Dune Re-read, Part 9

Dune Re-Read, Part 9

It’s been a spell but let’s just jump right into it shall we? You remember where we were, Paul and Jessica had joined up with Stilgar’s Fremen while on the run from the Harkonnens. Paul was challenged by a guy named Jamis but Paul won that fight… to the death. Jessica has chosen to consciously fuel the Fremen religious belief that Paul and Jessica are prophesied messiah figures and the Harkonnens were killing slaves at a party.

Chapter 36: Paul counts his booty

Muad’Dib tells us in “A Time of Reflection” that his first collisions with Arrakeen necessities were the true beginnings of his education. He learned then how to pole the sand for its weather, learned the language of the wind’s needles stinging his skin, learned how the nose can buzz with sand-itch and how to gather his body’s precious moisture around him to guard it and preserve it. As his eyes assumed the blue of the Ibad, he learned the Chakobsa way. – Stilgar’s preface to “Muad’Dib, the Man” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

We’re back with Stilgar’s troupe and the Fremen, Paul and Hot-Mom are so close to home they can smell it. Literally. Herbert spends quite a lot of page real-estate to explain to us just how much the Fremen stink. But it’s good. It’s homey. It’s reassuring. That press of bodies, the stink of reclamation, the BO-funk of your best friend. We like it.

As the troupe climbs the cliff to the sietch entrance they get some coded welcome messages via bird noises (it’s like Robin Hood!) and it takes Paul a really long time to figure out that the messages were to warn Chani that Liet, her father, has been killed by Harkonnen treachery. Chani is swept off and Paul is left to be confronted by Harah. She is pretty pissed that some little boy killed her husband but pretty much gets over it immediately because it’s the Fremen way. Now she is Paul’s. He doesn’t have to marry her or anything but her and her children are his responsibilities now since Paul took away their previous caregiver. (Harah’s first husband was killed by Jamis so you see how maybe Harah is used to this by now.) Paul isn’t really interested in sexing Harah because she’s a little old and he’s pretty smitten with Chani already. Harah is pretty mad about that but takes Paul on a mini-tour of the seitch and explains that they will all be leaving soon to avoid the Harkonnen patrols.

After the tour Harah takes Paul back to their rooms where she makes one last push at getting Paul to take her as a wife. He flat out refuses but does say she can cook for him (how sweet) and while Harah is off getting food, Harah’s children come to see Paul, complete with child-sized crysknifes at their hips. Paul thinks this is ominous, the people he is becoming more and more entangled with teach their children to kill.

I love Harah. She’s not really grim and killery like all the rest of the Fremen we’ve met so far and the introduction of Harah and the tour of the sietch and its day-to-day life makes their culture a little more three-dimensional. They aren’t JUST bent on killing and being wrapped up in religious fervor. Ok.. so the ending with Harah’s children is pretty ominous and the whole building explosives and weapons etc but at least they aren’t all out in the open desert raiding.

Harah is really just an info-dump tool but I like that she exists. Paul doesn’t just have to deal with his own personal emotions in the aftermath of killing Jamis. He’s got to take up Jamis’ responsibilities and that makes Jamis more of an actual person to the reader as well. He existed before this and this was his wife, and these were his sons and these were his possessions (hello coffee service!). I mean we could go on a very long rant about how women are not actually possessions and any society that treats women as such deserves to take a long hard look at itself but we won’t do that. Because I think you get it. Harah is not property but the idea of consequences after murdering someone is good. You murder someone and then maybe you don’t just get to walk off into the sunset all happy. That at least feels Ok to my brain. Badass kids lurking behind curtains with knives? I mean.. not that awesome. But if I go to that part of my brain that thinks Hitgirl is awesome.. then I’m OK with it. Alright deadly children, what’s next?

Chapter 37: Your MOM is …. a Reverend Mother.

The hands move, the lips move -

Ideas gush from his words,

And his eyes devour!

He is an island of Selfdom.

description from “A Manual of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

A short time later, we’re still hanging out with the Fremen. Jessica has found herself the focus of thousands of Fremen. She awaits the coming of the Fremen Reverend Mother and wrestles with her decision to go through with something that could endanger her and her unborn daughter. She is resolute though (go Jessica, no wavering courage here!) and when Paul finally shows up (with Kaleff and Orlop in tow…. Orlop? Sigh. Officially the uncoolest name on Arrakis. Good thing we never hear about these kids ever again. Ever. Maybe once? No.) it helps to reaffirm Jessica’s decision. Whatever she is doing, she’s doing it to secure safety for Paul. Which is sorta of weird because she’s willingly risking herself and her fetus but Paul’s need are pretty immediate so I can totally understand I guess? The Fremen are hard to deal with and anything that Jessica can do to make their situation less precarious is the best thing to do. Even if making their positions less precarious means playing on the religious prophecy that keeps popping up everywhere. Which, to me, seems rather like lying. Anyways….

