Urban Shamanism

In the following three chapters of the novel, the Atreides have already arrived on Arrakis and start settling in. We begin exploring the mystical aspect of the story through prophecy, Jessica and Dr. Yueh have an important conversation and Paul faces an assassination attempt. For the previous entries, please read: Introduction, The Test and Teachers and Traitor

Chapter VII

Jessica stands in the great hall of Arrakeen, the city chosen by the Duke Leto as his seat, surrounded by boxes containing all of their belongings. To her, the place feels bleak and cold, but she acknowledges that it's likely far better than Carthag, the cheap and brassy city from which the Harkonnens ruled. To her right lay the portrait of the old Duke, Leto's father, and the head of the bull that killed him, and Jessica wonders why she felt driven to uncover them first even though they increase her fear and insecurity. These two objects represent an important insight about the Atreides character that will remain in play throughout the entire story: the capacity to choose self-sacrifice even in apparently absurd circumstances to secure the continuity of their legacy.

Leto arrives to hang the keys of Caladan Castle and admits that he shares her views about their new home. They both admire each other in silence, Jessica fearing for him, Leto wondering about her ancestry, seeing her as more regal than the Emperor's daughters as we see a description of her slim, tall beauty through his loving eyes. He inquires about Paul and Jessica informs him that the boy is taking lessons with Dr. Yueh. She plans to hang the portrait and the bull's head in the hall, but he flatly instructs her to hang them in the dining hall despite her misgivings, adding that she only needs to join him there for formal occasions and that she should feel thankful he didn't marry her or she'd be required to accompany him at every meal. She carefully keeps her face expressionless at the mention of marriage.

The Duke says that Hawat has already prepared poison snoopers for both the dining hall and Jessica's room, and that he's engaged Fremen servants for her convenience. One in particular, a woman known as the Shadout Mapes, wants to serve her personally. "Shadout" is a word in the fictional Chakobsa language that means "well-dipper", an honorary title for housekeepers with symbolic undertones. Leto explains that there are legends about the Bene Gesserit on the planet, and Jessica identifies the handy-work of the Missionaria Protectiva. She asks whether this means that Duncan Idaho was successful in his mission and the Fremen will join them, but Leto says there's nothing definitive, that the Fremen want to observe them for a while and have agreed to not raid their villages, an important gain as they were a deep thorn in the Harkonnen side and their exploits were zealously kept secret to avoid the Emperor's suspicions. He cautions her not to judge them by their appearance, that they're a hardy people and might be all the Atreides need. To find her calm again, Jessica applies a breathing technique from her training and turns to practical household matters, which amuses the Duke, who thinks it must be a BG trick. Jessica replies it's a female trick.

Leto assures her that the house has been cleared in full by Hawat's men, but she doesn't seem convinced. He then announces that he must leave to attend to other matters that he can't delegate to Hawat, who's even busier than he is, an important piece of data after we've seen the old man's prejudice and fatigue in his conversation with Paul. 800 spice hunters are free to leave the planet on a spice shuttle with the change of fief and he must try to persuade as many as he can to stay. Jessica's about to try and persuade him instead of just leaving Arrakis immediately but realizes she can't and asks something else; Leto notices her hesitation and pictures a life without care by her side in another place. He replies that he'll be back late and wants Paul to attend his first strategy meeting. He almost says something else but then leaves abruptly, sending Mapes to meet Jessica, who lets out some of her frustration by cursing at the old Duke's picture.

The Shadout Mapes calls her attention and Jessica studies her appearance: wrinkled, dry and seemingly undernourished behind a simple brown sack dress, with her eyes the total dark blue without whites of the Ibad. Although Mapes addresses her as noble born, Jessica points out that she isn't noble or married to the Duke, but that she's still the mother of his heir. A cry rings in the street and Mapes explains that it's merely a water seller and that Jessica need not think about that because the house's cistern holds a large amount of water and is always kept full, that she doesn't even have to wear her stillsuit despite not being dead yet. Jessica is unnerved by the fact that water is equal to wealth on Arrakis. She comments on Mapes' title, shocks her with a taste of the ancient languages and proves that she knows the woman carries a weapon in his bodice. Mapes pleads for forgiveness and tells her that the weapon is meant as a gift for the One. Jessica warns her that even if she managed to kill her, the consequences would be unimaginably disastrous.

