影響了《星球大戰(zhàn)》的這本書到底說了什么

◇ 文|田 東

年初上映的電影中，“來勢洶洶”又令我印象深刻的，非《星球大戰(zhàn)8》莫屬了，它也再次喚起了我對星戰(zhàn)系列的困惑：電影展現(xiàn)的未來世界科技如此發(fā)達(dá)，為何構(gòu)建的社會制度依然有“帝國”“皇帝”“奴役”等中古意味的概念。

巧的是，前不久，亞馬遜中國發(fā)布了“2017新書排行榜”，其中第五位的《沙丘》為我撥開了這層迷霧。星戰(zhàn)系列電影中，干旱的星球、邪惡的統(tǒng)治者、守護(hù)香料的公主和身負(fù)銀河系使命的男孩等等元素，都能在《沙丘》這部創(chuàng)作出版于1965年的科幻小說中找到原型。

Among the movies screened early this year, the most popular and impressive one, personally, must be Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi. It on the other hand aroused my long confusion about the Star Wars series that why with such developed technologies in future world there still remain medieval elements like empire, emperor and slaves within the social structure built up in the movie.

It so happened that recently Amazon.cn released the “Best New Books of 2017”, of which the fifth one Dune lifted the cloud of perplexity for me. From this science fiction novel published in 1965 readers can found the similar elements in the Star Wars film series including dry planet,evil emperor, princess who guards the spice and man on a mission of safeguarding the galaxy and so forth.

科幻版《王子復(fù)仇記》A Sci-fi Hamlet

作者弗蘭克·赫伯特，當(dāng)過美國海軍、記者，華盛頓大學(xué)肄業(yè)。有人說，沒有他的《沙丘》，《星球大戰(zhàn)》或許是另外一個樣子。

假如你沒有聽說過厄拉科斯星球、延緩衰老的香料、能看到過去的魁薩克·哈德拉克、屏蔽場帶這些《沙丘》里的元素，那你一定要知道《紅色警戒》《星際爭霸》這些風(fēng)靡全球的游戲都是《沙丘》的衍生品。

而《星球大戰(zhàn)》系列電影中，從人物形象、故事概念、創(chuàng)意到背景，或多或少都帶著《沙丘》的影子。赫伯特本人也知道，而且還在片子里發(fā)現(xiàn)了其他著名科幻作家的靈光。他半開玩笑式地成立了一個名為“我們強(qiáng)大到不屑于起訴盧卡斯”聯(lián)盟。

《沙丘》到底有著怎樣的魔力，讓盧卡斯和《星球大戰(zhàn)》要向它“致敬”呢？

《沙丘》講述了遙遠(yuǎn)的1018X年間（書中沒有明確交代，也沒有用公元紀(jì)年法），一個公爵被宇宙統(tǒng)治者陷害，從美麗富饒的卡拉丹星球遷居沙漠星球厄拉科斯，也就是“沙丘”。沙丘氣候惡劣，不適宜居住，但卻生活著幾百米長的殺蟲，也是銀河帝國唯一出產(chǎn)香料的地方，還有穿著順滑長袍、臭氣熏天的游牧“野蠻人”弗雷曼人。后來，公爵死了，他的兒子躲進(jìn)了弗雷曼人的蠻荒之地，娶了妻，成為先知和救世主，擊敗了仇人，成為新的宇宙領(lǐng)袖。

有點科幻版“王子復(fù)仇記”的味道吧。又或者，公爵兒子與“土著人”“和親”的橋段讓你看到了《阿凡達(dá)》的影子？

The author Frank Herbert once served in the U.S.Navy as a photographer during World War II and attended University of Washington after the war. It is said that without his work Dune there might be a different Star Wars now.

If you have never heard about the planet Arrakis,spice that can slow aging, Kwisatz Haderach who can carry knowledge of the past, shield, etc., you must know that the very much popular video games such as Command& Conquer: Red Alert and Starcraft are all the derivatives of this novel Dune.

Also, the film series Star Wars carries some trace of the novel more or less no matter it is in terms of its character or the concept, idea or the background. Herbert knows this is no coincidence and even finds out that there are some other sci-fi novelists’ idea were borrowed into the movies. He joked of banding together with the other ripped-off authors to form a “We’re Too Big to Sue George Lucas” society.

So, what is the exact magic of Dune on earth to make Lucas pay his “tribute” to it with Star Wars?

In fact, set in the distant future, Dune tells the story of a duke who was framed up by the Emperor of the universe and assigned to the desert planet Arrakis, i.e. the “Dune”,from the rich and beautiful planet Caladan. Dune is the worst to live in with the cruel climate, yet it is the only source of the oracular spice mélange in the Empire. There are also giant sandworms with the length of hundreds of meters and stinky Fremen natives in aba. Later the Duke died, and his son fled into the desert of the Fremen community, and then got married there. He became the prophet and the savior, defeated the foe and took control of the Empire then.

Isn’t it like Hamlet in sci-fi style? Or maybe the part that the Duke’s son married to a native seems like what is done in the movie Avatar?

