Dune Re-read, Part 7

Welcome to the Dune re-read! If you are lost be not afraid! I will guide you!

The beginning is here.

If you are not lost then hello again! Today we’re spending most of our time in the desert. Please make sure your boots are fitted slip fashion and that your breath mask is secure. We’re going in!

Chapter 26: The Baron moves a few pieces on the board

What do you despise? By this are you truly known. – from “Manual of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Poor old recently promoted guard captain Nefud is trying to convince the Baron that Paul and Jessica have been neatly disposed of, despite the fact that they were last seen attempting escape by ‘thopter. The Baron, though grossly fat, red-haired and pervy (did you notice?) is wise and asks a VERY important question, “Have you seen their bodies?”

Well, Nefud? HAVE YOU?

That’s what I thought. Let’s continue on with our smugness, it’s not Nefud’s fault. He doesn’t know he’s not the main character in this story.

Moving along, Nefud also informs the Baron that Kynes and Hawat have also been captured in the recent action. The Baron demands Kynes be killed, “The man must die. He tried to help my enemies.”  Ahh but for he of the most awesomest of names, Thufir Hawat, the Baron has other plans!

Nefud reports that Thufir has let it slip that he still believes Jessica to be the traitor, and the Baron encourages this belief. Having just lost Piter to stinky breath attack, the Baron is in the market for a new mentat. (See? I wondered how this worked! Looks like you don’t just have a rolling supply of mentats at your disposal.) The Baron knows that Hawat is considered one of, if not THE, best mentats living. (Silly Baron.. you have ample evidence before you that Thufir is slipping of late… but don’t let me discourage you. I don’t want Thufir all deaded. He’s loyal and OLD.) But the Baron doesn’t trust Hawat to switch sides completely, revenge or no. So he has Hawat started on a poison that works by absence – if he ever stops unknowingly ingesting the drug, he will die of withdrawal.

Next, the Baron calls in Rabban to tell him about his new job as the Governor of Arrakis. Not he Baron’s first choice, but with Piter dead his only choice. The Baron outlines his wishes, that Rabban squeeze the planet for all the Spice he can in order to refill the Harkonnen coffers – extremely depleted due to the immense cost of the Harkonnen/Imperial invasion. Rabban displays one moment of intelligence when he tries to convince his uncle that the Fremen are a force not to be ignored, but the Baron waves it off. His plan is about readying the populace for a savior in the form of Feyd.

Then he thinks dirty about Feyd for a while, which is squicky.

Oh the Baron. A strange villain to believe in. He’s just so incompetent all the time. He’s got some good plans sometimes, but most of the time he doesn’t pay enough attention to detail. He just assumes that if he hasn’t thought of it, it’s not important. This will no doubt bite him in his anti-gravved ass later on but for now it’s just a frustrating characteristic.

Many critics have said that the conflict in Dune is shallow, predictable. The Harkonnens are often comic in their ineptness but they’re also monsters. And despite their apparent inability they DO succeed is screwing the Atreides.. royally. (Ha.. I made a pun. Laugh with me oh reader.) And like the dunes in the desert, the plot of Dune often hides itself in the shallows. We are like Paul sometimes, able to observe from many places but there are still some places we cannot see and it’s these places where we have to pay attention. The Harkonnen are the enemy but perhaps not the true antagonist in the novel. Again and again we see a theme- a flaw that all the characters in Dune share. This characteristic is overconfidence. A tendency to overlook things. To not spend enough time exploring all the consequences of a particular action. This is due to different reasons for each character… but it’s shared by all.

Chapter 27: Paul and Jessica totally suck at desert power

At the age of fifteen, he had already learned silence. – from “A Child’s History of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Paul and Jessica have not died! YAY! They’re just riding out the storm because Paul is such a superior pilot. ATREIDES GOT SKILLZ. Good to see Paul has inherited his father’s piloting prowess. Seeing a way out of the storm by riding a vortex of air up and out, Paul takes it, Jessica freaks out. CHILL LADY! The ‘thopter suffered some damage in the storm so Paul is forced to land.

He chooses a spot near some rocky ridges and reminds Jessica that when they land, the vibrations will attract a worm. They will need to make a run for it. They skid to a halt on a dune and then Paul and Jessica grab all their crap and start running for the safety of the rock. They are total crap at running on sand though and the worm that comes actually catches up to them. They barely make it.

After recovering they decide to follow the ridge line as far as they can. The hike is grueling and Jessica thinks to herself one of my favorite lines in the novel, “Mercy is the ability to stop, if only for a moment.” Eventually they reach the end of the ridge line and decide they will have to attempt a cross of open sand, several kilometers wide. At such a distance it would be impossible to outrun a worm.  They rest and eat before they begin the descent down to the sand from the ridge with a plan to ‘mimic’ the Fremen by distracting a worm with a well-placed thumper.

