House Atreides - Entry #2

Too long.  Too long.  I am now on page 475 so in a month, I really haven't gotten too far.  I think I need to have the computer by my bed so that I can type up an entry from the same place I do most of my reading.  So let's get to work here ...

"Every human wants to be healthy, and we cannot treat everyone.  Our care is available only to those willing and able to pay for it." (House Atreides, p. 248)

This was said by a Suk doctor who had come to treat Emperor Elrood.  This does doesn't sound like Raquella's Dr. Suk who founded the Hospital for Uncurable Diseases.  Times have changed.

And on page 288 I found at least part of the answer to my own question about Salusa Secundus which was the home planet of the Butler Family and the planet that housed the central government.  It seems that a renegade house, one "whose name was stripped from historical records" (House Atreides, p. 288), had landed on Salusa and set off their family atomics setting off "an ecological catastrophe" (House Atreides, p. 288).  Earl Dominic Vernius went on to explain that "[a]fterward the survivors moved the Imperial throne to Kaitain, in a different, more secure solar system, where young Emperor Hassik III rebuilt the government." (House Atreides, p. 288)  So what Great House did this and why?

One of the great things about House Atreides is meeting some of our most important characters from Dune, getting to know them and their history.  I have already spoken of Duncan Idaho who is the most enduring character in this whole epoch.  But we also get to meet Thufir Hawat, the Mentat Assassin.  In one of the first scenes that we really get to see Hawat in action, young Leto and Rhombur are sent to train with Hawat and they are dressed down at the onset.  The two boys came wearing regal capes which Hawat quickly pointed out had no use in a fighting situation unless to conceal weapons.  This passage gets across quite clearly how seriously Hawat takes his job of making sure the young men know how to protect themselves.

Hawat snapped his fingers like a gunshot in front of Leto's face.  "Don't talk to me about pretty points of assassination." The Mentat's rough skin turned more ruddy, as if he barely kept his anger in check.  "Is your intention to show off for the ladies, or to eliminate your opponent? This is not a game."  (House Atreides, p. 356)

Page 379 was the first place that the Litany Against Fear was recited as we know it in Dune.  Mohiam recites it to control her fear when her automated shuttle malfunctioned and was plummeting through the atmosphere on Wallach IX.  She was pregnant with Jessica and she knew of the importance of the baby she was carrying.  She was more worried about how her death would disrupt the breeding program than worrying about her death.

And finally, I'll end this entry with another passage about Duncan Idaho.  He really is the star of the story.  Duncan was being questioned by the young Duke Leto who had suddenly been thrust on the throne due to the untimely death in the bull ring of his father.  When considering Duncan's testimony and weighing Duncan's character, Leto thought to himself: "Duncan was tough and intelligent and fierce - but not treacherous." (House Atreides, p. 467)  What a wonderful description of a character.  If I were an actor trying to portray Duncan, this would be the key to playing the role true.

House Atreides - Entry #1

I am already at page 220 of House Atreides and that is without using the multiple snow days for leisure reading.  I apologize, however, for not posting sooner but getting the new semester going had a higher priority.

It is now approximately 10,000 standard years after the Battle of Corrin.  In all these years, many things have happened that are alluded to but not clearly explained or explored.  For example, on page 15, Pardot Kynes refers to a disaster that befell Salusa Secundus that "changed everything".  Did I miss something?  What disaster?  Salusa Secundus was not one of the planets destroyed by the thinking machines or in the Great Purge leading up to the Battle of Corrin.  Anyone have an answer to that?

The chapter starter on page 23 is the first time this pervasive statement is provided as law:

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

- Chief commandment resulting from the

Butlerian Jihad, found in the Orange Catholic Bible

(Dune: House Atreides, p. 23)

The same week I read this line I saw  a story on TVabout a computer being developed by IBM to compete in the game show, Jeopardy.  Why?  What good will that accomplish?  Sometimes it seems so obvious that we are headed down a path so close to that imagined by Frank Herbert over 50 years ago.

