Dune Messiah - Entry #5

Semester-ending work has gotten in my way of writing here but right now I am using the blog to procrastinate on grading.  But after this, the stack of lab reports are waiting ...

The transcendent and prescient vision that Alia has shortly after the scene described in the prior entry is such sweet foreshadowing.  When I first read Dune Messiah, I didn’t understand the vision, but upon returning to this book now after having read all the books, the scene with Alia in her spice trance speaking with Duncan is so meaningful.

     “Look at the Shield Wall,” she commanded, pointing.  She sent her gaze along her own outstretched hand, trembled as the landscape crumbled in an overwhelming vision – a sandcastle destroyed by invisible waves.  She averted her eyes, was transfixed by the appearance of the ghola’s face.  His features crawled, became aged, then young … aged … young.  He was life itself, assertive, endless … She turned to flee, but he grabbed her left wrist.

(Dune Messiah, p. 240)

The who conversation between Duncan and Alia over these pages was fascinating but I can’t repeat it all here … those who have read all the books, I suggest you go back and read this chapter (pp. 235-244).  The chapter ends with Alia coming slowly down from the deep trance induced by the heavy dose of mélange and her sensing a child of the future.

She heard a fetal heartbeat, a child of the future.  The mélange still possessed her, then, setting her adrift in Time.  She knew she had tasted the life of a child not yet conceived.  One thing certain about this child – it would suffer the same awakening she had suffered.  It would be an aware, thinking entity before birth.

(Dune Messiah, p. 244)

I just can’t picture who this child is.  It can’t be Leto or Ghanima as they were already both conceived and soon to be born.  Since I certainly don’t have a perfect memory of all that is to come, I hope to figure this out as I reread the remaining books.

In Alia’s trance, she had told Duncan that “They’re creating a universe where he won’t permit himself to live” (Dune Messiah, p. 244) where the ‘he’ Alia is referring to is Paul.  And she is so right.

     Paul felt his soul begging for respite, but still the vision moved him.  Just a little farther now, he told himself.  Black, visionless dark awaited him just ahead.  There lay the place ripped out of the vision by grief and guilt, the place where the moon fell.

(Dune Messiah, p. 262)

Just a little reminder … the Fremen called one of their moons Muad’dib.

The climax for this book is quite dramatic with the ghola internal conflict that frees his memories of Duncan Idaho, the birth of the twins, the death of Chani, and then Paul walking off intentionally but blindly into the desert.  So much in these last twenty or so pages of the book.  I will wrap up my discourse on Dune Messiah with this:

      The Bene Tleilax and the Guild had overplayed their hands and had lost, were discredited.  The Qizarate was shaken by the treason of Korba and others high within it.  And Paul’s final voluntary act, his ultimate acceptance of their customs, had ensured the loyalty of the Fremen to him and to his house.  He was one of them forever now.

(Dune Messiah, p. 276)

Dune Messiah – Entry #4

The loading of the ghola weapon is fascinating.  The way Bijaz, the Tleilaxu dwarf, talks with Hayt is quick, witty, and reveals more of the plot.

     “Do you preach that false ritual about Muad’dib to your guards?” Hayt asked, his voice low.  He felt his mind being tangled by the dwarf’s words.

     “They preach to me!” Bijaz said.  “And they pray.  Why should they not?  All of us should pray.  Do we not live in the shadow of the most dangerous creation the universe has ever seen?”

     “Dangerous creation …”

     “Their own mother refuses to live on the same planet with them!”

     “Why don’t you answer me straight out?” Hayt demanded.  “You know we have other ways of questioning you.  We’ll get our answers … one way or another.”

     “But I have answered you!  Have I not said the myth is real?  Am I the wind that carries death in its belly? No! I am words! Such words as the lightning which strikes from the sand in a dark sky.  I have said: ‘Blow out the lamp! Day is here!’ And you keep saying: ‘Give me a lamp so I can find the day.’”

(Dune Messiah, p. 228)

Shortly after this exchange, Hayt realizes that the dwarf is manipulating him, trying to trigger him to be the weapon to kill the Emperor.    Bijaz explains how they were grown in the same axlotl tank, how they are like brothers.  Hayt tries to exercise his free will, that he will not be forced to kill Muad’dib.

     “You believed the silly Emperor was the prize we sought,” Bijaz said.  “How little you understand our masters, the Tleilaxu.  The Guild and Bene Gesserit believe we produce artifacts.  In reality, we produce tools and services.  Anything can be a tool – poverty, war.  War is useful because it is effective in so many areas.  It stimulates the metabolism.  It enforces government.  It diffuses genetic strains.  It possesses a vitality such as nothing else in the universe.  Only those who recognize the value of war and exercise it have any degree of self-determination.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 230)

And must include this … Bijaz defining who the ghola really is:

     “Duncan Idaho.  Killer extraordinary.  Lover of many women.  Swordsman soldier.  Atreides field-hand on the field of battle.  Duncan Idaho.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 231)

And then Bijaz reveals the true plot.  To tempt Paul with a ghola of his beloved Chani who will die in childbirth.  And in his moment of weakness, killing Paul and then the Tleilaxu replacing them both … short term with Face Dancers, long term with gholas.

Dune Messiah – Entry #3

The unfolding of the conspiracy in the last third of this book represents some complicated writing and story plot.  The role that each character plays in Paul’s vision is so complex yet Paul can see every step as if it were a story he had written himself.  The roles of Alia, Hayt/Duncan, and Stilgar are laid out for the story to be laid on in this book as well as the following books.

Prior to the “trial” of Korba for his part in the conspiracy, Alia reread a letter from lady Jessica to herself warning her of the imperial government that Paul and Alia had created.

     “You produce a deadly paradox,” Jessica had written.  “Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time.  Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress.  And you cannot govern without laws.  Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern.  Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality.  Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions.  I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 215)

Heavy stuff.  This is immediately followed by the “trial” of Korba that is exquisitely played by Paul, Stilgar, and Alia … a formidable team.  The trial is so tense and suspenseful, you’d think you were reading a script for a suspenseful trial scene in a blockbuster movie.  Here are a couple of snippets from the scene played out starting on page 217 and ending on page 224.

