Urban Shamanism

Welcome! To those who have been waiting for me to properly start this project, sorry I took so long, I plan to reduce production times but I needed to figure out my approach. This is the first part of my analysis of "Dune" by Frank Herbert. The novel is divided into three books: Dune, Muad-Dib and The Prophet, comprising 48 chapters. I thought I'd offer a summary of the three opening chapters that encompass the introduction of the main character, the antagonist and the base conflict, adding my own commentary and observations as I see fit. Since this is my third reading of this saga, I may also include references to subsequent novels at the end of each post as a way to keep track of the story's evolution and also as a means to establish the narrative structures that I've seen across the whole story. This model may be subject to modifications later on, I'm embarking now in the single most ambitious project of my life and, although I could never hope for thoroughness with a series this complex, I want to keep an open mind. As you see, these posts will be fairly long, which is why they may take some time for me to develop, but hopefully I'll manage to keep them straight to the point and interesting. In the introductory post, you'll find a brief explanation of some of the terms and institutions below.

Chapter I

The novel begins in Caladan, the Atreides homeworld, an exuberant paradise rich with water and vegetation. The Atreides are leaving their planet on imperial command to take control of the fief of the desert planet Arrakis in place of the Harkonnens, who have held it for eighty years. In the weeks before their departure, the protagonist, 15-year old Paul Atreides, is visited by Helen Gaius Mohiam, Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit and Imperial Truthsayer. Accompanied by the Lady Jessica, Paul's mother and a Bene Gesserit as well, she's allowed to observe him while he feigns sleep and deliberately mentions the possibility that he might be something called the Kwisatz Haderach, a term extracted from the Jewish Kabbalah which literally means "Shortening/Leap of the Way". She then drops the first reference to Paul's destiny by calling him a "sly little rascal" (an appropriate description of Muad'Dib, the Mouse) and cautions him to rest in preparation for her mysterious Gom Jabbar. All of this plays on Paul's anxiety about the move to Arrakis, a hostile territory by all accounts. Additionally, the young heir to the Atreides Dukedom is plagued by lucid dreams that often come true.

Jessica finds Paul in his room the next morning and, since she herself trained him in Bene Gesserit skills of observation, he immediately notices her tension and fear and wonders about them. She instructs him not to keep Mohiam waiting and to tell her about his dreams. They both enter the room where Mohiam awaits and Jessica, once the old woman's pupil, is ordered to stand guard outside and leave Paul alone with her, which she does despite her misgivings after telling him that he's to be tested. Paul is angered by this but Mohiam is unbothered, bidding him with the irresistible command of her Voice to come near and put his right hand in a green metal box whose only open side harbors a frighteningly impenetrable blackness. He tries to back away but the Voice's compulsion is too strong. She then holds a poisoned needle to his neck, explaining that's her Gom Jabbar.

Paul calms his fear using the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear and Mohiam says that he's going to feel pain in his hand and that if he tries to pull it from the box, she'll kill him with the needle. As he begins to feel increasing tingling in his hand, she adds that an animal would attempt to escape the trap at all costs, but a human will remain in it and feign death so that he can outsmart the trapper and remove a threat to his kind, an overture to Paul's purpose, which he starts to glimpse during this encounter and profoundly unsettles him. He learns that he's being tested for humanity and the tingling becomes a mounting burning sensation that plunges him into agony. After a moment, the agony stops and Mohiam is astonished, saying that he'd endured more pain than any Bene Gesserit female student on record, a testament to his unique willpower.

When Paul pulls his hand out of the box, it shows no signs of any torment, and Mohiam says that the box merely induces pain in the nerves without the need to damage the flesh. He asks whether his mother had to go through the same test and although Mohiam doesn't say so directly, he senses the confirmation in her voice and acknowledges it, again astounding her, for this is the power of a Truthsayer and a mark of the Kwisatz Haderach. She calls Jessica, who's relieved to see Paul alive, and tells him that they test for humanity in order to prevent the resurgence of thinking machines that could enslave humans as they did before the Butlerian Jihad centuries ago, adding that only two organizations survived those times: the Spacing Guild, focused on mathematics, and the Bene Gesserit, whom Paul quickly surmises are dedicated to politics, shocking Mohiam a third time. The Reverend Mother says that the original Bene Gesserit identified the need for continuity in human affairs across vast periods of time, so they set up a breeding scheme to preserve the best genes, a revelation that offends Paul deeply, prompting him to say that they presume too much, but in a manner so subtle that not even the Truthsayer can be sure she heard the criticism.

Paul then asks about the Kwisatz Haderach and Mohiam speaks of a drug the Bene Gesserit use to improve their ability to detect falsehood by providing insight into ancestral memories, but only on the female line. When they use it, the sisters encounter a black abyss that terrifies them (much like the box, but at an astral level.) They can't enter this pit but there's a prophecy about a male Bene Gesserit who will be able to do so, the Kwisatz Haderach who can be many places at once, thus accessing both male and female ancestries. She says many men have tried the drug but none has survived.

Chapter II

Next we're transported to Giedi Prime, the nightmarish, heavily industrialized and polluted Harkonnen homeworld, and witness a meeting between the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, his Mentat Assassin Piter de Vries and his nephew and heir, 16-year old Feyd-Rautha. The Baron is hidden in the shadows behind an opulent model of Arrakis and the conversation revolves around the trap that he's set on that planet for the Duke Leto, his mortal enemy. We get a glimpse of the Baron's political shrewdness, his disregard for life, his cruelty and arrogance. While Feyd-Rautha sits in bored and impatient silence, the Baron and his Mentat bicker almost comically about their perspectives on the situation, revealing how little attention and respect exists between them. Mockery and veiled menace are persistent during the entire exchange.

