Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985

Note: This is a complete digitization of the entire tape recording provided to us by the UCLA Campus Events Commission. The tape is from 1985 and our department cannot explain the cuts in portions of the tape. We only digitized what we were given.

I read Dune in the 80's when I was 13. I will tell you this if you're watching this before the (2nd version) movie. Read the book first. Don't cheat yourself out of the rich experience of seeing it all in your mind first.

"It doesn't make a damn bit of difference whether it's a fascist bureaucracy, a so-called capitalist or oligarchic bureaucracy, or a communist or socialist bureaucracy. To the people looking up at the bottom of it, they're identical."

Herbert on when a bureaucracy becomes an aristocracy "They pass the power along to their children...We don't have that in the states yet". Fast forward to today.

I remember going to this. They had a video camera taping the speech. There was a decent sized crowd, but not huge, and he signed a lot of books afterwards. I read that he was suffering from intestinal cancer at the time, and was receiving some type of hypothermic treatment for it. He was really nice to everyone afterwards, and let me take a photo of him outside, although sadly it did not come out.

"If I were born in my Grandfarthers time I would've made my Grandfarthers mistakes, I just think it's nonsense, stupidity to make my Grandfarthers mistakes today..." Frank Herbert 1985 What a mind! Just a crumb of the wisdom from this man. It saddens me to hear them discuss and talk about topics we still debate today, showing the painful climb and failure to adapt to the tolerance of others and to live with the world, not against it.

6:57 About engineers and engineering. 28:10 How Herbert pronounces "Bene Gesserit". 46:39 About science. 47:58 About individual responsibility. 52:40 About creative process of writing.

there are terrible cuts in this recording. I am grateful for it nonetheless.

"I think there is a bad idea in the world, about power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think it's rather that absolute power attracts the corruptible." - Frank Herbert (34 min mark) Man, I've never heard this spin before, but it is a revelation of sorts. Thinking of an adage as a charismatic person, for instance, we tend to not even question those, and yet here Frank Herbert is telling us that even an adage, though logical and thoughtful , still can get it wrong. Everyone knows that absolute power can corrupt absolutely, but no one thinks about it from the opposite direction where, that power is what's drawing the corrupt in. Man, Frank Herbert truly was a unique thinker, and it's very inspiring to say the least!

I just want to know what the results of the egg drop are. And is Fernando Bravo enjoying his sweet new HP calculator?

I read Dune and Dune Messiah back in 1985-86 and was able to catch the Dune movie in the theater. It's been a long time and glad I finally got to hear Frank talk about the book and hear his intellect. Thanks for the memory!

Frank Herbert was a genius and was going strong, even at this point and time but his health wasn't. In the interview, he pauses every time and makes these soft coughs and this is an indication of pulmonary embolism which was slowly killing him at this point. He would die a year later.

Absolute gem of a speech. Thank you so much for this upload. If only there were more people like this brilliant mind.

" The only thing wrong with the universe is that we haven't invented the right machine yet" Solid Gold.

Herbert was such a brilliant man, he had a true passion to pass on what he learned and really focused on the youth.

Skip to 3:00 to hear Frank Herbert.

pls upload unedited version!

Thanks for uploading this, even if it's not the full version. Frank Herbert was a remarkable person.

Congratulations Ruth Yoon for winning at the micro-computer fair!

Thank you Mr Herbert.