Before I call it a night in preparation for the early rise tomorrow due to another snow event coming our way, I have to comment on Rabban Harkonnen's hunting game with eight year old Duncan Idaho.  There are three full chapters about this hunt alone.  It is when we get the first hints about who this special person is and it is remarkable.  Duncan Idaho is the most important character in all the remaining books and this story of his youth is gripping.  I love this line from Janess Milam, the woman who rescued Duncan from the Forest Guard Station: "I doubt there is anyone left alive on Giedi Prime with the name of Idaho -- especially after the embarassment you caused them tonight." (House Atreides, p. 207)

Now to read a little before falling asleep.  Need my rest to deal with the early morning phone calls and emails from faculty and students confirming if they need to go to class or not.  I'm thinking no cancellations tomorrow, we need to go to class.

The Battle of Corrin - Entry #3

Done and already started on Dune: House Atreides!!!  I have a few notes to share on the last part of the book then off to read some more ...

The initial development of the Face Dancers has interesting implications to the story but one particular passage called to mind scenes from The Terminator (the movie).  Here is the passage:

Then her face began flickering and contorting -- and it changed, lost its integrity, and began to sag, showing flowmetal and a rigid structure beneath.  A robot, with some sort of fleshlike disguise.  (The Battle of Corrin, p. 649)

Who thought of this first?  Frank Herbert? Brian Herbert? The creators of Terminator?  Hmmmmm.

I wanted to include the following chapter starter just because it made me stop and think:

There is a certain malevolence concerning the formation of a social order.  Despotism lies at one end of the spectrum, and slavery on the other.

-TLALOC

A Time for Titans

(The Battle of Corrin, p. 656)

Then I found myself sad about the way the Atreides - Harkonnen feud came to be.  The grudge held by Vor and Abulurd fed a deep seated hatred.  The moment that began in earnest was at Abulurd's hearing for treason when Vor offered the charge of cowardice, a devastating blow.  When the sentence was passed by Abulurd's own brother, Vorian Atreides announced to the audience: "From this day forth, let all who bear the name Atreides spit on the name of Harkonnen." (The Battle of Corrin, p. 660)  And then in Abulurd's exile, the bitterness grew.

Abulurd's sons passed countless stories to their own children, exaggerating how important the Harkonnen family had been and how far they had fallen.  All because of Vorian Atreides. (The Battle of Corrin, p. 672)

I just couldn't stop myself from thinking ... how exaggerated could these stories have been?  If Abulurd told his sons about Xavier Harkonnen and all he had done ... not to mention the fact that he was the father of Manion the Innocent ... it would be tough to exaggerate the contributions of the Harkonnens during the Jihad that freed humanity from machine rule.  And the patriarch of the ruling family, Faykan Butler, was the grandson of Xavier Harkonnen.  The Butler and thus the Corrino family are also Harkonnens ... and not Atreides.  So what is there to exaggerate?

OK, well, enough for tonight, time to go read some more!!!!

The Battle of Corrin - Entry #2

Cruising along, more than half way through the book!  One of the great pleasures of reading through these again ... and blogging about it ... is taking note of little things that I overlooked with the first read.

For example, an explanation is given for why the old military titles of Primero, Segundo, etc., that were used during the Jihad were abandoned for military rank designations from "an ancient military in the golden age of mankind" (The Battle of Corrin, p. 289).  The new ranks are Bashar, Burseg, Bator, etc..  I looked these up in dictionary.com and found nothing.  I searched in Wikipedia and the words only come up in the List of Dune Terms.  I suppose these terms came from Frank Herbert's imagination.

When I came across the following passage, it made me think of Star Wars.  What do you think?

Without direct orders, one foolhardy mercenary swept over the vicinity in a small armored flyer, and the machine mites targeted him.  Thousands of the flying devices clumped along his flyer's hull, where they began stripping away the metal, the seals, the electronic systems. (The Battle of Corrin, p. 326)

Sounds like buzz droids to me.  Did Frank Herbert conceive of these?  Or did Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson get the idea from Star Wars?

