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Quote:With the Lady Jessica and Arrakis, the Bene Gesserit system of sowing implant-legends through the Missionaria Protectiva came to its full fruition. The wisdom of seeding the known universe with a prophecy pattern for the protection of B.G. personnel has long been appreciated, but never have we seen a condition-ut-extremis with more ideal mating of person and preparation. The prophetic legends had taken on Arrakis even to the extent of adopted labels, (including Reverend Mother, canto and respondu and most of the Shari-a panoplia propheticus). And it is generally accepted now that the Lady Jessica’s latent abilities were grossly underestimated.
--From ‘Analysis : The Arrakeen Crisis’ by the Princess Irulan
Before going any further with the actual chapter itself, I think a little thought needs to be spared for this (and all the other quotations that head every chapter in Dune).
To me, they are an integral part of the book. In some ways almost more interesting than the story itself, for the incredibly more complex and detailed story behind it, at which they hint. These fragments do more than anything else I think, to give a sense of the unimaginably distant future in which the story takes place. And at the history that succeeds this particular tale.
The implications of this particular fragment can be staggering. The explicit fact that the BG manipulate entire cultures mythologies across the universe, just on the off-chance that one of them will need aid.
Not only does it highlight the long-term planning abilities of the BG, but it more than merely hints at the course of the tale. And perhaps makes us consider Jessica in a different light.
Fittingly, the chapter opens on the Lady Jessica herself, overseeing the disposition of furnishings now that they have taken up residence in the old governor’s palace, and seeing omens in the unwrapping of symbols of Atreides mortality, the painting of Leto’s father, and the mounted head of the bull that killed him.
She remembers briefly her purchase by the Dukes agents, underlining vividly her status as a concubine, and suffers a pang of homesickness for the blue skies of Caladan.
Suddenly Leto arrives, striding from the dining hall in his rumpled uniform, for one of the few scenes in which we can gain a sense of their relationship. He is a driven man since obeying the Emperor and taking Arrakis, and it is this predatory look that strikes her, over-riding the Mediterranean looks she hints at, and she is afraid.
They speak briefly about the house, and while they speak, Leto admires her, wondering about her unknown ancestry, marvelling at her regal bearing.
Leto is in the hall to hang the key of his ancestral castle, an act that, although perhaps odd to us, (why does he have the key if it’s no longer his fief?), apparently denotes some act of finality in taking possession of this new fief, one that makes Jessica want to reach out, (in comfort? In support?) to the Duke.
Even as she feels this, he notices the picture of his father, and gives us a glimpse of the iron will that seems to mark the Atriedes, insisting against her wishes that both picture and bull be hung in the dining hall. Here we see what prized place the idea of ancestral dignity holds in this society, as he refuses to compromise, at the same time making a dry quip about her status, that she should be grateful they never married, lest she need to face the pair daily, rather than just on formal occasions.
Changing topics again he discusses servants, and here we see a blind spot in the Duke. His utter faith in the idea that the enemy of his enemy must be his ally. Asked by Jessica if anybody can be safe, his reply is a telling one.
Quote:Anyone who hates the Harkonnens…
It is here that the fragment which opens this chapter begins to make sense, as Leto tells Jessica that the Fremen have been keen to serve her, having learned that she is a Bene Gesserit, and having legends about them. And Jessica realises that the BG Missionaria Protectiva has been at work on Arrakis.
And again Leto hints at some hidden need for the Fremen, mentioning their strength and vitality, before Jessica, calming herself with a mnemonic technique, changes the subject to the practical, recognising his need to try and succeed no matter what, as he leaves to continue attempting it.
As she stands damning the old Duke in the painting, perhaps for the bravura that he instilled in her Leto, the Shadout Mapes, our first taste of Fremen inscrutability, arrives, dry, desiccated, worn, and yet with the same wellspring of vitality that Leto has so recently remarked upon.
Within moments of conversation, Jessica, perhaps driven by presentiment, perhaps by deeper imperatives of BG training, begins to “reveal” herself to the Shadout, to, perhaps more accurately, take advantage of the cultural manipulation whose foundations were laid by some long ago BG.
And even as she does so, she asks herself why she plays out this “sham.”
Relying on her training, on the incredible skills of observational minutiae that are part and parcel of the Bene Gesserit way, she insinuates herself into this myth, knowing its workings far better than the person upon whom she plays it out.
And Mapes reveals the fabled Crysknife of Dune, the mark of the Fremen and an integral part of the mythos of this world. And Jessica recognises the crux-point. And even in error stumbles onto the right path, bluffing the Shadout, (perhaps the innocent, manipulated Shadout), into believing that Jessica is indeed the one foretold. Pretending to know of the Maker, even without knowing it.
And Mapes is fooled.
Quote:…when one has lived with prophecy for so long, the moment of revelation is a shock.
And Jessica thinks about the prophecy, the Shari-a and all the panoplia propheticus, of the Bene Gesserit of the Missionaria Protectiva, long centuries dead, and the implanted legends sowed on this wild world against the day of a Bene Gesserit’s need. And she knows that the day had come.
Gripped by a sense of foreboding, well aware that the “sham” as she’d called it had protected her life, (although of course if the Missionaria Protectiva had not been at work, that particular threat may not have existed in the first place?), Jessica issues instructions and hurries of to check on her son, and the Shadout Mapes watches her go:
Quote: “She’s the One all right,” she muttered. “Poor thing.”
--Avatar
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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>
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