Ahira's Hangar

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time; born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most speacial care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.
~ from "Manual of Muad"Dib" by the Princess Irulan

The ruling family of the planet Caladan is leaving in one week for the planet Arrakis. They have ruled Caladan for 26 generations; more than 500 years by our reckoning of generations, which each lasting about twenty years. Few ruling families on Earth have ever lasted so long!

As our novel opens, a fifteen year old boy named Paul is in his bed, and he overhears his mother, the Lady Jessica, having a conversation with a visitor, an old woman whose shadow reminds him of a witch. His mother, the concubine of a duke and mother to that duke's heir, treats the old woman with a great deference. Mysterious words like Kwizatch Haderach and gom jabbar are used. Paul wonders about this very strange conversation as he falls asleep and dreams a dream he knows will predict the future. The dream is set upon the world his family is leaving their homeworld to rule - Arrakis, the desert world known as Dune.

Some things become clear in Paul's thoughts. The move to Arrakis is both a great victory for his royal house, Atreides, and a great danger. His father is a very popular man among the Great Houses, and is seen as a possible threat by the powers that be. Paul is overprotected and lonely on Caladan, and it does not seem that he will miss the world of his birth. And Paul's mother has trained him in great mental discipline, and in something called the Bene Gesserit way.

In the morning Jessica comes for her son, to take him to the old woman, who turns out to be the Reverand Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and the Emperor's own truth sayer. Jessica is afraid. The Rev. Mother is peevish from her journey, and fusses in her mind about Jessica having a boy rather than a girl, as she had been ordered to do. It immediately makes you wonder about people who have the power to order around the pregnancies of a woman who is the mate of the man who rules a planet. The old woman looks at Paul, and sees his ancestors in his face and coloring, including a maternal grandfather who cannot be named. Makes you wonder if that "cannot be named" means he is unknown, or if there is something deeper and more mysterious going on...

The old woman sends Jessica away, and calls Paul over to her. She has him stick his hand in a black box which produces pain, then sticks a needle coated with a deadly poison against his neck. That needle is the gom jabbar. And being able to stand there as his hand feels as if it is being burned off without moving (if he moves the needle will kill him) is the test of whether or not he is human!

Paul passes the test, with the help of the mind exercises his mother has taught him. The old woman admits she used more pain on him than on anyone she had previously tested, and she gets excited when she learns he can tell whether or not someone is telling the truth. She wnders, in her thoughts, if he could be the one?

The old woman tells Paul to sit at her feet, as his mother did as a girl, but he refuses.

A relieved Jessica is called back into the room, and a brief conversation takes place about an ancient revolt called the Butlerian Jihad that set humans free from their enslavement by thinking machines. Paul is told that the Bene Gesserit comes down from those days, with a beginning as a group which trained human minds to replace the machine mind overlords. One purpose is politics, another for sorting people into humans from animals for breeding purposes. One of the goals of the breeding is to produce the Kwisatch Haderach, a man who can function like a Bene Gesserit who has used a special truth drug, but who can mentally go places the women cannot.

Thus far, any male who has tried to do this has died from the testing. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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And so the saga begins! Excellent summary, duchess.

I find the setting of Dune's universe endlessly intriguing but also depressing. Why depressing? Because here we are, apparently in some distant future of the human race, yet all we've managed is to regress to a system of governance from the distant past -- feudalism! It's like being thrown back into the dark ages: a futuristic medievalism, or whatever. This is human progress?? It's kind of a cold slap in the face to someone like me who believes deeply in the democratic ideal. But that's what makes Dune compelling, too, because its premise makes me ask: where did humanity go so wrong? Of course, I realize that others may see nothing particularly wrong with this picture.

Part and parcel of this feudal system is the scenario of women being reduced yet again to second-class citizens under patriarchal rule. Needless to say, this state of affairs offends my sense of a fair, egalitarian society.

So, as Dune opens, already it challenges my comfortable notions of what human progress should be like.