Jessica has so far been standing on a ledge with Stilgar watching hordes of Fremen file into the cavern. After Paul shows up the newly orphaned Chani appears followed by the ancient Reverend Mother. Paul ruminates upon the dangers of the religious fanaticism he sees at work and worries inwardly about the possible futures he has seen that are filled with jihad. Jessica is more concerned with the Reverend Mother. Once Chani has helped the old woman take her place on the ledge we learn what the hell is going on.

Stilgar announces that due to Harkonnen raiding it is time the sietch travels South. The journey will be difficult and the ancient Reverend Mother has declared that she will not survive the trip. Jessica will then be consecrated as a Reverend Mother and the rituals involving this transfer of power will be done presently. Paul is understandably confused. Then Chani is ordained as a Sayyadina as well in case Jessica fails so that not all shall be lost. At this point we’re with Paul asking ourselves, “All lost? What the hell is going to happen that these two women could die tonight?” Some ceremonial words are said and then it’s time for the Water of Life.

This is one of those scenes you should absolutely read and not skim over, or skip entirely just to come here and read my synopsis, shame on you! Jessica is learning as she goes as well so if you pay attention you get the gist – Reverend Mother Romallo is going to give up her place as Reverend Mother to these Fremen. Jessica is going to replace her. Chani brings in the Water of Life, hinting that it is produced by a worm possibly after death (you don’t find that out just yet) and Jessica is asked to drink this announced poison.

At this point Jessica reaches a crisis. She has an idea about what is going to happen and she balks at exposing her unborn child to this poison. But there’s no stopping the ritual, Jessica hasn’t told anyone she’s pregnant so Chani basically forces her to drink a whole bunch of this Spice-laced poison and then shit absolutely hits the fan.

We go into Jessica’s mind as she realizes what she has injested. The amount of Spice makes her almost prescient in her awareness. She realizes she can chemically alter the poison within her body so that it becomes harmless. At the same time her awareness is reaching out through time space and she’s basically wigging. Then suddenly she’s aware of the Reverend Mother Romallo. It’s basically telepathy but not really. They talk a little and then Romallo realizes that Jessica is pregnant and starts freaking out. But there’s no time left and Romallo is dying so she unloads all her life and memories and the unending chain of memories from all the Reverend Mothers before her into Jessica and the fetus. Once it’s over Jessica is still alive and she has also become a Reverend Mother, just like Giaus Mohiam – the old witchy lady with the Gom Jabbar from the beginning) and she uses the changed poisin within her body as a catalyst to change the rest of the Water of Life that Chani is still holding. This is passed out to all the waiting Fremen – and they proceed to have an awareness heightened religiously mandated orgy party.

Sweet. You with me? You get lost? There were drugs. Everyone is on drugs. Also Sex.

We pop back into Paul’s POV and he’s pretty weirded out by everything. He’s glad his mother is alright but he’s having his own pay-attention issues lately what with the prescience and the constantly seeing the future and the past and the future IN the past etc etc. Chani is all ‘Drink this.. DRINK IT.” So he does, and she takes him away to a private place in the sietch because his awareness is too strong for the rest of the Fremen to risk contacting with their drug-heightened senses (and also because Herbert doesn’t want our hero to get nasty on the floor with the rest of the extras) and him and Chani proceed to bone like teenagers in love. They profess undying loyalty and how they’ll always be together, meanwhile Paul is tripping majorly and babbling all kinds of nonsense about time and seeing the future and the horrors in the future and then he’s crying and it’s not very sexy but we’ll let him have that because drugs can just really fuck you up.

What? Did you forget you were reading science fiction from the 60s? You’ve seen the trippy covers of all the novels that came out in that decade haven’t you? There’s all kinds of neon and naked ladies and half the time there’s always some sort of disembodied head floating around shouting about guns and penises… maybe that’s Zardoz but you get my drift. Drug-induced orgies with a side of seeing the future. You wish your parties were as good as Fremen parties. It makes me look back on my childhood days of white-washed Protestantism with total disbelief. I mean THAT was how creative they were going to get? A little wine and Styrofoam crackers? Religious fanaticism – ur doing it wrong.

