Wicked Gay Pop Whatever #3: J. Harvey's Guide to Dune!

You know Dune? Yeah - desert and big worms and Timothee and Z and space nuns. The latest movie is rad, so I thought I'd do a Wicked Gay Pop Whatever about all things Dune! Now pass me some spice melange and let's get started. 

My sources for the episode were Wikipedia and YouTube. Music is from Pixaby.

Transcript

Dune! Arrakis. Caladan. Atreides. Harkonnen. The spice melange. Muad Dib. The Navigators Guild. The Bene Gesserit. Fremen. The Kwitatz Haderach, SANDWORMS! It’s Dune - the famed sci-fi franchise that has experienced a resurgence in the last couple of years, due to a remake, or well, another attempt really at making Dune into a movie. Or movies. And folks, this latest one took. Let’s travel to a whole other universe where it’s really sandy and don’t even get me started on how those desert suits they wear means you dont have to undress to go to the bathroom. Gross.

You’re listening to Wicked Gay, a podcast which is normally about murder and mayhem done gay-style but sometimes it’s about J. Harvey babbling on about a movie or something. 

I know it’s seemed like J. Harvey fell into a pod fade, which can be like the death knell of a podcast. I didn’t. But I was kinda skirting the edges of one. I hope to follow this Wicked Gay Pop Whatever ep with a true crime one as soon as I can to get shit back on track. But thank you for being understanding. Sometimes life can be overwhelming, the drama can be dramatic, and all you wanna do when you come home from work is play Horizon Forbidden West and go to bed.

In a nutshell, the Dune franchise, created by author Frank Herbert, is a renowned science fiction saga set in a distant future where these royal houses battle for control over this planet called Arrakis more popularly known as Dune. Cuz’ it’s basically a big desert. There’s a lot of sand. With big worms in it, with teeth and they resemble the rancor from Return of the Jedi except these rancors move around and don’t eat Boba Fett when they give him this slapsticky death that completely destroys the character. 

Everybody wants Dune because it’s the only place you can get this red dust they call the spice melange, or just the spice. The worms excrete it, and It looks sorta like paprika, but it’s got powers and can give people abilities and let people basically teleport across space and time or something.  And Dune is the only known habitat of the sandworms hence the only source of the valuable spice melange. 

Dune has themes like politics, religion, ecology, and POWER. Frank Herbert wrote six Dune books and then he kicked off and his son Brian took over with another guy, and they wrote a bunch of prequels and sequels. The Dune series became a much-lauded sci-fi classic, and there’s been three films now, one basic cable tv miniseries, and some video games and comics. Tonight, I'm going to give you crash course in Dune, mostly because Dune Chapter 2, starring Twink extraordinaire Timothee Chalamat, and can't throw a rock without hitting a photo spread of her Zendaya, and directed by celebrated Canadian director Denis Villaneuve,  came out earlier this year and it’s RAD. It’s really good, and I wasn’t a huge fan of Part One. So I decided to devote an ep to all things Dune. So if you don't know shit about Dune, you’re about to, and if you know a lot about Dune, you’re probably about to scoff a lot. Fun!

This is Wicked Gay’s Pop Whatever #3. J. Harvey’s Guide to Dune.

Spoilers for everything Dune! Personally, my first experience with Dune was in literary form.  11 year-old J. Harvey had just finished reading Watership Down, which was the thickest book in Union Street Elementary’s School’s library, and he thought he was the shit. His Uncle Leo knew he liked Star Wars so he recommended DUne to him. Why the hell not? 

