DUNE Re-read, Part 10

We are almost to the end! From here on out the ratio of favorite scenes to pages is pretty close. I don’t know if there is anyone out there reading Dune for the first time but take your time with these last few chapters. You will want to rush through them because everything is FINALLY happening but go slowly. Savor the landscape descriptions and the quiet conversations. Some of the reasons this book is one of my all time favorites ever lie in these last few chapters.

There is something comforting about the team you root for winning. It’s right. It makes you feel good. There’s also something cunning and wonderful about the good guys being a little bad, a little morally suspect. This is a war after all, a war with devious players and a protagonist who is quite happy with manipulating an entire culture via religion in order to get what he wants. It makes us all feel a little wicked and powerful. No one is perfect. Everyone has their baggage but we’ve been spoiling for a fight since day one and we’re about to get one!

Read on as Paul makes the final moves in a deadly game!

Ch 41: The Real Housewives of the Southern Sietch

“Control the coinage and the courts—let the rabble have the rest.” Thus the Padishah Emperor advises you. And he tells you: “If you want profits, you must rule.” There is truth in these words, but I ask myself: “Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?”

- Muad’Dib’s Secret Message to the Landsraad from “Arrakis Awakening” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

While Paul is off taking his Sandworm Driving Test, Jessica is back in the Southern Sietch acting as the Reverend Mother to the tribe. Though she’s still the same old Jessica, the last few years as a fremen religious figure have weighed heavy on her. She exists in a type of isolation. She has no real equals in the sietch except for Alia, whom the rest of the Fremen mistrust.

We catch up to Jessica while she sits alone in the sietch contemplating her son’s scheduled sandrider test. She’s thinking about the Fremen condition, how much her life has changed since arriving on Arrakis. After a while Harah comes with Alia. They have just come from a birthing and Harah has come to confront Jessica about Alia’s oddness.

Alia, who does not act like a normal child, claims to have a memory of a baby hundreds of years ago that resembles the latest addition. The rest of the Fremen women are disturbed by these claims. After a tense conversation in which Jessica explains what happened and realizes that Alia also feels isolated and strange, Harrah surprises Jessica by not criticizing Jessica for what she did. Instead she offers to help influence the rest of the Sietch into understanding and accepting Alia the way she is.

Meanwhile Harrah is hinting around that she won’t be Paul’s inherited woman for very much longer, she’ll be marrying Stilgar. This opens the topic to Paul and Jessica – and Harrah speaks about as frankly as any fremen ever will about the situation. Paul is about to change everything. Their talk moves to Chani as Paul’s mate, Jessica doesn’t think she’s an appropriate companion for Paul while Harrah feels that Jessica shouldn’t dismiss Chani. In the end Harrah goes to join Alia and the other fremen, leaving Jessica alone to think more about her son’s future.

This chapter might not seem like much but catching up with secondary characters after the latest time-gap but you are mistaken. This is a wonderful chapter that not only gives you your first (and arguably only) real glimpse into the tragedy that is Alia’s life. What must it be like to attain consciousness before being born but to also carry the memories and experiences of hundreds of generations within you? She’s more than an adult, she’s a reverend mother in her own right, and she can’t even speak without lisping. Alia has always been one of my favorite characters in the saga of Dune. Think of her as the gollum of Arrakis. A figure to be both loathed and pitied and sometimes admired. It’s hard to criticize her for what happens to her, for she is an absolute victim of forces beyond her control. Just a little girl, who was never a little girl trying to exist as one. You also get a look at some of the fremen traditions of remembering the injustices they suffered throughout history. The chant the women sing is about something that occurred thousands of years ago. More proof that the fremen are absolutely serious about their vengeance and Alia was raised in it, to remember forever all the terrible things that happened to her and those who came before. Alia gets bonus point real actual memories of those atrocities too.

