So I just learnt that the people re-making Dune are gender swapping Liet-Kynes – WTF

Now I am not at all misogynist. Truly. I believe women can do anything a man can do and should be paid the same for the same job as a well. In fact women can do things a man can’t do. But that is another matter entirely.

I do have problems with affirmative action programs though. If the best person for a job is a man then so be it. If it is a woman so be it. The operative words are “the best person”. Being required to hire people to fill a position to satisfy a quota – oh you have 30 employees but don’t employ a Hispanic, African American transgender Male who now wants be classed as female – shame on you…. is just going a bit far the other way and too far down the road to totalitarianism.

However that is actually a different argument to some second rate writer or a film producer looking at one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time and going – oh, we’ll just make that character a female. Huh?

The first question that comes to mind is WHY? It is not as if there aren’t plenty of female characters and strong female characters at that, in Dune. Yes, most are in secondary roles as it is a Patriarchal society but that is how the society was defined by Herbert. Feminists can complain all they want but historically most societies have been in the patriarchal mould. Facts are facts. Not that I am supporting patriarchal social systems in any way, I like today’s equality, but wishful thinking doesn’t change reality. And whatever it’s faults Herbert’s society is rich and clearly defined.

So why change the sex of that character? It messes with story with regards Chani – in fact the whole balance of the situation changes which means they will have to either make other changes to the story or it will look stupid. Which gets back to the question – why change anything in the first place?

It leaves one lacking confidence in the people doing the re-make. What else will they arbitrarily change?

One thinks of other remakes – Conan – Robocop – The Mechanic and so on where a perfectly good movie was re-made and failed at the box office  much to the surprise of those that re-made it. Why would people go and see a modern re-make when the first movie was perfectly adequate.

Now the previous versions of Dune are not adequate so there is scope for great version of this famous book – but so far all they have done is cause me to worry….

 

Well, book 2 has gone to the Beta Reader for dissection. Once it has been returned and the suggested changes investigated I will get it out on Amazon.

I have decided to start editing  the first book of my contemporary Wizard story before returning to book 3 as it is still too soon after the 1st edit and I need to let it lie a bit longer before looking at it again so you will all just have to suffer and wait a bit longer for book 3. 🙂

I had hoped the drop in work due to the Covid19 disaster would lead to me writing more but so far my word production is only slightly than I have averaged so year and actually less than the last six months of 2019.

This is partly because I have been doing more editing this year getting 1 and 2 ready to go 🙂 But  beside that, while I have lots of thoughts and scene fragments floating around in my head I am having trouble getting them onto paper in a coherent manner. However the muse of inspiration will not doubt catch up with me sooner or later.