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.