“How little the universe knows about the nature of real cruelty.”

Even as Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides is poised at the lip of his own final ascendancy, he is again revealed to be just another part of the system of systems on Dune. Though he strand an emperor and his retinue on his planet, lead an army of sandworms riding Fremen through a ruptured Shield Wall, even dare the spice trance to become the prophesied Kwisatz Haderach, still his own baby is killed in a chance raid. To my mind, from this point onward, both throughout the climax of this novel and in its sequels, Paul Atreides becomes little more than an automaton, grappling and failing with his own prescience, with his own awareness of his locked-in place in his system.

As I said at the beginning of our merry Book Club, the best parts of Dune to me are about systems, whether they be systems of people, systems of politics, systems of ecology, or systems of systems themselves. The book is not perfect, far from it; and when it strays, it strays widely. It’s almost as if, wanting to write about the IDEAS of Dune, Frank Herbert spared little time to consider some of the characters and their part in the story. For example, the part near the end where we are led to believe that the Count Fenring could have killed Paul had he chosen; as if the idea of the leader of a newly victorious army submitting to single combat wasn’t preposterous enough, we should believe that his army would stand by while an even-more dangerous opponent were arranged for?

Dune is my favorite novel, although I would never say it was the best-written novel I’ve ever read, maybe not even close. But it’s the novel that has always excited my imagination most–not only do I still feel transported when Paul is standing on the Shield Wall gazing down on the Emperor’s ships in the plain of Arrakeen, but I still can feel my brain churning over the many many MANY ideas packed into the novel. While a book like The Great Gatsby or Crime and Punishment might excite me as an intellectual, Dune excites me as a HUMAN; it excites the part of me that is optimistic, that believes that humans are capable of true greatness. It excites the part of me that believes the IDEA is the important part, and all the rest is just artificing.

Where Dune–and indeed, much sci-fi–breaks down is in the meeting between these ideas and the necessity to decant them to the reader. While Dune does work best when it’s more about its characters than its more fantastical elements, the finale of the book attempts to tie up a lot of plotlines through the convenient device of just gathering all the remaining characters into a room and then killing some of them and having others give speeches.

above, by Warren Craghead

After chapter upon chapter of Thufir Hawat’s machinations within the Harkonnen family, he just sort of expires after reaffirming his loyalty to Paul. The Baron himself is dead at the start of the climax, and everyone else–Gurney, Jessica, Stilgar–just sort of stand around for the denouement. Which is a big knife fight. When I first ready the book as a teenager, I was like “hmm, that’s weird, didn’t see that coming.” Today it sticks out like a sore thumb. All the menace and portent of Paul’s “the nature of real cruelty” moment are drained away for me by this climax. The very idea that the Emperor and an entire universe of CHOAM businessmen could be convinced that “well I guess there’s nothing for it but to make the dude Emperor” is just insane.

This may be one of the things the movie did better–I haven’t seen it in a million years, but I know when I bring up Dune to friends (most of whom have never read it), the two things they say, doing impersonations from the movie, are “He IS the Kwisatz Haderach!” and “The spice must flow!” But in the book, I don’t think a strong case is ever made for the spice as an irreplaceable quantity–while we see Guildsmen from time to time, it’s only ever briefly, and there’s really no sense as to the sense of terror they might have that something might interrupt their access to spice. Surely not enough to allow someone to maneuver his way into ultimate control of… well, everything?

I was explaining Stranger In A Strange Land (another great sci-fi book) to someone the other day. “It’s an amazing book, it’s really almost a religious text, about a man with amazing powers who becomes a sort of Messiah.” Then I added, “You just have to get past the idea that he was raised by Martians.” Most great sci-fi (to me, to me) is an idea so huge that you need to place it in a fantastic setting so that it can work. But what often prevents good, even great sci-fi from being true literature is this same fantastic setting, which robs the book of some of its impact, some of its relevance to the world which WE live in.

But I would hazard that Dune is and will always be among the very greatest of sci-fi novels–even with its inconsistencies and warts, the ambitious scope of the book’s ideas is still flabbergasting. Not to mention the incisive, almost prophetic understanding Herbert has for sociology and ecology. And, my favorite of all, of humanism, of the potential of regular human beings for true greatness.

Due to a bunch of busy-ness (is it “business”? Like a lot of good would be “goodness”? Doesn’t seem right) and other stuff, I’m going to put off the final post of the mighty DUNE BOOK CLUB for a week. Besides my own needs (paramount), I figure this will let some of you who started the book a hair late (I’m thinking of you here, Naseem) catch up. And of course, as this blog post will live throughout time immortal, you are welcome to join the discussion as well, time travellers of the future, archaeologists of the blogosphere.

