Pretty recently (and with much media coverage) Woody Allen's memoir was canceled after significant internal and public backlash. I suppose it's an example of being both social-media canceled and actually *canceled*. https://time.com/5798335/woody-allen-memoir-canceled/

If you haven’t eaten in 48 hours, you’d describe a lot of things in a way that makes them seem like huge red flags. I don’t think we can get an accurate read on whether this is toxic or whether this is typical heteronormative BS because the narrator of this story was at their absolute limit of emotional control at the time it happened. That’s not a healthy place to be, whether you’re in a toxic environment or a pretty standard one.

I suppose some people are so principled that they walk out on their entire relationship because their boyfriend happens to have been raised in a fairly typical heteronormative household, or because that same boyfriend has some relatives they disagree with politically. Many, many Americans spent yesterday in homes where the women cooked while the men watched TV, and where they got annoyed with their relatives who baited them about their policies. If that was the bar for “so toxic you need to leave” the January divorce rate would be nearing 100%. It’s not great. It’s not okay in the sense that we shouldn’t try to improve it. But it is unfortunately normal and common enough that some of the onus is on the individual to better manage their ability to respond to it.

You need to eat, honey. You’re not going to deal well with life’s little annoyances (and yes, these are little annoyances) if you haven’t eaten anything in 48 hours. It’s not healthy. I don’t know what you’re punishing yourself for, but you aren’t gonna get your head right if you don’t take care of your body.

You can see it here on page 6 of the graphic novel: https://read.amazon.com/sample/B08Q1YX586?f=4&l=en_US&rid=A0TJE7VWFDASA9J9PD2W&sid=142-1900824-3645235&ref_=litb_m Brian Herbert is Frank Herbert’s son, so any translation/edition with his name on it is generally legit.

Fwiw I’ve always assumed Frank Herbert did this on purpose. The language of Dune was meant to be derived from old Earth languages, and this is an old French phrase. I figured it ended up in there as a nod to those roots—or he just came across it in his research, liked the exactness of it, and stole it, like all good writers :)

The French translation of the litany does refer to it by the same phrase. As much as Americans like to imagine French people are all very poetic, in everyday conversation the word French people use to describe an orgasm is “orgasme” so there would be no confusion about the meaning. “Petite-mort” used to refer to fainting—another temporary weakness/unconsciousness—but it’s not an everyday phrase. I’m not a native speaker but I lived in the Swiss part of France for a while and dated many native speakers, and they all exclusively used the more literal term in a sexual context. I’ve always assumed that Herbert used it intentionally—the Reverend Mother who puts Paul Atriedes through the ordeal where he says the litany speaks an old French-derived language, so it makes sense that a French phrase would creep into the text.

Edited: If you’re curious, the text I have is below. It doesn’t have the exact same cadence as the original, but it retains the same sentiment, and has a style of its own. Litanie contre la Peur

Je ne connaîtrais pas la peur, car la peur tue l'esprit. La peur est la petite mort qui conduit à l'oblitération totale. J'affronterai ma peur. Je lui permettrai de passer sur moi, au travers de moi. Et lorsqu'elle sera passée, je tournerai mon oeil intérieur sur son chemin. Et là où elle sera passée, il n'y aura plus rien.

Rien que moi.