Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #6

Frank Herbert’s interest in religion is clear throughout the Dune saga.  Use, misuse, and abuse of religion is a theme throughout.  Aside from the religions of Muad’dib, the Fish Speakers, the Fremen, those fostered by the Missionaria Protectiva, and more, Frank Herbert took pieces of the prevalent religions of our time here on Earth.  Examples include the Orange Catholic Bible, Buddhislam, the Shariat, sutras, and then here in his last book, the Jews.  Since I am Jewish, it certainly peaks my interest.

The drawbacks of anyone placing considerable reliance on intellectual achievements were large.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 193)

A thought that was brought to Rebecca’s attention from Bene Gesserit Other Memory as she was observing the Rabbi’s oscillations between emotional and intellectual behavior.  “Our Jewish susceptibility.  Look at the intellectuals!” (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 193).  Other Memory required her to re-evaluate everything she had learned or believed.  “Our gods should mature as we mature.” (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 193)

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #5

Since I have read all the Dune books published to date prior to this undertaking of reading them in chronological order of the story, then I know who the old couple is that Duncan sees.  The old couple, as well as the Oracle of Time, are key to the story’s climactic conclusion in what would have been Frank Herbert’s Dune 7 but that Brian Herbert and co-author decided needed to be broken up into two books: Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.  But Frank Herbert gives so few clues leaving the reader as lost and confused as Duncan, the only one who has visions of the elderly couple.  And the reader is left with solving the mystery along with Duncan.

Duncan keeps his visions to himself, worked that the Bene Gesserit would wonder if he was a Kwisatz Haderach.

On pages 178-179, Duncan describes more of his vision:

Immediately, he saw what he had come to call “the net” and the elderly couple defined by criss-crossed lines, bodies visible through a shimmering of jeweled ropes – green, blue, gold, and silver so brilliant it made his eyes ache.

…

The couple stared back at him with an intensity that made Idaho feel naked.

…

Round faces.  Abbreviated chins.  Fat wrinkles at the jowels.

…

The man suited [the woman] as though created by the same artist as a perfect match.

…

Reassuring faces.  That thought aroused Idaho’s suspicions because now he recognized the familiarity.  They looked somewhat like Face Dancers, even to the pug noses.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 178-179)

I think Brian Herbert used such passages to enhance content in the books chronicling the Butlerian Jihad.  The fact that the couple is dressed as gardeners is significant as is the reference to art.  Recall Erasmus’ keen interest in understanding art and his curiosity about Serena Butler’s gardening when she was his captive?

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #4

The capture of Reverend Mother Lucilla and her conversations with the Honored Matre leader serve to help the reader understand the Honored Matres and what makes them different from the Reverend Mothers.  The Great Honored Matre interrogates Lucilla in multiple sessions, all the time with Lucilla knowing she would be killed once they gave up trying to get what they wanted out of her.  The ultimate piece of information they wanted was the location of Chapterhouse so they could invade and destroy the Bene Gesserit home planet.  The Great Honored Matre is terribly interested in the abilities of a Reverend Mother and how the Bene Gesserit operate.  I enjoyed this particular exchange between the Great Honored Matre (Dama) and Lucilla:

“Why do you say you witches have no government?”

Wants to change the subject.  Our abilities worry her.  “That’s not what I said.  We have no conventional government.”

“Not even a social code?”

“There’s no such thing as a social code to meet all necessities.  A crime in one society can be a moral requirement in another society.”

“People always have government.” Orange completely faded.  Why does this interest her so much?

“People have politics.  I told you that yesterday.  Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible.”

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 151-152)

How true.

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #3

Maybe Mother Superior Odrade feels a bond of trust with Duncan because she is Atreides.  But she has to convince her sisters and her closest advisors, like Bell, that they should trust him also.  So what are these sisters so worried about?  Well Duncan knows.

When the Sisters learn of his Mentat ability they would know immediately that his mind carried the memories of more than one ghola lifetime.  The original did not have that talent.  They would suspect he was a latent Kwisatz Haderach.  Look how they rationed his mélange.  They were clearly terrified of repeating the mistake they had made with Paul Atreides and his Tyrant son.  Thirty-five hundred years of bondage!

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 71)

But there certainly was something different happening with Duncan.  An ability or sight that he couldn’t understand but it provided insight into the danger that was out there somewhere.  Perhaps what the Honored Matres had run from.

A shimmering net undulating like an infinite borealis.

Then the net would part and he would see two people – man and woman.  How ordinary they appeared and yet extraordinary.  A grandmother and grandfather in antique clothing: bib coveralls for the man and a long dress with headscarf for the woman.  Working in a flower garden!  He thought it must be more of the illusion.  I am seeing this but it is not really what I see.

They always noticed him eventually.  He heard their voices.  “There he is again, Marty,” the man would say, calling the woman’s attention to Idaho.

“I wonder how it is he can look through?” Marty asked once.  “Doesn’t seem possible.”

“He’s spread pretty thin, I think.  Wonder if he knows the danger?”

Danger.  That was the word that always jerked him out of the vision.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 75)

All this ties to Leto II’s Golden Path which Leto II saw as necessary for the survival of humankind after Kralizec, the end war.  Duncan sees it, perhaps because of his many lives spent with the Tyrant, and he helps Odrade see it too.

Golden Path: humankind “erupting” into the universe … never again confined to any single planet and susceptible to a singular fate.  All of our eggs no longer in one basket.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 80)

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #2

Meanwhile, back on Chapterhouse, Mother Superior Odrade tends to her plans to keep humanity going against the threat of the Honored Matres.  Sheeana is tending the growing desert created by the sand trout born of the death from the one old worm saved from Rakis (Dune).  Duncan lives on the no-ship as do Murbella and the captured Tleilaxu Master Scytale.  Early on we learn that Sheeana, the youngest ever to survive the Agony to become a Reverend Mother, is plotting and creating her own plans with Duncan.  The following passage provides her inner thoughts as she works on a sculpture:

Not that Duncan was a consort.  That had been the Bene Gesserit’s original plan: “Bond Sheeana to Duncan.  We control him and he can control her.”

Murbella cut that plan short.  And a good thing for both of us.  Who needs a sexual obsession? But Sheeana was forced to admit she harbored oddly confused feelings about Duncan Idaho.  The hand-talks, the touching.  And what could they say to Odrade when she came prying?  Not if, but when.