And this idea that a man, the Kwisatz Haderach, could look where no woman could...well, not to be rude, but that sounds damn chauvinistic, don't you think? Not that I'm saying Herbert was a chauvinist, I don't know much about him. But the picture he paints of women in Dune is highly uncomfortable to me. Guess I'm jumping ahead, but even here, we get a sense that women are either subservient concubines or manipulative bitches. Wonderful.



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Good post MoonWatcher.

I must say that I have sometimes wondered at the apparent social regression. even perhaps the technological regression, (although we know that it is as a direct result of both the Butlerian Jihad, and the evolution of personal shields).

I don't think we need to worry about jumping ahead. I know we usually don't in dissections, but it isn't going to bother me if we do.

But yes, an excellent point about what progress should be like. We expect it to improve, and in some ways, perhaps this was an improvement. But it does seem, (and something often highlighted in the books), that the poor or lowly are considered by many in the series to be...well...unimportant I guess.

And it's not just in womens rights that it seems to have regressed here either. Slavery is reinstituted, vassalage, tribute, the list goes on.

But I must say that I never thought of it much beyond wondering at the feudal system. Perhaps it's my innate suspicion of governments that leads me not to be surprised at any of the inhumanities they commit or allow.

Your comments have made me look at this particular aspect in a new light.

--A ____________________________________

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

Having read a few books on the history of ancient Rome in the last few months (after I made the initial post) has made me realize how much Herbert used the history and culture of Rome in writing these books...

The corrupt Emperor who kills off his male relatives...the precarious balance between the Emperor and his armies with the relatively impotent Senate...the Great Houses, some corrupt beyond imagination, some not so...the Bene Gesserit could be some of the more important religious cults (at least one dominated by women) who vied for power through influencing the Emperor...slaves, concubines, corruption, horrible conditions for most humans while the ruling class lived in luxery and vice beyond our understanding... ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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The parallels with Imperial Rome do seem obvious now that you've pointed them out, duchess. Like Rome, the ruling empire in Dune is all pageantry on the surface, but rotting underneath. Good of you to point out that the Bene Gesserit is the domain of females: a huge exception to the male-dominated system of rule in place. Women in ancient Rome basically had invisible status, correct? I had blabbed on in my previous post about how women had been reduced to second-class status in the universe of Dune, but it's not quite as simplistic as that. Just going by what we've read in this opening chapter, the Bene Gesserit already appear to be movers and shakers in this universe.

Another thing I want to say about this chapter is that it's the first time we're introduced to the famous Litany against Fear, here used by Paul Atreides to help calm himself while in the grip of the Reverend Mother's gom jabbar test. I love the Litany against Fear:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Powerful words! Wonderful in theory, of course. More difficult in practice. But if there's anything I take away from reading Dune, it's the Litany against Fear.



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Excellent posts folks. I too was very interested when Duchess pointed out the (now obvious ) parrallels. A couple of threads down is a post with some interesting links.

I too love the Litany. I remember being totally blown away when I heard it being repeated by some cartoon character...(can't remember who).

My favourite is one that we don't see here, but I'm going to quote it anyway:

Quote:A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it, and flow with it. - The First Law of Mentat

Excellent points about the Bene Gesserit. I must say that out of all the "groups" in the series, they rank with the (original) Fremen as my favourite.

--A ____________________________________

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

I just have to post this quote as well, another of my favourites:

Quote:It is through Will alone that I set my mind in motion.

(Yeah, I like the Mentats too. )

--A ____________________________________

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

In many ways I agree with Duchess here,once again Men place themselves above women!Yeah I know really wierd coming from a man on this subject,but there you have it.
Unbelievable in the dissection though..... captures the essence of chapter one without bias.... Very cool!!! Especially not omitting the fact that the Reverend Mother appeared as a witch to Paul....that alone sets the story from there on out...Kinda like not to trust the BG if at all possible....great dissection!! <i></i>

The Bene Gesserit are commonly referred to as witches. I think that to a large extent, it's a question of fearing what you don't understand.

As an order, the BG usually have my sympathies. I appreciate their idea of long term planning, as well as winnowing the chaff of man for humans. I like the existence of that distinction, although I don't place the same emphasis, or the same criteria on it necessarily.

--A ____________________________________

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