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)