Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #4


The capture of Reverend Mother Lucilla and her conversations with the Honored Matre leader serve to help the reader understand the Honored Matres and what makes them different from the Reverend Mothers.  The Great Honored Matre interrogates Lucilla in multiple sessions, all the time with Lucilla knowing she would be killed once they gave up trying to get what they wanted out of her.  The ultimate piece of information they wanted was the location of Chapterhouse so they could invade and destroy the Bene Gesserit home planet.  The Great Honored Matre is terribly interested in the abilities of a Reverend Mother and how the Bene Gesserit operate.  I enjoyed this particular exchange between the Great Honored Matre (Dama) and Lucilla:

“Why do you say you witches have no government?”
Wants to change the subject.  Our abilities worry her.  “That’s not what I said.  We have no conventional government.”
“Not even a social code?”
“There’s no such thing as a social code to meet all necessities.  A crime in one society can be a moral requirement in another society.”
“People always have government.” Orange completely faded.  Why does this interest her so much?
“People have politics.  I told you that yesterday.  Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible.”
(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 151-152)

How true.

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