It's interesting to me to observe that the christian and the socialist always see the other as responsible for the con. My personal naive take is that everything created has an 'evil twin' (for example essential self / false self) and this is what makes meaningful worrying about trickster satanic forces. In this sense, I believe that a myth or storyline that heightens this tension and even leaves it unresolved as a cautionary (hubris/humility) concern would be of great value. I don't know the other Villeneuve movies but I await enthusiastically for Dune: Part 2.AshvinP wrote: ↑Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:42 am
It is really sad to see how the author's own cynicism is projected onto a great work of art, when there is nothing in a fair viewing of the movie which lends credence to anything written above. There is definitely the archetypal descent into the underworld, by the Charioteer of the soul (I am sure you will appreciate that imagery from the Gita), and encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold" before crossing over. Yet that is the exact opposite of "cynical self-destruction" - it is Self-knowledge which empowers and enlivens the soul, again of the sort Krishna bestows upon Arjuna in the beautiful epic imagery of the Gita. It is tragic that readers of this article will never know the truth depths of the cinematic experience because they are conned by the materialist socialist perspective.
I did not read the books yet and really have no knowledge of Herbert's philosophy (although I am very curious), but that of Dennis Villeneuve (the director of Dune) is pretty clear from his other various movies. The archetypal themes of his movies do not cynically reject the Hero's journey and the Christian themes of sacrifice and redemption, but enrich them with Imagination. I really liked Arrival the most, followed by Prisoners and then Dune and Blade Runner 2049. People miss out on so much deep meaning in these movies by casting their rich ideas down into materialist abstractions. Every great aesthetic experience becomes a tool for scoring cheap political points instead of an amazingly instructive lesson on the essential Self and the story of our most authentic journey through life.
PS: Somehow, I'm reminded of a story told by Wade Davis in his The Serpent and the Rainbow. Anthropologist Davis is invited by a Vodun priest to train under him. Davis declines, explaining that he already has a spiritual path but questions the priest about whether there's both white and black magic in his path. The priest says, "both but the difference with our way is that we know the difference."