We also catch up with Harrah, Jamis’ “widow” who is part of the family now. She considers Paul and Alia to be as siblings. Jessica too is less offworlder now and more fremen, her thought patterns are decidedly more twisty and concerned with omen, portent, the rightness of things. For the first time Jessica begins to regret the path she set them one when she took on the mantle of religious prophecy.

The point where Harrah calls Jessica out about Chani is pretty classic. Remember that the Southern Sietch is populated in the majority by the women and children of the sietch. Here is a fremen society ruled by women that focuses on day to day life. Here is where the reader can most relate to the fremen because here is where they are most like us. They have hopes and dreams and jobs and traditions. It’s not all raiding the Harkonnens and rallying around Muad’dib. Sometimes it’s finding a new husband and working on your interpersonal relationships. Sometimes its getting up every day to go to a job you don’t really want to do. Jessica stands apart from this community not just because of her role as Reverend Mother (as Harrah’s candor shows that had Jessica wanted a more intimate role it could have been attained ) but as the mother of the Mahdi and a foreigner. She still hangs on to the values from before. Especially about Chani and Jessica’s opinion that she offers nothing to Paul. I hear some jealousy in those thought not-Mrs. Atreides!

The end of the chapter, where Harrah cuts Jessica’s logic tirade off sharply, it makes me love Harrah. **Spoiler** It’s a pity she isn’t mentioned again. (Though we know from the naming of the twins that Paul never forgets her wisdom). Harrah has said her piece, that Jessica underestimates Chani and should reevaluate why she thinks Chani isn’t an appropriate mate for Paul. She doesn’t want to hear any of Jessica’s pity party, mostly because she thinks it’s all bullshit. Which it is to the fremen who have no use for the politics that Jessica is preparing Paul to rejoin.

Ch 42: The elephantine maker in the room

You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. This power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably must face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.

- from “Muad’Dib: The Religious Issues” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Paul has called a worm and awaits its approach. He is calm, adult and respectful during this ceremonial rite, but he is also eager to prove himself in this fremen test, he may be a warrior, a religious figure and a father but he’s still a teenager. The worm comes and it is much bigger than anything Paul has ever seen before. But Stilgar has taught him well. Paul takes the worm with no difficulties and proves himself a true fremen by gaining control of this symbol and tool of the desert.

Once up the rest of the tribe joins him. Stilgar spends a few moments giving Paul a hard time just to make sure Paul doesn’t get too cocky (this happens any time Paul has cause to be proud of himself, have you noticed?). Then things start to get uncomfortable. Now that Paul is a full-fledged fremen the rest of the tribe will expect him to take a more obvious leadership position. Unfortunately, this involves killing Stilgar to take over. Paul doesn’t want to do this. Stilgar and Paul spend a few minutes talking around the issue with Paul saying he will take the tribe south for some R and R (Paul having just earned the right to go to the Southern Sietch, is missing his family) and Stilgar reminding Paul that he isn’t in charge YET. It’s obvious that neither man wants a conflict. They value each other as friends and for Paul, killing his friends is something he will never be fremen about. Still, both men are proud and used to getting their way. In the end Stilgar’s wish to remain in the deep desert wins out because Paul does not want to escalate the situation. It is decided they will camp at Cave of Birds.

As this compromise is reached, a ‘thopter appears over the ridge. Smugglers. The fremen scatter and Paul sends the maker to sulk. They decide the smugglers may have seen too much. A raid is planned.

You guys! This chapter! It’s so epically sad and wonderful and enormous and just full of the best imagery! Favorite quotes:

“Come up, you lovely monster, he thought. Up. You hear me calling. Come up. Come up.”

As weird and wonderful as the entire concept of Dune and the sandworms are, the fact that the character’s themselves are as affected by the baroque, almost ridiculous grandeur of this universe is fucking wonderful. Paul is actually caught up not just in the rite but in his own legend. His story. This moment, a moment, he recognizes it as it happens as if he’s retelling it, remembering it, fondly. This is just some beautiful writing. The entire section that describes the approach and mounting of the worm, the steering, the goading, the dismount and hiding in the dunes. Incredible. Read it again. Paul is a dual person. He’s a god and he’s a young man. I can’t even get OVER it!