In the meantime, get in there with the discussionizing! I love to read these comments, just love it.

The second to last week! Exciting! Let’s splash in. Oh, and if you are just tuning in, you can click on the “Dune Book Club” tag at the bottom to see all the Dune posts by themselves and catch up. And please, feel free to join the conversation!

OH THOSE HARKONNENS!

You know, I spend all this time reading and thinking about all the symbolic and thematic stuff going on with Paul and his mom and his dead dad and sandworms and blah-blah-blah, but it has killed me for anything to do with the Harkonnens. As Paul moves toward his big chrysalis-emergence, the Harkonnens just seem to get more stupid, cackling and rubbing their hands together at each other.

The addition of Thufir Hawat doesn’t help at all–if anything, having him present in their scenes just emphasizes their utter ineffectuality as antagonists. I’m beginning to think that this is the main weakness of the novel–you really know from page 1 that gross old pederast Baron Harkonnen is not going to win, am I right? He’s set up as the bad guy, floating around on his tippie-toes because he’s too obese to support his own weight; meanwhile Paul has a cadre of brilliant trainers turning him into Kung Fu Jesus. I mean really.

Speaking of Hawat, it’s strange how he is built up as a potential instrument in the climax of the book, which idea (spoiler alert) sort of fizzles in the end. I can never decide if this is just a little misdirection on Herbert’s part, or one of several plot points that got away from him over time. Much of the book’s finish seems sudden and not at all depending on the events before it, but I am undecided in this. I like being surpised in books, so it doesn’t bother me overmuch–but I like to be surprised on purpose, not by accident.

THEY DENIED US THE HAJJ!

One thing Frank Herbert does well, possibly best, in Dune is to wrap the Fremen in a deep tribal mystique. They are at once mysterious and simple–without devolving into long expositional descriptions of their ways, we are given enough information to construct our OWN mystique for them. I suspect that, more than any other single element, this sense of mystique is what binds the novel together and makes the whole larger than the sum of its parts.

One of the ways Herbert handles this is to tap into EXISTING “real world” tribal traditions, most obviously Islamic and Bedouin cultures. As you probably know, the hajj is a religious pilgrimage a devotee makes once in their lifetimes. As mentioned in a past post, Herbert liberally uses Middle-Eastern lexicons to give the Fremen verisimilitude. In later books there seems to be more Hebrew culture sort of retrofitted onto things, not always gracefully. Especially in the last two books, where Herbert was, frankly, not at the top of his powers–or maybe more correctly was too big for an editor to rein in some of his narrative excesses. But again, those are other books.

TODAY I AM A SANDRIDER

This penultimate section of our reading is one of my favorites, it’s packed with little tidbits. I love to see all the little seeds Herbert planted in the earlier chapters bearing fruit now; it’s like watching children grow up.

But the scene where Paul mounts and rides the sandworm is my favorite scene in the book, and for my money the beginning of the climax of the book. This is the end of Paul Atreides the man and the beginning of Muad’Dib, the legend. For me everything changes when Paul plants his maker hooks and rides up the side of the sandworm, the symbolic and elemental heart of Dune. When he stands on the back of the worm, with Stilgar and the Fremen arranged along it with their robes flapping, he is not only a leader of men but a leader of Fremen.

And look at the other characters after this point: everyone changes. Jessica settles into her role as Reverend Mother, remote, chilly, with her own spies and agents among the Fremen already. Stilgar becomes a satellite of Paul’s, somewhat emasculated by his own semi-religious devotion to the former boy. Even Gurney Halleck, rediscovered by this newly powerful Muad’Dib, is a more silent version of the old raconteur, reverent but suspicious of the change in his old master.

But Paul’s change to me is the most important, and in some ways the most subtle. Gurney Halleck points it out best when they are reunited after some bloodshed, and Paul wishes aloud they could have saved the vehicles. “Your father would have been more concerned for the men he couldn’t save.”

And of course the final change is to come in the next and final piece of the book for us!

YOUR RUGS ARE VERY DIRTY IN HERE.

This is one of my favorite passages in the book, emblematic as it is of the strange subtextual dialogue that Herbert does so well. It resonates with the change in Jessica, with the change in Paul, and with the coming end to the existing order of the Fremen:

“Your rugs are very dirty in here,” Harah said. She swept her glance around the floor, avoiding Jessica’s eyes. “So many people tramping through here all the time. You really should have them cleaned more often.”