In the descent, because they are total desert noobs, the hit upon a patch of the dune face that cascades beneath them. Paul manages to hold on to their pack of supplies but Jessica buried. During this bit of action we learn that Bene Gesserit have the ability to put their bodies in a kind of suspension. Paul digs for her, gets her out and in the second cascade caused by his digging, manages to lose their pack of supplies.

Paul, you suck right now.

But Paul thinks a little and realizes that he can make a foam out of the few remaining tools he has on him, an electronic compass, some spice found in the surrounding sands and water from his stillsuit. (The foam makes far more sense to me than the static stabilizer from previous chapters but I still think this would take a hell of a lot of foam, but whatever. PAUL- RESOURCEFUL IN THE DESERT!)

So Paul manages to dig down and retrieve the pack of supplies, which kind of takes all the tension out of this desert crossing.

They return to the ridge and decide to set up camp. They discover that others have set  up camp in this ridge before, seeing several post holes in the rock. Paul also begins to observe the desert in a more native way, noticing the living things in the seemingly barren landscape. There are succulent plants and small animals. Few places in such a vast and hard desert would support life, it makes sense that where there are plants and animals, there would also be people.

After setting up camp they observe another worm passing by (bigger than a frigate ship!) and Jessica decides that Paul needs to return to his lessons. Paul reverts to teenagerdom with a “but Mooooom”. Jessica makes him begin drills with the muscles in his hands, which reminds Paul of the Gom Jabbar and the forces which are shaping him.

There are some really beautiful passages about the desert in this chapter. Herbert truly loved the environment he had borrowed and created in this novel. The desert stops being a faceless setting in this chapter and begins to form a system, a way of understanding the novel itself. I think it’s absolutely no accident that many of the oldest stories of survival and religion in human history involve the desert. It is a harsh place that shapes a person in a way that few other settings can. Yes, Herbert is drawing on religious imagery and Western traditions, desert as crucible, but I’ve just always loved desert settings. I love them most when they are so detailed and lovingly described to me- to the point where I can breathe the dry air and feel the grit in every imagined breeze.

Chapter 28: Gurney sings a song in a moment of choice

<We came from Caladan-a paradise world for our form of life. There existed no need on Caladan to build a physical paradise or a paradise of the mind-we could see the actuality all around us. And the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life-we went soft, we lost our edge. – from “Muad’Dib: Conversations” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Gurney Halleck stands before the son of Esmar Tuek, Staban. He now leads the smuggler force that Duke Leto had been courting and is responsible for Gurney’s current status of alive. Tuek has earned himself a favor from Gurney for saving the life of Gurney and his surviving men, he asks Gurney to join him citing his ability to survive until rescue as reason enough since it had been Sardaukar they were fighting and not just Harkonnen soldiers.

Gurney accepts this only because Tuek informs him that Hawat has been captured by the Harkonnens and that Paul and Jessica are dead, with Jessica most likely being the traitor. In place of Jessica, Gurney focuses on Rabban as the Harkonnen revenge object of choice. Tuek promises ample chances for blood payment. He also convinces his men to take up service with the smugglers and then plays one of his dying men a favorite song because while Gurney is honorable, grizzled and vengeful- he is also a poet. Scarred men are always poets.

The point of this chapter is to confirm for us that Gurney is alive but he believes no other Atreides to be alive (or in the case of Hawat- in a position to be rescued). This is equivalent to putting a fine vintage on a shelf for later.

Chapter 29: “Most intruders here regret finding the Fremen!”

Family life of the Royal Creche is difficult for many people to understand, but I shall try to give you a capsule view of it. My father had only one real friend, I think. That was Count Hasimir Fenring, the genetic-eunuch and one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium. The Count, a dapper and ugly little man, brought a new slave-concubine to my father one day and I was dispatched by my mother to spy on the proceedings. All of us spied on my father as a matter of self-protection. One of the slave-concubines permitted by father under the Bene Gesserit-Guild agreement could not, of course, bear a Royal Successor, but the intrigues were constant and oppressive in their similarity. We became adept, my mother and sisters and I, at avoiding subtle instruments of death. It may seem a dreadful thing to say, but I’m not at all sure my father was innocent in all these attempts. A Royal Family Is not like other families. Here was a new slave-concubine, then, red-haired like my father, willowy and graceful. She had a dancer’s muscles, and her training obviously had included neuro-enticement. My father looked at her for a long time as she postured unclothed before him. Finally he said: “She is too beautiful. We will save her as a gift.” You have no idea how much consternation this restraint created in the Royal Creche. Subtlety and self-control were, after all, the most deadly threats to us all. – “In My Father’s House” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Paul and Jessica have camped for the day and it is now evening, time to move. With their original plan still a go, they hope to cross the sands and reach the distant ridges in hopes of finding one of the abandoned imperial stations where they will hopefully find water and communications. Paul also hopes to be able to contact Fremen and buy water with spice.

