Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #7

It has been since the start of this academic year, late August 2012, since I have earnestly read in the Dune series and since I have posted in this blog.  That is a testimony to the consuming work of being a full-time teacher.  No longer half administrator (goodbye to department head position, I do not miss it and I have no doubts of the choice to step down), I am fully immersed in my courses and students … and loving it.

Now that the end of the academic year is in sight, I reset my objective of completing this journey in Dune.  To do so, I need to start Chapterhouse: Dune from the beginning again. I just finished the first chapter and what a joy!  Re-immersing myself in this story and these characters is rejuvenating; like a vacation at the beach if you know what I mean.

In this first chapter, we are observing Mother Superior Odrade and her thoughts about how to strategize against the Honored Matre onslaught.  Interestingly and not surprisingly, I found a quote that I hadn’t highlighted before which got my attention this time:

The Sisterhood had no need for archaeologists.  Reverend Mother embodied history.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 5)

I quoted the chapter starter from this first chapter back in Entry #1 for this book.  It was in the Bene Gesserit Coda … if you plan to repeat history then you must control the teaching of it.  The importance of the role of history AND the teaching of it cannot be understated.