Frank Herbert’s Dune has been pushed to the forefront of popular discourse thanks to Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster adaptation (and the associated marketing push). Despite its status as a classic of American science fiction, Dune and the series it began have received less scholarly attention than contemporaries like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or the works of Kurt Vonnegut, meaning there is less expert consensus to guide commentators, pundits, and regular folks trying to sort out the novel’s meaning and politics, in its time and in ours.

The one thing that most scholars and commentators seem to agree is that “Dune is more relevant than ever.” Few agree, however, on just what aspects of the text are relevant today, to whom, or why. Some have decried Dune as an exemplar of the most toxic tropes lurking in science fiction, calling the novel an orientalist fever dream, a paean to eugenics, and a seductive monument to fascist aesthetics; others look at the same text and see an excoriation of hero worship, a cautionary tale of revolutionary dreams betrayed, and a warning about indigenous sovereignty subverted by a charismatic charlatan.

Both of these interpretations are grounded in clear textual evidence, and part of the novel’s enduring appeal is its ability to inspire such seemingly contradictory takes. Indeed, it’s not despite but because of these contradictions that the novel has exerted such a pull on the left-wing imagination over the years — and retains its uses for left-wing politics today.