But yeah. Jessica is a badass. She walks up to a ledge in front of thousands of people who WILL kill her if she refuses/fails but doesn’t die. She doesn’t even KNOW what she’s doing! She just goes up to that ledge and says to Stilgar… look if the only way we can be part of your society is that we become these prophesied figures than we will become those figures. I’ll be a Reverend Mother and Paul will be the Lisan al-Gaib and then you guys will help us seek mighty and complete revenge on those Harkonnen JERKS. Yea? And Stilgar is all, ok sure go do this thing I’m not even going to tell you. It’s a ritual. You’ll be fine. And she does! Jedi crap! IT’S JEDI CRAP. She’s changing molecules with her brain! I need one of those gifs of Jessica that says ‘Come at me bro!’ on them. Because basically she is my bad ass role-model forever. Jessica makes Ripley crap her panties. If the Alien Queen was breathing and drooling on Jessica Atreides she wouldn’t even breath hard she’s just like.. snap that alien’s head off with her teeth and chew and swallow. She would!

You can’t ignore what’s going on with Paul at the end of this chapter though. Chani is setting herself up as a major source of support for Paul. You can see that Jessica is going to be pulled away as part of her religious duties. Chani and Paul have both lost their fathers, they’re both interested in sweet revenge and they both think each other is pretty boneable. Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib and Chani is the priestess daughter of a beloved Fremen leader – Liet. They are a match made in orgy heaven. Thus – a lovely and tragic couple is born. Paul and Chani forever!

Thus ends Book II. We move on to Book III: The Prophet, between these two sections some time has passed.

Chapter 38: Baron Harkonnen knows that you know that he knows that you know that you know that he knows…..

No woman, no man, no child ever was deeply intimate with my father. The closest anyone ever came to casual camaraderie with the Padishah Emperor was the relationship offered by Count Hasimir Fenring, a companion from childhood. The measure of Count Fenring’s friendship may be seen first in a positive thing: he allayed the Landsraad’s suspicions after the Arrakis Affair. It cost more than a billion solaris in spice bribes, so my mother said, and there were other gifts as well: slave women, royal honors, and tokens of rank. The second major evidence of the Count’s friendship was negative. He refused to kill a man even though it was within his capabilities and my father commanded it. I will relate this presently. – “Count Fenring: A Profile” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

It is two years later and we’re back with the Harkonnens. The Baron is in a high temper and coasting through the corridors looking for poor poor Guard Captain Nefud. Once he finds him he proceeds to lecture him know-it-all style. One of the Baron’s pleasure boys had been altered in an attempt on the Baron’s life and the Baron was sure it was Nefud’s lack of attention towards Feyd that had let it happen. He’s still ranting at Nefud (who is high as a kite on Semuta and barely able to follow the conversation) when Feyd shows up.

He’s all smooth and “Uncle, why are you mad at me?” But the Baron isn’t having it. He starts in on Feyd about how a poison dart hidden on the pleasure boys thigh was a stupid way to try to kill the Baron because it would never have worked it was SO OBVIOUS! (Except privately the Baron is all, holy crap that totally would have worked if Thufir Hawat (coolest name ever) hadn’t warned me!).

Eventually Feyd owns up to the assassination attempt and the Baron gets a little self-righteous. He’s already ordered Nefud to go kill the slave master because he had lost a game of cheops with Feyd AND the guards that had carried the body of the slave boy out of the Baron’s room on Feyd’s orders but that isn’t really enough is it? Once Feyd has admitted his guilt and the two have talked back and forth – The Baron insisting that Feyd stop trying to kill him because he’s a useful Uncle and why would you kill the man who is angling to put you on the Imperial Throne, while Feyd dimly thinks to himself that maybe that IS a good reason to not kill his Uncle just yet – the Baron insists that Feyd’s punishment will be to go kill all the women in the pleasure quarters with his own hands.

Here’s the problem with that: 1. The Baron’s only means of punishing Feyd seems to be by getting rid of anyone who could possibly be friendly to Feyd and 2. Feyd is a total psychopath who has no friends so killing slaves doesn’t really bother him. But whatever. That is how the Harkonnens roll.

What’s REALLY important in this chapter is all this talk of Thufir Hawat and the super quick mentioning of Muad’Dib. The Baron thinks the idea that the Fremen have a new religious leader is a quaint one and not worth the time of attempting to find and kill this man. He’s called “the mouse” after all. Shows how much the Baron had bothered to learn about the native people on the planet his family ruled forever. It’s also extremely interesting to note that Thufir has been busying his days with helping the Baron and Feyd plot against each other. He’s a mentat and surely the information about Muad’Dib would be something he would urge his former family to pay attention to but not the Harkonnens and the Baron is just as sure that Thufir is super useful except when he’s playing games by telling Feyd to do stupid shit. Wheels within wheels MY ASS… Thufir is totally taking up time with bullshit so that these two paranoid freaks think more about themselves than they do any pressing issues outside of House Harkonnen.

