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"Was this in the film or the book?"

It was certainly in the movie. It has been 25 years since I read the book; I cannot recall if these specific scenes were in the book. I believe they were. In general I found the movie to be quite accurate in following Herbert's book.

--Boris

I agree that the movie was, on the whole, quite faithful to the book. Especially compared with most filmed versions of books. Like I said, the director Lynch even made an attempt to portray many of the characters' interior voices, which was unusual (and off-putting to some), which at times were taken verbatim from the book.

However, I believe that if the characters in the film actually spoke about "telepathy" and being "in" other peoples' minds (like the "get out of my mind!" line, which I do distinctly remember), this was a slight misrepresentation of the way Herbert portrayed such powers in the book, possibly to make things simpler to understand for the moviegoing audience (which in general may have an easier time understanding "telepathy" than "truthsaying, based on prana-bindu training"). Having read 5 of the 6 books within the past six months, I can honestly say I never got the impression that any of these powers were meant to be understood as "telepathy" per se. What can I say.

You probably still have a point about the resemblance of Herbert's work/world to the other, earlier author (since I haven't read the work you describe, I cannot say). The only question in my mind then becomes, was Herbert aware of that other author's work at the time (early/mid 60s) he started work on Dune?

To me, a much clearer case of stolen ideas arises when comparing Dune with the first Star Wars film :)

I agree that the movie was, on the whole, quite faithful to the book. Especially compared with most filmed versions of books. Like I said, the director Lynch even made an attempt to portray many of the characters' interior thoughts, which was unusual (and off-putting to some), which at times were taken verbatim from the book.

However, I believe that if the characters in the film actually spoke about "telepathy" and being "in" other peoples' minds (like the "get out of my mind!" line, which I do distinctly remember), this was a slight misrepresentation of the way Herbert portrayed such powers in the book, possibly to make things simpler to understand for the moviegoing audience (which in general may have an easier time understanding "telepathy" than "truthsaying, based on prana-bindu training"). Having read 5 of the 6 books within the past six months, I can honestly say I never got the impression that any of these powers were meant to be understood as "telepathy" per se. What can I say.

This is probably hair-splitting anyway, since you probably still have a point about the resemblance of Herbert's work/world to the other, earlier author (since I haven't read the work you describe, I cannot say). The only question in my mind then becomes, was Herbert aware of that other author's work at the time (early/mid 60s) he started work on Dune?

To me, a much clearer case of stolen ideas arises when comparing Dune with the first Star Wars film :)