Okay! One more week to go. For next week, read to the end of the book! I might do an epilogue post the week after, dealing with the appendix and an overview of everything.

Hello to all! I’m going to try to keep my usual over-verbosity in check this week somewhat–I’m really more interested in what YOU guys are thinking. I have had access to my own ideas about Dune for 20 years now, and yours are much more interesting. Especially when they lead to new Dune thoughts for me. Hey sue me, I’m selfish.

To that end, this week I’d like to focus on two points:

POINT THE FIRST: Frank Herbert does an interesting thing with his protagonist in Dune. We’re at a point in the book’s plot where Paul has been removed from the relative safety of his position as a duke’s son, and now is moving headlong into his role as the center of legend, both existing and new.

Herbert handles this change with a series of crisis points in Paul’s development–beginning with the gom jabbar in the first chapter, then progressing through various tests (flying into the sandstorm, eluding the sandworm, the fight with Jamis) along the way. Herbert builds things up in the internal world, and then they seem to erupt into real-world action. I hadn’t really thought of this as much in earlier readings, but it’s an interesting way to progress the story, both from a plot and a thematic point. It’s not like a person’s internal struggle with their own prescience always makes for the most gripping reading, but Herbert ties this struggle to the external struggle Paul has with his environment, the Fremen, his mother, etc.

When I was a kid we never went to movie theatres, so I read the Star Wars novelizations long before I ever saw the movies. I remember feeling almost breathless during the last half of The Return of the Jedi–the story kept switching from Admiral Ackbar with his massed Rebel fleet (”It’s a trap!!”) to Lando Calrissian flying into the Death Star (”We’ve got to give Han more time!!”), to Han and the Ewoks trying to break into the Imperial bunker on Endor. I know the Star Wars novelizations are hardly the best entry for pacing in a novel, but I am always thinking of them when I read books today, especially adventure books.

above, by Warren Craghead

In Dune Herbert seems to balance the internal world of Paul’s prescience (and his growing fear of his own “terrible purpose”) with the external world of the Fremen, conflict, the planet itself, etc. I think this is probably the thing that saves the book from the fate of its sequels, which are much more tilted to the idealogical side of things, and much less on adventure.

POINT THE SECOND (much shorter point): The scene where Jessica is taking the Water of Life and realizes that her unborn daughter is being exposed not only to her own consciousness, but the amassed experiences of the “corridor” of past Reverend Mothers that Ramallo pours into her… super important scene. This seems pretty mystical on the surface, as if some magical door opened up in Jessica’s mind and there were all these old ladies in robes hanging out in there. Later I think Herbert tempers this a little bit, makes it more of a chemical/genetic transfer–it becomes hugely important later, both in this book and the later ones.

I can’t help thinking that, while Herbert insists he had most of second and third books planned out before ever beginning Dune, this is one of the things he later had to retroactively refine. He revisits the idea (somewhat sloppily) of this idea of past lives existing within a person’s genetic structure in Dune Messiah, and then perfects it in Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune.

above, by Evan Dahm

Okay, sorry to keep mentioning later books. I admit that I have read ahead to the end, so I’m thinking about what comes next now a little bit. Sorry!

Questions: Count Fenring, am I right? I love that guy, I almost drew him this week, but I decided to go for the old lady instead. I thought in his scenes with Baron Harkonnen and Feyd-Rautha, he actually came off as much more dangerous than either of them. As I’ve said, I think Herbert does a bad job of making the antagonists in the book all that threatening. If Paul is going to turn into some sort of super-Messiah or something, then the bad guy needs to be pretty amazing, right?

I guess that was only one question, if you can even call it that. I’m running late here, and have already talked too much. I want to hear more from you guys though, you ask the questions this week!

And for next week: read to the end of the chapter where Paul thinks: “I will drown the maker. We will see now whether I’m the Kwisatz Haderach…”

I’m seeing a lot of things upon this rereading that are resonating differently than on earlier readings, due mainly to considering them more closely as part of the Book Club.

Chief among these is the way Herbert embeds things in his characters dialogue. Less in an expositional way, although he does that sometimes too in the early parts of the book, occasionally to dulling effect; Herbert often uses dialogue as a stand-in for other ideas in the story, sometimes combat, and sometimes as an analog for larger thematic ideas.