“Usul, the companion of my sietch, him I would never doubt,” Stilgar said. “But you are Paul-Muad’dib, the Atreides Duke, and you are the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World. These men I don’t even know.”

And Stilgar just lays it out for us near the end. In the saddest way POSSIBLE. A proud, stoic man admitting to his friend that he loves that he is not just a friend. He’s a ruler, a figure of worship. There’s that duality again. It’s not just a lonely place for Paul, it’s a lonely state for men like Stilgar who hold themselves apart from the lesser men of the sietch. They must find fleeting friendship in their equals. Except there are no equals in the sietch. There are leaders and there are followers. Stilgar struggles with that dichotomy as well. The best part is that Paul freely accepts this statement from Stilgar. It’s truth! Something separates them. Something has ended their easy friendship. It’s so damn sad! Plus they’re on a worm. Gliding through the open desert. The scene! AH! I tear up. I do.

This final hurdle for Paul is also a final hurdle for us readers. Everything is set in motion now. We won’t be disappointed. If the starting motion for this final act is a legend in the happening (giant worm, young religious figure, epically sad bro-love) then the actual climax of the story will be enormous. We expect nothing less from this story I think. It just defines epic. What is more epic than the open desert? It’s like Lawrence of Arabia with atomic bombs and leviathan monsters.

And yea.. pooping in your pants. But that’s really just a technicality.

Ch 43: Gurney’s back bitches

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

- from “Muad’Dib: The Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe” by Princess Irulan

What Happened:

While Paul and company are prepping to attack the approaching smugglers we learn that Gurney is actually leading said smugglers. They’re out spice hunting and taking the bait nicely. Gurney really should know better.

They land their ‘thopters to scope out the surroundings while the factory harvests the spice patch. While Gurney muses to himself about what a great spot this is and how he should make a little hideaway here against future troubles, he and his men are suddenly attacked by fremen. And may I add, not just attacked by fremen, trounced by them. Embarrassingly so. Gurney is pissed. But one fremen recognizes Gurney and orders him to stand down.

DUN DUN DUN, it’s Paul! The master and student are reunited. They hug. The fighting is called off. Gurney calls Paul a “young pup” and Paul calls Gurney a… “man”. Gurney is pretty mad that Paul had let him think him dead for so long but realizes in short order that if Gurney Halleck had been observed swearing fealty to a mysterious fremen leader and helping to attack Harkonnens it wouldn’t have been a stretch to conclude that Paul was alive. Some secrets must be kept. Gurney meets Stilgar (who brings Gurney’s baliset from the now captured factory and ‘thopters – lo’ more songs cometh!) and Chani. Then he learns that Paul is actually the bad ass mysterious fremen leader Muad’dib and Gurney feels even MORE embarrassed because if you look at Muad’dib’s battle tactics it’s pretty much a big “duh” moment for him. Except for maybe the Harkonnen skin drums. Those are just creepy.

Meanwhile during all this reuniting Paul and Gurney are communicating with sneaky little hand gestures. Gurney lets Paul know that some of his men are not to be trusted. Probably Sardaukar. Which turns out to be absolutely true once the fremen have secured their new spice factory and ‘thopters against a storm (during which Gurney and his men witness the fremen call and mount a worm which is pretty impressive since we just learned how to do that) some of those Sardaukar break cover and attack the fremen. No worries, they’re taken care of pretty handily but Paul yells at them for a while anyways. Then he decides that he’s going to let the Sardaukar go so they can deliver a message to the emperor. Everyone thinks this is a terrible idea but Paul goes all Duke on their asses. Everyone shuts up. Paul gives Stilgar a dressing down, he’s decided a Duke needs captains and he’s not going to be killing Stilgar anytime soon thanks very much. Stilgar takes a little offense but Paul points out that Stilgar’s first instinct was to protect Chani when the Sardaukar attacked, meaning he is concerned more for Paul’s happiness than the tribe’s safety. He’s already put himself secondary to Paul, why do they need to fight? Then he decides to send Chani back to the southern sietch where she’ll be safe along with Jessica, Alia and Leto – because it’s time to open a can of unholy mother humping whoop ass on the Harkonnens. No vacations.

