A thread on "jihad" in Dune.

@evanchill smartly smartly pointed out that they swapped "crusade" for "jihad" in the #Dune trailer and rec'd that I chime in on the twittersphere... https://twitter.com/hdernity/status/1303763131554988032

... I recall "crusade" (or language alluding to Christian missionary violence) being in the books, in addition to the more prominent use of jihad. I think the reason for the switch in the trailer is that "jihad" would be confusing to a modern audience...

... but I'm really hoping that they stick with "jihad" in the film, because that confusion, imo, can be productive and interesting. The use of this word in the novels has aged well imo and becomes more subversive when read today, as I understand it...

... What many readers (including myself when I first read it as a teen) lose sight of is that the jihad which Paul fears in Dune is the jihad of imperialism (and not exactly the subaltern, although tied to co-option of the subaltern)...

... a war spurred by the "race memory/consciousness" of the [spoiler!] Harkonnen bloodline in Paul and Alia, and to the Bene Gesserit's "missionaria protectiva" (basically a christian missionary project to plant the mahdi myth among Fremen in order indirectly control Arrakis)...

... So jihad in Dune = Christian missionary imperialism/exploitation/appropriation, as I understand it... Which reads, to me at least, as wildly subversive for today's popular discourse....

In conclusion, if they don't use "jihad" and other Islamic/Central Asian/Arab refs in the film I will go Jacurutu on their asses.

Also:

I should also add that I say this, with great personal investment, as an author whose book (Technologies of the Self) is narrated by a protagonist named "Jihad" with the specific authorial purpose (among others) of disturbing (white liberal/brown skins-white masks) audiences.

I've called out this interchange on the collated/revised version of the essay here https://medium.com/@hdernity/dunes-not-a-white-savior-narrative-but-it-s-complicated-53fbbec1b1dc