     The voice of this intrusion was known to all of them – Muad’dib.  Paul came through the doorway from the hall, pressed through the guard ranks and crossed to Alia’s side.  Chani, accompanying him, remained on the sidelines.

     “M’Lord,” Stilgar said, refulsing to look at Paul’s face.

     Paul aimed his empty sockets at the gallery, then down to Korba.  “What, Korba – no words of praise?”

     Muttering could be heard in the gallery.  It grew louder, isolated words and phrases audible: ‘ … law for the blind … Fremen way .. in the desert … who breaks …”

     “Who says I’m blind?” Paul demanded.  He faced the gallery.

…

     “I don’t need eyes to see you,” Paul said.  And he began describing Korba, every movement, every twitch, every alarmed and pleading look at the gallery.

     Desperation grew in Korba.

     Watching him, Alia saw he might break any second.  Someone in the gallery must realize how near he was to breaking, she thought.  Who?  She studied the faces of the Naibs, noting small betrayals in the masked faces … anger, fears, uncertainties … guilts.

(Dune Messiah, p. 218-220)

The tension is building.  Duncan is soon be reborn.

Dune Messiah – Entry #2

I recall reading Dune Messiah in the past and now I see that I have a better feel for and understanding of the conspirators and the conspiracy to kill Emperor Paul Muad’Dib.  Here are two quotes from a meeting between two of the conspirators, the shape-shifter Scytale and the guildsman Edric, about half way through the book.

    “One would not look twice at some of the figures I have been today,” Scytale said.

     The chameleon thinks a change of shape will hide him from anything, Edric thought with rare insight.  And he wondered if his presence in the conspiracy truly hid them from all oracular powers.  The Emperor’s sister, now …

(Dune Messiah, p. 156)

And then a little later in the conversation …

     “You forget, Guildsman, that we once made a kwisatz haderach.  This is a being filled by the spectacle of Time.  It is a form of existence which cannot be threatened without enclosing yourself in the identical threat.  Muad’dib knows we would attack his Chani.  We must move faster than we have.  You must get to the ghola, prod him as I have instructed.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 160)

It is true.  Paul knew they would seek to destroy him through Chani or at the minimum, his legacy.  These were some long term planners involved in the conspiracy and they knew that it would be quicker to end the Empire if Paul did not have children … or if he did, that it happened under their control.  Similarly true for Alia.  So the original plan of trying to get Paul to father a child with Irulan was aimed at getting a child they could control, but Paul wanted none of that which precipitated that approach of giving Chani a hidden contraceptive drug.  And Paul saw all of this.

     Paul kissed her cheek.  “No, my Sihaya.  You’ll kill no one.”  And he thought: Irulan prolonged your life, beloved.  For you, the time of birth is the time of death.

(Dune Messiah, p. 163)

And the conspiracy continues to unfold but the conspirators cannot control everything, especially not Paul and his visions.  A little later, Scytale appears before the Emperor as Lichna, the daughter of one of his Fremen fighters, someone Paul knew from Sietch Tabr.  Lichna’s message is that he and Chani must come to Lichna’s father so he can speak privately about a plot against the Emperor’s life amongst the Fremen.  Paul sees through the disguise right away but knows also how he must play out the situation to give Chani the chance to birth their children.  The whole conversation between the Face Dancer and the Emperor is fascinating as Scytale tries to figure out if Paul has figured out that he is an impostor and Paul tries to play the conversation to  not let on but still to get at the end he desires.  Here is a little piece:

     “My enemies fed her a subtle poison,” Paul said.  “It will be a difficult birth.  Her health will not permit her to accompany me now.”

     Before Scytale could still them, strange emotions passed over the girl-features: frustration, anger.  Scytale was reminded that every victim must have a way of escape – even such a one as Muad’dib.  The conspiracy had not failed, though.  This Atreides remained in the net.  He was a creature who had developed firmly into one pattern.  He’d destroy himself before changing into the opposite of that pattern.  That had been the way with the Tleilaxu kwisatz haderach.  It’d be the way with this one.  And then … the ghola.

(Dune Messiah, p. 175)

I think I will finish up this entry with a quote from Alia.  It is during a temple service and Paul is in the audience waiting to be brought, supposedly, to Otheym but he knows that will not be the case.  Something happens there in the temple.  He realizes that Alia had visionary powers as he does and may even see the same paths as he does.  So here is the quote which a response by Alia to a question from a supplicant about if her son has died in battle:

“Nothing is lost.  Everything returns later, but you may not recognize the changed form that returns.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 186)

This … this … could be the tagline for the entire saga.

Dune Messiah - Entry #1

In the very beginning of Dune Messiah, I appreciate Brian Herbert’s added parts of the story as the book opens with Excerpts from the Death Cell Interview with Bronso of IX.  I remember first reading Dune Messiah and wondering who Bronso was.  Not only do we know who Bronso is from Paul of Dune, but it becomes clear why he is an important character in Winds of Dune.

Another story that is now clarified from Paul of Dune concerns the aspirations of the Tleilaxu to create their own Kwisatz Haderach.  Here is an exchange between the conspirators in Dune Messiah which were Edric the Navigator, Scytale the Face Dancer, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and Princess Irulan:

     “How has Idaho been conditioned?” Irulan asked.

     “Idaho?” Edric asked, looking at the Tleilaxu.  “Do you know of an Idaho, Scytale?”

     "We sold you a creature called Hayt,” Scytale said.

     “Ah, yes – Hayt,” Edric said.  “Why did you sell him to us?”

     “Because we once bred a kwisatz haderach of our own,” Scytale said.

      With a quick movement of her old head, the Reverend Mother looked up at him.  “You didn’t tell us that!” she accused.

     “You didn’t ask,” Scytale said.

     “How did you overcome your kwisatz haderach?” Irulan asked.

     “A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation,” Scytale said.

     “I do not understand,” Edric ventured.

     “He killed himself,” the Reverend Mother growled.

(Dune Messiah, p. 22)

Without the story of Thallo from Paul of Dune, this exchange left me cold.  But now, I can see Thallo, I recall how he knew he wasn’t perfect, and I picture him explaining this to Marie on the day he died.  And although he meant to kill himself along with many others, Marie killed him and saved a full-scale disaster.

