Originally Posted by
wacey
Nothing but an Ni valuer will do. The Dune series, and most of his other novels (I've read them all), are the epitome of introverted intuition.
Look at the Bene Geserit, a group of people who have been breed over centuries to notice the tiny minuete body language expressions of others. They manipulate with tone of voice, the read into the past behaviours of others and project their cognitions into the future. Even eating the spice gives them access to the thousands of generations of people's consciousness from the past. I guess these traits could be prescribed to Ni, Fe information. Then there are the mentats, people who are breed to value logical, order, rationality, truth, mathematics, politics, government. They think like machines, calculate like computers. The are both types of logicals, both the logics of action and the logics of structure. Mentats are Te/Ti. Then you have the Fremen, the indigenious people who populate Dune. They are tough, desert hardened, showing quick mercy, but also quick loyalties and brief positive emotions. They live in the here and now, the present, judgding others for "the good of the tribe". They are aware of strength, weakness, they are bold, truthful, engaged, courageous. I guess they could be said to represent informational elements like Se. Being as they are superstitious, suseptable to religious influence and primarily cognizant of aspect of time and the efforts to terraform their planet, I would say they are from a Beta/Gamma quadra value lines.
Overall I would place the Dune series at least somewhere in Beta and Gamma. The Fe in Alpha is more generous whereas in Beta, like in the novels, its more used as a tool for manipulation. Herbert's novels are studed with ethics of relations juxtaposed beside brutal harsh realities, like those found on a uncomfortable desert planet like Dune. People are often aware and cognizant of their physical states. These characters are seen as superior in their society and I guess this would correlate with Si. So dune has Fe, Ni, Se, Si, Fi, Te, Ti themes running throughout it. Something for everyone. I would say, though, that for the most part the novels are very introverted intuition. The style of language used is very much free association with little actual descriptive details of the world in particular, such as like what the building look like. The characters struggle with the weight of history and past deeds, the protagonist Paul is trying to change the course of history and the consistent status quo. He is literally the first human being who was capable of stepping out of time.
In regards to the author Frank Herbert, I would say no matter what kind of logical type he might be (thats still remains to be seen), he must definitely is highly cognizant and proficient in introverted intuition.
The thing with books is that its overall theme, including the politics and duty, and manipulation, is this sense of scale. This empire and the people within it are dramatized as players within a broader context. I think this is essentially introverted intuition, seeing the complete picture and scope of the broader socio-econimic and cultural perspectives. It's this sense of scale, of standing outside of the very world his narration seeks to participate within, is essentially how I see introverted sensing applied in the form of writing.
Herbert had an very comprehensive imagination to write this kind of science fiction he did before any other author had attempted to so completely. He verily described the inner workings and outer cultural components of his fictional Dune Universe. Few other atuhors before him, such as JRR Tolkein had done the same. Although Tolkein was an Ne/ Fi type.
Herbert drew from mutlple avaneus of human endeavour like history, culture, religion, sexual freedoms, the roles of people within societies and the effects of government and control as well as the effects of ecology on the species living within it. This might sound like an Ne approach, drawing from many disciplines of humanities and science, sure.
However, the style in which Herbert employs while narrating are essentially discussing "cause and effect". His themes are illuminating the cause and effect of human action. Cause and effect of religions playing on peoples sense of duty, prophecy, societal control. There are the cause and effect of power within governments, the effects of the ruling class on the poor. They talk about the cause and effect of sexuality and how this relates to men and women. They are about the cause and effects of religion on individuals and ending at the grand scale of mutiple societies stretching across multiple solar systems. The cause and effects of environment on culture and economics. It's these overarching grand schemes that are the epitome of Ni.
Further, Herbert writes in a stream of consciousness omniscient narration whereby he very craftly describes his worlds not outright, such as saying this city "looked like this", or that man was wearing "these types of clothing". His narration is predominately intuitive in nature. He describes intangible human styles of cognition, behaviour, the ever changing destnies of histories bygone, present and projections into the future. Open a page of his books and you are immediatly swept up by a introverted intuition valuer.
To continue, Herbert wrote his novels in fits and starts, sometimes jumping in at certain points when the inspiration moved him. He wrote outside of chronology. It was for this reason his son had such a difficult time piecing the scraps of his work together in a way that created a convincing plot.
Herbert was also deeply devoted and in love and in a monogamous relationship to his wife. He always said it was from her strong relationship to him that brought him connected to parts of himself that he would otherwise been out of touch with. I think this relates to socionics Fi. Also, in the provided interview, I see him as essentially positivist with strong logical mindframe . His idea of power and economics is very Gamma Te. He was fasinated with biology and a true naturalist. He would often travel within National parks seeking out new eco-systems to draw inspiration from.
His writings prove that he was capable and fasinated with probing into the deeper complex situations and attempt to explain how and why they occured. He realized this gift through writing. His characters struggle with ideas and principles within harsh realities. I see him as a sort of gentler, more approachable Alan Watts (Te-LIE).