If there was one person who was not a fan of “Dune”, the cult science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, it was a certain JRR Tolkien…
JRR Tolkien, Frank Herbert: these are two names that say a lot. While The Lord of the Rings defined the fantasy genre of the 20th century, Dune did the same on the science fiction side.
And everything was fine until the author Oronzo Chili published Tolkien’s Library: An Annotated Checklist in 2019, which features Tolkien’s old letters revealing his opinions on other books of his time. Yes, this includes the work of Frank Herbert which is currently making a lot of talk (in a good way) with the release of Dune: Part Two. But if the public is won over, the least we can say is that Tolkien was not at all!
A reserved, elegant but categorical opinion
From Alien to Blade Runner, including of course Star Wars, Dune has influenced a plethora of works, whether literary or cinematographic, since his birth in 1965.
But the author of the influential epic saga featuring Frodo and his companions simply didn’t like it! In a letter he wrote to a certain John Bush in 1966, a year after the publication of Dune therefore, he wrote (via Espinof):
“Thanks for sending me a copy of Dune. I received one last year from Lanier so I already know a few things about the book. It is impossible for an author who is still writing to be fair to another author working in the same direction. At least that’s what I think. In fact, I strongly disliked Dune, and in this unfortunate case, it is best and fairest to another author to remain silent and refuse to comment.”
The reasons why he didn’t like it Dune therefore remain secret. Many believe that Tolkien, being a devout Catholic – he partially influenced CS Lewis, author of the saga of Chronicles of Narniato reconsider his views on Christianity –, and thus may have been in conflict with the much more cynical work of Herbert.
Tolkien himself described his Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work”, rich in Christian symbolism. For his part, Dune experiments and distorts Abrahamic religions, deconstructing the creation of myth, with a more cynical version of the notion of heroes and religion in general.
Whether for this supposed reason, or questions of density or something else who knows, the reality is that both franchises continue to define popular culture, with on one side a million dollar Amazon series, The Rings of Power, and on the other, the most recent film adaptation of Dunereviewed by Denis Villeneuve – whose second part is currently breaking box office records, in addition to garnering great and rave reviews.
In any case, science fiction and fantasy continue on their way without their “original creators” – and it is absolutely not forbidden to love both!
Dune: Part Two is currently available at your nearest cinema. The first season of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available on Prime Video, just like Peter Jackson’s cult trilogy.