Dune. Damn.

As a first time reader of Dune, I was astounded. Wow. Therefore at this point my thoughts are still processing as to what it was exactly, that I got out of reading this book. Herbert created a complex web of characters that still each maintained their own personalities and loyalties, and without confusing their relationships. He created an intergalactic system manipulated by four central powers (The Emperor, The Houses, The Bene Gesserit, and The Guild) all of which are concerned with preserving either their line (breeding) or their way of life, or both. How Herbert managed to balance a power situation so precariously between the four groups intrigued me.
I lack the trained perceptions of the Bene Gesserit, so I feel I would pick up a lot more on the subtle clues upon a second, or third reading. On this reading, I think what struck me most was the foresight into today's international dilemmas. Where would the Guild be without it's oil...sorry- its spice? All of the hidden agendas behind controlling this one substance made me more than a little concerned for today's parallel situation.
The patience Herbert's characters exhibited was astounding, though he crafted emotional justification for that quality. The need for a Kwisatz Haderach propels the Bene Gesserit to the art of seduction and selective breeding over thousands of years to perfect the genes of one individual that many of them will never live to see. In a similar fashion, the Fremen devote hundreds of years and even stricter water discipline than they had been accustomed to practicing to the slow ecological transformation of their planet. Herbert manages to find human purpose and discipline in both religion and ecology, an odd mix in my opinion, but well done.
The complicated family structure of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress came to mind as I thought through the Imperium, the Great Houses, the Lesser Houses, and their fief structure spread over the planets. I found it refreshing that Herbert's characters didn't need any new, complicated structures, just good old fashioned marriages for power among those families with power. It was simpler to keep them straight in my mind amid the other relationship intertwinings Herbert was weaving. It probably would have proved difficult to form new structures anyhow, as they would be generally limited to whichever planet they developed on-such as the Fremen act of the father's slayer having responsibility for the dead's family- and would spread no further.
I hope our class discussion will point out to me the things I missed, as I feel there was a lot there that I missed along my discovery of the story.