Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #17

Creativity! 

Always dangerous to entrenched power.  Always coming up with something  new.  New things could destroy the grip of authority.  Even the Bene Gesserit approached creativity with misgivings. ... The trouble was that creative ones tended to welcome backwaters.  They called it privacy.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 243)

     This is why Odrade knew how important Duncan was to their plans.  They needed his creativity.  They needed to make sure they didn't get stuck in old patterns of behavior.  They needed the element of surprise!

     Further down on this same page was a reference to "HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLE DISEASES".  This came from a "simulflow" Odrade, an Atreides, had during a conversation with Streggi.  It amazes me that either Frank Herbert had envisioned this as the first place we would meet Raquella, daughter of Vor Atreides and founder of what became the Bene Gesserit, or that Brian Herbert thought to weave this in to the prequel story.  The ability to make connections over eons amazes me.  The only other author I have known to be able to tell a story over such an expanse of time is James Michener, especially in The Source.

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #16

     The conversation that Duncan has with second-in-command Reverend Mother Bellonda is nothing short of amazing.  Duncan is, well, Duncan ... the most amazing character in the Dune series.  And this conversation enlightens us to the historical background and glimpses of the future that Frank Herbert envisioned.

Simulflow poured it through her awareness: Order of Mentats, founded by Gilbertus Albans; temporary sanctuary with Bene Tleilax who hoped to incorporate them into Tleilax hegemony; spread into uncounted "seed schools"; suppressed by Leto II because they formed a nucleus of independent opposition; spread into the Scattering after the Famine.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 230)

And then later in the conversation ...

     "By the way, Bell," as she stood to leave, "Honored Matres could be a relatively small group."
     Small? Didn't he know how the Sisterhood was being overwhelmed by terrifying numbers on planet after planet?
     "All numbers are relative. Is there something in the universe truly immovable? Our Old Empire could be a last retreat for them, Bell.  A place to hide and try to regroup."

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 231)

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #15

The tyranny of the minority cloaked in the mask of the majority.

That was what the witch Lucilla had recognized.  No way to let her live after discovering she knew how to manipulate the masses.  The witch nests would have to be found and burned.  Lucilla's perceptiveness was clearly not an isolated example.

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 221)

     I tried really hard to understand what had made the Grand Honored Matre so mad to kill Lucilla.  This passage not only explains that but the rampage on all Bene Gesserit.  If the Bene Gesserit can control the masses then the tyranny of the Honored Matres could not be maintained.   Thank you Frank Herbert for explaining things every once in a while.

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #14

With accumulated skills of many lifetimes, he looked on his surroundings through a screen of sophistication and naiveté.  Mentats cultivated naiveté.  Thinking you knew something was a sure way to blind yourself.  It was not growing up that slowly applied brakes to learning (Mentats were taught) but an accumulation of "things I know".

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 199)

     If you can't tell, this is Duncan Idaho.  He can recall all of his lifetimes and this ghola is a mentat.  Mentat training, along with all the schools of the Dune series fascinate me, probably because I am an educator.  I love this concept that thinking you know something can blind you to breakthroughs.  Maintaining humility is so important.  I strive to do this but it is difficult to demonstrate to others that you are humble when you are also strong and self-confident.  Recently, a couple of dear friends and colleagues pointed out humility as one of my endearing characteristics.  They should know who they are and that this was a huge compliment to me.

      I believe I have previously mentioned the painting that Odrade cherishes and keeps in her bed chamber: Cottages at Cordeville by Vincent Van Gogh.  There is no doubt that the painting she has is the one painted by Erasmus when he was trying to understand humans during Serena Butler's time.  Serena had mocked Erasmus.  Tried to explain to him that he had not produced art, he had just produced a copy.  Erasmus didn't understand since it was a perfect copy.

     So during this chapter, Duncan is trying to piece together things that are on the edge of his consciousness that he recognizes are important in some way.  The pieces of the puzzle are truly clues to the future of this story but, again, are difficult to comprehend without already knowing where this is going.  One of the pieces is a conversation he had with Odrade about the painting.  Odrade says to him "That painting says you cannot suppress the wild thing, the uniqueness that will occur among humans no matter how much we try to avoid it." (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 203).  This is what Serena was trying to express to Erasmus!  That uniqueness, that wildness, that is what won the war against the machines in the past and will do so again in the future.

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #13

Chapter starter:

Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen.

-Darwi Odrade

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 182)

From the Litany Against Fear: fear is the mind-killer.  The fear immobilizes the individual that makes up the masses.  But we HAVE to let the fear pass through us so that we can ACT!  In what ways in your life is fear stopping you from acting on making changes that you clearly see need to be made?

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #12

How I enjoy the precious little clues that Herbert provides the reader.  But you almost have to already know what is coming in order to see the clues.  Like this thought of Odrade’s during her first conversation with Dortujila about the Honored Matres:“The oppressed will have their day and heaven help the oppressor when that day comes.”  (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 147)  She continues this train of thought by noting how “the oppressed always learned from and copied the oppressor.” (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 147)  After just having watched the movie Argo last night, the truth in this is so painfully clear.  But what does this have to do with Honored Matres?  Who was oppressing them in their past?

In this part of the book, Odrade is developing her plan for drawing the Honored Matres in to a battle with Odrade picking the time and place without the Honored Matres realizing it.  Understanding the development of that plan requires such careful reading.  Again, so easy to miss if you don’t already know where it is going.  One evening, as the plan is crystallizing in her mind, she imagines talking with the Honored Matre commander.  The following passage of Odrade speaking to the imagined commander, I think, gets at why some of my family and friends teasingly call me a Bene Gesserit.

“It is difficult for us to let you make your own mistakes.  Teachers always find this hard.  Yes, we consider ourselves teachers. We do not so much teach individuals as the species.  We provide lessons for all.  If you see the Tyrant in us, you are right.”

(Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 164)

Chapterhouse: Dune – Entry #11

This little nugget comes from a recollection Mother Superior Odrade has of something the “Senior Watchdog” is commonly heard saying: “Show me a completely smooth operation and I’ll show you someone who’s covering mistakes.  Real boats rock.”  (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 119)

As for the following little snippet, although there isn't really anything all that special about it, I just enjoyed the word play:

Any good, any evil; any god, any devil. (Chapterhouse: Dune, p. 120)

That’s the answer to what Infinity can produce.