Poor Raban. Guy must write letters home every day that look like, “Uncle? What should I do? Uncle? Why don’t you write? Uncle.. do you love me?”

So the Baron is angling for Harkonnen take-over of the Imperium. I wonder if the Baron came up with that idea all by himself or if Thufir pushed him towards it? Even though no other Great Houses are ever named in Dune.. ever. You’d think that there would be competition from them to marry heirs to the Princesses of the Corrino family. There are no sons so the Empire will go to some other House in the near future. It is possible that the Baron thought that up on his own. Feyd is a boy and Princesses are generally girls. The Harkonnens are epically rich due to their prior Arrakis holding, but they sure did spend a hell of their fortune getting help from the Emperor to oust the Atreides from Arrakis so maybe they aren’t the biggest fish in the sea when it comes to finding suitable husbands for the Corrino Heir.

Then again.. who are the other houses again? The Bene Gesserit have to be KICKING themselves. Here’s Feyd, their last chance at Kwisatz Haderach breeding and he’s in a house that doesn’t even have a Bene Gesserit advisor. They must bribe half the population of Geidi Prime for information. They do have that illegitimate heir from Feyd (remember Count Eunuch and his wife?) but I’m sure they’d rather a legitimate heir in position to rule the empire than a bastard child. Even if it IS a Harkonnen.

Chapter 39: Thufir Hawat teaches Arrakis 101

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. – from “The Sayings of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

The Baron Harkonnen and Thufir Hawat are sitting at a table discussing current plans. The Baron is demanding to know a fuller picture of the information that prompted Thufir to insist that the Baron send Rabban a message on Arrakis – some warning that the Emperor is very concerned with the Harkonnens and some connection between Arrakis and Salusa Secondus.

Thufir spells it out for the Baron, much of this we already know. The Emperor’s main motivation in pulling down the Atreides was due to their ability to create a force on Arrakis that would rival the Emperor’s Sardaukar. The Atreides had succeeded in training a small force to a very elite status and the the oppressed populatioin of Arrakis would provide a perfect pool to create a large force with those same skills. Thufir tells the Baron that Salusa Secondus, the Emperor’s prison planet, is obviously his pool from which the elite Sardaukar are trained. The Baron sort of gawps at this, he’s always thought that the real reason the Emperor helped him bring down the Atreides is because the Baron paid him to.. pretty much.

Anyways Thufir is planning away and The Baron remembers that conversation he had with Count Fenring about how the Baron wanted to turn Arrakis into a prison planet and Fenring had said absolutely not. Once the Baron tells Thufir this he gets rather excited but also worried. The population on Arrakis should number around 10 million. All a usable fighting force if the Harkonnens were smart enough to tap it. But Thufir instead counsels that the Emperor’s ire should be thought of. Instead of risking putting themselves in the same position as the Atreides had been they should instead withdraw all support from Rabban and appear to only be interested in Arrakis for the Spice by demanding increasing quotas.

Thufir’s real plan is to bring the Harkonnens down of course, so I wonder what this action is meant to do? Bring the Emperor’s attention to House Harkonnen once Feyd is established on Arrakis in the future as a savior, one that will command the total loyalty of its oppressed people? (Too late Feyd.. that position has been filled!) That would only alert the Emperor to a Harkonnen threat. Was his plan to sell the Harkonnens to the Emperor? Thufir’s plan would make a hell of Arrakis all without increasing the population. But Thufir is also aware of news about the new Fremen leader from Gurney and he wonders if perhaps his advice to the Baron to ignore this new religion was a mistake. Would that religion make it harder for Feyd later? SURE AS SHIT IT WILL! Ahem. So Thufir isn’t at the top of his game but it ‘s hard to be when you aren’t at the center of everything anymore. He’s also misguidedly obsessed with bringing down the Harkonnens since he believes that Jessica was a Harkonnen spy. I mean bully for him in taking down the Harkonnens if that’s what he wants to do, but if he even suspects that an Atreides lives shouldn’t he be trying to help them? Oh Thufir you awesomely named man. You always kinda miss the mark don’t you?

