Categories
Science Fiction and Fantasy

Those Meddling Jedi Aunts

Herbert’s inspiration for the Bene Gesserit were his ten maternal aunts, devout Irish Catholics who attempted to force Catholicism upon him in his youth (and ironically thus resulted in him taking up Zen Buddhism instead). All either Jesuits or members the Society of Jesus, the name “Bene Gesserit” was corrupted from “Jesuit”, as Herbert imagined what an all-female Jesuit order would be like.

via Only a Game: Religion in Science Fiction (3): Dune.