Oh, and Gurney has an inner flip out about Jessica being alive, he thinks she was the original traitor.

I like that Stilgar lurks around in this chapter. Paul is involved in remembering who he was before the fremen, thinking about his duties as a duke, reuniting with Gurney. The business with the sardaukar is a trigger for Paul to take the fight to the Harkonnens not as a fremen but as the ruling duke of Arrakis. But then there’s Stilgar, handing Gurney his baliset, making sure Chani remains safe during the sardaukar attack. Paul might be taking on yet another role but Stilgar is subtly reminding him and the reader that none of this would have happened without the fremen.

Desert Power! Paul can make all the threats he wants, he can see all the future avenues and use all his training but none of his goals could happen without Stilgar’s support. Paul knows this. It’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want to kill Stilgar. They aren’t just friends. Stilgar is the fremen leader the Arrakeen Duke needs to help rule the planet. It’s a sad thing, to think that Paul needs Stilgar because he needs to use him but it’s also smart.

That and the bro-hurt Stilgar is exhibiting when Gurney starts to horn in on his Paul-time. Hilarious. Calm down boys, plenty of Paul to go around. And remember, Chani WILL cut you.

Ch 44: Long Live the Fighters of Muad’dib!

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him?

- “The Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

Jumping ahead a little, the next chapter begins with Jessica navigating her way through a large gathering of fremen at Cave of Birds. She has come up from the southern sietches at Paul’s request. It’s time Paul takes care of all this nasty leadership business. Jessica’s presence as the Reverend Mother will both help quell violence and make everything really official.

Of course tensions are high and Paul is almost immediately challenged by the assembly to kill Stilgar in order to become the proper leader of the tribe. Paul pretty much tells them they’re all dumb. He’s the duke of Arrakis. He wants to fight eh Harkonnens, as he has always fought Harkonnens. Everyone is already taking Paul’s orders and the orders of his mother, so why does he need to kill anyone? Especially Stilgar, who is integral to Paul’s control and coordination of the fremen as a whole. He equates the killing of Stilgar to cutting off his own right arm.

Instead, he wins their loyalty by giving them what they want. All out war against the Harkonnens. They’ve received word that Rabban has been cut off from all off-world help. He is cornered and ripe for fremen plundering. He also distances himself from the fremen people by fully accepting both his non-fremen position as Duke and his religious role as the Lisan al-Gaib. He is above all the rules of regular men. It’s not even an issue.

One that is all settled and Stilgar has sword his allegiance to Paul in front of everyone thus inspiring them all to fervent loyalty – Jessica is brought to a private room to meet Gurney.

Which goes badly.

Because Gurney is still operating under the impression that Jessica was the traitor (remember that Harkonnen plot?) and so as soon as Gurney walks into the room he attacks Jessica who was totally unprepared. It turns into a stand-off with Gurney holding a knife to Jessica and Paul being kind of pissed off.

They talk him down and he takes Paul at his word that Yueh was the traitor (I don’t really get this. Gurney believes Paul but how does he REALLY know Paul hasn’t been tricked? Because he says Jessica still cries at night? Eh? Gurney you are getting OLD I think.).

Then there’s this hilarious moment when Gurney pulls his shirt open and demands they kill him for ever raising a hand against a loyal Atreides. So Jessica makes him play her a pretty inappropriately sexy song about regrets (FYI – Gurney and Jessica totally bone later. Sorry if that spoils you. You should know. They bone. It’s like thinking of your mom having sex with a step-dad or something. A step-dad that used to be your history teacher. And it’s probably kinky.)