As this conversation between the conspirators continues, we get a glimpse in to the Tleilaxu plans for Hayt/Idaho.

How devious she must not guess, Scytale thought.  When this is done, we will possess a kwisatz haderach we can control.  These others will possess nothing.

(Dune Messiah, p. 23)

Not very long after, Paul finds out that the Reverend Mother is in a Guild Heighliner above Arrakis and has her arrested.  I just really liked this exchange between the Qizara and the Mohiam:

     “It came to our attention that you were aboard,” the Qizara said.  “Have you forgotten that you are denied permission to set foot on the holy planet?”

     “I am not on Arrakis,” she said.  “I’m a passenger on a Guild Heighliner in free space.”

     “There is no such thing as free space, Madame.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 85)

The best thing about Dune Messiah is the ghola, Hayt, and the return of Duncan Idaho.  The best scenes are most often with Hayt/Idaho.  The interplay between Hayt and Alia and also between Hayt and Paul are fabulous.  The combination of characteristics the Tleilaxu decided to incorporate in this ghola make for very interesting conversations.  I mean really … a Zensunni Mentat Swordmaster!

The banter between him and Alia is just great.  I can’t repeat all the conversations but there was one fairly on where Alia wanted to know what Hayt had said to Paul.

     “I told him that to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.”

     She shook her head.  “That’s … that’s …”

     “A bitter pill,” he said, watching the guards run toward them across the roof, taking up their escort positions.

     “Bitter nonsense!”

     “The greatest palatinate earl and the lowliest stipendiary serf share the same problem.  You cannot hire a mentat or any other intellect to solve it for you.  There is no writ of inquest or calling of witnesses to provide answers.  No servant – or disciple – can dress the wound.  You dress it yourself or continue bleeding for all to see.”

(Dune Messiah, p. 127)

Paul of Dune – Entry #3

“But a normal child she was not. And neither was her new playmate.” (Paul of Dune, p. 544)

This was a comment about Alia and the playmate was Marie, the daughter of Bene Gesserit trained Margot and the ex-emperor’s friend Count Fenring who was also a master assassin.  Marie’s natural father was Feyd Rautha Harkonnen and she was conceived as part of a Bene Gesserit breeding program.  What a pair … Alia and Marie.  Their interplay is downright eerie and quote I just gave, which ended a chapter, sets the appropriately suspenseful stage.

It certainly became clear how important Marie was, at least to the Bene Gesserits, when they sent a delegation of three sisters to Arrakis to speak with Irulan about Alia and Marie’s education and training.  The Bene Gesserits wanted to be in control of their development.  Considering how much Paul loathed the Bene Gesserits, Irulan knew that he would not like this idea and based on what Lady Margot had said, she didn’t think that the Fenrings would want the Bene Gesserit teachers either.  When Paul came and interrupted this conversation, the sisters tried to say they were just there to visit Irulan but Irulan laid out the truth.  I think that this was one of the first times that Paul really saw Irulan’s usefulness as an ally.  When the sisters tried to recover from being exposed, well, here is the way the conversation went … and ended:

“We make no attempt to interfere, Sire,” Genino said.  “We are merely here to offer ---“

Paul cut her off, his expression dangerous.  “You would be wise to consider your words before you speak further.  With my truthsense, I hear your lies as if they are shouts.”

(Paul of Dune, p. 567)

The book wraps up with the very suspenseful telling of the intimate banquet that included Paul, Chani, Alia, Irulan, Marie, Count and Lady Fenring, Korba, and Stilgar.  The Fenring’s Plan A was for Marie to kill Paul with a “needlewhip dagger” hidden in the dining table then the three of them would escape through passages and gain control of the empire in the supposed power vacuum.  Plan B included the use of the jewel-hilted knife that Shaddam had given to Fenring which was the same knife that Shaddam had given to Feyd-Rautha in the duel between Feyd and Paul after the Battle on the Plains of Arrakeen. Fenring got the knife in the room under the pretense that it was a gift to Paul.  But Plan A failed as Alia reacted quickly to Marie’s attack and killed Marie with the jeweled knife.

 Alia stood up, leaving the Emperor’s blade firmly planted within the twitching body of the treacherous girl.  “You were never my friend.”

Korba looked on in awe, still seated where he had slumped helplessly back into his chair and just starting to recover from the paralytic gas.  As far as Alia could tell, the Fremen had not lifted a finger during the brief but intense battle.  “The knife,” he said in a slurred voice, his lips moving slightly, “St. Alia of the Knife.”

 

Caught in the swirl of events around her, Alia realized that she stood at the threshold of her own legend.

(Paul of Dune, p. 592)

So that is where she got the name.  I had figured it was from when she killed Baron Harkonnen when she was only three years old but apparently not.

I also wanted to talk about this story because of its importance later on in the history of the epic Dune story.  In Plan B, Fenring kills Paul with the jeweled knife.  Hasimer and Margot get the instant to distract Paul when Paul he was already taken aback by the willingness of these parents to sacrifice their daughter for an assassination attempt and then told him that Feyd was her natural father.  In that instant of shock, the Count attacked and plunged the dagger into Paul.  Paul very nearly died from this attack but not for the quick thinking of his beloved Chani to use the Water of Life to induce a coma that would allow the doctors to make repairs and for Paul to save his strength to do the rest.

Before the book ends, we learn that Korba takes this precious knife and preserves it for the archives.  It is important to the rest of history that this occurs as we will learn MUCH later.  Also, we learn that Paul spares the lives of the Fenrings and considers it to be a harsher punishment to banish them to Salusa Secundus to live with the deposed ex-emperor.

 
In the last chapter of the book, Irulan realizes that she feels bound to Paul Muad-Dib.  Not because she was a prize won in battle and not because she was his wife.  She felt bound to record his story … for history.  This role is clearly important in the original Dune books by Frank Herbert and Paul of Dune helps us see how she gets to fill that role.

Paul of Dune - Entry #2

“And you are perfect?”

He lowered his voice, revealing a secret.  “Nothing can be perfect.  It is an insult to the universe.”

