phillips@cisden.UUCP (Tom Phillips) (09/03/85)
In article <527@linus.UUCP> cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas) writes: > >I prefer Dune and Lord of the Rings (among various other reasons) to >Blytons' works because both Herbert and Tolkien display cogent and >sweeping imagination, enough to create complete worlds and universes from >scratch and bring them to life on paper. A child reading either of these >books will have his mind stretched in several directions, something >Blytons' books are too simplistic to provoke. On the other hand, if the >objective is to keep the little darlings away from the television until >after they've had din-din, then Blyton will suffice .... Excuse me, but Frank Herbert has only written one book. But he wrote it over and over and over and ... I don't mean just that *all* the _Dune_ sequels are trash (anybody care to argue that point?) but all his other books read like _Dune_. There is the same tenseness about small, seemingly insignificant details which could change the course of history. It was interesting in _Dune_, but three or four books of it is too much. While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. Tommy Phillips
jerry@uwmcsd1.UUCP (Jerry Lieberthal) (09/05/85)
> In article <527@linus.UUCP> cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas) writes: > > > >I prefer Dune and Lord of the Rings (among various other reasons) to > >Blytons' works because both Herbert and Tolkien display cogent and > >sweeping imagination, enough to create complete worlds and universes from > >scratch and bring them to life on paper. A child reading either of these > Excuse me, but Frank Herbert has only written one book. But he wrote it > over and over and over and ... That is what they said about Vivaldi .. :-) - jerry ihnp4!uwmcsd1!jerry
inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) (09/09/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MELANGE *** > While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he > told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. > > Tommy Phillips Well, Tommy, perhaps the movie version wasn't faithful to the book you read, but to lose respect for a man who says a movie was failthful to the book he wrote seems pretty outlandish. Maybe you weren't reading what he wrote? I reread Dune just before seeing the movie, and I was impressed overall by what a nice job was done. It must be extremely difficult to translate a novel to the screen, and perhaps this is even more true when the novel has the kinds of subtleties that Dune had. My only complaint about the movie is that is seems to have been shot too dark. I agree with the author: the movie is probably as good a screen translation as can be done. It strikes me that to disagree with the person who *wrote* the thing is like saying, "Well, obviously the author isn't aware of the nuances that occur in his novel". I ask you, who is a better judge than the author? You? -- Gary Benson * John Fluke Mfg. Co. * PO Box C9090 * Everett WA * 98206 MS/232-E = = {allegra} {uw-beaver} !fluke!inc = = (206)356-5367 _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-ascii is our god and unix is his profit-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas) (09/11/85)
-=- In article <692@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) writes: >*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MELANGE *** > >> While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he >> told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. >> >> Tommy Phillips > >Well, Tommy, perhaps the movie version wasn't faithful to the book you read, >but to lose respect for a man who says a movie was failthful to the book he >wrote seems pretty outlandish. Maybe you weren't reading what he wrote? > >I reread Dune just before seeing the movie, and I was impressed overall by >what a nice job was done. It must be extremely difficult to translate a >novel to the screen, and perhaps this is even more true when the novel has >the kinds of subtleties that Dune had. My only complaint about the movie is >that is seems to have been shot too dark. I agree with the author: the movie >is probably as good a screen translation as can be done. > >It strikes me that to disagree with the person who *wrote* the thing is like >saying, "Well, obviously the author isn't aware of the nuances that occur in >his novel". I ask you, who is a better judge than the author? You? >-- > Gary Benson * John Fluke Mfg. Co. * PO Box C9090 * Everett WA * 98206 > MS/232-E = = {allegra} {uw-beaver} !fluke!inc = = (206)356-5367 > _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-ascii is our god and unix is his profit-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ -=- Possibly he *is* a better judge, or at least a bit more honest about it... After all, it's Herbert, not Tommy, who is going to clean up big bills if the same pack of fools try to film "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune." Of course he's going to praise it. Besides which he was a technical consultant (or something) on the project: if they boobed it, he's as much to blame as anyone. Let's hope they bury the whole mess. Chris J. Valas {decvax,utzoo,philabs,security,allegra,genrad}!linus!cv -=-
