I feel sorry for Dune lovers

Reading The Butlerian Jihad is like living through a war: years afterwards you unexpectedly find yourself having flashbacks to particularly painful parts. Thus, the other night, I couldn't stop thinking about the "character" Erasmus. I use quotation marks because no one in the book was given more than a cursory characterization, if that. Each has one aspect that is simply trotted out over and over again, which gets really old when that aspect is bitchiness, say. With Erasmus, it's a complete lack of empathy. Despite the fact that he is supposed to be a very intelligent and engaging machine in a world where machines have learned to rule humans quite smoothly, he can't grasp that a woman might be mad if he neuters her so that she won't be distracted from him by children. Or that humans might be disturbed by the knowledge that he enjoys vivisections. And the actual humans were worse. I found myself wishing for a Cliffs Notes version, so that I could get the backstory without actually hearing any of the characters open their mouths. Of course, the Butlerian Jihad doesn't actually happen in The Butlerian Jihad, and no matter how much I want to know what happens, I can't bring myself to read any more.