The one I’m thinking of in particular is the conversation between Thufir Hawat and the leader of the Fremen band he finds himself sheltering with, after the Atreides forces are decimated and driven from Arrakeen. Half the conversation or more is spent with Hawat struggling to divine what the conversation is about, with violence always just beneath the surface. And remember that Hawat is an educated man, a man whose counsel and devious mind are much sought after–but thrown into the idiomatic swamp of the Fremen’s questions about what to do with his wounded, he’s utterly lost, struggling to stay afloat at best.

above, by Evan Dahm

And of course, so are most of the characters, who just a few chapters ago were enjoying their fancy dinner party, throwing their conversational jabs and ripostes back and forth across the table. In the conversation between Thufir Hawat and his Fremen rescuer, we see the Fremen as less an esoteric tribe and more a FORCE, just as much as the planet they’ve adapted to live on is a force. Imagine the idea of removing all the water from a comrade’s body SO YOU COULD DRINK IT; but also imagine that this is the shape of your new world, and the first of many such surprises.

Ditto Paul and Jessica, trying to outrun sandworms and dig themselves out from sandstorms, also encountering for the first time the planet as such. This is the point in the story, in the many times I have exhorted people I know to read Dune, where if you don’t like it yet you never will–from this point forward, the status quo is destroyed for every character. This for me makes the somewhat duller opening chapters less egregious in retrospect, because while the story starts slow, the characters are also drawn so clearly that, when everything changes we really feel the drama; we’ve gotten use to who these people are. On the other side of this change we can’t be sure what will happen. Witness the way Herbert writes that whole careful conversation between Hawat and the Fremen, only to kill practically everybody a few pages later.

above, by Warren Craghead

But the best thing about this part of the book is the clash of cultures and legends when Paul and Jessica finally encounter Stilgar and the Fremen of Sietch Tabr. Remember that, for all Herbert’s other explanations, he never really goes into real depth regarding the Bene Gesserit and what they are able to do. We know at this point about Voice, but I remember reading this the first time and being all “Whoa!” when Jessica is kung fu-ing people left and right. The interactions between her and the Fremen legends of the Lisan al Gaib are my favorite Jessica scenes in the book, seeing her restless intellect weighing options in crisis, making choices based on severely limited information.

As opposed to her son, making choices with his strange, cloudy prescience; Jessica is doing a similar thing except with far less information. But also a much reduced scope–Jessica’s decisions are involved in moments, while Paul seems to fear momentum more than anything else. Such a good spot in the story, and the next one’s even better!

Speaking of which: for next week read to the end of Part Two (”Muad’dib”). I think after that we’ll have two more weeks worth of reading, in around 75-100 page a week chunks.

Oh my goodness, how the time has flown–here we are at Week Four already, as the leaves fall around us and the Halloween decorations are whisked away in favor of Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the many shelves of Christmas bric-a-brac lie waiting in the shadows, already sending outliers among us, annexing as much of the month of November as they can with their witchy Christmas ways.

Wait what was I talking about?

Guys, I was sick this week, and I confess that I read far ahead in the book. I’ve been trying to ONLY read the parts we focus on each week, to focus my brain powers on just that part. It may be because of this that this week I’m even more inclined than normal to view the present chapters in the larger context of the story. Although it IS the beginning of the more action-packed portion of the book, and the real beginning of Paul’s genesis, as we will see later.

The thing that interests me most about this part of the book, and indeed, about the entire book and the series it spawned, is its approach to the idea of prescience. For me, prescience in Dune is an analog for the idea of the power of the human mind. As I’ve said before, I’m almost religiously interested in this idea of the human mind as an object of real power and possibility.

On the other hand, I’m pretty UNinterested in mysticism, at least when it comes to my humanism. So the idea of Paul Atreides having some sort of mystical spirit visions, for me, would utterly destroy any suspension of disbelief I could bring to this story, and thus to many of the ideas embedded in it. But I just want to point out that Frank Herbert is always careful to describe this prescience in terms of its possibility–there’s never a sense that Paul just “sees” things, especially as an artifice to move the plot along.

Herbert describes Paul’s prescience in terms of its limitations–”He remembered once seeing a gauze kerchief blowing in the wind and now he sensed the future as though it twisted across some surface as undulant and impermanent as that of the windblown kerchief.” It’s not that Paul SEES the future, he sees probabilities, something we all can do to some extent. Our brains are constantly collecting and storing data, the great majority of which we are never directly cognizant of. When we talk about a “gut feeling” or a “best guess,” our bodies are sifting through this data, the collected memories and minutiae of our lives, and–dare I say, in Mentat fashion–producing a calculation.