Mapes slowly pulls out a knife from her robe and unsheathes it, revealing a milky white double-edged blade that seems to glow with its own light. She asks Jessica what it is and Jessica replies it's a crysknife, made from the tooth of a dead sandworm; she then asks for its meaning and Jessica takes a moment, considering her answer carefully, remembering that "knife" is called "maker of death" in Chakobsa. As soon as she says "Maker", however, Mapes screams with both sorrow and elation, prompting her to increase her alertness in the Bene Gesserit Way, but the woman is merely astonished by the revelation of a prophecy with which she's lived all her life. Mapes sheaths the blade and bids Jessica to never part from it, as it disintegrates after a week away from flesh. Jessica points out that the blade can't be sheathed unbloodied and a terrified Mapes begs for her to draw "her life's water." Jessica correctly surmises that the tip of the blade is poisoned and merely scratches the woman's breast with the edge, noting how the blood instantly coagulates, likely a moisture-conserving mutation. Mapes cautions her that anyone who sees the blade must be cleansed or slain, and that now the prophecy must take its course. Jessica realizes that they've been waiting for centuries for a Reverend Mother to save them, underscoring the terrible conditions of life on the planet.

Jessica bids Mapes hang the old Duke's portrait in the dining hall with the bull's head opposite it, instructing her not to clean the blood caked around the horns, which was left there on purpose. The whole exchange leaves Jessica feeling even more apprehensive about the residence and their situation as a whole; after giving other instructions to her new housekeeper, she leaves quickly in search for Paul. Mapes watches her departure and mutters words of pity for her.

Chapter VIII

Jessica then visits the room where Paul was taking his lessons from Yueh and finds the doctor with his back to the door. She scans the room and enters silently, observing Yueh and thinking of him as a stick figure held up by a puppeteer's strings, which is exactly what he is. She greets him and inquires about Paul. Yueh replies that he's asleep in the adjacent room, he calls her by name and immediately flinches and apologizes for the faux pas, but she soothes him. This, however, is a ruse to distract her, because he knows he can't stand her focused scrutiny but also that she won't look for deeper motives if she assumes she knows the reason for his anxiety. He exploits this vulnerability thanks to the knowledge he received from his wife Wanna, who was a Truthsayer unlike Jessica. However, he still finds truth the safest and says that he feels sorry for her being forced to live in such a barren, arid planet, full of untrustworthy natives. This heightens Jessica's uncertainty and she hugs her breast, touching the crysknife now concealed there, while justifying native behavior with the years under Harkonnen rule.

Looking out the window, they see a line of twenty date palm trees at the residence's main entrance, separated by a screen from the robed people passing by. Jessica notices envy and hatred in their expressions, and Yueh says that they're thinking each of those palms takes 40 liters of water a day to survive, meaning that all of them equal to 100 human lives. Jessica says that the spice could make them rich enough to make the planet into whatever they wish, but she laughs despite herself at the foolish hope for safety and Yueh laments that he has to betray people he loves for his own hope that Wanna might still be alive. Then he shows her into the adjoining room where Paul is resting, and Jessica represses an impulse to embrace her son, prompting the doctor to look away in pain and wonder why his wife never gave him children, realizing that he might be just a player in a much larger game. Jessica rejoins him at the window and catches an odd tone in some of his words, but she's still with her mind on Paul and lets it pass.

They discuss water restrictions on Arrakis, Jessica voices her suspicion that there might be water reservoirs on the planet but something or someone stops it from flowing to the surface, and that the source of atmospheric moisture is also unknown, a fact that bears investigating. Yueh says that the Harkonnens probably blocked most of the existing information, but the way he says the name is so venomous that it arouses Jessica's suspicions; in order to dismantle them, he resorts to truth again, mentioning his wife and surrendering to his grief. By the signs on him, Jessica realizes that Wanna was a Bene Gesserit and the Harkonnens killed her, which fills her with affection for him. She apologizes because the Atreides brought him to such a dangerous place, but he says he's come willingly and that it'll take more than the trap set on Arrakis to take down the Duke Leto, adding that their uneasiness stems from the fact that they've been uprooted from their home. Jessica openly shows her qualms about the planet's hostility toward them and her mistrust of Thufir Hawat's methods of deceit and death, even as she admits their necessity in this new environment, then cynically complains about her role as the Duke's concubine and Yueh rebukes her for doubting Leto's love; she accepts the rebuke and hugs herself once more, briefly explaining that the Harkonnens hate the Atreides because the Duke is the Emperor's cousin and thus more legitimate than the Baron, whose title comes from CHOAM influence, and that it all started when a long-dead Atreides banished a Harkonnen for cowardice after a decisive battle.

Yueh resents the old feud for trapping his wife and him, and ponders on the irony that such a deadly poison would come to flower precisely on Arrakis, the sole source of spice, a substance that prolongs and enhances life. He shares some of his insights about spice but notices that Jessica isn't listening, so he quickly changes the subject and asks her why she never used her training to make the Duke marry her. She says that as long as Leto's unmarried, other Houses can hope for alliance and that imposing her will on him would be a sham, that forcing people to do things degrades one's humanity, once again reminding Yueh of his wife and almost making him confess his betrayal. Jessica further explains that the Duke is actually two men, one lovable and another cruel, once again showing her spite for the old Duke and his education. After a brief silence, she excuses herself to keep reviewing that wing of the residence and, while Yueh regrets what he must do, she hesitates on the verge of confronting him about what she knows he's hiding, but decides against it because she thinks it would only shame and frighten him.