“We talk about ways for Duncan and Murbella to escape you, Mother Superior.  We talk about other ways to restore Teg’s memories.  We talk about our own private rebellion against the Bene Gesserit.  Yes Darwi Odrade!  Your former student has become a rebel against you.”

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 46)

Ah, yes, who needs a sexual obsession?  It seems to me that the Honored Matres developed their own form of control using sex rather than voice.  Voice could be used on anyone given a talented Reverend Mother delivering that voice, unlike the ability of the Jedi Masters in Star Wars whose control was limited to the “weak-minded”.  But sex as a tool of control … not that big a stretch.  And Duncan was interested in how they taught this tool.

The comeye record of such interest to Bell was of Idaho questioning Murbella about Honored Matre sexual-addition techniques.  Why?  His parallel abilities came from Tleilaxu conditioning impressed on his cells in the axlotl tank.  Idaho’s abilities originated as an unconscious pattern akin to instincts but the result was indistinguishable from the Honored Matre effect: ecstasy amplified until it drove out all reason and bound its victims to the source of such rewards.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 50)

Just a word here about Bell.  She is a primary advisor to the Mother Superior and is sure that Duncan Idaho poses a severe threat to the Bene Gesserit and by extension to all humans.  The Bene Gesserit see their survival tied to the survival of human kind.  As explained by Rachel, the Jewish woman who “saved” Lucilla by “sharing” with her before she was captured thus saving all the Other Memories, the Bene Gesserit seek “[i]nfluence on the maturing of humankind” (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 61).

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #1

I was amazed to find a quotable quote on the first line of the first page.  In fact, it is the chapter starter for Chapter 1.

Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history.

- BENE GESSERIT CODA

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 1)

Hmmm.  Makes me think.  Sounds like something George W. Bush would believe in and act upon.  That is not a compliment.

One of the most personally fascinating aspects of this part of the story is the uncovering of the Jewish society still thriving after so many thousands, even tens of thousands, of years.  Lucilla, who had been assigned to Lampadas, had narrowly escaped an Honored matre attack and had fled in search of a safe hiding place on Gammu.  She had recalled a remark from odrade which had led her to believe she might find protection there.

“You know an interesting thing about Gammu?  Mmmmm, there’s a whole society there that bands itself on the basis that they all eat consecrated food.  A custom brought in by immigrants who have never been assimilated, frown on outbreeding, that sort of thing.  They ignite the usual mythic detritus, of course: whispers, rumors.  Serves to isolate them even more.  Precisely what they want.”

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 33)

Lucilla had been interested, searching for further information in Archives and had surmised that the secret society on Gammu were Jews.  Odrade informed Lucilla that there were other secret pickets of Jews throughout the universe.  Odrade shared a secret message from Archives whose source was a “Mother Superior during and after the battle of Corrin” (Chapterhouse:Dune, p. 35).  This is a little off since the sisterhood didn’t truly take hold until after the Battle of Corrin according to the books by Brian Herbert.  Although, Raquella had suffered an “agony” of sorts before the Battle of Corrin and had formed a school.  That said, it would not be surprising for a Reverend Mother to have recollections from that time in Other memory and to have Jewish ancestors.

A portion of the message from this ancient Reverend Mother is worth including here:

“The people to whom your attention has been called are the Jews.  They made a defensive decision eons ago.  The solution to recurrent pogroms was to vanish from public view.  Space travel made this not only possible but attractive.  They hid on countless planets – their own Scattering – and they probably have planets where only their people live.  This does not mean they have abandoned age-old practices in which they excelled out of survival necessity.  The old religion is sure to persist even though somewhat altered.  It is probably that a rabbi from ancient times would not find himself out of place behind the Sabbath menorah of a jewish household in your age.”

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 34)

Heretics of Dune – Entry #7

     The end of Heretics of Dune is dramatic and lays the foundation for the end of the saga.  First, the Honored Matres attacked Rakis (Dune).  They killed Mother Superior Taraza but Odrade and Sheeana escaped to the desert.

     Meanwhile, on Gammu, the Honored Matres frantically search to capture Teg, Lucilla, and Duncan who get separated in trying to escape.  Duncan and Teg both end up in the hands of Honored Matres and something dramatic happens to each of them.  Teg is transformed into a hyper-aware being that can move with incredible speed.  Duncan meets Honored Matre Murbella.  It is here that we discover the attack is all about capturing and killing Duncan because the Honored Matres found out “there was a ghola armed with forbidden knowledge by the Tleilaxu” (Heretics of Dune, p. 428).  The Tleilaxu knew the Bene Gesserit would sexually imprint their ghola so they had “programmed” him to turn the tables and then kill the Imprinter.  But it didn’t turn out that way.  The sexual encounter with Murbella, whose goal was to imprint the captured young man, resulted in a mutual imprinting of sorts.  Murbella realized late who she had captured for she was incapable of doing anything about it.

     Without providing details other than Teg stating he was going to capture a no-ship, we find that Teg somehow had gotten the no-ship and collected Lucilla, Murbella, and Duncan on it.  His next step: go to Rakis and get Odrade and Sheeana even though he realized that the Honored Matres were already there also, searching for Duncan.  Teg landed the no-ship somehow knowing that Sheeana and Odrade would arrive shortly on the back of a worm.

     Once he got them on the ship he told them to take it to the Bene Gesserit home planet, Chapterhouse, but without him and his men who would stay to create a diversion.  Lucilla, Duncan, Murbella, Sheeana, Odrade, and a worm from Arrakis all escaped in the no-ship while the Honored Matres attacked and obliterated the planet Dune with all its inhabitants … and worms.

     Odrade, now Mother Superior, finally understood Taraza’s design with the help of Taraza within.  She had a lot to deal with.  Sheeana was allowed to leave the no-ship as her cell samples proved she had Siona in her ancestry “that shielded her from prescience” (Heretics of Dune, p. 467).  Duncan was another story and although they knew “he was a mixture of many Idaho gholas – some descendent of Siona” (Heretics of Dune, p. 467), they couldn’t risk him being seen by “prescient searchers … such as Guild navigators” (Heretics of Dune, p. 462).  So he had to stay on the no-ship, along with the captured Honored Matre Murbella.  And then there was the worm.