What Paul sees, this shifting landscape–as shifting as oh say, a series of sand dunes?–of the future, is no different. In Dune, Paul’s mind is more highly trained, and supposedly more GENETICALLY predisposed to this sort of operation. Paul is not just the protagonist of THIS story; he’s in a way the protagonist of humanity, of this boiling race consciousness he keeps sensing inside of him. The way this idea–of humanity evolving toward points of singularity, followed by enormous explosions of war and gene-mixing–informs the other books is pretty fascinating, although some of those more idea-laden books can be hard to read.

Okay–lots to do today, so I have to cut this headscratch-fest short. But a couple of points for discussion, what say?

–JESSICA: Whoa-ho, we begin to see some of the Bene Gesserit abilities, yes? Again, note that there is nothing mystical at all about it–Jessica is someone highly trained for very specific purposes. The idea of the Voice being merely a system of sonic manipulation of a person’s deep brain functions is just amazing.

–PLANS WITHIN PLANS: I am always impressed with authors who are able to take noble, likable characters, and make them do foolish or represhensible things. Thufir Hawat, first in his suspicions of Jessica and later in many other ways, is one of my favorite characters for this reason. Such a challenge.

–QUESTION: Speaking of pathos, what if anything was accomplished by the Duke’s death? Think about it, then discuss.

above, by Evan Dahm

–TENSION: In close-reading these chapters, I noticed for the first time that ALL of the Harkonnen scenes are dripping with tension and danger, without exception. There is no shred of trust or comfort between any of those characters, friend or foe. Whereas most of the Atreides scenes, certainly in the earlier portions of the book, are reflective; characters are discussing ideas or plans, there is not the same idea that the scene could quickly turn to violence at any time.

–PAUL’S CHANGE: is a scene that’s not as exciting when you first read it, but I return to it in my thoughts often throughout the book. I have a religious background, and it is very VERY easy for me to see Paul’s change in those terms, like that other Paul on the road to Damascus.

Okay! For next Monday, read from the beginning of Part II (”Muad’dib”) to the end of the chapter that ends “All of them, she thought, an entire culture trained to military order. What a priceless thing is here for an outcast Duke!“

Well hello there! I’m pretty bleary here in the early morning, but I’ll try to sound smart for all of you. Please keep your various sniggers and eye-rolls to yourselves, thank you very much.

The section of the book we read this week is one of my favorites, and to me the place where it starts to really get interesting, really move into the mix of story, legend-building, and science/philosophy that sets the book apart. I’m going to talk about three things that stick out to me, and then I’d prefer to hear more from YOU guys this week–there’s plenty to talk about.

ONE: in this section of the book we’re introduced for the first time to the Fremen as such (excepting the Shadout Mapes from earlier), both in the person of Stilgar and somewhat less so in Dr. Kynes, although it is with Kynes that we are first introduced to the stillsuit.

above, by Paul Pope

I point this out less for plot purposes–listen, this book is lousy with Fremen past this point–and moreso for the metaphoric importance of the stillsuit. To me, the stillsuit itself is an enormously significant symbol in the book; not only is it the sort of de facto “uniform” of the Fremen, but it is a visual vector of much of the philosophy of the book. Consider that the stillsuit is basically a machine designed to a) minimize the body’s loss of water in the desert, and b) convert the body’s waste into potable water.

More than anything else, the stillsuit underlines the precariousness of life in the deep desert, and ties the characters in the story to the “Law of the Minimum,” which Jessica and Kynes discuss at the dinner party. To paraphrase: growth in a system is limited by that necessity available in the least supply. The stillsuit exists only to preserve water, and each time it appears in the book, we are dealing with a deep part of the Fremen culture, a bridge between their nomadism/tribalism and real science, and the ecological overtones of the book. Without beating us over the head with it on every page–”Jeez guys I am so darned thirsty in this hot desert water sure is scarce!”–Herbert creates a shorthand description of privation in the word “stillsuit.”

