Off the top of my head I don’t remember how much the book of #Dune talks about the Harkonnen use of gladiatorial combat, but the movie draws a relatively subtle link between their idea of it and bullfighting - the guys in the wide black hats are like picadors, who stab the bull with lances to weaken it. I’ll avoid spoilers on a 60-year-old book or the new movie, but it’s a fun subtle thing.
@GrittyLipids
The impression I have is that it's not just the Harkonnen; it appears to be normal in Imperial high society to challenge. Count Fenring is (tacitly) the emperor's champion and (an?) ambassador and has an appallingly lethal reputation; if he challenges you it's effectively an Imperial death sentence.
I’m not really talking about the challenging. That’s just like duels and having stand-ins so the nobles express discontent while killing other people instead of themselves. It’s more how both houses have ways of proving the butch manliness of their leaders in front of the masses - the #Atreides kill bulls, the #Harkonnens kill captives. Even if the other houses have versions of that, there’s a very specific resemblance between Atreides and Harkonnen.
@GrittyLipids
Ah OK, thank you. Pretty sure the bullfighting is offstage in the book, if it's there at all; maybe mentioned in passing. No idea about the films.
I think Herbert mentions how Leto’s father died fighting a bull, but that’s about it, unless that comes up in books after the first. I need to read Messiah, which is conveniently next on the list after #InfiniteDetail.
@GrittyLipids@bookstodon
Damn, I think that's right. The Shadout Mapes wants to clean the blood off the horns of the bull's head. I'd entirely forgotten. Cheers!
(FWIW, I re-read Children and Chapterhouse recently. Not worth while, IMO; very much less interesting than I remembered. No bullfighting in either.)
@GrittyLipids@bookstodon
I suppose there is a little nod at bullfighting in the way Herbert describes using hooks on a worm to force it to stay on the surface, as well. I'd missed that.