They practice “walking without rhythm” for a spell before Paul sets the thumper. This method of walking is taxing but necessary because they can’t outrun a worm. Mimicking the natural sounds that sand makes as the wind spreads it around is their best option.

They start out OK, but a worm comes almost immediately which is stressing Jessica out. Because they know absolutely jack about crossing the open desert they hit drum sand, which is like a gigantic thumper.

At this point, due to extreme screwage, they just start running for it. Their previous strategy has left them exhausted and once again, they BARELY outrun a worm. In fact, this time the worm attempts to grab them off of the ridge wall once they reach it. Wedged into a crack they watch a worm rise out of the desert floor in search of them.

Except someone else has set a thumper and it draws the worm away!

YES, STILL LIVING. But perhaps not for long?

They find a way thru the rocks and follow it until they reach a clearing. There are obvious signs of habitation; constructed stairs, water collecting systems, and in the basin a myriad of plants. Thinking they’ve reached paradise they begin making plans to settle in when they are confronted by an unseen voice! Another calls for their water but names the first speaker Stil. (oh oh.. is it Stilgar? We like him!)

Jessica starts to freak because these Fremen have stealth skills that exceed even Jessica’s own and she knows it is a distinct possibility they will be killed at any moment for the water in their bodies.

This is one of those chapters where you’re breathless at the end because everyone has been running the whole time. There’s gigantic monsters in the ground (They’re under the ground! REPEAT: UNDER. THE. GROUND.) They can chase you, they can smell you and they are so enormous it makes your question your place in the universe. Such a great scene.

And of course, I love this chapter because at halfway through the novel it is about time we hooked up with the Fremen. Only awesomeness can come of this. It has been promised.

Chapter 30: Liet-Kynes is a desert creature!

This Fremen religious adaptation, then, is the source of what we now recognize as “The Pillars of the Universe,” whose Qizara Tafwid are among us all with signs and proofs and prophecy. They bring us the Arrakeen mystical fusion whose profound beauty is typified by the stirring music built on the old forms, but stamped with the new awakening. Who has not heard and been deeply moved by “The Old Man’s Hymn”?

I drove my feet through a desert

Whose mirage fluttered like a host.

Voracious for glory, greedy for danger,

I roamed the horizons of al-Kulab,

Watching time level mountains

In its search and its hunger for me.

And I saw the sparrows swiftly approach,

Bolder than the onrushing wolf.

They spread in the tree of my youth.

I heard the flock in my branches

And was caught on their beaks and claws!

-from “Arrakis Awakening” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Just when you were thinking to yourself, “Self, whatever happened to Dr. Kynes?” WELL LET ME TELL YOU!

We rejoin Dr. Kynes (aka Liet, remember) as he is wandering in the open desert devoid of stillsuit, possibly shoes. He is wearing part of his shirt on his head (kind of like Joaquin Phoenix in that crappy “documentary” he made, only probably less crazy looking.) He’s been put there by order of the Baron, a way or disposing of him without actually dirtying their hands with the murder of an Imperial servant.

So the poor guy is probably suffering from sun stroke, he’s severely dehydrated and stranded in the middle of the desert. (Please note, he is still doing better than Jessica and Paul because he isn’t being chased by a worm)

Delirious, Kynes starts hearing his long-dead father giving him a lecture about Arrakeen ecology. In the lecture and accompanying commentary by Kynes himself we learn some more about Arrakis, society and most importantly, worms. See… Kynes has stumbled upon a pre-Spice mass. Deep beneath him a cache of little makers (infant worms) have been hanging out, doing what babies do. Eating…pooping…gassing. Eventually this mix hits critical mass and explodes towards the surface.

As Kynes is explaining this for our benefit it is actually happening. While the surface sand is exchanged for the pre-spice mass below Kynes is caught in the shift, a violent explosive shift. “He felt the bubble lift him, felt it break and the dust whirlpool engulf him, dragging him down into cool darkness. For a moment, the sensation of coolness and the moisture were blessed relief. Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.”

Awww… but I liked Dr. Kynes. Oh well, we knew this was coming because the Baron ordered it and also because Dr. Kynes had promised to help Paul recruit the Fremen to his cause. Too easy. BUT, this does leave the position of religious leader open on Arrakis. Were you going to say Imperial Planetologist? HA! That’s not even a real thing!

Feeling Good Reader? Feeling optimistic? Feeling like your shorts are full of sand? It’s OK! Keep reading, it can only get… what’s the word I’m looking for? Bloodier!

For Part 8 we’ll read Chapters 31-35, stop when you get to “Muad’Dib tells us in “A Time of Reflection”…