TWO: Dr. Kynes is one of my favorite characters in the book, complex enough to have multiple overlapping motives (”Liet serves two masters”), noble enough for us to identify with him, and Fremen enough to be capable of quick and cold violence. He also is a great middle ground between the politics of one part of the story and the ecology of the rest. That’s all, I like this guy, just wanted to say.

above, by Evan Dahm

THREE: The dinner party. I love this chapter, there’s SO MUCH interesting stuff in it. You may not have found it as fascinating as I do, and I’ll admit that usually a long chapter that’s basically a bunch of people talking at dinner would be super boring. But Herbert does an interesting thing here that he uses to great effect later: if you notice, all the dialogue is essentially miniature combat between characters. No one knows what anyone is thinking, and all are constantly striving to read subtext and context, parrying and riposting. Even Jessica and the Duke are trying to figure each other out. There’s all this tension, even though the most violent act in the scene is probably when the Duke pours his water on the floor and freaks everyone out a little.

In the remainder of the book, and even more so in the later books in the series, Herbert uses this combative dialogue a lot, A LOT, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. But here, this scene at dinner, we get a lot of exposition, a lot of characterization of these complex people, but in a setting that’s tense enough to create real drama. I love it.

The other thing I love: The Law of the Minimum. I think about it all the time.

I only have one question for you guys, although I’d love to hear your own. Here it is: is water or spice the most valuable commodity on Dune? And whichever, how does that commodity’s insertion into the Law of the Minimum aphorism affect the systems on Dune, both political, tribal, financial, ecological, etc.?

Okay guys it’s about to get exciting: for next week, read to the end of Part One, the chapter that ends, “And he felt the tears coursing down his cheeks.” Oh man, so good.

above, by Paul Pope

Paul Pope sent me this amazing page he did just as a study, based on the Lady Jessica’s discovery of the hidden conservatory in the castle. I placed it with the other images in my Week 2 post, but goodness gracious I was worried no one would see it midweek like this, so I decided to give it its own post. I mean, jeez, right? Paul is maybe–MAYBE–the only person I know who can go toe-to-toe with me talking Dune, although I will say the participants in our discussion are ripping it up pretty good.

Speaking of which, if this is the first time you’ve heard of the Dune Book Club, here’s Week One and Week Two. Feel free to dive into the discussion or just watch from the wings.

FOR NEXT WEEK: Read up to the end of the chapter with the long dinner party description. It ends, “No person who’ll be sleeping far below ground level tonight as a precaution against lasguns has the right to boast.” Somewhere around page 150 or so, depending on your edition. Also: I love this chapter, it is chock full of good stuff, lots of interplay/info/exposition without being boring. This is the point where the book starts to really fire up for me, and the NEXT chapter is where it EXPLODES!!

Okay, Round Two! Crazy amount of discussion for Round One, and that was for what I think is the least awesome part of the book, so that bodes well. Let’s jump right in, shall we?

I chose to break our reading up between last week and this week because of the big event that happens BETWEEN chapters–the Atreides arrive on Arrakis (”Dune” if you’re nasty). Note that the arrival happens 100% “offscreen;” there’s no discussion of spaceports or ships landing, firing their retro-rockets or whatever space-age science was in vogue. I point this out less to poke at sci-fi tropes and more to comment again on how odd this is–the book was published in 1965, at the height of the space race–it seems enormously counterintuitive for that time period to NOT highlight all this stuff.

above, Thufir Hawat by Thomas “Smo” Smolenski

Which I love. BECAUSE the important thing here is NOT that the spaceship has set down, smoke and dust shooting in all directions as C-3PO and R2-D2 standby to secure moorings or something. The important thing is the shift in locale–we are now on Dune. We have moved from safety to menace immediately–now that we are on Dune, life is desperate and close to its end at all times, even for these wealthy people, the nominal ruling class of the planet.

Again, I just want to underline that I think of Dune as an ecological novel. Not so much as a cautionary tale, although there’s surely some of that in there; but again, SYSTEMS. Ecology is just a system of systems acting on a macro scale. And now we have entered Arrakis’ planetary ecology. I really cannot stress this enough–my glasses may be a little rose-tinted on this book, but as we get really into the big meaty ideas of the book, most of which will begin in Round 3, I will be returning to this idea again and again.

Okay, you guys OBVIOUSLY don’t need much help getting a conversation started, so I’ll keep my remarks brief. I would like to point out:

1) These chapters are some of the final expository chapters, so soon we won’t have to endure these conversations where characters remind each other of the political and governmental structures of this or that. I don’t mind it, but I know it can be dreary for some of you new readers.

2) I love love love the way the Shadout Mapes is introduced into the story, this is a primo introduction to the Fremen themselves–note the tension between her and Jessica. Within minutes there is nearly violence between them, and the entire time both are straining to discern clues in their conversation to indicate whether to attack or wait. It’s like Herbert has poked up one seemingly innocuous Fremen–we really don’t know anything about them yet, right?–a housekeeper, a servant, and then suddenly she is posing a real threat to one of the main characters. I love it.