I lay on my Nana bed in Norwood, Massachusetts, and opened on Planet Caladan which was really wet and there were like, space nuns and what the fuck is a Bene Gersserit. So, for some reason, I just didn't get it. It wasn’t computing. Or sinking in. I was totally confused. Either the language was too dense, or I was discovering the real hard sci-fi sci-fi wasn’t for me. I also didn't know what a concubine was. I couldn't recall those British rabbits or Frodo and Co messing around with concubines.  I threw the book down in puzzlement and probably went to find a Scarlet Witch comic. And then…I saw the David Lynch-directed movie on cable. Which is a shitshow! But a FASCINATING shitshow, I’ve seen it multiple times now. And seeing it visualized, made the book make sense for me. And I ended up finishing it but I can't remember loving it. So I didn't read the whole series. I just watched the movie a lot, cuz cable seemed to run the same ten movies when I was a kid. It was a movie that a whole bunch of people, especially everybody who ever read Dune anywhere, anytime, as well as its director,  HATED.  

But I thought it was rad, and I find the history of it and the Dune series fascinating. I kinda wish that David had adatpate the whole book series because later on Paul Atreides son BECOMES a sandworm and that sounds very Lynchian. Go watch Eraserhead if you doubt me.

And then Denis Villunene brought us Dune chapters one and two. And chapter two is a triumph. It’s a good goddamn movie. Go see it if you haven't. You don't even have to know about Dune to enjoy it. You probably don't even need to see the first one, And the first one is pretty ok. But after you see two you realize that Chapter One is but a prologue, and two is the real deal. 

Let’s meet Frank Herbert and find out what inspired Dune. And space nuns. And big worms. And space paprika that makes you trip balls.

This is Wicked Gay Pop Whatever Episode 3: J. Harvey’s Guide to Dune

Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1920. His early life wasn't thrilling to him because he grew up poor, supposedly due to his parents' divorce. Frank wanted to be a writer from a very young age, with sci-fi as his genre. He worked as a reporter to support his writing, and Dune was first published in 1965. 

Frank Herbert's inspiration for "Dune" came from his interest in subjects like ecology, philosophy, and geopolitics. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, inspired Dune’s setting. The Pacific Northwest has a lot of sandy landscapes and delicate ecosystems cuz it rains a lot, and he wanted to write about a place that combined all of that. He, had also covered environmental and technological topics when he was a reporter,  and all of this, including poltical power dynamics, and definitely religion, played into it. 

And the book ended up being considered one of the greatest sci fi novels ever written, and it's sold over 20 million copies. 

Dune‘s main character is Paul Atreides, of House Atreides, the Dune universe is full of all these royal families called houses. There's an emperor who takes Dune away from the evil House Harkonnen and gives it to the Atreides family to run. But this is a trap, really, because everyone wants Paul’s dad Leto Atriedes dead. The whole family moves to Arrakis, aka Dune, and they’re betrayed by rival noble houses, leading to the destruction of House Atreides and Leto being killed. Paul and his pregnant mom, who is a telepathic space nun that belongs to a space nun organization with super powers and conniving ways called The BEne Gesseit. So Paul and Jessica flee into the desert to escape the Harkonnens who take control of Dune back. Everyone thinks theyre dead. As a sidenote, Paul’s mom’s space nuns trying to bring about the space messiah referred to as the Kwittax Haderach, via shady eugenics. Apparently the Bene Gesserit ladies can influence what genders their children will be. Jessica decided she had the placenta enough to produce space jesus, and the mother superior is all mad at her because she was supposed ot have a girl and how dare she.

Anyway, Paul falls in love with a desert girl warrior named Chani, and he undergoes a transformation cuz he starts huffing the spice, and having visions, and he realizes he is the Messiah and has all these latent abilities that his mom has been training him in because she guessed right off that her uterus had done the damn thing and he was the one. . And Paul and Jessica  johns the Fremen, who are the indigenous people of Dune who are exposed to so much of the spice out in the desert that thei eyes glow a really pretty blue. Jesscia takes over as the reigning mother superior space witch nun ministering to the Fremen, She eventually has a baby girl named Alia, who is as magical adn mystical and Paul and her portrayal in the David Lynch version of Dune makes her my favorite character in the entire series. Those were clips of Alia in the beginning. I can’t stop laughing at the little girl wizened monster Gollum voice they gave her.