The purported intention of this meeting is to educate Feyd-Rautha about intrigue in the Imperium, the qualities and services of Mentats from a purely utilitarian perspective, and the plan to destroy the Atreides and take over Arrakis afterwards. Piter reveals that the Baron promised the Lady Jessica to him as a reward and moves to threaten Feyd-Rautha when the Baron dismisses his words, but the Baron, who keeps his own counsel and already plans to get rid of Piter, is just playing with him and also enjoying his nephew's discomfiture. However, he immediately gets to business and orders Piter to describe the details of the plan to Feyd. Due to the qualities of Mentats, this description seems like a chess game where Piter surmises a series of logical moves by the Duke Leto and Thufir Hawat, the feared Atreides Mentat Assassin, stating that he would've most likely concluded that the Harkonnens have planted a traitor in Atreides ranks, and that the obvious suspect is Dr. Wellington Yueh but that he is likely to discard him on account of him being a Suk School graduate. Since Suk Doctors are masters in all sorts of toxins and drugs, they're subjected to Imperial Conditioning, assumed to be unbreakable and therefore, making them safe enough to treat the Imperial Household itself, but the Baron boasts that Yueh is indeed the traitor and that he's found a way to break the conditioning. In order to further impair Hawat's capabilities, he devised a scheme to make him suspect the Lady Jessica instead. They're also quite confident of success because their troops will be bolstered by the Sardaukar, the Emperor's elite warriors, dressed in Harkonnen livery.

Both the Baron and Piter take it for granted that the Duke already knows about the trap and that he'll attempt to make contact with the Fremen, the nomadic inhabitants of Arrakis, to find safety among them, but they're not concerned because they assume them to be a bunch of loose tribes with no significant numbers, another aspect that shows their indiscipline. Right before the meeting concludes, the Baron floats out of the shadows, unveiling a body so monstrously obese that his entire weight, even his jowls, must be supported by several suspensors, devices that nullify gravity within certain limits. His gross appearance is in perfect consonance with the callousness of his thoughts and attitude. This, along with his reflections about Piter's usefulness and his last action, which is to tell his nephew to call for food as opposed to doing it himself, demonstrate that he's individually incompetent, and utterly dependent on the sacrifice, work and skills of others to sustain his corrupt opulence. These are the first insights into predation, tyranny and overindulgence, significant aspects explored throughout the entire story.

Chapter III

After the test, Paul is sent to meditate while Jessica and Reverend Mother Mohiam discuss the politics of the Imperium, CHOAM and the fate of House Atreides on Arrakis. It's revealed that Jessica refused to bear a girl with the Duke Leto, giving him a boy against the wishes of the Bene Gesseri instead, out of love but also sensing the possibility that he could be the Kwisatz Haderach. She's dismayed to hear that Mohiam thinks the Duke is already doomed and that they will become refugees with a price on their heads, as if she could peer into the future, but in fact because she's aware of the Emperor's plans. Mohiam sees this outcome as inevitable due to the human need to secure genetic continuity and therefore survival of the species, the core motivation behind the exercise of power. She cautions Jessica to avoid shielding Paul too much or he won't grow strong enough, a reference to the Holtzmann Shield and to the pampered, cruel laziness exhibited by the Baron, Piter and Feyd-Rautha. Nevertheless, she tempers Jessica's fears about Arrakis by assuring her that the Missionaria Protectiva, the Bene Gesserit system of implanted beliefs to protect its members, has already left its imprint on the planet and thus they might have a niche where they could be safe; she also softens her tone, showing a kinder side to her former student.

Then Paul is summoned back and Mohiam asks him about his dreams. He says that he can remember all of his dreams, that he can intuitively determine which dreams are significant and which aren't, and that some of these dreams are precognitive. At Mohiam's behest, he relates two dreams involving a girl that he knows he'll meet on Arrakis. He speaks to her about the Test of the Box and also recites an entire poem while dreaming. Throughout all this, Mohiam seems to identify the patterns of the Kwisatz Haderach in Paul but he realizes that she really doesn't know anything about this male entity, only suppositions. However, she does make an interesting statement about surrender related to Paul's Test and Purpose, saying that the willow submits to the wind and reproduces until it becomes many willows, a shield against the wind.

Paul asks Mohiam why, if they can predict the emergence of this messianic figure, they're unable to help his father, to which Mohiam replies that everything that could be done for the Duke Leto has been done, and that they can only hope for Paul's own survival but that it's not required for the Bene Gesserit to succeed, further fanning his growing resentment against her and her organization. She then leaves and Jessica is shocked to see tears in her eyes as she turns away.

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In the next entry, I'll deconstruct the other three chapters that take place before the Atreides leave Caladan, introducing Paul's male teachers and his father. I was planning to put all six here but quickly realized that it would result in an exceedingly long post that would've probably been too heavy to read. Thank you for your time! The next part is only relevant if you've already read the subsequent novels, but if you haven't and don't mind the spoilers, by all means go on!

References from the Future

The quotes that begin each chapter offer clues about the narrative, but the most important aspect to take into account here is that Herbert wanted us to feel like we knew the future: by referring to Muad'Dib, St. Alia-of-the-Knife and the Princess Irulan, he deliberately foreshadows coming events. Notice also that he wants us to know about the betrayal the Atreides must suffer, therefore establishing that the story isn't concerned with such twists and turns but rather something much deeper.

The metal box of pain, the reflections about the trap and the willows are all references to the God Emperor Leto II's Golden Path. The Baron Harkonnen is also a shadow of Leto II's monstrosity as well as an image of the sadism and hedonism of the Honored Matres, cruel and dangerous women that emerge in the final two novels as a mixture between Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers, the all-female army constituted during Leto II's reign, whose precursors are the Amazons that guard her aunt Alia Atreides when he is a child.