So yes, this is that famous “Long Live the Fighters!” scene. In which Paul whips the fremen up to a nice boil and then aims them straight at the Harkonnens. For such sticklers of tradition they are remarkably easy to sway in this chapter. Paul just says “hey.. I’m going to change stuff. In fact, I already changed it. It’s been done. You guys didn’t stop me. So why talk about this now?”And they’re just OK with it. I think if he had done this in the open desert, say on the back of the worm, it wouldn’t have worked. But assembled with Stilgar swearing fealty and Jessica present as a Reverend Mother there’s an element of fate, of gathered energy that helps persuade these violent people to go along with something they wouldn’t normally go along with, because it gets them something they’ve always wanted. Dead Harkonnen.

But I still think it’s a bit convenient. He’s just so GOOD at everything! Paul! Paul! SCREW UP OR SOMETHING SO WE KNOW WE STILL LIKE YOU!

Then we get the Gurney vs Jessica scene and hey! Paul has screwed up! This is something he never saw in his visions. A hole in his prescience. He never saw this threat to Jessica. Which means shit can still hit the fan. Things can still happen that Paul doesn’t know about. He isn’t god. He just has special abilities. This restores the tension to the story. If this hadn’t happened, it would all be this boring description of how Paul wins because duh. What kind of story is that?

A crappy one. Instead, Paul gets really insecure about his inability to see EVERYTHING so he slips off while Jessica is being lulled by Gurney’s sexy-sad-song to go do something… pretty awesome. Or stupid. Depending.

Ch 45: He’s only MOSTLY dead

And it came to pass in the third year of the Desert War that Paul-Muad’Dib lay alone in the Cave of Birds beneath the kiswa hangings of an inner cell. And he lay as one dead, caught up in the revelation of the Water of Life, his being translated beyond the boundaries of time by the poison that gives life. Thus was the prophecy made true that the Lisan al-Gaib might be both dead and alive.

- “Collected Legends of Arrakis” by the Princess Irulan

What Happened:

The end. Paul’s dead.

KIDDING!

We jump ahead again, Chani has now arrived at the Cave of Birds. She thinks she has been summoned by Paul himself but turns out Jessica forged a message from Muad’dib because she doesn’t want people to panic.

After a few tense moments of awkward conversation in which Jessica re evaluates her impressions about Chani, they get down to business. Paul seems to have been poisoned. He’s in a coma so deep that he appears dead to all but Jessica who has special Bene Gesserit powers of observation (or like.. a tricorder, I dunno.) Jessica is at a loss, it’s weird to see her so helpless. She has no idea how to help Paul. She doesn’t know if he CAN be helped. All she knows is that something inside her said to get Chani. (Hey Jessica, you were the mother of the Kwisatz Haderach, you don’t think you’ve got your share of prescience abilities? You take enough water of life! Ahem.) Paul’s coma is such that his body isn’t even using energy. He’s been like this for 3 weeks and has had no need of nourishment. Jessica says the Fedaykin believe he is in a sacred trance and she has encouraged that because it’s better than having the fremen hold her down while they take Paul to have his water reclaimed like all the other dead people.

But Chani is wiley and she knows Paul. She realizes that he must have tried to change the Water of Life himself (something a man shouldn’t be able to do). But he has taken too little of the poison to properly create a catalyst within himself (I dunno… pseudo science, roll with it) so she gets more and feeds it to him.

Paul awakes immediately. But he thinks only a few moments have gone by, not three weeks! But he’s done it! He’s the equivalent of a male Reverend Mother. He has opened the avenues to himself. He is now truly the Kwizats Haderach. He sees not just the past and future but the present. He has seen a host of Imperium ships orbiting Arrakis. The Emperor has come to deal with these troublesome fremen who threaten the galaxy’s spice supply.