Anyway, Paul he leads a rebellion agains the Harkonnens and the Emporer. Embracing his newfound powers and with the education he got from his royal advisors and trainers when he was growing up as well as everything he learns from  the Fremen, Paul leads a successful rebellion on Dune. People get into the Messiah thing and Paul becomes a godliek figure to the people. He beccomes first Dune’s leader and then the leader of the whole damn universe. Oh and there’s worms. These giant sandworms that excrete the space paprika. And Paul rides the worms around to victory . Look, its sci fi.

And because this is Wicked Gay, and we handle gay stuff. GAY STUFF. It should be mentioned that Dune and Frank Herbert have both been accused of homopbia. Ew thumbs down, 
So, in the book, Big Bad Baron Hakonnen, the Big Bad, is written real gay, in addition to being a child molester, rapist and murderer.  He’s also written as physically repulsive and so overweight that he needs special sensors to hold his excess bulk up. In the movies he floats because he’s so fat.  So homophobia AND fat shaming. THanks Frank.

And there’s apparently some homophobic-reading passages in the later Dune books, including this gem: "The homosexual, latent or otherwise, who maintains that condition for reasons which could be purely psychological, tends to indulge in pain-causing behavior — seeking it for himself and inflicting it upon others."

Excuse me? I don’t even know what that means. Is he talking about the Ramrod, that bar closed.

And then there was some stuff that his son Brian revealed in a biography he wrote about his dad. First off, he allegedly would hook his sons up to a lie detector whenever they were in trouble and punish them regardless of the result. Which is messed up cuz it’s supposed to be a home not a precinct, Dad shouldn’t be all we have ways of making you talk to his kids. 

And Herbeert’s other  son Bruce was a gay photographer and activist who eventually becaee part of the political group  “Act Up” (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) which was fighting to end the AIDS epsidemic. According to his brother Brian, Frank and his wife were “not at all pleased by this information” meaning Brian bruce being gay and fighting for equal rights, and really didnt agree with his lifestyle. Bruce himself was frank about how his famous dad didnt like his homosexuality, And when their mom, who was “troubled by Bruce exposing himself to grave dangers in the gay community’ was dying,.” Dad seems to have made it so he couldnt say goodbye to his mom. As Brian wrote "Bruce had wanted to come ... but Dad was delaying in giving him a time that would be convenient. My brother wondered, but did not say so to Dad, if this had anything to do with his homosexuality, which our father had never accepted." That’s a shitty thing to do. Bruce later died of AIDS.

So yeah, Dune ain’t perfect, and its author certainly wasnt. Frank Herbert died of a massive pulmonary embolism while recovering from surgery for pancreatic cancer on February 11, 1986, in Madison, Wisconsin, aged 65.


Ok, so the rest of the books, quickly cuz I didnt read em cuz I have things to do. Like watch Xmen 97 and drink. Not necessarily together.,  "Dune Messiah" is about  Paul's dealing with being the Emperor of the Known Universe. "Children of Dune" follows Paul's twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, as they deal with political intrigue and their dad’s legacy. "God Emperor of Dune" ltime jumps thousands of years, and it’s about how  Leto II's turns into a giant sandworm-human hybrid, yes there’s a giant worm running the universe, and him trying to keep humanity going. "Heretics of Dune" and "Chapterhouse: Dune" are about the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, those are the space nuns, Yes, Paul’s son is a giant worm. Is a giant worm with a human face. I think I’m ok with having only resd the first one 

So, you can’t have a best selling novel without making it into a feature film. You just cant. What would people do - having to use their own imagination to picture something they’ve read. Its unheard of. So, in 1984, David Lynch,,,yes, that David Lynch, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, what the hell is going on in this movie, this movie is surreal and terrifying but Im not sure why, David Lynch,,,David Lynch brough us the first film adaption of Dune. And not willingly.  Oh yeah, there’s gossip! Here’s the T, bitch!