Chapter IX

Having palmed the sleeping pill given by Yueh, Paul pretends to be asleep throughout the exchange between Jessica and Yueh but catches only indistinct parts of their conversation. He plans to go exploring in the house but first observes his room, the false headboard upon the bed with the carved fish upon waves that conceals the room's lighting and other functions, the door handle shaped as an ornithopter, and he has the feeling that the room and the planet as a whole had been designed to entice him. In his mind he goes over the filmbook about Dune's vegetation and fauna, the spice and the sandworms, information imprinted into his psyche via mnemonic pulse.

As soon as he hears Jessica close the door in the adjacent room and her footsteps retreating, he leaves his bed and intends to go out but freezes when the bed's headboard moves. Out hovers a hunter-seeker no more than five centimeters in length, a common assassination method about which all children of royal blood are thoroughly instructed. He reviews the features and weaknesses of this device: it has a compressed suspensor field that distorts the room to reflect its target, the operator would attack anything that moves and it can burrow into flesh and follow the nerves to target a vital organ. The device's suspensor field is slippery and would make it hard to get a hold on, but that's Paul's only option as his shield is on his bed, he doesn't have and wouldn't use a lasgun in those circumstances and he can't count on Yueh. In seconds, Paul considers all of this and wonders who might be operating it while the hunter-seeker pans the room. Someone opens the door and the thing flashes toward it but Paul catches it in his right hand (the hand that knows the pain of the box) and smashes it against the door. Then he turns to see the blue stare of the Shadout Mapes.

The housekeeper informs him that his father has sent for him and that there are men waiting outside to escort him, then looks at the broken hunter-seeker and acknowledges she would've died, but Paul tells her that he was the intended target, then asks who she is and how she knew where he was. Mapes replies that Jessica told her on her way to the "weirding room," and that the Duke's men are still waiting, so Paul bids her to tell them that they must find the operator and shut down the residence, but she says that before she obeys, she must clear the water burden that he's placed upon her by saving her life and reveals that there's a traitor in their midst, then leaves the room. After pausing for an instant, Paul commits Mapes' visage to memory and reviews the conversation, then takes his shield belt and goes out to find Jessica.

What we see in these three chapters is a glimpse of the great danger the Atreides face on Arrakis, but also how the planet symbolically accepts them through Mapes and her ritual, which sets in motion a mechanism put in place hundreds of years prior by Bene Gesserit schemes. Jessica's in emotional turmoil and can scarcely conceal it through her training, Leto's exhausted and worried, Yueh struggles with his mission and yet, like the old Duke, they're all entering the Arena willingly to fight their bulls.

This is a backdrop for Paul. Young, trained to the peak of his ability by great teachers and cruelly tested with the Gom Jabbar, the protagonist faces and quickly diffuses the first true life-threatening situation in the novel, saves a Fremen's life and learns about the traitor. His highly disciplined mind, body and emotions allow him to collect and process information with great efficiency, choose a course of action and act almost in the blink of an eye. The only indication of stress in this scene as written in the book is a short hesitation when he says he was the intended target, the rest is a mesmerizing flow of utter practicality and precision that will only grow in breadth and scope as the narrative continues.

References from the Future

The allegory of the Duke and the Bull only appears in the first novel but as I mentioned above, it defines the Atreides character and applies to Paul, his son Leto II and the future Bene Gesserit. This tendency toward self-sacrifice and courage, loyalty and love, coupled with the extreme challenges that they face and the demands of their profound training, drives them to make decisions that many readers would find atrocious, but I encourage you to study the Atreides temper from a more neutral standpoint, certain sensibilities may prevent you from appreciating the depth and nuance of these characters, their level of self-awareness in particular.

In Paul's character we begin to see the interplay of attention to detail, memory, imagination and foresight. This is going to be an increasingly important element of the story as his visions become more complex. Through his unique training, he can pursue various courses of action and lines of thought simultaneously, a capacity that will be greatly expanded by spice consumption and the heavily ceremonial Fremen way of life. The bed's headboard is a foreshadowing of his prescient ability as well, for he often sees himself at the crest of a wave made up of innumerable possible futures.

I mentioned the detail about the female trick when Jessica talks to Leto because it's relevant to understanding how the Bene Gesserit train and operate, always in control, pushing concerns aside. It's also one of the reasons why Leto II creates the Fish Speakers (also foreshadowed by the fish headboard) and can thus be found to an extreme degree in the Honored Matres. During this analysis and after watching the new film a few times, I realized that Yueh's supposedly unbreakable conditioning may have been subverted not by the Baron Harkonnen but by Wanna herself. Knowing what comes afterwards and how the Sisterhood works, it's possible that Wanna was instructed to do so and, if so, it means that the Bene Gesserit staged the entire Arrakeen Crisis from the start.