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!

Children of Dune – Entry #3

So many passages are meant to endear Leto II to the reader.  His character is to be loved and respected as Paul once was.  Little things about Leto’s character, things we credit to the Atreides.

     And Leto, who’d already known these things, had nodded his gratitude at the wisdom of such instruction.

     But Stilgar’s voice could be filled with many valuable things.

(Children of Dune, p. 212)

Leto’s respect for Stilgar, even with all Leto knows from his many lives within including that of his father’s, is just beautiful. Stilgar, the quintessential Fremen.  In Leto’s memory, he recalls Stilgar’s explanation of Jacurutu, the sietch of Fremen who would think nothing of killing another Fremen for his water.  And that is where Leto goes after letting the Empire believe that he has been killed.  It wasn’t clear why but it certainly would be a good hiding place and I am now sure that he was seeking out The Preacher who he believed to be his father.

The scene where Alia realizes that The Preacher is definitely her brother is so intense, I just have to include the whole passage here.  The Preacher is speaking to the masses in the square and Alia has snuck down into the crowd to get an up close look for herself.

     “Why has another Leto been taken from us?” The Preacher demanded.  There was real pain in his voice.  “Answer me if you can! Ahhhh, their message is clear: abandon certainty.”  He repeated it in a rolling stentorian shout: “Abandon certainty! That’s life’s deepest command.  That’s what life’s all about.  We’re a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain.  Why can’t you hear Muad’Dib?  If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that’s only death disguised!  Such a future becomes now! He showed you this!”

     With a terrifying directness The Preacher reached out, grabbed Alia’s arm.  It was done without any groping or hesitation.  She tried to pull away, but he held her in a painful grip, speaking directly into her face as those around them edged back in confusion.

     “What did Paul Atreides tell you, woman?” he demanded.

     How does he know I’m a woman? she asked herself.  She wanted to sink into her inner lives, ask their protection, but the world within remained frighteningly silent, mesmerized by this figure from their past.

     “He told you that completion equals death!” The Preacher shouted.  “Absolute prediction is completion … is death!”

     She tried to pry his fingers away.  She wanted to grab her knife and slash him away from her, but dared not.  She had never felt this daunted in all of her life.

     The Preacher lifted his chin to speak over her to the crowd, shouted: “I give you Muad’Dib’s words! He said, ‘I’m going to rub your faces in things you try to avoid. I don’t find it strange that all you want to believe is only that which comforts you.  How else do humans invent the traps which betray us into mediocrity?  How else do we define cowardice?’  That’s what Muad’Dib told you!”

     Abruptly he released Alia’s arm, thrust her into the crowd. She would have fallen but for the press of people supporting her.

     “To exist is to stand out, away from the background,” The Preacher said.  “You aren’t thinking or really existing unless you’re willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.”

     Stepping down, The Preacher once more took Alia’s arm – no faltering or hesitation.  He was gentler this time, though.  Leaning close, he pitched his voice for her ears alone, said: “Stop trying to pull me once more into the background, sister.”

     Then, hand on his young guide’s shoulder, he stepped into the throng.  Way was made for the strange pair.  Hands reached out to touch The Preacher, but people reached with an awesome tenderness, fearful of what they might find beneath that dusty Fremen robe.

     Alia stood alone in her shock as the throng moved out behind The Preacher.

     Certainty filled her.  It was Paul.  No doubt remained.  It was her brother.  She felt what the crowd felt.  She had stood in the sacred presence and now her universe tumbled all about her.  She wanted to run after him, pleading for him to save her from herself, but she could not move.  While others pressed to follow The Preacher and his guide, she stood intoxicated with an absolute despair, a distress so deep that she could only tremble with it, unable to command her own muscles.

     What will I do?  What will I do? she asked herself.

(Children of Dune, p. 226 – 227)

Wow.