The "un-derailable" thread!

Gurney, I think that's a really awesome assessment of Dune. There's so much to appreciate in it from the metaphor and the microcosm, to the world building, to the prose. I'm better at analyzing the strength of the prose and the world building than picking apart the symbolic portions of it, but the world building and symbolism are pretty well intertwined.

Although it's not related to Dune, I'm also a huge fan of Ron Moore's reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It gets really "whoa, what the hey...?" crazy in the last season, but there's so much excellence in the writing, story, structure, character building, universe building, macrocosm and microcosm, symbolism, parallels, so on and so forth. My two favorite episodes are vastly different -- "33" in season one and "Unfinished Business" in season three. "33" is a straight science fiction masterpiece of an episode, whereas "Unfinished Business" is big on insight into the characters. From a critical standpoint, "Unfinished Business" is amazing; it breaks certain television "rules" on writing, but it's still great. Sadly, it's one of the least favorite episodes for a lot of fans, I think mainly because it doesn't really deal with the Cylon threat. However, if you're a true fan of storytelling and character building, it's a masterpiece.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

Small world, brother Jim! I live in Visalia, and Exeter is just a short hop down the road

I like SG Ammo a lot. I'll buy 1,000 rounds of 7.62 x 39 for $235

WASR 10's are supposed to be gtg now. Solid gun but not pretty. You ever watch the AKOU4774 on YouTube? Watch their WASR torture tests LOL

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Small world indeed...if you ever run into any blond guys with a Rogers last name they could be my relatives

I buy bulk ammo from https://www.targetsportsusa.com/ammo-c-2.aspx ~~free shipping on case purchases

...still can't get over that gurney is a gun guy...and an AK guy at that...awesome

About Dune...never read it..have the movie on VHS and found it...difficult to watch...is the book better?

MrJim said:

About Dune...never read it..have the movie on VHS and found it...difficult to watch...is the book better?

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Slow starting. I had to really make an effort to keep reading in the beginning but after than i couldn't put it down (I think I was 16 when I read it)

gurneyhalleck1 said:

I am a gun guy indeed, Jim, and weird because I like all things Dune, books and film. The books that I adored were

Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune

I was not much a fan of Heretics of Dune or Chapterhouse Dune. Overly complicated and trippy....

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I am inclined to agree.

MrJim said:

About Dune...never read it..have the movie on VHS and found it...difficult to watch...is the book better?

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the book is amazing

ArmyMatt said:

the book is amazing

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It has never really been properly filmed.

I read the book at age 15, which further added to the thrill. I read it at roughly the same time I saw Lawrence of Arabia, which remains one of my favourite films, but imagine the sheer delight of experiencing both roughly concurrently, at age 15, and you get a sense as to the pure imaginative bliss I was privileged to experience.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

How old are you, W? I read the book in the late 80's.

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30.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

I remember 1984 when the Lynch film came out I poked my head into the theater and watched 10-15 minutes of it and was excited! I was only nine at the time, but I wanted to see it. I ordered the storybook for the film from Scholastic book orders. The film came out on vhs and I rented it, watching it 3 times in a few days .

I read the "real" Herbert novel a few years later and was in love.

I used to check out the Dune Encyclopedia in my high school library. When I turned 30 or so I tried to find one. Turned out it was out of print entirely. Well, I found an AMAZING like-new copy on EBay for like $50 and consider it a treasure to this day. It's awesome!!

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Very interesting. Now by the way, one rather good film from 1984 is the film adaptation of Nineteen Eighth-Four, albeit the restored DVD release from the ladt decade with the oriignal classical soundtrack rather than the pop rubbish Richard Branson imposed on it (they also undid the sily washed out colours). I very much enjoyed Richard Burton as the villainous O'Reilly.

Orwell's work is actually my favourite SF novel, due to the extremely elegant style. Orwell was of course a literary genius, but Nineteen Eighty Four is so particularly refined and elegant; reading it is rather like taking champagne and caviar in First class on British Airways. Dune is easily a close second, but is not quite as polished.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

I read "The Giver" with my class each year and still haven't seen the film. I'm almost afraid to! Lol

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If the book is actually good (and I'm guessing it must be if you read it with every class!) ... I would suggest saving yourself the angst and don't watch the movie. We watched it last week ...
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Ugh.

You're not missing anything, IMO. But I'm curious ... did the book leave a big question unanswered at the end?


Not that I even care what the answer is. They didn't make me care, and that's sad.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

The book leaves you with Jonas having escaped the community, and all the memories Jonas had flow all over and the people have no more guidance. Jonas and Gabriel make it acommunity with a home celebrating Christmas and Jonas is ill with hypothermia from the cold. He survives and his old community thinks he's dead...

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Ohhhhhhh. Duh moment. I wondered for a moment what you were talking about. I got my titles confused. Thank goodness - I couldn't understand why you'd share the one I was thinking of with middle schoolers. Maybe it was "The Gift". I really dislike it when my husband brings home stuff like that. Not much on Redbox and when he gets a freebie he wants to use it, so I've watched some truly awful movies.

No, "The Giver" wasn't that bad. It will likely be a disappointment compared to the book, but then again they almost always are. I did find it an intriguing concept. I can understand wanting to share it with young people.

If it were me, and I was you (lol!), I would watch it. Just go into it expecting to be disappointed, and then maybe you can appreciate the good in it at least.

I was a bit traumatized at the idea of euthanizing infants.

Let me know what you think if you decide to watch it.

And don't watch that other one. It was truly awful.

Eh, out of curiosity, I checked "The Gift". It's highly rated by most. But I didn't like it. My tastes don't often run with others, so my suggestions might not agree.

I did see a movie I liked quite a bit yesterday. Normally sports-related movies are often a yawn for me, but this one I really liked. MacFarland. It's about a teacher too. If you haven't seen it, you might like it. More inspiring. And based on a true story.

OK Dune is in my queue to read...

speaking of books, my wife wants be to read the Redwall series