     The design of Taraza’s was explained in this exchange between Odrade and Duncan at the end of the book.

     “I thought you deserved an explanation of the Mother Superior’s design.  It was aimed at the destruction of Rakis, you see.  What she really wanted was the elimination of almost all of the worms.”

     “Great Gods below! Why?”

     “They were an oracular force holding us in bondage.  Those pearls of the Tyrant’s awareness magnified that hold.  He didn’t predict events, he created them.”

     Duncan pointed toward the rear of the ship.  “But what about …”

     “That one?  It’s just one now.  By the time it reaches sufficient numbers to be an influence once more, humankind will have gone its own way beyond him.  We’ll be too numerous by then, doing too many different things on our own.  No single force will rule all of our futures completely, never again.”

(Heretics of Dune, p. 470)

Heretics of Dune – Entry #6

     Inevitably, the Bene Gesserit would learn without any doubts what the axlotl tanks really were.  The closest anyone had really come to identify the true nature of the tanks was C’tair during the Tleilaxu/Corrino occupation of Ix which began when the first Leto was just a teenager.  This secret had died on Ix and the Bene Tleilax had kept it a carefully guarded secret.

     “What if the axlotl tanks are not … tanks?”

     “What do you mean?”

     “Waff reveals the kinds of behavior you see when a family tries to conceal a deformed child or a mad uncle.  I swear to you, he is embarrassed when we begin to touch on the tanks.”

     “But what could they possibly …”

     “Surrogate mothers.”

     “But they would have to be …” Taraza fell silent, shocked by the possibilities this question opened.

     “Who has ever seen a Tleilaxu female?” Odrade said.

(Heretics of Dune, p. 361)

Heretics of Dune – Entry #5

     So who are the Heretics of Dune?  At this time, heresy on Dune is to speak or act against the “Divided God”; Leto II or the Tyrant.  Even calling him “Tyrant” was reflective of heresy.  Therefore, the Bene Gessert were certainly heretics.

     When Sheeana was orphaned out in the desert by a worm attack on her village, she had committed several acts of heresy although no one had been there to witness most of it.  She yelled at the worms, called it Shaitan (Satan … the devil).  And then she rode the worm, from instinct, to civilization.  This last part was viewed by the religious bureaucracy and they had even considered executing her for it.  Thank goodness they didn’t as she would turn out to be one of the most important people in securing the future for humans.

     Mother Superior Taraza had chosen a course of action that was considered highly questionable by many of her sisters.  She formed an alliance with the Bene Tleilax so they could get the secret of how to make an axlotl tank and use it to make Spice.  They did so by convincing the Tleilaxu that they were true believers in the Tyrant as God.  In fact, Taraza had gained insight into the Golden Path and had become a believer.  She knew that path may lead to the end of the sisterhood but met the goal of preserving human kind.  This, however, was not the kind of believer the Tleilaxu were.

     OK, back to important and relevant nuggets from the book.  Taraza had sent her close friend, Reverend Mother Odrade, daughter of Miles Teg and thus an Atreides, to Dune to be Sheeana’s teacher.  It was also Odrade’s job to hook the Bene Tleilax.  As part of demonstrating Sheeana’s power in order to establish and hold the power she had over the true believers, Odrade arranged a worm ride into the dessert with Tleilaxu Master Waff and Sheeana to command the worm.  They left from Dar-es-Balat where Leto II kept his records.  The worm that came to Sheeana’s call ended up taking them to the long lost Sietch Tabr!  And there Odrade discovered the fabled super-cache of Spice.  Again, such a masterful weaving of the story from the long past to the present and then to the future.  For on the walls of the cavern, Leto II had left a message meant specifically for Bene Gesserit to find.

     “MY WORDS ARE YOUR PAST,

     “MY QUESTIONS ARE SIMPLE.

     “WITH WHOM DO YOU ALLY?

     “WITH THE SELF-IDOLATORS OF TLEILAX?

     “WITH MY FISH SPEAKER BUREAUCRACY?

     “WITH THE COSMOS-WONDERING GUILD?

     “WITH HARKONNEN BLOOD SACRIFICERS?

     “WITH A DOGMATIC SINK OF YOUR OWN CREATION?

     “HOW WILL YOU MEET YOUR END?

     “AS NO MORE THAN A SECRET SOCIETY?”

(Heretics of Dune, p. 301-302)

Heretics of Dune – Entry #4

The pain needed to be inflicted to reawaken a ghola’s memories disturbs Teg.  He asks himself if what he has been instructed to do is truly “good” for Duncan.  The no-chamber certainly accelerated the process.  The painful memories of Duncan’s first childhood are touched upon after Duncan regains his memories and sees the Harkonnen world around him.

With Duncan’s pre-ghola memory as guide his own modern knowledge of the planet, Teg had tried to bring the map up to date.

     “Forest Guard Station” became “Bene Gesserit Keep”.

     “Part of it was a hunting lodge,” Duncan said.  “They hunted human game raised and conditioned specifically for that purpose.”

     Towns vanished under Teg’s updating.  Some cities remained but received new labels.  “Ysai”, the nearest metropolis, had been marked “Barony” on the original map.

     Duncan’s eyes went hard in memory.  “That’s where they tortured me.”

(Heretics of Dune, p. 285-286)

The story of Duncan’s torture as a child at the hands of Beast Rabban is told in the prequel book House Atreides.

Heretics of Dune – Entry #3

Many pages of the book pass before another quote I needed to include.  Not that these aren’t interesting pages, because they are!  Duncan’s training on Gammu and, equally as important, the discovery of the girl who can command the worms of Dune, Sheeana.

These pages also include the first clues to “sexual imprinting”.  The Bene Gesserit Lucilla arrives on Gammu to imprint Duncan so that he would be in their control.  But Teg does not agree with this plan.

The Honored Matres, called whores by the Bene Gesserit because they use sexual imprinting dangerous ways, are searching to capture the Duncan Idaho ghola.  Duncan, Teg, and Lucilla escape capture on Gammu because Teg’s assistant commander had found an ancient Harkonnen no-chamber during explorations in the forest during his childhood on Gammu.  I love when Brian Herbert takes a key nugget of information from his father’s books and expands on it.  The description of certain aspects of the no-chamber in Heretics of Dune, expanded on in one of the prequels is one such example:

Twenty-one skeletons preserved in transparent plaz along a wall near the core! Macabre observers of everyone who passed through there to the machinery chambers and the nullentropy bins.

