The Plowboy Interview: Frank Herbert

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PLOWBOY: But you feel pretty sure humankind will be able to make the necessary changes?

HERBERT: I think they'll be forced on us. Oh, we'll make some mistakes. We'll probably have a number of fanatic leaders and such to deal with in the years to come. I don't see the future as being all sweetness and light, by any means. Learning from mistakes is a very slow process. It may take us 20,000 or 25,000 years to get to where, I feel, we have to go.

PLOWBOY: Still, you think humanity will survive . . . and improve itself in the process.

HERBERT: Yes, and I also think that, in the far future, human beings will have scattered—in separate societies—to numerous faraway planets. Don't forget, though, when you hear me say these things, that prediction is a form of false mythology.

Why, even the idea that there's such a thing as the future is a bunch of semantic nonsense . . . because there'll always be changes and new events that no one can foresee.

PLOWBOY: So I should take all your projections of what will happen to humanity with a few grains of salt.

HERBERT: Of course.

PLOWBOY: You know, Mr. Herbert, it figures that you'd give me a prediction and then tell me not to believe it . . . because, throughout this interview, it's been all but impossible to pin you down to "neatly packaged" ideas. In fact, your concept of technopeasantry seems, in essence, to call for people to adopt a questioning state of mind that deliberately avoids set solutions. I can imagine that many men and women who read your books or hear your ideas would prefer to be given a clear and uncomplicated plan they could respond to.

HERBERT: Very likely, Monsieur Stone . . . but I don't believe in simple answers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Frank Herbert's books are available through any good bookstore. Paperback copies of Dune ($2.75), Dune Messiah ($2.50), Children of Dune ($2.50), The Santaroga Barrier ($2.25), and Soul Catcher ($1.95) can be ordered for their list prices-Plus 500 shipping and handling per book ($1.50 for orders of four or more books)-from Book Mailing Service, Dept. TMEN, P.O. Box 690, Rockville Centre, New York 11571. (Incidentally, both Mr. Herbert and MOTHER's interviewer like Soul Catcher best.)

Herbert's new book, God Emperor of Dune (publication date: May 6, 1981), can be ordered-in hardback only-from G.P. Putnam's Sons, Sales Department (TMEN), 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 for $12.95 plus $1.50 shipping and handling.

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