The Monstrefact: Chairdogs of Dune

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses one of the less known creatures from Frank Herbert’s “Dune” books…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And
this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,
ideas and monsters in time. The Dune novels of Frank

(00:25):
Herbert provide us with plenty of engrossing concepts and creations,
but today I thought we might stop to consider the
humble chair dog. To be fair, the chair dogs are
nowhere to be found in the first Dune novel, and
I don't think we've yet glimpsed them in a major
adaptation either. While Herbert mentioned the chair dogs in the

(00:45):
novel Whipping Star, they don't actually pop up in the
Dune universe until Heretics of Done. But when the chair
dogs arrive, we learned that they are very much what
they sound like, dogs that have been bred or engineered
to serve as furry mobile massage chairs for human beings.
After all, this is a fictional universe in which thinking

(01:06):
machines were cast down and human abilities were improved to
make up for they're lacking. The tally lack sue. For example,
Masters of Flesh Manipulation created many strange alterations to natural life,
so we might well judge chair dogs to be somewhat unwholesome.
But what mask about the gentle pug from our own world.

(01:30):
A breed of dog originating in ancient China, the pug
is one of humanity's most celebrated lapdogs. They even make
their way into the Dune universe via David Lynch's four
film adaptation How Citreedes proudly displays their pugs, and, unlike
many other characters in the story, actually survived to the
end of the film. Now, a pug is not quite

(01:52):
a chair dog, but it does demonstrate what selective breeding
by humans can accomplish over time. The pug in many
way almost resembles a tiny human, and its exaggerated form
is only growing more exaggerated. According to a two thousand
sixteen Canine Genetics and Epidemiology paper by Teeing at All,

(02:13):
the authors demonstrated that due to the popularity of pugs
and French bulldogs in Australia and the UK, the dog's short,
wide heads were growing increasingly shorter and wider. Human breeders
simply leaned into the characteristics that owners loved the most.
The researchers here argued that the veterinarians could use this information.

(02:34):
Brachycephalic breeds like this are prone to breathing difficulties, skin
and eye conditions, and digestive disorders. Is pointed out by
Broccole at All in a two thousand eighteen Journal of
Anatomy paper. The sorts of congenital vertebral mouth formations, including fusing,
found in pugs and other screw tailed dogs actually breaks

(02:55):
nature's tendency for seven vertebrae, with humans carefully la aiding
their domesticated pugs into a category otherwise reserved for wild
sloths and manatees. The Orange Catholic Bible tells us that
we should not make a machine in the likeness of
the human mind, but it seems we are permitted to
make a dog in the likeness of a lazy boy

(03:16):
recliner and a pug in the likeness of a throat pillow.
Tune into additional episodes of The Artifact or the Monster
Fact each week. As always, you can email us at
contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. Stuff

(03:40):
to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio.
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