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Last night, I went out to dinner with some friends from out of town. I found myself sitting between two men who, for some reason, took it very personally that I haven’t seen Dune, and even more personally that I didn’t like the book. They launched into an argument for why I should read it again, and why every woman who has told me they didn’t like the female characters was just “misinterpreting” the text.
I told them I’d try it again, but that’s not true. I don’t have the patience to commit to something I already know I don’t like. It’s just not for me, and that’s okay!
What I don’t understand is the hold Dune has over so many people—specifically, men. What is it about the run-of-the-mill racism, fatphobia and sexism that’s so revolutionary? Why are we focusing so much on a book from the 60s that was “ahead of its time” when there are so many bold and searing books written in our time that don’t have those same issues?
Maybe it’s because I’m an English major and there has been a lot of discussion about how the canon classics should be set aside to allow room for new ones. There are a thousand brilliant fantasy and sci fi books out there that deserve this kind of recognition. Books by women, by people of color, by disabled people, by LGBTQ people.
So no, I’m not going to make space for the book. There’s nothing wrong with loving it. But I am simply not interested in reading a book with that many issues, and the excuse “it was a different time” is wearing paper-thin.
It was a different time. We live in a different time now. There are different books, different stories, stories from people who wouldn’t be allowed to have a voice when Dune was being written. And those are what I choose to make space for.