> Dave continues, discussing a P.K. Dick story in which the characters take turns holding their fingers in a cigarette lighter. In the story, they're not burned, because Dick, but you could imagine playing this as a brutal game in our non-Dick universe. In fact I thought I might have heard of people playing exactly this game, but I'm not sure.
Given the amount of influence the book Seven Pillars of Wisdom pretty clearly had on Dune, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that's a case of the film Lawrence of Arabia (1962) influencing Dune (1965)—that little exchange could plausibly be the seed of inspiration that became the Gom Jabbar scene.
Reminds me of Lawrence of Arabia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQViPBAvPk
> Ow. It damn well hurts!
> Certainly it hurts.
> Well what's the trick then?
> The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.