(Heretics of Dune, p. 224)

I love these connections across such long time periods, this one from five thousand years prior.

Heretics of Dune – Entry #2

Once Frank Herbert identified the concept of prescience (seeing the future) as something he wanted to explore in the Dune saga, it is fascinating to consider the long tendrils this one theme reaches out to.  The societal addiction to the drug mélange (spice) is connected to it since “ancient” times when Norma Cenva first discovered its ability to open her vision to guide through fold-space.  That ability to “see” also led to Leto II breeding for humans that could not be “seen” by Guild searches, Siona being the first in that line.  And it led to the design of the no-rooms, no-ships, etc.  This, naturally, would lead to the desire to nullify the no-ship’s ability to hide.

In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human history.  Show me someone who says, “Something must be done!” and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have no other outlet.  What we must strive for always! is to find the natural flow and go with it.

-The Reverend Mather Taraza

Conversational Record, BG File GSXXMAT9

(Heretics of Dune, p. 90)

This chapter starter got my attention because I genuinely like change and therefore could be considered a “reformer”.  Yet I would have to agree that to foster change, you do need to find “the natural flow”, and I am not sure I could have said it or even identified it as clearly as was done in this passage.

Heretics of Dune – Entry #1

It is now 1500 years after the “death” of Leto II.  Certainly, a lot has happened but the Bene Gesserit persist as does the Litany Against Fear, which appears quite early in this book on page 8.  The Litany, unchanged for many thousands of years, is a key thread throughout the Dune Saga.

Early in the book, we meet Miles Teg; retired Supreme Bashar (military commander) for the Bene Gesserit, mentat, and an Atreides.  We also meet young Duncan Idaho, evidently the twelfth ghola in a series bought and paid for by the Bene Gesserit and created in the Bene Tleilax axlotl tanks.  Teg has been asked to come out of retirement to complete the training of the young Duncan (16 years old) on Gammu (previously known as Geidi Prime – Home Planet of the Harkonnens).  This ghola was altered on the request of the Bene Gesserit so that his reflexes match contemporary human capabilities. Teg, whose appearance is strikingly similar to Duke Leto Atreides, has also been charged with restoring Duncan’s memories.

Although similar forces rule in the universe, including the Bene gesserit, the Spacing Guild, the Fish Speaker Council, CHOAM, Ix technology leaders, and the Bene Tleilax, the Bene Gesserit have regained much power since the Tyrant’s death.

A small measure of the Sisterhood’s far-reaching authority could be deduced from the fact that they held this authority despite Tleilaxu tank-grown mélange, which had broken the Rakian monopoly on the spice, just as Ixian navigation machines had broken Guild monopoly on space travel.

(Heretics of Dune, p. 69)

Space travel now includes the “no-ship”; a ship that is not visible through prescience or by scanning.  It and its inhabitants can only be found if seen.

There is also a new force, the Honored Matres, who have come from far reaches of space, returned from the scattering.  Evidently, after Leto II died, there were Famine times and the Scattering … a sort of Diaspora.  The Honored Matres return from the Scattering with wealth and power yet they seek more.  They seek to “nullify a no-ship’s invisibility” (Heretics of Dune, p. 79).  And they know there is something very dangerous about the Idaho ghola.

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #9

Now we come to the end of God Emperor of Dune.  Siona and Duncan conspire to kill Leto.  This is what Siona has been bred for but Duncan is in it to get Hwi back.  Duncan’s hate for Leto is deep and Duncan is able to separate the Worm from his Atreides roots.

As they develop their plan, Siona asks Duncan what the Fremen were like in his day.  He responds with an old Fremen saying: “You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 387).

During Leto’s approach to the trap which he does not directly sense, he has a bittersweet conversation with Hwi.  At one point, tears even come to his eyes even though water is painful to him.  I thought this commentary from him is often the prevailing perspective of humans, a perspective that stifles progress and progressive thinkers:

     “Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 390)

So often I hear people complain about the innovations of the day espousing the position that things were better before these innovations.  For example, I hear people complain that the younger generation somehow doesn’t know how to communicate with each other because communication is now predominantly done through electronic means.  But these innovations helped mobilize whole populations to effectively revolt against authority in a way that would have been impossible without these electronic means.  I think they are communicating just fine.

Shortly after this conversation with Hwi, Leto offers this lovely statement to Moneo:

     “There’s no reassuring ceiling over you, Moneo.  Only an open sky full of changes.  Welcome it.  Every sense you possess is an instrument for reacting to change.  Does that tell you nothing?”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 405)

Yes!  It tells me that we (humans) are designed to adapt to change, we should welcome change!  I LOVE CHANGE!!!

In the end, I had such sympathy for Leto.  He was so tender and loving.  I did not see him as a tyrant … or at least no more of a tyrant than any parent must sometimes be to be a good parent although I must admit that punishments could be well beyond extreme.  I was mad at Siona’s callousness even while Leto was dying.  Leto, who was experiencing terrible pain and knew that Moneo and Hwi had both died in the attack, still did not spew anger at Siona.  And this is why:

     “He created a new kind of mimesis,” she [Siona] said, “a new biological imitation. He knew he had succeeded.  He could not see me in his futures.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 420)

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #8

Meanwhile, back in the desert, more deep conversation between Leto and Siona is taking place.  Siona had weakened tremendously and she knew she would have to come to agreement with Leto or die.  Leto offered an interesting perspective on “agreement”:

     “The three legs of the agreement-tripod are desire, data and doubt.  Accuracy and honesty have little to do with it.”

     …

     “Desire brings the participants together.  Data sets the limits of their dialogue.  Doubt frames the questions.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 344)

Wow.  This puts a whole new light on agreements I make.  Considering I am a stickler for accuracy and a painfully honest person, I now see why reaching an agreement with me can sometimes be quite difficult!

Then another pearl of wisdom from Leto:

     “What do such machines really do?  They increase the number of things we can do without thinking.  Things we do without thinking – there's the real danger.  Look at how long you walked across the desert without thinking about your face mask.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 346)

Yes!  The machines themselves are not dangerous!  The danger is in using them without giving it a second thought, without considering any consequences.

