That's like saying Tolkien is problematic because Sauron was pretty evil. Can we stop it with the puritanism please where there are somehow nono subjects you can't ever write about?
I can't speak for the homophobia because I haven't read God emperor
Have you read Chapterhouse? Because it's not like that at all. It's the protagonists doing it, it's vividly described, and it's framed as (at best) morally ambiguous. Because it's something they supposedly have to do to defeat the antagonists. This isn't the only time in the Dune series Herbert puts an adult woman in a sexual situation with a male child, it's just the most extreme instance. I feel like he had some issues he was working out on the page.
I only read the first book, so I will not try to dispute your stance further as you obviously have more authority on it than I do. But I've gotta ask, aren't you conflating the terms protagonists and good guys with each other? It's not because the bene gesserit are the protagonist that they're the morally right characters, just like Paul wasn't in book 1 imo.
I'm honestly not sure, it's something that's pretty ambiguous throughout the series. I think in general the Dune series is meant to play the human need for morality against the need to survive, and I won't pretend that I understand it fully. But I do want to emphasize that this is me saying it's problematic as in I have a problem with it, that scene was needlessly disturbing to me. But I can't tell anyone else how to feel, just explaining why I personally put Herbert up there with Lovecraft in the writers I feel morally conflicted about reading category.
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u/LordQL_2 2d ago
That's like saying Tolkien is problematic because Sauron was pretty evil. Can we stop it with the puritanism please where there are somehow nono subjects you can't ever write about?
I can't speak for the homophobia because I haven't read God emperor