MILWAUKEE — As a college student, sometimes you have tough decisions to make. Take a required class for your rigorous physics major, or a class that has nothing to do with your major but is pretty cool.
“In all reality, it’s in a time slot that one of my requirements for my physics major is in, but I said, you know what, I’m going to move that cause I want to take this class," Leo Ruffolo, a physics major at Marquette University, said.
There are many physics classes at Marquette University. But there is only one class on the science fiction series considered to be among the best of all time, Dune.
“I love it so much, and what could be better than a class where I just get to talk about a book that I love?" Ruffolo said.
Your physics professors may say your physics courses, Leo, but I’m with you on this one. After all, I was a student who took Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, a James Bond Class, and Dying, Death, and the Afterlife.
Watch the story to learn why students are so excited to take a class solely dedicated to Dune...
Ruffolo is one of 50 students in this one-of-a-kind class offered for the very first time at Marquette.
It's taught by English professor Gerry Canavan. He wanted to teach the class partially to celebrate the series’ 60th anniversary, but also because of the parallels he sees in the book and our current society.
“Show this kind of tremendous relevance that it has to our ecological politics, to our, you know, just kind of partisan politics, to the politics of AI and machine learning, and just Dune is speaking to the present in this really interesting way," Canavan said.
The series is set 20,000 years in the future on a planet called Arrakis. Paul Atreides, giant worms, prophets, and a vicious struggle over a resource called spice have captivated readers for 60 years.
“It’s great to study Dune as a historical document that’s 60 years old and also feel like it could have been written yesterday," Canavan said.
Plus, there has been a newfound popularity thanks to two recent movies starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. There was also a Dune movie that came out in 1984, but it wasn't as well-received.
“I heard about his Dune class for a while. I thought it was a bit of a rumor at first. I eventually got it confirmed that it was going to happen. I signed up right away," History and Digital Media double major, Brennan Wills, said.
Many students were like Wills. That's why this Dune class is the biggest course of its kind that Professor Canavan has ever taught. He's also had courses on Lord of the Rings, Infinite Jest, and Watchmen. It's even more remarkable that Dune has been more popular than The Lord of the Rings, considering Marquette is one of two places in the world that has J.R.R. Tolkien’s original manuscripts.
In the class, students are reading the first Dune book and Dune Messiah. Then they will read excerpts from Children of Dune and God Emperor. The class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays to do group discussions on the readings. Then on Fridays, they break out into individual groups that focus on topics like religion, politics, power, or ecology,
For readers, moviegoers, and students alike, it's not necessarily the crazy sci-fi technology that attracts fans but the politics of humanity in the story. It's first class world building that transports fans into the books.
“They prioritize relationships and ideology in this text as opposed to the actual science fiction in a science fiction world," Wills said.
Stories like Dune, which is 60 years old, have a way of being relevant no matter when they are read. Professor Gerry Canavan is helping students navigate the world of today with a book set 20,000 years in the future.
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