In episode 258 of the Parker's Pensées Podcast, I'm joined by Jess of the Shire to compare and contrast Arrakis and Middle-earth, Frank Herbert and J.R.R. Tolkien. We had a lot of fun covering everything from dragons to sandworms, to personality quirks of Herbert and Tolkien. Check out Jess's fantastic channel here: https://youtube.com/@Jess_of_the_Shire →Sponsors/Discounts Check out https://murdycreative.co/PARKERNOTES and use promo code PARKERNOTES at check out for 10% off your entire order!! Grab a Field Notes notebook or memo book wallet like the one from the video from my affiliate link here to support my work and use promo code PARKERNOTES for 10% off your entire order: https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/daily-carry-leather-notebook-cover?aff=44 Grab a Saddleback Leather medium Moleskine/Leuchtturm1917 cover from my affiliate link here to support my channel: https://saddlebackleather.com/leather-moleskine-cover-medium/?ktk=d0pac01BLWJmZWY1MmZiYTFi Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYbTRurpFP5q4TpDD_P2JDA/join Join the Facebook group, Parker's Pensées Penseurs, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/960471494536285/ If you like this podcast, then support it on Patreon for $3, $5 or more a month. Any amount helps, and for $5 you get a Parker's Pensées sticker and instant access to all the episode as I record them instead of waiting for their release date. Check it out here: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/parkers_pensees If you want to give a one-time gift, you can give at my Paypal: https://paypal.me/ParkersPensees?locale.x=en_US Check out my merchandise at my Teespring store: https://teespring.com/stores/parkers-penses-merch Come talk with the Pensées community on Discord: dsc.gg/parkerspensees Sub to my Substack to read my thoughts on my episodes: https://parknotes.substack.com/ 0:00 - Jess the Face-Essayist Cosplayer 13:24 - Jess's favorite LOTR character 15:54 - Technology in LOTR and Dune 23:50 - Frank Herbert the Philosopher 26:02 - Would Tolkien and Herbert have been friends? 32:44 - Is Paul Atreides the baddie? 34:33 - Why Did Tolkien Dislike Dune? 44:36 - Dragons or Sand Worms? 56:50 - Tolkien's Eucatastrophe vs. Herbert's Recurrent Shape 1:01:42 - What about Space Wizards? 1:06:37 - Jess's script writing and video production process