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)