"Tell Me of Your Homeworld, Usul."

1. What is your favorite book of all time?
That's an easy one, especially for anyone who knows me. It's Frank Herbert's DUNE.

(A close second is Richard Bach's Illusions, but we'll save that for another time.)

2. How often do you read this book?
I make my way through the whole sequence of Herbert's original six books about once every five years or so.

3. What's your favorite quote from the whole book?
The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

4. Who's your favorite character from this movie?
Paul Atreides, a.k.a. Muad'Dib.

5. What scene do you love the most?
Paul's first confrontation with the Reverend Mother Helen Gaius Mohaim.

6. Why is this your favorite book?
It's because it's the most intricately crafted, completely alien—yet human—universe I've ever encountered in fiction. Just learning the language was an effort the first few times I read it. And now I can't help wonder if Herbert himself was a bit prescient. If you substitute "oil" for "spice", "Iraq" for "Arrakis", and lastly "The United States" for "The Empire", the parallels are uncannily striking, not to mention disturbing—especially when considering the hubris of the racist right-wing and their belief in the "invincibility" of our military.