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #7

While Leto and Siona continue their way out of the jungle, Duncan cannot bear to be denied the forbidden fruit … Hwi.  Leto told him to stay away from her but Duncan was so taken in by her and she wanted Duncan too.

Moneo called both to his office to press upon them the importance of heeding Leto’s wishes.  I found this statement by Hwi during that conversation to resonate with me:

“My Uncle Malky always said the Lord Leto looked on prayer as attempted coercion, a form of violence against the chosen god, telling the immortal what to do: Give me a miracle, God, or I won’t believe in you!”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 338)

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #6

Collage depicting the ancient city of Jerusalem
nestled in the desert hills.
Artwork by Dawn Marnell.

There were so many interesting conversations during Leto’s “test” of Siona out in the desert.  Siona asked many probing questions.  When Siona asked if Leto had a personal religion, Leto thought to himself how “[i]t had always astonished him how a desert provoked thoughts of religion” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 311).  I have felt that way, especially during my visits to Israel.  Somehow the desert makes it more natural to have a personal relationship with God.

That's me, with our tour guide Zvi, overlooking the Wilderness of Zin ... the desert that the Hebrews wandered in led by Moses for forty years until finally allowed into the land of milk and honey. (1987)

Then Siona pressed Leto about what he believes and his reply is: “I believe that something cannot emerge from nothing without divine intervention” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 311).  Siona does not understand so Leto expands on the notion saying: “Nature makes no leaps” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 311).  A beautiful and simple statement yet it leaves one with much to think about.

Meanwhile, back at the Citadel, a disturbed and frustrated Duncan picks a fight with Moneo.  Duncan lunges at Moneo with a knife and Moneo easily sidestepped Duncan and spilled him onto the floor.  Duncan, Swordmaster of Ginaz, easily dispensed with by a comparatively old man!  Moneo could see the shock.  And then Moneo stabbed him with these words:

“He has been breeding us for a long time, Duncan, strengthening many things in us.  He has bred us for speed, for intelligence, for self-restraint, for sensitivity.  You’re … you’re just an older model.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 311)

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #5

Every once in a while I find discrepancies and there is one on page 189.  The most recent Duncan Idaho ghola and Siona are talking and Siona asks how Leto was in Duncan’s original life.  Duncan responded with “Which one?” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 189).  Siona replied “Yes, I fogot there were two – the grandfather and our Leto.  I mean our Leto, of course” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 189).  Duncan’s answer was “He was just a child, that’s all I know” (God Emperor of Dune, p. 189).  Now perhaps this is ambiguous enough but the original Duncan Idaho died on the night that young Paul Atreides was first given sanctuary among the Fremen.  The first Duncan Idaho ghola knew the boy child Leto, Paul Atreides’ son, but the gholas do not have the memories of the other gholas.

Over the next fifty pages, I came across so many things to quote that I am not going to comment on them.  I will just store them here to ponder.

Religion suppresses curiosity.  What I do subtracts from the worshipper.  Thus it is that eventually I will do nothing, giving it all back to frightened people who will find themselves on that day alone and forced to act for themselves.

-- The Stolen Journals

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 198)

     Leto had said something about exploding violence.  Even as he watched the women at their silent prayer, Idaho recalled what Leto had said: “Men are susceptible to class fixations.  They create layered societies.  The layered society is an ultimate invitation to violence.  It does not fall apart.  It explodes.”

     “Women never do this?”

     “Not unless they are almost completely male dominated or locked into a male role model.”

     “The sexes can’t be that different!”

     “But they are.  Women make common cause based on their sex, a cause which transcends, class and caste.  That is why I let my women hold the reins.”

 (God Emperor of Dune, p. 206)

     “I have been forming this human society, shaping it for more than three thousand years, opening a door out of adolescence for the entire species, “ Leto had said.

     “Nothing you say explains a female army!”  Idaho had protested.

     “Rape is foreign to women, Duncan.  You ask for a sex-rooted behavioral difference?  There’s one.”

     “Stop changing the subject!”

     “I do not change it.  Rape was always the pay-off in male military conquest.  Males did not have to abandon any of their adolescent fantasies while engaging in rape.”

     Idaho recalled the glowering anger which had come over him at this thrust.

     “My houris tame the males,” Leto said.  “It is domestication, a thing that females know from eons of necessity.”

     Idaho stared wordlessly at Leto’s cowled face.

     “To tame,” Leto said.  “To fit into some orderly survival pattern.  Women learned it at the hands of men; now men learn at the hands of women.”

 (God Emperor of Dune, p. 209)

     Hwi shook the tears from her face.  The Inquisitors of Ix would react with rage against Tleilax.  Would Ix believe her report?  Everyone in her Embassy taken over by Face Dancers!  It was difficult to believe.

     “Everyone?” she asked.

     “The Face Dancers had no reason to leave any of your original people alive.  You would have been next.”

     She shuddered.

     “They delayed, “ he [Leto] said, “because they knew they would have to copy you with a precision to defy my sense.  They are not sure about my abilities.”

 (God Emperor of Dune, pp. 216-217)

     “Think on the price I pay,” he [Leto] said.  “every descendant part of me will carry some of my awareness locked away within it, lost and helpless.”

     She [Hwi] put both hands over her mouth and stared at him.

     “This is the horror which my father could not face and which he tried to prevent: the infinite division and subdivision of a blind identity.”

 (God Emperor of Dune, p. 219)

     Leto smiled.  “Duncan, have I not told you that when you think you know something, that is a most perfect barrier against learning?”

 (God Emperor of Dune, p. 223)

     “This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom.  But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.” [Leto in conversation with Hwi]

 (God Emperor of Dune, p. 238)

To wrap up this entry, one more passage from a conversation between Leto and Hwi.  These conversations are so intense as Leto shares his vision and wisdom in depth because of Hwi’s perception and intelligence.

     “But your Fish Speakers are …”

     “They teach about survival,” he said.

     Her eyes went wide with understanding.  “The survivors.  Of course!”

     “How precious you are,” he said.  “How rare and precious.  Bless the Ixians!”

     “And curse them?

     “That, too.”

     “I did not think I could ever understand about your Fish Speakers,” she said.