So famed Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis recruited David Lynch to write and direct Dune cuz he was coming off The Elephant Man and he was red hot. Lynch turned down Return of the Jedi beause he liked Dune novel so much when Dino passed it on to him. Lynch wrote SEVEN screenplays, before everyone involved okayed the last one.  Some of those versions had Dune as two films, before it was condensed into one. Denis Villaneue made his two, and it was a smashing success. Looks like Dune NEEDS two films.

Actress Virginia Madsen who played Princess Irulan in Lynch’s version said she was contracted for 3 films as they thought Dune was going to end up being Star Wars for adults. More like Star Wars for people who like camp and gross stuff. 

Anyway, Lynch turned in a four hour version, which he trimmed down to three hours which he was ok with and considered this his definitive cut. The producers were like no one’s going to sit through a three hour movie. They will. I sat through Oppenheimer. And we very entertained except for that test - that bomb was a dud. I wanted mushroom clouds and fire enough that you were worried everyone was going to come down with the radiation poisoning. 

So they trimmed the move down to two hours, and they add a voiceover from Virginia Madsen to explain shit. And that was the version you saw in theaters. Which tanked. Yeah people thought it was too weird or made no sense what have you. It destroyed Lynch, who was really only in the beginning of his career. Then the producers did the unimaginable when they made a tv version that put a whole new beginning in which sorta dumbed down the plot with concept still. Lynch freaked, and took his name off that version and used Alan Smithee which is the accepted nom de guerre for when a director decides aint mine when it comes to his finished product for whatever reason. For more than a few decades, David Lynch disavowed Dune, and woudn’t talk about it and next questioned it in interviews. I’’m sure interfviews with Mr. Lynch are wacky anyways, that guy’s one of those eccentric geniuses. Have you ever seen Eraserhead? What the-. Why is she dancing?

So I actually kinda love the first attempt at filming Dune. It’s got some cool art direction, and the villain, Baron Harkonnen, is played by veteran actor Kenneth McMillan and he’s like a  floating Jabba the Hutt and he looks like he’s got chewed food and boils  all over him, and he’s a pederast. Absolutely repulsive. And theres a lot of British lady actors emoting dramatically as space nuns in long space robes and veils. Im also fascinated by the gom jabbar - so when they want to prove someone might be he messiah, they make you stick your hand in this box which then basically melts your paw. And you cant pull it out because the mother superior space nun puts a poison needle to your neck. So you either endure the terrible pain from your hand melting or you die. And sher’s very PUT YOU HAND IN THE BOX…and he’s like screaming and then he endures it and he figures he’s going to take out a burnt end BBQ picce out of th ebox instead o fhis hand but no. PAIN BY NERVE INDUCTION. It’s like a magic torture box. There are a lot fo scenes like that.

But my FAVORITE prt - so Pauls mom Jessica is pregnant with dead duke leto’s baby and and it’s a girl and she’s named Alia, and she’s already psychic and like a toddler witch cuz she grows very fast.  And she’s playd as then child actress Alicia Witt, who has been in quite a few things, she’s a redhead, look herup. I think she was on The Walkind Dead. Anyway, she plays Alia as this hypeintelligent foyr year old, and they dub her voice in with this spooky hissy lady voice but then they run it through like scratchy speaker filter voice, and she’s alread a witch and a religious fantiac. She’s fantastuc. And she gerts kidnapped by the Emporer, but she pays it no mind  Shes like Paul on is way, and he’s going to kill you…and shes spooky and wearing a sort of space burqua. Just a space delight. So when Pauls shows up riding his sandworm, she’s all HE IS THE KWITAZ HASERACH in her dubbed voice and I love it so muh. And one of the final shots of the movie is her standing int he desert just reveling in the breeze cause by the dandworms theyre huge and kind fo striking this christ pose and its so campy and weird, and loves it.

Only recently has Lynch answered questions about Dune. HE was against releasing a director’s cut of his own vision, but supposedly he’s coming around to being open to it now. I’d like to see it. 

