The Battle of Corrin - Entry #1

Already at page 83 of The Battle of Corrin before the new year starts!!  The book starts off a little slow, continuing from The Machine Crusade but I know it will be picking up.  Since I have read all the books before, I know what will be coming.  However, I did not have this perspective when I first read The Battle of Corrin and it does make me look at things more closely.

For example, on page 34 I found this statement so much more critical than ever before: "Humankind could not fulfill its potential without her." (The Battle of Corrin, p. 34).  This quote was referring to Norma Cenva and you need to read the Dune books all the way to the end to know how profound this statement is.

The word "mentat" first appears in The Battle of Corrin and was created by Erasmus as "a term of endearment" (The Battle of Corrin, p. 54) for Gilbertus Albans.  An interesting point about that ... a robot created a new word that stuck in the human vocabulary.  Hmmmm.

And finally, for this blog entry, something that really has nothing to do with Dune.  I just loved this quote from Omnius: "We will have empirical evidence soon enough." (The Battle of Corrin, p. 57) I just don't recall ever having seen the word "empirical" used so perfectly in a work of fiction before.  Actually, I can't recall ever having seen the word in a work of fiction I have read before!  Every year there is an instance in the labs I teach for me to explain empirical evidence to my students.  I tell them that "empirical" is a $20 vocabulary word and that they will impress their instuctors if they use it correctly in lab reports.  In this case, Omnius was referring to the prediction that even though the infectious virus delivered by the thinking machines had only a 43% mortality rate, the human societies would collapse simply due to the unpredictability of humankind.

The Machine Crusade - Entry #6

Finally!  I am done with The Machine Crusade and have moved on to The Battle of Corrin!!  The last paragraph of The Machine Crusade is:

With a smile, Ishmael looked around, from face to face.  "We can live on this world as we choose, making our own lives and future.  We shall never be slaves again!"  He sighed with immense pride, and added, "From this day forward we shall call ourselves the Free Men of Arrakis." (The Machine Crusade, p. 695)

The Fremen ... tough bunch.

The Machine Crusade - Entry #5

Some miracles are only nightmares in disguise.

- SERENA BUTLER, Echoes of the Jihad

This was the chapter starter on p. 474 of The Machine Crusade.  The chapter was about a visit that Serena made to Tlulax wtih Rajid Suk and Xavier Harkonnen to inspect the "much-vaunted organ farms" (The Machine Crusade, p. 474).

Chills ... this quote gives me chills.  Knowing what humans can justify to do to each other is a nightmare.  We have plenty of evidence of this in the 20th century alone, along with evidence that many are willing to turn a blind eye.  The foreboding is clear here.

But moving on ... I am getting close to the end of the book and came across this quote:

"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over.  Without fear, I die but once." (The Machine Crusade, p. 621)

This is the first time that we hear this famous chant (or something close enough to it) in the DUNE story as told from the beginning.  Without looking it up, who spoke these lines in The Machine Crusade and what was the situation?  And remember, I am a teacher so there are no "prizes" for getting an answer right that is posed in a classroom discussion.  The satisfaction of getting the right answer is the only prize you need!