     “Not even Moneo sees it,” he said.  “And I despair of the Duncans.”

     “You have to appreciate life before you want to preserve it,” she said.

     “And it’s the survivors who maintain the most light and poignant hold upon the beauties of living.  Women know this more often than men because birth is the reflection of death.”

 (God Emperor of Dune, p. 239)

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #4

It was in reading the following chapter starter that I finally thought I understood the Golden Path.  And somehow, I had not understood on my first reading of this book.

When I set out to lead humankind along my Golden Path, I promised them a lesson their bones would remember.  I know a profound pattern which humans deny with their words even while their actions affirm it.  They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call piece.  Even as they speak, they create the seeds of turmoil and violence.  If they find their quiet security, they squirm in it.  How boring they find it.  Look at them now.  Look at what they do while I record these words.  Hah!  I give them enduring eons of enforced tranquility which plods on and on despite their every effort to escape into chaos.  Believe me, the memory of Leto’s Peace shall abide with them forever.  They will seek their quiet security thereafter only with extreme caution and steadfast preparation.

-- The Stolen Journals

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 185)

Maybe I just needed to be more mature to understand the message.  It does not oppose a Buddhist way of thinking, to live in the moment.  Peace and tranquility seen through Buddhist eyes is living in the moment, recognizing each moment is precious.

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #3

Now here is a quote I had written down during my first reading of God Emperor of Dune.  Leto said it during the conversation with the two Bene Gesserit referred to in the previous entry.

“I point out to you, Marcus Clair Luyseyal, a lesson from past over-machined societies which you appear not to have learned.  The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 177)

This has become more and more obvious in our society as technology pervades our existence.  Not that I am opposed to technology.  I relish in technology.  I teach technology.  But we must always recognize and maintain our command of technology and our humanity, not tolerating the converse.

Shortly after this passage, Leto falls into a melancholy mood because of his surprising feelings of love for Hwi.  He seeks to alleviate the tumultuous feelings by having a “safari” back into his memory lives within.

      He imagined then describing such a safari to some awestruck visitor, a totally imaginary visitor because none would dare question him about such a holy matter.

     “I course backward down the flight of ancestors, hunting along the tributaries, darting into nooks and crannies.  Who has ever heard of Norma Cenva?  I have lived her!”

     “Lived her?” his imaginary visitor asked.

      “Of course. Why else would one keep one’s ancestors around?  You think a man designed the first Guild ship?  Your history books told you it was Aurelius Venport?  They lied.  It was his mistress, Norma.  She gave him the design, along with five children.  He thought his ego would take no less.  In the end, the knowledge that he had not really fulfilled his own image, that was what destroyed him.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 183)

Bless Frank Herbert for being able to envision a story outline spanning fifteen thousand years of future human history and to his son for taking up the parts of the outline his father ran out of time to expand.

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #2

I think I have only read God Emperor of Dune once before.  It is amazing how much more the story makes sense to me now by really knowing the full history.  One thing I don’t recall really considering was the Fish Speakers.  I thought of them as a religious group but they really are Leto’s all-female army.  The new Duncan Idaho is miffed about the female army and asks Moneo about it early on.

     “ The Lord Lego says that when it was denied an external enemy, the all-male army always turned against its own population.  Always.”

     “Contending for the females?”

     “Perhaps. He obviously does not believe, however, that it was that simple.”

    …

     “Adolescent attitudes, just boys together, jokes designed purely to cause pain, loyalty only to your pack-mates … things of that nature.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 99)

The conversation continues with Moneo explaining Leto’s dissertation on the dangers of an all-male army.  How eventually, the all-male army turns to rape, murderous rape.

Leto’s sensitivity to females is pervasive.  Shortly after this exchange is the following chapter starter:

     The female sense of sharing originated as familial sharing – care of the young, the gathering and preparation of food, sharing joys, love and sorrows.  Funeral lamentation originated with women.  Religion began as a female monopoly, wrested from them only after its social power became too dominant.  Women were the first medical researchers and practitioners.  There has never been any clear balance between the sexes because power goes with certain roles as it certainly goes with knowledge.

-- The Stolen Journals

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 110)

Even with the Bene Gesserits whom he wholeheartedly dislikes and distrusts, he still holds a place for these special women.  An early comment gets across this notion:

     “I see,” Leto said.  “Well, the Bene Gesserit are all more than a little insane, but madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises.  Some surprises can be valuable.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 24)

In his meeting with the Bene Gesserit delegation during the Festival, he is clearly engaged by the intelligence and wit of one of the witches, Anteac.  They have a very heady conversation, one in which Leto is trying to teach them something very deep and philosophical.  Leto sees himself as a teacher in everything and said as much to Idaho before his audience with the Bene Gesserit.

     “Whatever I do,” Leto said, “it is to teach a lesson.”  (God Emperor of Dune, p. 164)

In his conversation with the witches, they were discussing Ixian plans to develop a thinking machine.  One that could be used to navigate through foldspace and remove the need for the spice for space travel.  The Bene Gesserit are tremendously concerned about this, but Leto doesn’t seem to be and Anteac learns quickly why he has such a laissez faire attitude.

     She spoke: “The machine cannot anticipate every problem of importance to humans.  It is the difference between serial bits and an unbroken continuum.  We have the one; machines are confined to the other.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 175)

I love this stuff.  In my electronics courses we will occasionally discuss the primitive aspect of digital technology and I like to point out that the digital machine future is never seen as a bright one in science fiction.  Examples abound!

God Emperor of Dune – Entry #1

Leto’s peace, forced on the universe.  Some call him The Tyrant, some call him The Worm.  He is the God Emperor.  He is nurturing the growth of the human race to survive Kralizec, the Typhoon Struggle.  Yet, it is difficult to see the pattern … so he is loved and he is feared.

In this time, he is the sole owner and controller of the spice mélange.  Every ten years, all the leaders in the Empire gather on Arrakis for a festival during which Leto decides on their allotment of spice.  This means that the Guild and the Bene Gesserit are fully at Leto’s mercy since neither organization can operate without the spice.

If I die away from water, there will be no more spice – not ever.

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 20)

We also discover that Leto has a perpetual order with the Tleilaxu for a Duncan Idaho ghola to serve as the commander of the Fish Speakers, Leto’s all-female army.  When a Duncan dies, another is ready and on his way immediately.  How strange for the new Duncan, each one needing to be updated on the time he has missed since he first died to save Paul and Jessica.  And here we are, thirty-five hundred years later!