(Paul of Dune, p. 380)

This exchange was between little six year old Marie and the would-be Tleilaxu Kwisatz Haderach Thallo.  Paul of Dune provides the detail about the failed Tleilaxu Kwisatz Haderach that is mentioned a few times in Dune Messiah.  This story of Thallo and how he died at the hands of Marie fills in an important gap in the Tleilaxu history.

A written “fact” is considered innately more true than spoken gossip or hearsay, but physical documents have no greater claim to accuracy than an anecdote from an actual eye witness.

-GILBERTUS ALBANS

Mentat Discourses on History

(Paul of Dune, p. 451)

Ahh, a reminder of Gilbertus, child raised by the robot machine Erasmus in the time of the Butlerian Jihad.  Gilbertus went on to found the Mentat School.  The importance of mentat training cannot be stressed enough as so many important characters are mentats.  However, this particular passage sheds light on the importance of Irulan’s role to “document” history.  Her writings are taken as truth and Paul understands the power in that.

It is understanding the power of the written word that gets Bronso of Ix into apparent conflict with his old friend, Paul, and later with Alia.  There are quotes from Bronso in Frank Herbert’s books but we really know nothing about him without Brian Herbert’s books beginning with Paul of Dune.  Bronso becomes a historian in his own right to counter the history crafted by Princess Irulan.  Consider this chapter starter:

Just as Leto Atreides was shaped by his father, so it was with young Paul.  A strong sense of honor and justice passed from generation to generation.  This made what eventually happened to Paul an even greater tragedy.  He should have known better.

-BRONSO OF IX, The True History of Muad’Dib

(Paul of Dune, p. 471)

In this part of the book, the War of Assassins that started with House Moritani and House Ecaz but eventually included Harkonnens, Atreides, Vernii, and even Corrinos, is described.  The Moritani Viscount had laid a trap for Shaddam who he correctly presumed would come to Grumman to end the conflict just as he would do later on Arrakis.  Shaddam is really quite predictable.

Paul of Dune - Entry #1

I have to be honest ... I am already done with Paul of Dune and have bitten well into Dune Messiah.  I am stunned at how much more Dune Messiah is making sense to me by having moved from Paul of Dune instead of straight from Dune.  So I will strive to hit on those points in Paul of Dune that help tie parts of the story together.

First, I just wanted to start with a quote that sounded like the father (Frank) but written by the son (Brian):

The only true path to survival of the human species lay as narrow as a razor, and slippery with blood. (Paul of Dune, p. 27)

I think part of why all of the pieces fit together better can be attributed to having read the end of the story and thus knowing what the most significant threat to the species is in that foggy future. 

I really enjoy how the ornate knife that Shaddam had given to Leto I in Dune is an important link in the story.  That link is not clear from reading only Frank Herbert's books and the most important part of the knife's history is actually explained in Paul of Dune.  The first time we are reintroduced to the knife is on page 53 when Shaddam gives the knife to the head of his Sardaukar, Zum Garon, and tells him to find Count Fenring and give it to him as a gift.  Shaddam's purpose here is to get Fenring to return to him on Salusa Secundus.  Shaddam says that Fenring "will understand the significance" (Paul of Dune, p. 53).  Recall, this was also the knife that Shaddam gave to Feyd-Rautha to duel with Paul Atreides at the end of Dune.

Another important story for which details are filled in is the story of how the Corrino family ended up on Kaitan when the seat of government and the Butler/Corrino family had been on Salusa Secundus for eons.  To shed light on this, an important side story in Paul of Dune is about Paul's youth and the War of Assassins between House Moritani and House Ecaz which expanded to include the Harkonnens on one side and Atreides on the other.  The first big clue was during a conversation between Viscount Moritani and his swordmaster Hiih Resser who studied with Duncan Idaho on Ginaz.

"This family was not always House Moritani.  Once, we were named Tantor.  After Salusa, though, every member of House Tantor was hunted down and killed.  Every member the hunters could find, that is." (Paul of Dune, p. 141)

So first ... the name Tantor rings a bell!  The Tantor family are the ones who fostered Xavier Harkonnen when his family was killed in a machine attack in history past before the Butlerian Jihad.  Evidently, Baron Harkonnen did not know of this connection ... but we, the readers know.  This quote from the Viscount leads to the assumption that there was some damnable thing the Corrinos did to the Tantors to provoke an act that left Salusa unhabitable for centuries.

Then another important piece of history which has to do with the Fenrings and the knife, but more importantly sheds light on the Tleilaxu-bred kwisatz haderach that the Tleilaxu conspirator Scytale refers to in Dune Messiah.  All this relates to little Marie, the natural daughter of Lady Margot Fenring and Feyd-Rautha but who Count Fenring helped raise and train.  Relatively early in the book, Lady Margot and Count Fenring meet with Reverend Mother Mohiam to inform the sisterhood that they will not be sending Marie to the school for training and that they are to be left to their plans which will serve everyone by assasinating Paul Muad'Dib.  This part of the conversation revealed the arrogance and hubrous of the Fenrings:

     Fenring also put an arm around the little girl.  "The old ways of the Sisterhood have failed in spectacular fashion, hmmm?  Now let us try ours."
    "You would risk Marie's life in this enterprise?" Mohiam asked.
    Lady Margot smiled.  "Hardly.  Our plan is perfect, as is our method of escape afterward."

(Paul of Dune, p. 201)

I need a little break from writing right now, so I will end this entry with a paragraph, provided as a chapter starter, which is from Princess Irulan's "Muad'Dib the Man".

Through those pivotal events, Young Paul watched his father prepare and respond with an extremism that some might have called ruthlessness.  The ultimate lesson he learned from this, though, was that despite all of his father's retaliations, Duke Leto Atreides ultimately failed because he did not learn to be ruthless enough.

--Muad'Dib the Man by the PRINCESS IRULAN

(Paul of Dune, p. 278)

Dune - Entry #9

So more on the Dune appendices ...

