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.

House Corrino - Entry #1

I think I will be eating through House Corrino, especially since the original Dune book by Frank Herbert is next!!!

I find myself not recalling a lot of the details in this book.  It could be that without having read to the glorious end of the story before, I might have not paid attention to all the details.  I find myself paying more attention to the Tleilaxu characters than before.

This passage early on in House Corrino struck me as particularly important:

Unknown to anyone except Ajidica himself, he had already disseminated hundreds of the tank-bred Face Dancers to strategic locations around the galaxy, transporting them in long-range exploration vessels to uncharted reaches.  The shape-shifters had been developed centuries ago, but their possibilitiies had not been adequately explored.  That was about to change. (House Corrino, p. 36)

Remember the copies of Omnius that were sent out by Omnius Prime?  This connection is not coincidental.

The first clear description of an axlotl tank can be found in House Corrino.  So don't read this passage if you would rather not know.

     Coffin-sized containers held fertile women, their higher brain functions destroyed, their reflexes and senses shut down.  Axlotl tanks.  Nothing more than bloated wombs.  Biological factories far more sophisticated than any machine ever built by a human hand.
     Even back on their primary worlds, the Bene Tleilax grew their gholas and Face Dancers inside these "tanks".  No one had ever seen a Tleilaxu woman -- because none existed.  Any mature female was converted into an axlotl tank, and was used to reproduce the chosen race.

(House Corrino, pp. 115-116)



The Tleilaxu apparently put a lot of resources into maintaining such a secret.  The fact that the rest of humanity finds them distasteful helps them keep everyone at a distance.

So back to Ajidica Fen Hidar, the master Tleilaxu researcher working on the development of a synthetic spice called "amal".  Interestingly enough, he discovers that the amal created by the Miral Alechem axlotl tank creates a higher quality synthetic spice than any of the others.  Miral Alechem was a Bene Gesserit spy sent to Ix.  The first time I read her name, I thought it was Hebrew.  עֲלֵיכֶם is pronounced aleichem and means "upon you". This is often said with the word "shalom", which means "peace" so that shalom aleichem would mean peace be upon you. "Miral" sounds Hebrew also, but as yet I have not figured out what it could mean ... next step is to ask my cousin in Israel.

Ajidica calls the perceived higher quality amal "ajidamal", clearly naming it after himself.  Such self-self-aggrandizement will likely not end well.  I know we have more to come from Ajidica well into the future, but I just can't recall the details.

Time to head outside to read more in the warm sunshine of Spring!!!