Ahira's Hangar

"Yueh! Yueh! Yueh!" goes the refrain. "A million deaths were not enough for Yueh!"
~ from "A Child's History of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

At the beginning of this short chapter, Lady Jessica is in search of her son, and finds Dr. Yueh in a sort of ante-chamber right by his (Paul's) bedroom door. The two of them converse, and each shows a bit of his/her character and motivations:

* Jessica wishes for security.

* Yueh wishes for certainty.

* Yueh loves the Atreides, though he wished he could hate them. And he hates the Harkonnen, bitterly and passionately.

* Yueh hopes to get vengeance on the Baron in the Baron's moment of triumph.

* Jessica sees Dune as a huge trap, and a place of death.

* Yueh sees Dune as the source of life and health in its being the only source of melange.

* Yueh knows how much Leto loves Jessica, though she herself seems to doubt it.

* Yueh sees himself as being trapped in the old Atreides/Harkonnen fued.

* Yueh thinks that Jessica could make Leto do anything.

* Jessica only wants the Duke to do things of his own will, even if his choices hurt her.

* Jessica sees the Duke as two men; her tender lover and a cold & selfish man shaped by his father.

* Yueh does not want to turn on the Atreides.

* Jessica sees how troubled and tormented Yueh is, but decides to trust him rather than question him.

If she had decided otherwise, it would have been a very different story! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i></i>

The very question I ask myself every time I read that chapter...what would have happened if she had stopped him for a moment?

Here we see explicitly that blind spot I mentioned in the earlier chapter...we learn that Yueh is the traitor, and in the same chapter, Jessica herself describes him as being "bound to the Atreides by a cherem of hate" (IIRC).

And yet that hate does not bind his actions, only his wishes.

And yet, can we hate Yueh? The extremes which drive him to betray the home of his heart...

And as Duchess points out, he is trapped. Would he hate the Harkennon if the Baron had not decided to use him to bring about Leto's end?

(I wonder what the progression was...was he first with the Atreides? Or did the Harkonnen take his wife before he entered their service?)

The other particularly interesting thing I find in this chapter is Jessica's description of Leto as both loving, and as cold and selfish, perhaps even cruel.

This is a trait that is not uncommon in the family, as we'll soon see.

--A

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A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

I have always had considerably mixed feelings about Yueh. I have had big debates about him in the past with Fisty.

On the one hand - he betrayed a family he cared about in the Atreides, and friends in the Atreides retainers.

And all for a woman most likely already dead.

But - he is not sure that she is dead - and the Harkonnen are such monsters they might be holding her captive and torturing her over and over for years.

Also, he had the plan to kill the Baron when the baron is least expecting it. But, of course, the Duke has to die as part of that plan.

The story obviously calls for a traitor, for if the Atreides do not fall there is either no story, or a very different one.

Yet- I have never been able to feel much sympathy or empathy towards this character. Perhaps because I feel that in such cases, the needs of the many would outweigh the needs of the one (the one here being the wife).

How would a Bene Gesserit handle this - would she choose the good of the many or the good of the one? Especially when she does not even know if the one is dead or alive? I am asking because the missing wife is Bene Gesserit. I have always wondered how the wife would view the actions of the husband in this case. <i></i>

She would no doubt have opted for the good of the many. But Yueh was not a Bene Gesserit.

He did not want to rescue his wife. He wanted to kill the Baron. An ideal that Leto would almost certainly approved of. In fact, he might have counted his life a fair exchange for that of the Baron. He knew that Jessica and Paul were safe. What more could he have asked for than the satisfaction of his vendetta completed?

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

Yeah, he wants vengeance. And maybe that's why I have such a tough time relating to that character. But he does also wonder about whether his wife is dead, or alive and suffering...

Quote:The ways of Harkonnen cruelty were devious. Wanna might not be dead. He had to be certain. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i></i>

True, although he is already almost certain.

I dunno. I wouldn't say I was sympathetic towards him so much as I can understand what motivated him. And understanding is forgiveness they do say.

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

What do you think of Jessica thinking about how the Atreides treasury has been depleted by making bribes? And how Quote:Where Thufir Hawat goes, death and deciet follow.

And then when Yueh says that Jessica maligns Thufir, she says that she is praising him, as death and deceit are the only hopes for the Atreides. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i></i>

This only goes to add to what I was saying in the other thread, and what this reading has suggested more strongly to me. That the Atreides are not very nice.

Oh, they are honourable in many ways. But not nice.

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

The Atreides not nice? Blasphemy! They would never hurt a fly -- unless it was a Harkonnen fly.

But seriously, yeah, the Atreides are like any other House pursuing its own agenda. The Atreides just seem angelic in comparison to the Harkonnens.

I do have a problem with this premise of Yueh's "Imperial conditioning" being broken because the Harkonnens had his wife. Call me callous, but what's so special about this conditioning when something as banal as a spouse kept as hostage can compromise it? If that could break Yueh, then it seems to me this Imperial conditioning is pretty flimsy to begin with. I'd demand a refund from the conditioning school if I were Jessica.

Maybe I just don't understand because I'm not married. <i></i>

I am married and I have never been able to understand it. I would never want my husband to do what Yueh is about to do if I were in a similar case.

******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i></i>

Well, for a start, it's not what you would want him to do, it would be what he is willing to do to save you from pain.

It does seem to be a flaw in this vaunted conditioning though. But we don't know enough about it to know how it works. Only that anybody who has undergone it is considered trustworthy enough to minister to the Emperor himself.

I'm sure that Yueh's Wanna would never condone his actions. But he believes he is acting for her best interests. Not to mention that he is actually giving the Atreides what they want...the death of the Baron.

Would Leto have turned down even an opportuntity that would have cost him his life, but saved that of his wife and child? Maybe. But maybe not...

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

OK, what happened to the acclaimed BG way of controlling pain,pleasure,and what about being able to move faster than Speedy Gozalez if need be?What about the BG killing themselves if no other way out was possible?AND what on earth did the Harkonnen have to keep her placid against them?These topics were not addressed by Frank Herbert,maybe I'm missing something here........any ideas? <i></i>

Interesting thought. I'm guessing drugs and deaf/mute servants, I'm sure that the Mentat Assassin Pieter was quite equal to the task. And of course, that would only be needed very briefly. I'm sure that "pain amplifiers" are exactly as nasty as they sound.

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

Nasty or not,any BG had the capability to shut off pain,and as always,like i said, why did Wanna not kill herself to save the abject lesson in humility?THAT really goes against any BG i ever read about....... <i></i>

Maybe she did kill herself. *shrug*

All we know is that she is dead. Whether she caved to the H is immaterial. What was important was that Yueh believed that she might be suffering still.

And who knows what if any limit this pain control has? And surely you need time to employ it...perhaps the pain is so annihilating that rational thought is impossible.

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>