Appendix III: Report on Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes is an interesting report on the Bene Gesserit and Guild roles during the "Arrakis Affair" but little of it is expanded on in the books by Brian Herbert and little foreshadows the distant future.  However, the report references the confluence of paths to the future and the difficulty the Guild Navigators were having seeing into the future.  The tension between Paul Muad'Dib and the Guild has a lot to do with their prescient visions and the affect that each has on the other.  Another interesting point in the report is in the last paragraph where reference is made to the inefficient behavior of the Bene Gesserit and their handling of the whole affair starting with the testing of young Paul Atreides by Reverend Mother Mohiam.  In Paul of Dune, there will be passages indicating that several important Bene Gesserit sisters identified the failure of the sisterhood to manage the Kwisatz Haderach program properly.  Those include Princess Irulan, Lady Jessica, and Lady Margot Fenring.  We don't hear these three question the sisterhood in Dune so it is interesting when these three very important characters express their discontent.

Appendix IV: The Almanack en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Noble Houses) provides short bios on some of the most important characters in Dune.  Here there are multiple examples of storylines that Frank Herbert had thought of and that Brian Herbert expanded on in his prequels.  Storylines referred to here, in Frank Herbert's book first published in 1965, include the banishment of Abulurd Harkonnen after the Battle of Corrin and Glossu Rabban's father denouncing the Harkonnen name.

Appendix V: Terminology of the Imperium provides the definition for many terms created by Frank Herbert and used in the Dune saga.  For example, "cone of silence" is defined and I am still stunned at this phrase that showed up a year later in TV episodes of Get Smart.  "Great Convention" is defined here as the rules that help maintain the power balance between the Guild, the Landsraad, and the Emperor.  The definition points out that all convention rules begin with "The forms must be obeyed ..." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 503) This line along with the phrase "kanly", also defined in the appendix, call to my mind the movie "Pirates of the Carribbean"!

"Great Mother" is defined as the feminine principle of space or Mother Space.  There is maybe only one time that there is an allusion to the Great Mother within Dune.  So the only reason one can fathom to have included it in the appendix to Dune, is because Frank Herbert had outlined who Norma Cenva was and what she would become. She is the Great Mother.

The breadth and depth of these definitions, and in fact all the appendices, is a testament to the genius of Frank Herbert.

Dune - Entry #8

This is the first time that I really read the appendices that Frank Herbert felt compelled to include with Dune.  Brian Herbert strived to connect information provided in those appendices in the books he authored.

Appendix I: The Ecology of Dune expands on the story of Pardot Kynes.  This story is retold and expanded upon in Brian Herbert's prequels.

Appendix II: The Religion of Dune lays out some historical religous information that goes as far back as the Butlerian Jihad and the centuries immediately following.  Specifically, a brief history of the Commission of Ecumenical Translators or C.E.T. is provided.  It is the C.E.T. that developed the Orange Catholic Bible.  It is not crystal clear exactly when this took place in relation to, let's say, Serena Butler's time, but Brian Herbert does set up much of what is discussed in this appendix in the books The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, and The Battle of Corrin.  According to the appendix, shortly after the two generations that lived and died in the Butlerian Jihad, a group of religious leaders began to meet.  The outcome of the first series of meetings were the C.E.T. and the "realization that all religions had at least one common commandment: 'Thou shall not disfigure the soul.'" (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 486).  Thou shall not disfigure the soul.  Well put by Frank Herbert.

In the subsequent years during the writing of the OC Bible, there was much violence over the C.E.T..  In this appendix, Frank Herbert explains that one of the delegates to the C.E.T. "committed suicide by stealing a space frigate and diving into the sun." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 487).  Could this be referring to Xavier Harkonnen's suicide and murder of Iblis Ginjo by diving into the sun after their disastrous visit to Tlulax?  Or is it just where Brian Herbert got the idea for this scenario?

The bottom line is that the goal for the C.E.T. and for the OC Bible was to "produce one book, weeding out 'all the pathological symptoms' of the religious past." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 486).  The goal was to unite all religions.  I guess it is good to have a really big goal and I suppose the human race thought they could do anything after defeating the machines ... but this was not an attainable goal.  In the appendix, Frank Herbert describes how the C.E.T. chairman had eventually admitted that the C.E.T. had erred.

"We shouldn't have tried to create new symbols," he said.  "We should've realized we weren't supposed to introduce uncertainties into accepted belief, that we weren't supposed to stir up curiosity about God.  We are daily confronted by the terrifying instability of all things human, yet we permit our religions to grow more rigid and controlled, more conforming and oppressive.  What is this shadow across the highway of Divine Command?  It is a warning that institutions endure, that symbols endure when their meaning is lost, that there is no summa of all attainable knowledge."
(Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 486).

When considering how the religions of today may develop, Frank Herbert's view is discouraging but may very well be one of those cases where science fiction does a pretty good job of predicting the future.

OK ... getting tired and can't write anymore now ... more very soon about the other appendices and then on to Paul of Dune.

Dune - Entry #7

The first and last time that Alia meets her grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, is so fabulously played.  She sits innocently on the dais beside Emperor Shaddam's throne when the Baron enters.  Of course, the Baron does not know that Alia is his granddaughter.  The introduction of the child to the Baron includes this passage:

"Unfortunately," the Emperor said, "I only sent in five troop carriers with a light attack force to pick up prisoners for questioning  We barely got away with three prisoners and one carrier.  Mind you, Baron, my Sardaukar were almost overwhelmed by a force composed mostly of women, children, and old men.  This child here was in command of one of the attacking groups."

(Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 447)

Alia's power is beyond what any of them had really imagined possible.  Consider this passage:

Of all the uses of time-vision, this was the strangest.  "I have breasted the future to place my words where only you can hear them," Alia had said.  "Even you cannot do that, my brother.  I find it an interesting play.  And ... oh, yes -- I've killed our grandfather, the demented old Baron.  He had very little pain."

(Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 454)

Both Paul and Alia are so different.  There are times that we, the readers, are made to feel in awe of them and there are times that we are made to feel sorry for them, sad for lost innocence in Paul's case and no innocence in Alia's case.

"I have seen a friend become a worshiper, he thought." (Dune, 40th Anniverary edition, p. 455)

I felt so sad when I read this line.  This is Paul thinking of Stilgar.  The respect Paul has for Stilgar is palpable but he can't stop the fanaticism surrounding him.

