Interview with Frank Herbert and His Wife Beverly Herbert (1969)
This interview is, among other very interesting threads of various ideas, like a capsule course in writing fiction from a master. It is well worth reading as it is not simply about the story, but rather <i>how</i> he put together a story, constructed layers and characters, and something like sketching out the mechanics of the dynamic between author, text, and readers:<p><i>FH: You see, and so we turn the whole thing whirling backward through the story. There was another thing there, in the pacing of the story, very slow at the beginning. It’s a coital rhythm all the way through the story.<p>WM: It’s a what?<p>FH: Coital rhythm.<p>WM: OK.<p>FH: Very slow pace, increasing all the way through, and when you get to the ending of it, I chopped it at a non breaking point, so that the person reading the story skids out of the story, trailing bits of it with him. On this I know I was successful, because people come to me and say they want more and…</i><p>It&#x27;s a great read. Of course issues of power, structures of power, &quot;the voice&quot;, and all things Dune are there as well.