This is exactly what Paul wanted. Everyone has come to him! He demands that the catalyst be taken to a pre-spice mass where it can be deployed at his order, causing a chain reaction that will destroy the spice/worm life cycle and end spice-production on Arrakis. It’s his gamble that the Emperor will deal with him if he is afraid the fremen can destroy everything that is valuable.

Everyone is horrified at the thought (remember, all these people are so addicted to Spice that if it went away everyone would probably die) but the do what Paul asks of them. Shit is about to go down!

Ok so first lets talk about the crazy. Paul is in this scary coma for all of 4 pages but Chani shows up and knows exactly how to bring him out of it. Once she does he grabs Jessica’s hand and they have this weird communion. Similar to what happened between Jessica and Alia when Jessica became a Reverend Mother but more on acid. There’s all this talk about windy empty planes and places where you dare not look and how men and women are fundamentally different but complementary to one another and how Paul stands at the fulcrum of these traits – a divine being who exists in both planes. He’s both a giver and a taker.

Whatever.

This book was written in the 60s. By a man. Some things we’re just going to have to let slide or we’ll spend all our time raging about how STUPID this all is.

Suffice it to say, where Jessica has access to every Reverend Mother that came before her, Paul seems to have an access to every person that genetically came before him. It’s an immense amount of data. He’s mentat trained. He’s got so much data that he can basically enter information into a system and figure out what is going on at any point in time. Which is basically like seeing into and thru and away from and between the past/present/future. It’s psychedelic crazy talk. There are lots of articles on JSTOR if you want to get in on the “what is the Kwizats Haderach” conversation. It’s really interesting. People talk about religion and messiah figures. They talk about eugenics. But what it all boils down to is 1960s, crazy talk written by a man with less than what we would consider modern takes on gender and sex identity.

Paul is a bred super computer person with a basic lack of morality. He may in fact be amoral. What would you call him? Chaotic neutral? Maybe that is too harsh. He’s got a code that he follows but he doesn’t seem to give a crap about the small picture. Not right now. (alert – he does give into terribly selfish impulses that will bite him and everyone else in the ass later, but that is a different and excellent book). He loves his mommy but he will totally make your skin into a drum if you cross him. He’s that kind of guy. One of his logic computations is that he is the rightful duke of Arrakis because the Emperor had granted his father the fief and he was his father’s heir. EXCEPT THE EMPEROR CAN TAKE THAT AWAY AND GIVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE. Right? RIIIGHT? No, don’t say that where Paul can hear you. He’ll make you into a drum.

Now let’s talk about Chani! Twuu Wuv!Why does Chani know exactly what happened to Paul when Jessica couldn’t figure it out even though Jessica is the Reverend Mother and the one who handles the poison all the time? No clue. Chani once told Jessica that to take only a little death was the wrong choice, Jessica didn’t remember that I guess. What’s important is that Chani is still invaluable to Paul not just because he loves her but because she knows stuff. She knows how to be a fremen. A real one. Not one that does everything that Paul tells him to do. I’m looking at you Stilgar. She is wise. There’s some discourse about the feminine mystique that we could talk about but I think that’s all total bullcrap too so I’m just going to move on.

So Paul is going all or nothing. He either gets what he wants from the Emperor, or Paul destroys everything. The galaxy’s economy, the Guild’s ability to navigate space (HE WILL STOP ALL SPACE TRAVEL! ALL OF IT!) the fremen and the Bene Gesserit will all die of spice withdrawal. Lifespans will go back to normal. He’s got a gigantic bomb in his hand that could end life as we know it.

Paul is, as we say, coming out with all guns firing. The time for subtlety is through! Badassery is rampant! Time for a montage of all our characters suiting up in all their coolest outfits, there should be some overly emotional music, maybe some string music. That would be nice. Boss battle imminent!

Are you excited? I’m excited. The gang is all together and they’ve got everything to fight for and nothing to lose but everything ever!

<—-DUNE Reread, part 9