This book ends on page 474 with a whispered conversation between Jessica and Chani.  Powerful female characters are a cornerstone of the Dune story ... LOVE IT!!!

So I am moving on to Paul of Dune next, but before that I will post an entry about the Appendices provided in Dune.  These are more than a postscript and deserve thoughtful consideration by the reader.



Dune - Entry #6

I've come across a few quotes that just ring true or provide solid advice to heed so I thought this entry would be good for sharing a few of those.

In a spice-laced dream Paul had before awakening to his first test as a wormrider, he recalled a Bene Gesserit proverb that his mother had told him:

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe that nothing can stand in their way.  Their movement becomes headlong -- faster and faster and faster.  They put aside all obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to a man in a blind rush until it's too late.

(Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 372)

Rings true for me.  Can certainly picture some present day politicians riding with religion in their cart riding headlong thinking that right and might are on their side!

Then a few pages later, as Paul and the Fremen troop that accompanied him was preparing for the wormrider test, he recalled some advice from his father:

"Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him ... once long ago.  "Once you have given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 377)

 

Such good advice for a leader of any kind.  I need to remember this when at work.  I think I am pretty good at letting things be unless it requires my intervention but I should be more mindful.

For the following quote, I just liked the way it sounded.  It highlighted for me how we wear who we are like clothes.  Paul was considering a captive Sardaukar and what, exactly, to do with him.

Anger and confusion were betrayed in his manner, but still there was that pride about him without which a Sardaukar appeared undressed -- and with which he could appear fully clothed though naked.

(Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 407)

Some more good, simple advice can be found coming from Jessica's mouth to her son.  But this is rare advice for the Bene Gesserit to be giving to her child.  She says "choose the course of happiness" (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 420).  She actually tells Paul to marry Chani if that is what he wants!  A shocker since Chani is not noble born and Jessica had fully understood the role she herself played as concubine to the Duke.  She says this after Paul convinces Gurney that she was not the betrayer by giving a heart felt speech about the true love his parents shared.  She was overcome with emotion and grief for the lost love.

So that's it for some good advice for now.  I will end this entry with an odd statement by Paul after he awoke from weeks of being in a sort of coma from drinking the Water of Life. I am not sure I fully appreciate or understand the statement so if anyone has input, please put in.

Paul said: "There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives.  A man finds little difficulty in facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man.  For a woman, the situation is reversed." ... "The greatest peril to the Giver is the force that takes.  The greatest peril to the Taker is the force that gives.  It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking."

(Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 431)

Dune - Entry #5

I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post.  My excuse for most of it is that I was away at a conference and then extended to a vacation.  I was away for two weeks and the time leading up to the trip was very busy trying to get ready and I have been just decompressing since my return.  My trip included Vancouver BC, Seattle, Olympic National Park, Columbia River Gorge, Mt St Helens, Mt Hood, and Mt Rainier.  It was a fabulous time!  If you ever get a chance to go to Vancouver, GO!  What a fabulous fun city!  All the rest was wonderful too but Rainier was simply awesome.  At over 14,000ft, it is certainly an attention getter as you can see in my new profile picture.

Most of the trip was in terrain so unlike Dune ... so much of the time was quite literally spent in rainforest!!! Except, however, the area around Mt St Helens where any little plant struggles to gain a foothold in the "blast zone".  What a contrast to much of the surrounding areas.

 Me on a hike in Mt St Helens' blast zone.

My daughter and I on the trail to a vista of Mt St Helens.  The trail became as scant as a trail a Fremen might approve of but was too narrow and treachorous for me, had to turn around.



So now back to reporting on my Dune book trek!  I have a few random things to mention. First, I just love when Paul and Chani first come face to face.  This happens on page 278 of my 40th Anniversary Edition of Dune.  She announces "I am Chani, daughter of Liet" (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 278) and then promptly begins to chastise him by telling him that he was "as noisy as shai-hulud in a rage"  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 278).  Paul is overwhelmed by the vision of her although he had not foreseen the way he would meet her.  And she is sort of underwhelmed by him.  Love it.

On p. 289, the chapter starter is a quote from Princess Irulan's writings "In My Father's House".  I mention this chapter starter because of this part of the quote:

My mother obeyed her Sister Superiors where the Lady Jessica disobeyed.  Which of them was the stronger?  History already has answered.  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 289)

Irulan is speaking of the fact that Anirul, her mother, had followed orders and not given Emperor Shaddam a son.  As the Kwisatz Haderach Mother, she knew how important it was for Jessica to give birth to a daughter and was, in fact, the one to give the order for Jessica to become pregnant with Leto's daughter.  Jessica did not know the import of her disobedience.  Anirul and even Margot had more information about the breeding programs then Jessica.  That said, it certainly took Jessica a lot of courage to disobey considering the training instilled in her by the Sisterhood.  It is too bad that Irulan never knew the important role her mother played and all the history that Anirul kept in her head that, unfortunately, drove her crazy.

One more little tidbit before I close out this entry.  Consider the following quote:

"There's a cone of silence between two of the pillars over here on our left," the Baron said. "We can talk there without fear of being overheard." He led the way with his waddling gait into the sound-deadening field, feeling the noises of the keep becoming dull and distant.  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 316)

Now remember folks, Dune was first published in 1965.  Get Smart (TV show) first aired in September 1965.  I have to think that Frank Herbert's "cone of silence" preceeded any other.  Anyone know of a "cone of silence" in fiction prior to 1965?  If you do, please share it with me!!!

Dune - Entry #4

It is time to say a bit more about Thufir Hawat.  Thufir: mentat, assassin, served three generations of Atreides.  On page 186, Paul recalls Thufir saying to him: "Parting with people is a sadness; a place is only place" (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 186).  This had been in response to a question from Paul about leaving Caladan for Arrakis.  Wonderful words of wisdom.