技術(shù)“落后”的軟科幻 Soft Science Fiction

赫伯特創(chuàng)作這部作品時，正值越戰(zhàn)、反戰(zhàn)浪潮、披頭士、女權(quán)運(yùn)動、后現(xiàn)代主義風(fēng)起潮涌，于是乎，《沙丘》關(guān)注的不全是科幻，還有社會和人文。科幻小說中常見的超級電腦和機(jī)器人，《沙丘》中都沒有，甚至設(shè)定故事發(fā)生的幾百年前，人類就摧毀了所有會思考的機(jī)器。

再比如，大反派哈克南男爵用來和主人公保羅的父親雷托·厄崔迪通信的“圓柱信息筒”，擱在社交App盛行的今天都只能當(dāng)老古董了。噢，不好意思，世界上最早的電子郵件是本書出版4年后才出現(xiàn)的。

還有令當(dāng)時讀者嘖嘖稱奇的“膠片書”，估計用著手機(jī)和電子閱讀器Kindle的現(xiàn)代人也會不屑一顧的。

不過，書中星際旅行已經(jīng)是日常，格斗時保護(hù)自身的屏蔽場護(hù)盾、幫助人輕松行動的便攜式浮空器、可以回收身體水分的蒸餾服等“黑科技”，還是能讓現(xiàn)在的讀者腦洞大開。

《紐約客》評論認(rèn)為，《沙丘》的“軟科幻”設(shè)定很高明，它將焦點從技術(shù)引回到人本身，改變了科幻小說核心是科技、人物和情節(jié)為之服務(wù)的風(fēng)格。還有美國媒體說，“《沙丘》在科幻文學(xué)中的地位，堪比《魔戒》在奇幻小說中的地位”。

It was during the Vietnam War, anti-war movement,Beatles period, feminist bandwagon and the rising of post-modernism when Herbert wrote the novel, thus what Dune focuses is not only science fiction but also the society and the people. In Dune there is no super computer or robots which is familiar in sci-fi novels, and even all machines that are able to think have been destroyed before the story starts.

Also, the message cylinder by which the super villain Duke of Harkonnen corresponds with Duke Leto Atreides,father of the main character Paul, is but an antique as for today when social software prevails. Oh, wait, the first e-mail only came out four years after the publishing of the novel.

Apart from that, people nowadays with smart phones and Kindle may turn up noses at the “film book” which amazed the readers then.

However, in the novel space travel is very often,and shields which can protect oneself in a fight, portable Ornithopter capable of sustained wing-beat flight in the manner of birds, as well as Stillsuit used to retaining and reclaiming moisture from the book will definitely blow current readers’ mind.

According to the remarks on New Yorker, it is a clever authorial decision that the de-emphasis on technology throws the focus back on people in the novel, changing the staple style of sci-fi novel in which the characters and plotlines serve for the core technology. And some American media claimed that Dune in sci-fi literature is comparable to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in fantasy literature.

往返于歷史與未來的穿越 Combination of the Past and the Future

書中充斥著“皇帝”“公爵”“巫師”“奴隸”這些詞匯，讀來恍如回到了羅馬帝國時代。不知出于什么原因，赫伯特將這些古老的社會結(jié)構(gòu)“穿越”到了遙遠(yuǎn)的未來，作為龐大星際敘事的背景。

于是我們看到千奇百怪的新詞：行星公民、宇航公會、行星生態(tài)學(xué)家、香料搜尋工 ……歷史元素與星際元素交迭，很是迷幻。

出版商們對這些新造的古怪詞匯和小說的錯綜復(fù)雜感到憂慮，認(rèn)為這會拖慢故事的節(jié)奏。有編輯說他看了頭一百頁也沒看出個所以然，還有個編輯口口聲聲說如果放棄這本書就犯了大錯，可最后還是給退稿了。

好在最后奇爾頓圖書公司“冒險”將這部40萬字的小說以精裝本形式出版了，否則赫伯特就沒有機(jī)會“遇見”科幻作者夢寐以求的星云獎和雨果獎，后來的科幻小說也就少了一面致敬的旗幟。

The book is filled with such words as Emperor, Duke,wizard and slave, seemingly bringing readers back to era of imperial Rome. Herbert somehow borrowed such ancient social structure to distant future as the background of the story.

Hence we can also find many strange new words in the novel including Harvester, Arafel, Carryall, Deathstill and so on and so forth. It is pretty magical seeing the combination of historical elements and space elements.

Publishers worried that these strange words and complex plotlines would slow down the pace of the story. An editor said that he could not find a clue even after finishing the first hundred pages, and another claimed it would be a gigantic mistake if giving up publishing the book but still rejected it in the end.

Fortunately, this novel Dune with four million words was finally accepted and published by Chilton Books. Otherwise,Herbert might have no opportunity to win the inaugural Nebula Award and Hugo Award which all sci-fi novelists yearn long for, and the later sci-fi novels might have one less classic example to learn from.