“Without spice, travel ? and trade ? is impossible. Without spice, the economy will collapse. Maud’Dib defeats the Empire by taking the spice source hostage, and threatening to blow it up, which would plunge all civilization into a new dark age. Of course, critics have long recognized that Dune was inspired by Islam, and that Herbert modeled Maud’Dib on Mohammed. The tale actually implies that an indigenous people have a right to their land, and to the natural resources beneath it ? even if a technologically more advanced civilization decides that they want it.”
Spice = Oil
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One response to “Spice = Oil”
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Well… Spice is a representation of both oil and… REAL spices.
You got to remember that during the colonial days spices is THE commodity of the day (and it’s still is). Colonial empires would do almost anything to get it, and it’s one of the things that is heavily traded.
And you got to remember, there’s a reason on why the spice in Dune is referenced as spice.
If you want talk about sand and desert, perharps Arrakis is best suited to Arabia. But if you want talk about the spices, perharps a far eastern country like Indonesia might be best suited as Arrakis (there are quite some Indonesian references in Dune by the way).
http://www.cyberport.uqam.ca/english/countries/Indonesi/HistoryWinter2000R.htm
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As for Paul and Muhammad.
I don’t know on why people said that Paul is modeled after Muhammad.
Muhammad is a middle age middle class business man, who during his solitude in a cave was visited by angel.
Paul in the contrary is a young upper class noble man, who during his exile find out that he’s somehow unknownly chosen to lead the local people out of suffering.
Strangely… I find that Paul much more closely resemble toward Moses than Muhammad.
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As for Dune inspired by Islam.
Well… There are many other religions that also inspired Dune. As matter in fact, Islam actually is only a small part of Dune.
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