I have already talked about the confrontation between Thufir and Lady Jessica which was one of the most intense confrontations yet.  However, the chapter beginning on page 204 and ending on page 214, that is mostly composed of a confrontation/negotiation between Thufir and an unnamed Fremen, is a masterpiece worth reading over and over.  In this chapter Thufir finds out that the Fremen can beat Sardaukar better than any other fighting force known to man.  The mastery of the dialogue is truly in the spotlighting of the different cultural views that Thufir and the Fremen individually bring to the negotiations.  I am just going to supply some of the quotes here but, really, go and read this chapter again and again.

     The Fremen gestured to Hawat's tunic, the skin exposed beneath it.  "You were caught in-sietch, without your suits.  You must make a water decision, friend."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 207)

      "Ah-h-h-h."  The Fremen removed his hand from his weapon.  "You think we have the Byzantine corruption.  You don't know us.  The Harkonnens have not water enough to buy the smallest child among us."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 207)

     "It was a good fight," the Fremen said.  "we lost only two men and spilled the water from more than a hundred of theirs."
     There were Sardaukar at every gun, Hawat thought.  This desert madman speaks casually of losing only two men against Sardaukar!
     "We would not have lost the two except for those others fighting beside the Harkonnens," the Fremen said.  "Some of those are good fighters."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 209)

     Hawat's aide spoke slowly, disbelief in every word: "You ... captured Sardaukar?"
     "Only three of them," the Fremen said.  "they fought well."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 210)

     "Stop right where you are!" Hawat barked.  He fought down the sick fatigue that gripped his muscles.  "These people respect our dead. Customs differ, but the meaning's the same."
    "They're going to render Arkie down for his water," the man with the lasgun snarled.
    "Is it that your men wish to attend the ceremony?" the Fremen asked.
    He doesn't even see the problem, Hawat thought.  The naivete of the Fremen was frightening.  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 211)

     "We will kill Harkonnens," the Fremen said.  He grinned.  "And Sardaukar."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 211)

    Presently, dust settled.  Only Fremen remained standing.
    "They left only three men in their 'thopter," the Fremen beside Hawat said.  "That was fortunate.  I don't believe we had to damage the craft in taking it."
    Behind Hawat, one of his men whispered: "Those were Sardaukar!"
   "Did you notice how well they fought?" the Fremen asked.  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 213)

Dune - Entry #3

The background story of religion and its effect on human culture and history is one of the attractions I have to the Dune story.  I love considering what makes a religion withstand the test of time.  One of my favorite undergraduate courses as a student at Lafayette College was a course on Eastern religions.  In that course, the professor said that we could identify a religion by two things: (1) it provides some sort of guidance on how to live one's life, and (2) it provides some framework to answer the question 'why am I here?' or 'what is my purpose?'

Frank Herbert brought in the major religions of today's society into the story.  Buddhism and Islam are apparent in the existence of Zensunnis, Zenshiites, and Buddislamics.  Of course, there is the Orange Catholic Bible and Reverend Mothers.  There are underlying hints of Judaism also but a bit more subtle.  Having read all the books, I know I will be returning to the Jewish connection several times in later books.

The first strong inference that the Jews had a lasting influence was shortly before the attack by the Harkonnens to retake Arrakis.  Duke Leto receives a note from a Fremen which reads: "A column of smoke by day, a pillar of fire by night." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 155)   This is nearly identical to a passage in Exodus, one of the five books of Moses, otherwise known as the Torah.  It describes how God led the way for the Hebrews out of Egypt.  Why was this message given to Duke Leto by the Fremen?  There is no other reference to it.  What were the Fremen trying to say with this message?  As a side note, "pillar of fire" is one of the terms defined in the "Terminology of the Imperium" which is provided by Frank Herbert as a sort of glossary at the end of the book.  He defines it as "a simple pyrocket for signalling across the open desert." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 502)

If you have an idea on the purpose and meaning of this Fremen note to Duke Leto, please share.  Aside from the Judaic connection, I just don't know what to make of it.

Dune - Entry #2

Where to begin?  The story is just so intense in this book!  So many wonderful scenes and dialogues.  I had not recalled the supremely intense confrontation between Lady Jessica and Thufir Hawat when Jessica finds out that Thufir Hawat suspects she is a spy and traitor. Jessica superbly guides him through the logic that he should have seen for himself as a mentat!  Let me insert here a bit of the exchange:

     The shock must be severe and he's almost ready for it, she thought.
     "You listen respectfully to me in Council, " she said, "yet you seldom heed my advice. Why?"
     "I don't trust your Bene Gesserit motives," he said.  "You may think you can look through a man; you may think you can make a man do exactly what you --"
     "You poor fool, Thufir!" she raged.
     He scowled, pushing himself back in the chair.
     "Whatever rumors you've heard about our schools," she said, "the truth is far greater.  If I wished to destroy the Duke ... or you, or any other person within my reach, you could not stop me."

Dune (40th Anniversary Edition), p. 152

SOOOOOOOO intense!!! I mean this is Thufir Hawat, the Mentat Master Assassin!!!  As she built up the argument and the logic to get him to see that the rumor that she was a traitor was exactly that, and likely spread by a Harkonnen spy to discredit her and build suspicion within the Atreides ranks, she then commanded him with Voice.  Here is the description of his reaction to that command and the ensuing dialogue ...

    Hawat tried to swallow in a dry throat.  her command had been regal, peremptory -- uttered in a tone and manner he had found irresistible.  His body had obeyed her before he could think about it.  Nothing could have prevented his response -- not logic, not passionate anger ... nothing.  To do what she had done spoke of a sensitive, intimate knowledge of the person thus commanded, a depth of control he had not dreamed possible.
     "I have said to you before that we should understand each other," she said.  "I meant that you should understand me.  I already understand you.  And I tell you now that your loyalty to the Duke is all that guarantees your safety with me."
     He stared at her, wet his lips with his tongue.
     "If I desired a puppet, the Duke would marry me," she said.  "He might even think he did it of his own free will."

Dune (40th Anniversary Edition), p. 153

The dialogue ends on page 154 and every single line is intense.  I don't want to type in all those pages but if you get a chance, reread this part.  So intense.

Dune - Entry #1

I am already on page 107 of the classic first Dune novel by Frank Herbert and I have already dog-eared eight pages!

