House Corrino - Entry #4

So I came across a little foreshadowing that I did not notice upon earlier readings since I did not know then the end of the epic tale.  Ajidica and Count Fenring are discussing the plans for the final test of the synthetic drug Amal that is supposed to be an acceptable replacement for melange.  The most critical test must be on a Navigator to determine if the synthetic drug provides the same ability to fold space.  Ajidica has been taking Amal in larger and larger doses and was experiencing "messianic, prescient visions" (House Corrino, p. 272).  To support his vision of "leading immense military forces against the infidel Great Houses" (House Corrino, p. 272), his plan involved using an army of Face Dancers (shape-shifters) that would not only replace key people in the Imperium but would literally be his army of devoted soldiers.  He was able to do this by "growing" his own Face Dancers in axlotl tanks and programming them accordingly.  So here is the paragraph that foreshadows things to come 5,000 years in the future:

Zoal had many siblings, Face Dancers grown here in the axlotl tanks, mutable creatures loyal only to him and to his grand, concealed plan.  On expendable ships, he had already dispatched more than fifty Face Dancers to scout uncharted planets and establish beachheads for his future empire.  Some of these ships journeyed far beyond the mapped star systems of the Imperium, searching for ways that Ajidica could spread his influence.  It would take time ...."

(House Corrino, p. 272)

Then, when the test using Amal was a colossal failure, there was another little tidbit that went unnoticed in prior readings.  As the Guild was trying to figure out what had caused the Heighliner accidents and killed their Navigators, there was one line that was so easy to overlook:

The meditating Navigator hovered over the expanse of nameless plaques and communed with the ancient heart of the Spacing Guild, the Oracle of Infinity.

(House Corrino, p. 404)

No other clue is provided.  So it seems that all along, the Guild Navigators were communing with the original, none other than Norma Cenva.  A fitting title for her, the Oracle of Infinity.  You have to read to the very end of the story, in Dune 7 which Frank Herbert outlined but did not write, to really appreciate the importance of this.  Thankfully, that outline was stored in a safety deposit box and eventually came to be in the hands of Frank Herbert's son Brian.  Brian used that outline to write Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune instead of a single book as the one book would have been just too long.

The final quote I'd like to pull out of House Corrino before I move on to reading Frank Herbert's Dune is a chapter starter near the end of the book.  As the book is wrapping up, the author sets the table for the epoch changes just on the horizon for the Imperium.  Part of that involves insight in to the mystical life of the Fremen.

There is no doubt that the desert has mystical qualities.  Deserts, traditinoally, are the wombs of religion.

--Missionaria Protectiva Report to the Mother School

(House Corrino, p. 658)

(1987, Timna Valley, can't you just picture Abraham wondering here, talking with God?)

Having made several trips to Israel including two full summers and one half summer, I definitely get it.  There is something about the desert.  In that small region of desert, three major religions of Earth began.  And when you are there, standing on that ground, you feel it.  Especially on quiet nights when you only hear the sounds of nature.

(1987, Timna Valley, Solomon's Pillars ... or entrance to Red Wall Sietch)

(1987, the Wilderness of Zin, here the Hebrews wandered for 40 years before led into the "land of milk and honey" ... or Shield Wall just near Arrakeen)