3) What does the Shadout Mapes mean when she calls Jessica “the One?” No spoilers here guys–I’m asking you to read this with a certain amount of naivete. What does it mean that Mapes–and by extension the unseen Fremen society–has ascribed this quasi-religious significance to Jessica, who as far as we know is just some royal guy’s hot concubine? If you’ve read the book before try to pretend you have ONLY the info we’ve gotten up to this point.

4) Dr. Yueh. I’m not a fan of this character, and that’s probably the most boring chapter in the book, where he and Jessica talk and he spends the whole time thinking nervously. BUT note that this chapter gives us more insight into Jessica’s world: we see her using some of these vaunted “Sisterhood” practices that allow her to examine minutiae to make judgments about a person’s motives or plans or whatever. Not mystical: science. Ditto for Yueh’s description of “his” Wanna; he’s picked up enough of this skill to be able to defend himself from Jessica’s apparently razor-sharp senses.

above, the Lady Jessica by Thomas “Smo” Smolenski

5) This is repeated in the chapter with the conservatory–we see the Bene Gesserit system in action, in the person of the Lady Margot Fenring, sending her coded message in a form designed to bring Jessica to it. When we talk about “feminine” magic in the book, this is it–the Bene Gesserit are (to me) by far the most powerful groups in the book, or at least the most INFORMED. This idea of Bene Gesserit teaching soaks the book from cover to cover, so pay attention to it wherever you see it!

above, by Peter Lazarski

6) What does the assassination attempt on Paul show us (again) about the science of the Dune world? Note again how this idea of shield technology exists (as Todd pointed out last week) as a “singularity” that shapes everything technologically from that point forward. In a world where projectiles are useless, all martial technology must work around this idea, thereby shifting the focus of the entire society from open warfare to secret, from snipers and bombs and missiles to poisons and slow knives.

7) Also regarding Paul–his interaction with the Shadout Mapes also is an intro to the Fremen. “You’ve put a water burden on me.” I love that wherever Fremen enter the story, that place is dangerous; whether they are drawn to the violence or it is created by them is rarely clear, but already the Fremen are tinged with danger–just the word is code for “danger” in the story now.

above, by Patrick Keck

Okay that’s enough, I talked too much. You guys pick it up. What did YOU notice in these chapters? Next week’s reading–I’ll pick a place to stop later today–is really going to step things up; this is the last of the purely introductory parts this week.

FOR NEXT WEEK: Read up to the end of the chapter with the long dinner party description. It ends, “No person who’ll be sleeping far below ground level tonight as a precaution against lasguns has the right to boast.” Somewhere around page 150 or so, depending on your edition. Also: I love this chapter, it is chock full of good stuff, lots of interplay/info/exposition without being boring. This is the point where the book starts to really fire up for me, and the NEXT chapter is where it EXPLODES!!

below, by Paul Pope

DUNE is ostensibly a science fiction novel. But like most good genre fiction, the trappings of its genre are little more than a container large enough to hold the story. Dune is not about spaceships or lasers, though both of those make brief appearances from time to time. Dune is not about aliens, though there are some of those too, later on.

Dune is about systems and forces. The most obvious are the systems of peoples within the book: political systems, sociological systems, religious systems. But underlying all of these are ecological systems–remember that the book itself is named “Dune,” the ersatz name of the planet the story takes place on, and from which a bizarredly convoluted epic spins out over the successive books in the series. Don’t worry, we can ignore those for the purposes of our might DUNE BOOK CLUB, but it’s important to point out.

Dune deals mainly with systems and the introduction of forces into those systems. Throughout the novel, the phrase “plans within plans,” and different permutations thereof, is repeated over and over. All things are interconnected, and force exerted on one thing will necessarily impact all other things within that system. If you look at the book in this way, it takes on a whole new life as a rich treatise on politics and ecology, wrapped up inside an epic adventure story. Ooh I’m getting excited just talking about it!\

above, by Pen Ward

I’m not really good at this sort of writing/thinking/discussion-leading, so I’m just going to wing it. I’ll point out a couple of interesting things I noticed and ask a couple of questions–but I’d love to hear what YOU noticed, what YOU are thinking. This is a book with a near-bottomless subtext, so there is plenty to pull out for examination. I just talk a lot, so I don’t want to be all like blah-blah-blah, y’know.