Other new and endearing/interesting characters include Moneo Atreides, Siona Atreides, and Hwi Noree.  Moneo is a direct descendant of Ghani and Farad’N (Harq al-Ada).  Siona is his daughter and of very special interest to Leto.  We find out the possible cause for this special interest on p. 114 during a conversation between the two Bene Gesserit reverend mothers who have come to Arrakis for the Festival.

     “Do you think the Guild is right about this Siona?” Luyseyal asked.

     “I do not have enough information.  If they are right, she is something extraordinary.”

     “As the Lord Leto’s father was extraordinary?”

     “A Guild navigator could conceal himself from the oracular eye of the Lord Leto’s father.”

     “But not from the Lord Leto.”

     “I have read the full Guild report with care.  She does not so much conceal herself and the actions around her as, well …”

     “She fades,” they said. “She fades from their sight.”

     “She alone”, Anteac said.

     “And from the sight of the Lord Leto as well?”

     “They do not know.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 114)

And then there is Hwi.  In her interview for being the ambassador to Lord Leto from Ix, when asked why she thought that the Lord Leto had chosen to lose his humanity and become a worm, she had said the following:

“But he already had the prescient ability as did his father before him.  No! I propose he made this desperate choice because he saw in our future something that only such a sacrifice would prevent.”

(God Emperor of Dune, p. 60)

There will certainly be more on her later!

Children of Dune – Entry #7

Alright … we are at the climactic end.  My husband, interested in how the blogging was going, asked for some insight.  He figured that he read Dune more than any other book but that he had lost patience with Dune Messiah and definitely with Children of Dune which he only read a small portion of.  So we philosophized for a little while, discussing the religious and governmental themes.  He considers himself Buddhist, more than anything else.  I consider myself Jewish more than anything else although I have studied many religions and should probably consider myself a Bu-Jew (combo of Buddhism and Judaism).  He had found it fascinating how Frank Herbert had decided that the ruling religion in Dune would be Buddhislamic (combo of Buddhism and Islam).  I then pointed out that there were also references later on in the story of Jewish influence.  Specifically, the use of Hebrew words which I identify since I was once fluent in Hebrew ... although it is possible they are the same in Arabic.  An example of this comes up on p. 372.  In the first conversation between The Preacher and Gurney Halleck, Paul (The Preacher) says to Gurney “The Lady Jessica ordered you to differentiate between the wolf and the dog, between ze’ev and ke’leb” (Children of Dune, p. 372).  These are transliterations of the Hebrew words for wolf and dog.  There are more references that are clearly Hebrew and Jewish later on.

In this conversation between Gurney and Paul, Gurney comes to see that The Preacher really is Paul Atreides.  The heart of the matter for Paul and for Leto is in this passage.

     “But you’re alive,” Halleck whispered, overcome now by his realization, turning to stare at this man, younger than himself yet so aged by the desert that he appeared to carry twice Halleck’s years.

     “What is that?” Paul demanded. “Alive?”

     Halleck peered around them at the watching Fremen, their faces caught between doubt and awe.

     “My mother never had to learn my lesson.” It was Paul’s voice! “To be a god can ultimately become boring and degrading.  There’d be reason enough for the invention of free will!  A god might wish to escape into sleep and be alive only in the unconscious projections of his dream-creatures.”

(Children of Dune, p. 374)

And then the inevitable.  The Preacher comes to give once last sermon in the plaza to provoke Alia.  This is one passage in his sermon:

     “I found myself in the Desert of Zan,” The Preacher shouted, in that waste of howling wilderness.  And God commanded me to make that place clean.  For we were provoked in the desert, and grieved in the desert, and we were tempted in that wilderness to forsake our ways.”

(Children of Dune, p. 388)

When I read this, it really made me think of the story in the Torah of the Hebrew people's exodus from Egypt.  The Hebrews wandered in the wilderness of Zin for forty years after the temptation at Mt. Sinai and before entering the land of milk and honey.  The similarities were so striking, I had to include it here.

The final confrontation that involved all the major players including Alia, Leto, Ghanima, and Lady Jessica was really so sad, especially after the shock of Paul being killed in the plaza at the hands of Alia’s priests.  Paul had goaded them to it knowing it was what needed to be done … like Duncan.  In the end, Alia took her own life too.  And Leto reminded Lady Jessica “we told you to pity her” (Children of Dune, p. 394).  So sad.

I’m going to wrap up my entries from Children of Dune with the chapter starters for the final two chapters.

     The assumption that a whole system can be made to work better through an assault on its conscious elements betrays a dangerous ignorance.  This has often been the ignorant approach of those who call themselves scientists and technologists.

-- The Butlerian Jihad

by Harq al-Ada

(Children of Dune, p. 395)

     As with so many other religions, Muad-Dib’s Golden Elixir of Life degenerated into external wizardry.  Its mystical signs became mere symbols for deeper psychological processes, and those processes, of course, ran wild.  What they needed was a living god, and they didn’t have one, a situation which Muad’Dib’s son has corrected.

-- Saying attributed to Lu Tung-pin

(Lu, The Guest of the Cavern)

(Children of Dune, p. 400)

Children of Dune – Entry #6

It is clear that the story is building up to the meeting between father and son, between Paul and Leto, The Preacher and the no-longer human whose skin is not his own.  Although the dialogue between the two is fascinating, much is still difficult to follow.  One thing that was clear was how Paul had survived his walk out into the desert at the end of Dune Messiah.

     “If I’d only died,” Paul whispered.  “I truly wanted to die whne I went into the desert that night, but I knew I could not leave this world, I had to come back and –”

     “Restore the legend,” Leto said.  “I know.  And the jackals of Jacurutu were waiting for you that night as you knew they would be.  They wanted your visions!  You knew that.”

     “I refused.  I never gave them one vision.”

     “But they contaminated you.  They fed you spice essence and plied you with women and dreams.  And you did have visions.”

