Dr. William Batchelder, associate professor of history and director of the Honors Program at Waynesburg University, recently published his essay, “Dune: The Perfect Deathwork,” with conservative thought journal Modern Age. This marks his debut publication with the journal, which follows a recent revision of their website.
For the past several years, Dr. Batchelder has delved deep into the works of social theorist Philip Rieff, completing a semester-long sabbatical for his academic work supported by the University. One of Rieff’s concepts in his later work that sparked particular interest for Dr. Batchelder focuses on “deathworks,” modern artforms created by artists and intellectuals which go against Christian and Jewish culture.
“Often, these ‘deathworks’ offer an artistic presentation of atheism, which Rieff once called an ‘address to the Nothing,’ explained Dr. Batchelder. “But Rieff also understood that there was a compulsion in people, even people who regarded themselves as irreligious, to seek after an authority higher than themselves.”
Inspired by the late work of Rieff, Dr. Batchelder’s “Dune: The Perfect Deathwork” explores Frank Herbert’s bestselling science fiction novel “Dune” against Rieff’s theories on deathworks and the “idea of a metadivine that modern people return to in therapeutic half-belief.”
“Interpreted according to Rieff's theory, Dune is a perfect deathwork,” shared Dr. Batchelder. “Where it concerns the Judeo-Christian religious inheritance, it is hostile and atheistic. But Herbert also offered a powerful new myth in place of traditional religion. I work through this myth, as I understand it, in my essay.”
In Dr. Batchelder’s Honors 105 course at Waynesburg University, students complete close text studies of classic Greek plays using Rieff’s metadivine concept in pre-Christian cultures. He also uses Rieff’s concept in his Church History course as a means to discuss the difference between what Christians of the time and pagans believed about the divine.
Along with close friend and philosopher at Montgomery College, Michael Harding, Dr. Batchelder will soon publish an edited volume of essays through the United Kingdom academic publisher Bloomsbury, titled “The Philosophy of Philip Rieff: Cultural Conflict, Religion and the Self.”
Dr. Batchelder’s advice for students aspiring to become published writers is to “master the material you want to write about.”
“The more deeply you read and re-read, the more quickly you can write when the time comes,” he said. “Take the trouble to take extensive notes, it makes putting essays together easier because you have the material on hand. Most of all, read and study and think until you feel compelled to write - compelled by the love of your subject, by some powerful moral concerns, or by the desire to live the philosophic life through asking hard questions.”
To read the full essay published with Modern Age, visit modernagejournal.com/dune-the-perfect-deathwork/242023/.