So that’s the first filmed version of Dune. This next part I cant speaka on, cuz I didnt see it. But it deserve a metjom. In 2000, the Sci Fi Channel is that still around? Remember channels? Wow, the future. They put on a three part miniseris called Frank Herbert’s Dune. And they followed it up in 2003 with Children of Dune which covered the secon and third books int he series. So it was th eyear 2000, basically cor magnon times to you youngins, and from what Ive seen it looks a little cheesy for televisions looking. But it got decent reviews and it was the Sci Fi Channels’s highest rated pogram. It mostly starred unknowns. If you saw it write me at wickedgaypod@gmail. Com or hit me up on WickedGay’s social meda at wickedgaypod and let me know how it was.

And finally, we come to the present day and Timothy, Timothy Chalament IT Boy extraordinary as Paul Atreides in the very successful both critically and financially Dune, Chapters 1 and 2. I remember Timothy Chalamnat when he was rynnng around Homeland looking dour and committing vehicular homicide with Damien Lewis’ daughter who never tied her boots? And now you can’t throw a red carpet without him sashaying down in incredibly expensive gender neitral clothing and aking all the tweens go….he’s so drema. I actually think Timothee is a good actor - if you look past he pedophilao, Call Me By Your Name is a good flick and he’s pretty much perfect in it. And I saw this one fick recently where he plays a teen cannibal and I know hwo reidicuius that sounds but iuts by the same diretor as Call Me By Your ame, Luca G, and I realy liked it, its like teenr romance horror. Its literally about teen cannbiabls on the run and its somehow creepy and repulsive in parts but also kinda romantic and you sorta root for the tweens who are killing an eating peole. Ghey just wan tot be iin love, Dad. And then in Dune parts 1 and 2, you have Ms. Zendaya who is also everywhere you look, I actually dont thikk Timothee or Zendaya leae the red carpet. I dint think they tread on any surfaces that are not red carpeted. Zendaya plays Paul Agtreides’ Fremen gitlrfirnf CHani. And she’s got bright blue eyes cuz she’s been eating the spice melange which does that o a bitch, gives them ocean eyes. 

DEE NEE VILL NOOVE has directed a ton of damn good movies - you have prisoners, high jackman is mean when hses depaeta, pauld ano continues to be non desxrit yet creepy, Arrival, Amy Adams talks to ink aliens, and Blade RUnner 2049 which I thik it fantastic It didnt give me Blade Runner vibes but thats ok cuz its fine as a standa lone. Thay oves so good that even Jared LEtto didnt anniye me, and liet me tellyou Jordan Catalona can get on my last nerve. 

So Duh nee brings us DUne Parts One and Two for a new generation and jere’s my review. I wouldn’t skip it because it sets up the next one but if you could only pick one to see - you go with 2 my friends. Part 2 is where its at. Part One is more like a prolgore. Firstly these movies are gorgeous…jsut beautifully shot, every shot a painting, and the art direction and costumes are SSIIICCCCK. They’ll be looking back at these movies and going into minute detail about the aesthetics for decades to come. Just the imagination that’s gone into bringing this universe to life is kinda breathtaking. It’s got a hot cast, besides Timmy adn Z, Rebecca Ferguson, who played my favoritre Mission impossible chaaxcter, note I said played much to my chagrin and sorry spoiler alert,  lays Paul’s mom Jessica, adn she’s sorta kinda ruthless in this iteration and hellbent on making people think her son is the messiah so they collect the power and she’s fantastic. The Harkinnens are layed by Stellan Stargards, whose Baron is big and fat and creepy and floats in this one too but is slightly less repulsive, but just as evil. His nephews are still Raban, plaued by that sexy kilng machine Dave Bautista, and then the new one who is first introed in this movie, Feyd, is Eliva. The guy who played Elvis. Who is fantastic and evil AF and apes Stellan Skargarr’ds accent exactly? Elvis clearly wasnt a fluke. Feyd is basically the Darth Maul of this franchise. You don’t see him enough and he’s gone way too soon.