(Children of Dune, p. 347)

Also, it was clear that Paul knew of the choice that Leto had made and could have made himself, but didn’t.  But the dialogue about their visions and the choices made was very difficult to follow.  The end of their conversation provided the most clarity:

     After a long silence, Paul said: “The end adjusts the path behind it.  Just once I failed to fight for my principles.  Just once.  I accepted that Mahdinate.  I did it for Chani, but it made me a bad leader.”

     Leto found he couldn’t answer this.  The memory of the decision was there within him.

     “I cannot lie to you any more than I could lie to myself,” Paul said.  “I know this.  Every man should have such an auditor.  I will only ask this one thing: is the Typhoon Struggle necessary?”

     “It’s that or humans will be extinguished.”

     Paul heard the truth in Leto’s words, spoke in a low voice which acknowledged the greater breadth of his son’s vision.  “I did not see that among the choices.”

(Children of Dune, p. 350)

And meanwhile, Alia’s scheme to take Ghanima who was being protected by Stilgar at Sietch Tabr was in play and Duncan Idaho understood Alia’s motives.  He knew that he needed to make Stilgar “take Ghani and flee this place” (Children of Dune, p. 352). After staying up all night trying to guide Stilgar to this conclusion, Duncan realized that he had not succeeded and Stilgar was not going to take the immediate action that Duncan knew was necessary.  So Duncan baited Stilgar in a super intense scene.  First he murdered Javid without provocation right in front of Stilgar and then, knowing him as a true Fremen, he goaded him so hard, there was nothing else Stilgar could do.

     “You have defiled my honor!” Stilgar cried.  “This is neutral -- ”

     “Shut up!” Idaho glared at the shocked Naib.  “You wear a collar, Stilgar!”

     It was one of the three most deadly insults which could be directed at a Fremen.  Stilgar’s face went pale.

     “You are a servant,” Idaho said.  “You’ve sold Fremen for their water.”

     This was the second most deadly insult, the one which had destroyed the original Jacurutu.

     Stilgar ground his teeth, put a hand on his crysknife.  The aid stepped back away from the body in the doorway.

     Turning his back on the Naib, Idaho stepped into the door, taking the narrow opening beside Javid’s body and speaking without turning, delivered the third insult.  “You have no immortality, Stilgar.  None of your descendants carry your blood!”

(Children of Dune, p. 355)

Stilgar was so enraged, he could not see the bait and he killed Duncan right then … just what Duncan wanted.  Stilgar then realized, he had to flee into the desert and take Ghani with him.

     “Where will you go, Stilgar?”  Harah asked.

     “Into the desert.”

    “I will go with you,” she said.

     “Of course you’ll go with me.  All of my wives will go with me.  And Ghanima.  Get her Harah.  At once.”

     “Yes, Stilgar … at once.”  She hesitated. “And Irulan?”

     “If she wishes.”

     “Yes, husband,” Still she hesitated.  “You take Ghani as hostage?”

     “Hostage?” He was genuinely startled by the thought.  “Woman …” He touched Idaho’s body softly with a toe.  “If this mentat was right, I’m Ghani’s only hope.”  And he remembered then Leto’s warning: “Beware of Alia.  You must take Ghani and flee.”

(Children of Dune, p. 356)

Children of Dune – Entry #5

In the meanwhile, Lady Jessica has been providing Bene Gesserit training to Farad’N, just as she had for her own son.  When Lady Jessica felt the had reached a certain level in the training, she announced to him that the session was “a sort of graduation ceremony” (Children of Dune, p. 305) and that she was charged to say a particular statement to him.

“I stand in the sacred human presence.  As I do now, so should you stand someday.  I pray to your presence that this be so.  The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires.  Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas.  We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create.”

(Children of Dune, p. 305)

I really like what the Bene Gesserits have to say to their graduates.  Maybe I will use this quote one day in a speech to graduates!

On the very next page I found another interesting chapter starter, especially in the current climate of the power and wealth of the top 1%.

What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce.  When did you last hear of a clerk giving his life for the company?  Perhaps your deficiency rests in the false assumption that you can order men to think and cooperate.  This has been a failure of everything from religions to general staffs throughout history.  General staffs have a long record of destroying their own nations.  As to religions, I recommend a rereading of Thomas Aquinas.  As to you of CHOAM, what nonsense you believe!  Men must want to do things out of their own innermost drives.  People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make civilizations work.  Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces.  If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness – they cannot work and their civilization collapses.

-- A letter to CHOAM

Attributed to The Preacher

(Children of Dune, p. 306)

After reading this I looked up information about Thomas Aquinas.  Aquinas was a Dominican priest in the 13^th century who wrote many philosophical papers, many describing and expanding Aristotle’s teachings.  The most interesting point of fact was that Aquinas was a favored student and lifelong friend of Albertus Magnus.  Magnus wrote about the coexistence of science and religion and was an early proponent of the scientific method of inquiry through experimentation and mathematics.  Is this how Brian Herbert selected the name of Erasmus’ human computer subject?

Children of Dune – Entry #4

Leto ends up in the hands of the Fremen at Jacurutu and somehow, they are working with Gurney to have Leto tested.  They repeatedly put him into spice trance.  Both looking to determine if Leto is possessed (abomination) and both looking for more.  The Jacurutu Fremen want his prescience, thinking prescience is power.  Gurney is serving Lady Jessica.  But neither really knows Leto.

In spice trance, Leto sees past and future.  In one of these trances, Leto describes a short scene that must have been with Vor Atreides.  It is so cool that even though Frank Herbert did not write the books with Vor, that a reference to Vor (an Atreides ancestor from over 10,000 years in the past) is given in this book.

     “We must negate the machines-that-think.  Humans must set their own guidelines.  This is not something machines can do.  Reasoning depends upon programming, not on hardware, and we are the ultimate program!”

     He heard the voice clearly, knew his surroundings – a vast wooden hall with dark windows.  Light came from sputtering frames.  And his minister-companion said: “Our Jihad is a ‘dump program’.  We dump the things which destroy us humans!”

     And it was in Leto’s mind that the speaker had been a servant of computers, one who knew them and serviced them.

(Children of Dune, p. 256)

Although the stories over these many thousands of years are so well crafted that one is hard pressed to find contradictions or even loose ends, I found an error in Children of Dune.  On page 286, Gahnima refers to Farad’N as looking like “his uncle, the late Shaddam IV” (Children of Dune, p. 286), yet Shaddam was Farad’N’s grandfather!