It’s smart to use Rabban to whip up the populace and then give them Feyd as some sort of savior from Rabban.. only if the populace is Ok with the fact that Feyd comes from the same family! But I’m not sure how smart it is of the Baron, once Thufir spells out exactly why the Emperor didn’t want the Atreides on Arrakis, to say oh OK.. well I’ll just oppress the populace even more and make them fanatically loyal to Feyd in a few years. Granted, the Harkonnens have never trained any crack troops (I’m looking at you Guard Captain Nefud) but you’d think that would worry the Emperor anyways.

In the end this chapter is lame and boring because who cares about Thufir anymore? What’s Paul doing? It’s been two years!

Chapter 40: Wormsign

There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace—those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death. -from “The collected Sayings of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

We join up with Paul while he is in the midst of a Spice trance. He’s having a hard time placing himself in time right now. He keeps mixing memories. There’s a scene we experience in which some Fremen has come to challenge Paul but Chani kills the man before Paul ever knows about it, declaring the man unworthy. Paul objects to being protected by a woman but Chani says that her actions will discourage other unworthy men from making a challenge. Then we snap to a memory involving Jessica and Paul. Jessica is a full Reverend Mother now and she is cautioning Paul against his use of the Fremen Religion. Specifically she objects to Paul embracing his mantle as Lisa al-Gaib and the fanaticism that he encourages amongst his men. Jessica warns that religion is never simple and that he could bring destruction upon them because Paul courts violence. Their discussion wanders to Paul’s son Leto (!! Son alert!) and his sister Alia who is strange and preborn. Jessica seems to struggle with the fact that she has birthed two altered children, children she loves but that others fear. There are also memories of seeing Gurney but not revealing himself and finding the skull of his father.  Finally it settles on Jessica saying that she loves Chani to placate Paul who seems to be a little bristly in this exchange, but the mention of Chani moves us to yet another memory except that it’s not a memory. It happening now.

Paul is in the desert with Chani and Stilgar and a small troupe of Fremen. He’s here to ride a worm for the first time, alone. This seems to be part of a Fremen ritual that makes one an adult, a true Fremen warrior and rider of worms. Paul will not be allowed to journey South to the sietch until he can do this himself. He wants to journey South, to see his mother and sister, his son. Chani and Paul share some tender words together before Chani resumes her role as Sayyadina and Paul steps out into the desert. Paul then exchanges some ritual words with Stilgar and is given a thumper and pair of maker hooks. He then sets the thumper and calls a worm. Only the worm is bigger than any worm he’s ever seen and Paul feels like he’s caught up on his own history even as it happens.

WORM RIDING!! AHHHH! This is one of those awesome scenes in Dune. What would I do if a leviathan came swimming towards me through the sand? Probably curl up and cry myself to sleep. A perfect little snack. But Paul isn’t even phased. He has the benefit of being able to see the future in part and even though he hasn’t seen this particular moment he’s caught up in his own mythos a bit. He knows he’s going to accomplish something epic. Jessica’s warnings are still pretty fresh but I’m a little caught up in Paul’s myth too. Holy crap if I were witness to that I would feel pretty damn fanatical about my leader. Go big or go home?

The logistics behind worm riding also make enough sense that it doesn’t seem weird or dumb. It just is and there isn’t anything cool but without purpose about the Fremen and I appreciate that. Sometimes they seem too badass to be actual people but I guess that’s the point of them if they could wipe the floor with Sardaukar. They use absolutely gigantic desert worms as public transportation. Wut?

Paul has made a long journey from the uncertain boy we left him as. Now he’s confident in his own powers, confident in his place with the Fremen and his desires have become very distinctly Fremen. He is participating in their rituals not because he must but because he wants to. I wish I could have been along on that ride but I was also getting kind of sick of Paul – Jessica’s son. He seems to be Paul Muad’Dib now. A man in his own right. He obviously values his mother’s counsel but ya know it’s hard to have fanatic devotion to a guy who still looks to mom before he makes any decisions. Paul you’re such a big boy now!

Chani is pretty awesome too. She’s a total rock. You can see how integral she has become to Paul’s identity and the fact that Jessica and Paul are at odds about her must really hurt him. These are the two most important people in Paul’s life. But isn’t that how it always goes when you bring your girlfriend home to your mother? Or.. at this point the mother of your son home to your mother. Man.. they’ve got a kid already! Paul is what? 17? AHHH! Everyone age UP.. my god!

This chapter ends with Paul waiting patiently as the worm approaches.. guess what’s coming next?

Next section will be Chapters 41 – 45. Stop reading when you get to, “And that day dawned when Arrakis lay at the hub of the universe with the wheel poised to spin.” – from “Arrakis Awakening” by the Princess Irulan.