter.
Like, look at the “No Kings” rallies. Look how they phrase it: “No Kings in America”. Kings are fine elsewhere, just not here. These same people will gush over the Windsors and obsess over the royalist drama from the UK. It’s perfectly fine if its over there as long as it’s not here. Just bizarre. Liberal republicans really went half-way on this shit.
I think the reason it works is purely because of how restricted travel and technology is. In the later books, when the monopoly on space travel is broken and the restrictions on machines are lifted, the forms of government diversify.
In its defense, Dune was written in the '60s, so if anything the explosion in the genre is due to its success. The later books are also lighter on those themes and more bizarre, but very fun to read.
Honestly my biggest gripe with the series is it does the “feudal monarchy in space” trope unironically, which I hate because a feudal-style monarchy could not actually function at any scale on even a planetary level never mind a multi-planetary level.
I really really really wish sci-fi writers would stop trying to make space monarchies a thing.
I wish writers would stop trying to inject royalty into any and every theme in general. Partly because they often end up whitewashing what monarchy is like to present kings or queens as troubled leaders facing dire threats who are trying to do right by their people. (To be clear, I’m not saying this happens in Dune. It’s been too long since I read it to remember. It’s more so modern stuff that I’m thinking of.)
True.
Even as someone writing a medieval fantasy setting right now I’m trying to avoid filling the world with nothing but monarchies - with those monarchies I am depicting being more accurate to history and less romanticized.
From my ttrpg experience, you can deromanticize aristocrats to the point where damn near every one of them enthusiastically shows off his prized PeasantGrinder9001 with live serfs thrown in for extra effect and people will still act as if they are ultimately well intentioned, legitimate leaders who are just a little out of touch maybe and they just need some gentle persuasion to do better for their subjects that they obviously care about. Monarchybrain runs deep.
I find it strange that so many monarchies in the West were overthrown by literal violent revolution and yet the revolutionaries kinda wimped out when it came to anti-monarchy propaganda thereafter.
Like, look at the “No Kings” rallies. Look how they phrase it: “No Kings in America”. Kings are fine elsewhere, just not here. These same people will gush over the Windsors and obsess over the royalist drama from the UK. It’s perfectly fine if its over there as long as it’s not here. Just bizarre. Liberal republicans really went half-way on this shit.
I think the reason it works is purely because of how restricted travel and technology is. In the later books, when the monopoly on space travel is broken and the restrictions on machines are lifted, the forms of government diversify.
In its defense, Dune was written in the '60s, so if anything the explosion in the genre is due to its success. The later books are also lighter on those themes and more bizarre, but very fun to read.
Space monarchies were a thing well before the 60s or Dune was written. It’s an old trope going all the way back to the early days of sci-fi.