west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West) (09/12/85)
In article <692@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) writes: >> While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he >> told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. >> Tommy Phillips > >It strikes me that to disagree with the person who *wrote* the thing is like >saying, "Well, obviously the author isn't aware of the nuances that occur in >his novel". I ask you, who is a better judge than the author? You? Actually, it is often the case that an author is not the best judge of her or his own work. Most will admit this (except maybe when it gets down to specifics, of course;-), as Isaac Asimov did in an "editorial" in his SF Mag this year. If you reflect for a while on the processes of writing and publishing, and the phenomena of popularity and "literary value", I think you'll agree that a writer -- while possessed of many keen and valuable insights into her/his writing -- is not the ultimate judge of a book's value to humanity. [[Now, did I couch that carefully enough? Sofa, so good.]] -- Larry West (USA+619-)452-6771 Institute for Cognitive Science non-business hours: 452-2256 UC San Diego (mailcode C-015) La Jolla, CA 92093 U.S.A. ARPA: <west@nprdc.ARPA> or <west@ucsd.ARPA> UUCP: {ucbvax,sdcrdcf,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west or {sun,ulysses}!sdcsla!west
ccrrick@ucdavis.UUCP (Rick Heli) (09/12/85)
> -=- > > In article <692@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) writes: > >*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MELANGE *** > > > >> While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he > >> told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. > >> > >> Tommy Phillips > > > Possibly he *is* a better judge, or at least a bit more honest about it... > After all, it's Herbert, not Tommy, who is going to clean up big bills if the > same pack of fools try to film "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune." Of > course he's going to praise it. Besides which he was a technical > consultant (or something) on the project: if they boobed it, he's as much > to blame as anyone. > Well, actually, I've heard Herbert since the movie came out and he sounded distinctly less than thrilled. It seems that his earlier raves were based on the rough cut of the movie, rather than the final version. Apparently, there was a lot deleted. He seemed to think that a mini-series would have made a better vehicle. -- --rick heli (... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho!ccrrick)
peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (09/13/85)
> While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he > told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. Well, the parts of the book they actually included in the movie were pretty faithful to it, as long as you ignore the hood-less stillsuits. In fact this was the real problem with the movie... it would have been better had they gotten a competant screenwriter to change scenes (though not events) to match the medium. Harlan Ellison would have been perfect. Then maybe they could have included the whole story in outline instead of a couple of threads of it in painstaking detail.
gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) (09/24/85)
-- > While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he > told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. One theory (that I believe probable) is that Herbert never wrote "Dune", though he probably did write the silly sequels, which show an otherwise inexplicable lapse in quality. Perhaps he bought the original MS, or won it in a high-stakes poker game. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 24 Sep 85 [3 Vendemiaire An CXCIV] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7753 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***
ccs020@ucdavis.UUCP (Kevin Chu) (09/26/85)
[...] > While we're on the subject, I lost all respect for Frank Herbert after he > told us that the movie they made of _Dune_ was faithful to the book. > The movie that was filmed WAS pretty close to the book. If you have seen the book _The Making of Dune_, you will see that they shot many of the missing scenes and shot some scenes correctly. Somewhere between the filming and the editing, the movie was ruined. Perhaps someone can collect all of the film clips and re-edit into a half way decent movie, or TV mini-series of something. --kevin chu ..ucbvax!ucdavis!vega!ccs020 /ex
coatta@utcsri.UUCP (Terry Coatta) (10/04/85)
I had heard that the raw film from DUNE was going to be turned into a 4-6 hour miniseries for TV, to be released in 1987. This version (depending on how much it is made FOR tv) may be much better than the movie due to its larger size.