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)