But now that I have read through all the books, to the end of the story, there are certain pieces of the puzzle that fit together now that I didn't even see before.  Erasmus' hand in the development of shape shifters or Face Dancers seems obvious from the following passage describing an exchange between Erasmus and the captive Tlulaxa, Rekur Van:

Finally, Erasmus explained. "I find these faces, in fact my entire appearance, unsatisfactory.  Do you think you can create a more lifelike flowmetal process? Develop a 'biological machine' that can mold itself to different appearances at will? I want to be able to pass as human, fool humans, look like any one of them whenever I choose. Then i can observe them without being noticed." (The Battle of Corrin, p. 373)

So creepy. And understanding how the Face Dancers play into the latter part of this long history makes it even creepier.

The Battle of Corrin - Entry #1

Already at page 83 of The Battle of Corrin before the new year starts!!  The book starts off a little slow, continuing from The Machine Crusade but I know it will be picking up.  Since I have read all the books before, I know what will be coming.  However, I did not have this perspective when I first read The Battle of Corrin and it does make me look at things more closely.

For example, on page 34 I found this statement so much more critical than ever before: "Humankind could not fulfill its potential without her." (The Battle of Corrin, p. 34).  This quote was referring to Norma Cenva and you need to read the Dune books all the way to the end to know how profound this statement is.

The word "mentat" first appears in The Battle of Corrin and was created by Erasmus as "a term of endearment" (The Battle of Corrin, p. 54) for Gilbertus Albans.  An interesting point about that ... a robot created a new word that stuck in the human vocabulary.  Hmmmm.

And finally, for this blog entry, something that really has nothing to do with Dune.  I just loved this quote from Omnius: "We will have empirical evidence soon enough." (The Battle of Corrin, p. 57) I just don't recall ever having seen the word "empirical" used so perfectly in a work of fiction before.  Actually, I can't recall ever having seen the word in a work of fiction I have read before!  Every year there is an instance in the labs I teach for me to explain empirical evidence to my students.  I tell them that "empirical" is a $20 vocabulary word and that they will impress their instuctors if they use it correctly in lab reports.  In this case, Omnius was referring to the prediction that even though the infectious virus delivered by the thinking machines had only a 43% mortality rate, the human societies would collapse simply due to the unpredictability of humankind.

The Machine Crusade - Entry #6

Finally!  I am done with The Machine Crusade and have moved on to The Battle of Corrin!!  The last paragraph of The Machine Crusade is:

With a smile, Ishmael looked around, from face to face.  "We can live on this world as we choose, making our own lives and future.  We shall never be slaves again!"  He sighed with immense pride, and added, "From this day forward we shall call ourselves the Free Men of Arrakis." (The Machine Crusade, p. 695)

The Fremen ... tough bunch.

The Machine Crusade - Entry #5

Some miracles are only nightmares in disguise.

- SERENA BUTLER, Echoes of the Jihad

This was the chapter starter on p. 474 of The Machine Crusade.  The chapter was about a visit that Serena made to Tlulax wtih Rajid Suk and Xavier Harkonnen to inspect the "much-vaunted organ farms" (The Machine Crusade, p. 474).

Chills ... this quote gives me chills.  Knowing what humans can justify to do to each other is a nightmare.  We have plenty of evidence of this in the 20th century alone, along with evidence that many are willing to turn a blind eye.  The foreboding is clear here.

But moving on ... I am getting close to the end of the book and came across this quote:

"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over.  Without fear, I die but once." (The Machine Crusade, p. 621)

This is the first time that we hear this famous chant (or something close enough to it) in the DUNE story as told from the beginning.  Without looking it up, who spoke these lines in The Machine Crusade and what was the situation?  And remember, I am a teacher so there are no "prizes" for getting an answer right that is posed in a classroom discussion.  The satisfaction of getting the right answer is the only prize you need!