Dune the Epic Fantasy?

Since this book reminded me more of epic fantasy than of what I expect when I think of science fiction, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at genre and where Dune fits in. I’m not out to make anyone mad or start a whole genre debate, but I think it would be interesting, especially in light of the conversation we had on the first day of class regarding genre, to bring it up again. I’m going to be relying quite a bit on Wikipedia sources here, so please don’t bite my head off about that either, because I’m aware that they can be wrong and that they are not exhaustive. This is more of an exercise in thinking about genre than an argument that Dune has to fit into a specific genre. Now that I’ve written enough of a preface to hopefully avoid any nasty comments, I’ll jump in.

According to the Wikipedia page for Dune, it “is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, and was the first bestselling hardcover science fiction novel ever.” I dispute none of this and I don’t believe that Dune has a problem fitting into most people’s definitions of science fiction; after all, it is set in a more technologically advanced future that has taken us to new worlds. When I took a closer look at Wikipedia’s (admittedly incomplete) listing of science fiction sub-genres, however, I couldn’t really find one that I felt Dune fit in with well. Hard SF, according to Wikipedia, “is characterized by rigorous attention to detail in quantitative sciences, especially physics, astrophysics, and chemistry.” Dune is not about detailed scientific explanations of future technology, so I discount this sub-genre. Next is Soft SF, which consists of “works based on social sciences such as psychology, economics, political science, sociology and anthropology.” This seems to fit much better with Dune, and yet I would argue that the scope of the book is so much larger than a study of any or all of these topics that this sub-genre cannot contain it. What I mean is that Dune covers all of these areas, but it goes far beyond them because of the huge scope of its story. The next sub-genre down the list is Cyberpunk, which definitely does not fit Dune. Cyberpunk usually takes place in a post-humanist dystopian future where body modification, implants, and full-sensory internet are the norm. Time Travel, the next sub-genre, also does not fit. This is followed by Alternate History, which is also not Dune, and Military SF, which also does not quite fit. Paul may be a good fighter and lead a jihad, but the focus of the book is not “conflict between national, interplanetary, or interstellar armed forces.” The list goes on to include New Wave, Apocalyptic and Post-apocalyptic fiction, Christian science fiction, space opera, and science fiction western, none of which really fit Dune either. I’m sure there are more sub-genres of science fiction out there and that Dune at least partially fits into some of them, but for now, I’m going to move on to the second part of this post, Dune and epic fantasy.

Again in Wikipedia, epic fantasy is “generally serious in tone and epic in scope, dealing with themes of grand struggle against supernatural, evil forces.” This may be a bit of a stretch, but I believe Dune is at least serious in tone and epic in scope, and while the “grand struggle” may not be against a supernatural, evil force, Paul does lead the fremen against their foe and defeat the corrupt emperor to take over. Where this comparison really takes off is in looking at the qualities of the hero in epic fantasy in comparison to Paul. According to Wikipedia, “Often, much of the plot revolves around his heritage or mysterious nature. In many novels the hero is an orphan or unusual sibling, often with some incredible ability or abilities and skills in a particular area (usually either magic or skill with a weapon). He begins the story young, if not an actual child.” The plot of Dune does revolve around Paul; he is not an orphan, but he does have quite an isolated upbringing, he has many incredible abilities, and he begins the story fairly young. The article goes on, “In the beginning of the storyline, the hero is threatened by the unknown force.” Despite Herbert’s audience knowing the plot against the Atreides family, and them knowing that their enemies have some sort of plot against them, the attack is enough of a surprise that it is a success, and Paul and his mother are forced to flee. Particularly relevant, “the hero slowly gains knowledge of his past through legend, prophecy, lost-and-found-again family members, or encounters with "mentor" characters who know more about him than he does.” Paul encounters all of these: he takes on the legendary figure of being the savior for the fremen, he fulfills the prophecy of being the Kwisatz Haderach, he discovers that he is related to the Harkonnens, and he has several mentor characters who help him in different ways both during the book and before the book began. This is getting ridiculously long, so I’ll cut myself off here, I just thought it was interesting how much better this book seemed to fit in with epic fantasy than with any standard sub-genre of science fiction. Thoughts?