A story that uses imaginary characters or fantastical settings to teach a lesson about a real life situation.
It's almost like stories can be used to reflect on subjects other than their direct subject matters, but that can't be right
I like when authors are intentional about their stories like this.
People bring up Tolkien’s “applicability not allegory” or death of the author, or just defend their treats against being apparently politicized. But people politicize, interpret, and re-mythologize things anyways. Tolkien’s stories have been coopted by European nationalists to fight the “orcs” of the “East.”
A similar thing with Dune, people fixate on the environment aspect or exaggerated brutality and oppression by imperialists hence Star Wars, Warhammer, etc. I guess. I find it weird. The point was or should be the struggle for liberation and the power of ideology.
Might as well be on the nose about things as an author IMO, seems annoying to deal with
Also: was Dune about Palestine? I thought it was inspired by Lawrence of Arabia, so the Arab Revolt. Maybe the Great Game
Spice is basically oil which I don’t think Gaza has a lot of. If it did its problems would have been solved or made worse.
They have natural gas apparently. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/israel-gives-nod-gaza-marine-gas-development-wants-security-assurances-2023-06-18/
I do think Tolkien tried (mostly successfully) to tell LotR free from allegory. That was important to him since the point was to tell the story of Middle Earth on its own merits as a story. But it definitely isn’t free from ideology, and I don’t think even Tolkien would disagree with that.
Yeah I get it but that’s what disappoints me. Like what I mentioned about Dune and Warhammer. Tolkien achieved something and kick-started a genre, but that genre turned out mostly to be about fantasy races fighting genocidal wars…not celebrating the wonder of mythology and fairy tales, at least in my opinion. At the very least, they could be more meaningful by being symbolic of something. But Tolkien already saw to that from the start
Also: was Dune about Palestine? I thought it was inspired by Lawrence of Arabia, so the Arab Revolt. Maybe the Great Game
It was written over a decade after Nakba so i would assume Herbert didn’t missed that, however unclear if it was intentionally included. The opressors in the book were clearly white redhead Harkonnens and Corrinos, while Atreides were hinted as more multiethnic and multinational faction. Padishah Emperor title is also clear hint for Turkish and most likely French and British imperialism.
I wonder what was happening in the region in the 1960s? Probably nothing important or contextual to the present day.
You mean to tell me this science fiction story was written as a metaphor for something that was happening in the real world???