OKAY, I NOTICED:

1) In the first little chapterish thing, Frank Herbert introduces his protagonist (SPOILER ALERT, PAUL IS THE PROTAGONIST, SORRY) and immediately throws him into a seemingly life-or-death struggle. The book begins with a double-dose of mortality and mysticism, a strange beginning for a sci-fi novel written in the 60’s. It makes me think of this excerpt, just after Paul removes his non-charred hand from the black box:

“Ever sift sand through a screen?” she asked.
The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind into a higher awareness: Sand through a screen. He nodded.”

There’s a lot of this verbal/philosophical play in the book, especially in the later, more philosophical sequels. Sometimes it can get kind of cloying, everyone talking to each other with four meanings in their mouths, but it makes dissecting the dialogue more interesting.

above, by Peter Lazarski

2) The second chapter is all politics, another of the important systems in the book. Jeez, it’s super boring too, isn’t it?–after all that secret black box and shadowy Bene Gesserit hoodoo of the first chapter? I don’t mind all the politics stuff, but I think Herbert tried to cram a bunch of exposition in these early chapters, which sometimes works (I love the conversations between Paul and Thufir Hawat and Gurney Halleck in the fourth chapter), but sometimes is just a bunch of jerks giggling to each other about their Important Secret Plan.

3) I think it’s important to point out the quasi-feudal structure of the world of Dune, as laid out in the fourth chapter. Not so much that the politics itself is important, but more what CREATED that structure: something called The Holtzmann Effect. Which, basically, means that you can’t shoot lasers at people or their little shield-thingies will create a quasi-atomic explosion incinerating shooter and shootee and a few miles in all directions. That sounds pretty sci-fi, right? But in one of the few blatant sci-fi moments in the book–remember, it was published in 1965–Herbert effectively removes a lot of that super-science from the rest of his story. Because these shield protect from projectile weapons (guns, et al), and lasers are no good, everyone has to revert to fencing if they want to kill each other. In some ways, Dune is almost a “steampunk” story, anachronisms like swords next to science bits like spaceships.

Ditto the lack of computers in the story, which is just nuts for 60’s sci-fi. Not only are there no “thinking machines” in the story, but there are religious proscriptions against them! They have been replaced by highly trained “Mentats”, basically computer people. Super crazy, making a sci-fi story about a bunch of people who mainly depend on their own wits and abilities.

Who can say what the real purpose of this is, but to me it creates a framework that makes the story somewhat more believable than if people were raygunning each other all the time. It’s interesting to see how Herbert juggles this stuff throughout the book, because it’s not like there isn’t a ton of weird stuff later.

above, by Pat Keck

4) In the first few chapters, we’re introduced to three of the major forces at work in the book: the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and the Atreides and Harkonnen clans. I was struck at how archetypical these descriptions were; while the Baron Harkonnen is “grossly and immensely fat,” the Duke is “hawk-faced”. Similarly, the Reverend Mother, one of the Bene Gesserit, is described as an old crone, wizened and wrinkled. I’m not sure what my point is, but I guess I’m thinking more on rereading on the tension in the story between how things appear and how they actually are.

5) The idea of eugenics in the book is huge, and Herbert immediately casts a dim eye on it through his main character Paul–”..he felt an offense against… his instinct for rightness.” But having said that, we know from the first chapter that Paul is part of a long chain of breeding for a specific purpose, and at the end of the first chapter he’s revealed to also have “Mentat potential,” meaning he has other advanced abilities at his disposal.

Is Paul supposed to be like a Superman? I don’t necessarily mean OUR idea of Superman, but more Nietzsche’s superman, the ubermensch. Just an idea.

Okay dudes, that’s enough from me, sorry I tend to run on. What did YOU guys think? I’m especially interested in hearing from people who are reading it for the first time–remember, if you’ve already read the whole thing, try not to spill any beans for these guys. It’s not like the book hinges on suspense, but I think it will be interesting to look at things with new eyes and old eyes at the same time.

AND ALSO: remember no swearing or jerkery in the comments please. It’s just how I like things.

AND ALSO ALSO: you artists who have mentioned sketches and stuff, send me those badboys or post links! I’d love to include the images in the actual blog post as we go through the week! My email should be in the sidebar at right.

EXTRA ALSO UPDATE ALSO: For this Monday’s discussion, read up to (roughly, depending on your edition) around page 88-90, to the end of the chapter that ends with “They have tried to take the life of my son!”