Winds of Dune in Ottawa

The most famous epic in science fiction history comes to the nation’s capital

Anderson: "Our collaboration is like a jazz performance."

At this point in its existence, the epic mythology born from Frank Herbert’s original Dune books is three million words long. “My father wrote maybe a million words and Kevin and I two million,” according to Brian Herbert, co-author with Kevin Anderson of Winds of Dune.

It’s astonishing considering where the idea germinated: “Dad started from one singe haiku he wrote about nature,” Herbert says wryly. But as the two writers expand on the legacy they adore, it seems deserving that the Dune books would grow to such immense fame: “[Dune] is a book that really resonates in the subconscious. Dad studied Freud, Jung, all of these thinkers. He wrote the book so that the detritus would stick to a reader.” Here Herbert pauses, and Anderson smoothly takes up the conversation: “Each time I read it, there are more and more facets to it… When a writer creates a book, you purposefully plot and create… but a lot of the real depth to a book is unconscious.”

Rarely have I ever done a three-person interview, but Herbert and Anderson are such a practised pair that it runs seamlessly. Collaborative work in writing is very rare, as it is often regarded with an unconscious prejudice, but with this pair a feeling of clarity and confidence in the work comes across.

“Our collaboration is like a jazz performance, with each of us riffing off each other. It’s a real synergy. The two of us develop plot points that neither would create on our own.” Now, when Anderson pauses, Herbert again takes up the reins: “When Kevin and I work together we become a different, third writer in collaboration than either one would be on our own.”

There is an immense confidence built up between the writing partners, who exchange countless emails as they produce an average of one Dune book each year, but with astonishingly little editing discussion. “When we exchange texts, there are no editing marks. We just change things. I trust what Brian does with my writing and he trusts what I do with his.”

The pair are known for engaging and fan-oriented readings, weighing less time to reading from a text, which, according to Anderson, “a reader can read anywhere,” and more towards “giving them a chance to know us, to have their questions answered and to share the love they have for this [Dune] world.” Ottawa fans can expect a rousing, celebratory evening.

As appeared in the Ottawa XPress – Aug. 13, 2009
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=18011