OScar Issac is in the first one for a bit as Duke Leto Atreides and iconic actor CHarlotte Rampling, she’s aces, look her u , is head of the space nuns. So the first follows the story, spice, desert planet, must rule it, betrayal, paul and mom flee and join the fremen. And it’s good. It ain’t great. Thesecond one however. That’s the real movie. He was just warming up. It takes its time developing the stoy of Pual adn Jessica joining the freeman, and them eventually blednding into the tribe and some of the fremen beginnignt o believe that Oaul might be the Kwittax HAderach, tey blow up a Harkinnen spice moving fortress in an incredible sequence, and Paul tames the giant terrifhng sandworms who are really fast for how much they weigh.. We learn more about th harokkens,, too, Raban is running dude and the rest are hanging out on planert Geidi rime, the Harokennen planet, there’s this kickass black and white coliseum scene where they introduce Fedy as he brutally kills oppinents to the delight of 1000s. Also, Feyd is clearly psychotically evil and he has this like harem of bald pale womem in black who look like corpses and gnash their blackend teeth and you only see them briefly bit they’re utterly terrifying because it sounds like they’re cannibas and leave you wanting to seem themmore they sould have a spinoff.. Other interesting new characters like my girl Florence Pugh as the princess and the sullen french actress who was woefully miscatt as amws BIn’d last girl Lea Seydoux, she’s good in this thiyg as another conniving space nun, and esecilkt - we get Christoher Walken at the Emoorer! And hes playing CHristher Walken which he;s allowe to do in every movie he appears in and rightly so, he’s christopher walken.

So the big question is did Jessica and Leto (who’s pretty much a afterthought in this flick) create the Messiah? Jessica takes over the witch woman job of the Fremen tribe an styles herself desert not a virgin mary and starts converting peopel to Paul’s cause. Paul’s not sure he wants to start a galactic worship moment for himself, it’s a big responsibkity, Chani thinks its all bullshit and cant her and Paul just make ut on a dune. The movie as a lot to say about power and religion and how addicive, blinding and double-edged both can be, Supposedly there will be a Part 3 but they could probably not and it would be just fine. The next couple of books don’t sound as intriguing as the first one and I mentioned Paul’s son ends up coming a giant sandworm with a human face and no thank you. No thank you for those nightmares. It’s bad enough I recently saw a silverfish in my bathroom and screamed and ran. Those suckers are big. Fuck a sandworm, try encountering a silverfish. 

So, that;s my take on Dune. In summation, the first book is dense but ok. The first attempt at a film, David Lynch;s versiion, is awkward and campy and you should get drunk or stoned and check it out, if only for the couple of Alia Dune scenes. Again I didnt watch the miniseries but it got good reviews so I should probably check it out at some point, and as for our present day version of the Dune series, Chapter One is pretty good and just striking looking but Part 2 is probably up there with the best Star Wars movies. No lie it’s a good flick. 

Thank you for joining me for this look at Dune. I apologize for what seemed to be a pod fade situation, Mental health is a thing, and like I said, good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks, good months and bad months, and good years and bad years. 2024 has been a bit of a struggle so far but things are lookinguo, Im pretty happy that I got an epside done. We return to our regularly scheduled murder an dmayhem with our next espidoe. Which hopefully will be sooner thna later.  

Wicked Gay’s social media handle is Wicked Gay pod, and I tend to use Tik Tok the most cuz’ its kinda the most fun plus there’s seemingly a lot of quote personal trainers  in sandex who actually seem to be auditioning for Sean Cody. fun. Our vocer art is aul Chaoman who i miss. Audio engineering by the other Mr. harvey,  Wicked Gay has a good number of bonus epsodes on Patreon so check it out if youre of a mind, 

Again apologixng for the pod fadery. I’m still here. If you suck with me, you;re the best. If you’re new youre on the way to the best. I’m shutting uo now cuz Im weird. Nite! You’ve been listening to Wicked Gay Pop Wahtever: cuz sometimes I put down murder and pick up media.