The first had to be our first encounter in Dune with the Litany Against Fear.  I can recall that during my first reading of Dune so many years ago, how this quote had struck me.  I have recorded in prior posts little tidbits about its history such as the first time that the words similar but not exactly the same as the Litany were spoken, back in time nearly ten thousand years from when Dune is set and when it was first intoned in the prequel trilogy.  Because it is such an important continuous thread throughout this story, I will include it again here.  This time it is recited by young Paul Atreides.

"I must not fear.  Fear is the mind-killer.  Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.  I will face my fear.  I will permit it to pass over me and through me.  And when it as gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.  Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.  Only I will remain." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 8)

He felt the need to recite this in preparation for the test Mohiam was about to give him to determine if he was human.  Afterward, he asked her why they test for humans. Her response was:

"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.  But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 11)

Especially as someone who works with and teaches technology, I certainly see signs of people doing this now.  It worries me.

"If there were a thing to be done for him, we'd have done it." (Dune 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 26)

These words were spoken to Paul and Jessica by Mohiam.  Something quite obvious occurred to me as I read this part that had never really occurred to me before.  I had always considered the whole betrayal of the Atreides on Arrakis as a Harkonnen scheme that was supported by the Emperor Shaddam Corrino.  However, with the prequel books so fresh in my mind, I realize that Shaddam had been looking for a way and a time to exact revenge on Duke Leto since the whole Amal debacle.  At that time, Leto had done a pretty resounding job of not only embarrassing Shaddam, but also severly limiting his powers in the Empire.  Dune: House Corrino even ends with talk of revenge.  Now some of you reading this might have understood this from the start, but it was an eye opening revelation for me to consider this as a Corrino plot that was obviously going to be supported by the Baron Harkonnen.  Really, why would the Emperor have gone along with the plot if the Baron had proposed it?  What would he get out of it?  There is really nothing for him to get out of it but to get rid of Duke Leto Atreides and have his long awaited revenge.

"You fight when the necessity arises - no matter the mood.  Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset.  It's not for fighting." (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 33)

Great lines by Gurney Halleck to Paul!!!  Can so picture the tough Gurney chastising Paul for not being in the mood to practice his fighting skills.  I have to try to find a time to use the line, perhaps in class when a student is not in the mood to participate in class.  The students might think I am nuts but it would be fun to try the line out in that setting!

I know that part of my writing in the blog will now be preoccupied with observations of how well Brian Herbert tied information from Frank Herbert's Dune books to his books.  For example, on page 36 I found the inner thoughts of Gurney Halleck about his dead sister and his mother recall quite well the story told in the prequel book Dune: House Harkonnen.  I loved that the quote he recalls from his mother, "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets" (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 36) was also in Brian Herbert's book.

However, in other cases, the stories don't align and I just don't understand why.  For example, on page 58 when Jessica is talking with Dr. Yueh, she says that she has known him for six years.  But it is more like sixteen years since he was the doctor who rebuilt Prince Rhombur, work that was done at the Atreides home in Caladan for at least some time while Jessica was there too.  Although they might not have conversed at that time, she most definitely knew him.  And then another discrepancy between stories on page 99.  Duke Leto states that Jessica has been with him for sixteen years.  But it was at least a few years longer than that.  Jessica lived at Castle Caladan for at least three years before becoming pregnant with Paul.  During that time she fell in love which is why she bore him a son instead of the Bene Gesserit prescribed daughter.  It seems odd that Brian Herbert would get some small details about Gurney's past right and then mess up on this.  I will certainly be recording these discrepancies although I am pretty sure that there are many more situations where Brian Herbert reinforces the story told by his father rather than contradicts it.

I'll wrap up this entry with a portion of a chapter starter quote.  The quote is cited to be from "The Humanity of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan.

"It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult."  (Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition, p. 65)

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)

House Corrino - Entry #3

Politics is the art of appearing candid and completely open, while concealing as much as possible.

- States: The Bene Gesserit View

(House Corrino, p. 267)



So this is why I fail at politics.  I got the first part down pat.  Concealing is not my strength.

House Corrino - Entry #2

So let's talk about the Bene Gesserits for a bit.  The next few quotes that I highlighted  from the book are about the lovely witches.

How about this chapter starter?

What can I say about Jessica?  Given the opportunity, she would attempt Voice on God.

-- REVEREND MOTHER GAIUS HELEN MOHIAM

(House Corrino, p. 156)

First and foremost, this is spoken like a true mother of a willful child.  For those who know "Voice" and know my willful child, you know what I mean.  Strong will such as expressed by this statement is remarkable although certainly trying for the mother trying to manage it.

And then there is "Voice".  As best as I can tell, Frank Herbert's idea of "Voice" is unprecedented.  But others latched on to the idea, for example, the Jedi in Star Wars have the power of "Voice", otherwise known as old Jedi mind trick.  But then Brian Herbert, who most certainly must have been a Star Wars fan, lifts the term from Star Wars and plucks it back into Dune!  Consider the passage below in which Rund, a Richesian researcher, is explaining to his peers why he could recall what was discussed at a meeting on Wallach IX with the Bene Gesserits while his peers could not.

Rund said without looking up, "My mind has been through the rigors of Mentat training.  Maybe I have some ability to resist Bene Gesserit mind tricks." (House Corrino, p. 248)

The witches had used a Bene Gesserit resonance voice technique to make the researchers forget what actually was discussed at their meeting on Wallach IX ... Bene Gesserit mind tricks.

The minds and bodies of the Bene Gesserits are well-trained in many techniques.  But the Reverend Mothers are always in jeopardy of being overwhelmed by the voices within, the voices from Other Memory.  The Kwisatz Mother, Anirul, who is also Emperor Shaddam's wife, violates her training by probing Other Memory to find her dear friend Lobia.  Anirul noticed her first dangerous steps that would lead her to insanity.  After Lobia had died, she had gone to Lobia's quarters as an "appropriate, contemplative place for Anirul to organize her private thoughts" (House Corrino, p. 203).

She was sure Lobia would approve.  "Wouldn't you, old friend?"  The sound of her own voice startled her, and Anirul fell silent again, surprised that she had begun talking to herself.  (House Corrino, p. 203)

And so begins Anirul's path to insanity.