I don’t know about your family history, but my guess is Dune speaks more to people who didn’t have good male role models/mentoring/parenting (e.g., involved fathers) for large parts of their life. Paul learns a bit from his father before he dies, but more from Gurney, Stilgar, Liet-Kynes, etc.
Paul is 15 when his father dies, which makes him a half-orphan/paternal-orphan. Orphans have interesting and complex roles in fiction: https://youtu.be/mnbeC6g3Ugo
Dune feels more genuine than other orphan stories. Paul’s arc is meaningful to me because he succeeds in filling in the gaps and then excelling beyond what would be expected.
None of those possibilities were things I hadn’t considered, nor do they explain the data. I continue to not understand.
I don’t know about your family history, but my guess is Dune speaks more to people who didn’t have good male role models/mentoring/parenting (e.g., involved fathers) for large parts of their life. Paul learns a bit from his father before he dies, but more from Gurney, Stilgar, Liet-Kynes, etc.
Paul is 15 when his father dies, which makes him a half-orphan/paternal-orphan. Orphans have interesting and complex roles in fiction: https://youtu.be/mnbeC6g3Ugo
Dune feels more genuine than other orphan stories. Paul’s arc is meaningful to me because he succeeds in filling in the gaps and then excelling beyond what would be expected.