Father, the sleeper has awakened! Let's Read Dune

All I know of Dune is this: http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/herbert.dune.shtml I tried to read it once but the writing turned me away almost immediately. It's nice to learn the plot of this book without needing to decipher the prose.

Well, the occasional weird moment aside (most of which I'm trusting to be explained later) I'm really not finding it hard to follow at all. I actually had more trouble with The Lord Of The Rings.

Chapter 9:

Irulan lets us know the rather Dadaist concept that the first thing anyone needs to learn is that they can learn. Thanks, I'll mull that over.

Paul prepares to explore the house late at night, having faked taking his nightly sleeping pill. He's already been shown his bedroom's numerous secret nooks and crannies, which I feel safe predicting he'll be hiding in at some point. And he's been taught about the local plants and animals, all of which have the same names as similar ones on Earth. No Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp" here!

When the conversation from the last chapter ends, he heads to his closet, and that's when Yueh pulls his faked assassination attempt with a tiny assassination drone called a hunter-seeker. The description is quite the piece of Nightmare Fuel itself; they burrow under the skin and destroy any organs they come across. Yueh was apparently counting on Paul being asleep, as they work by sensing movement, but luckily he freezes anyway upon seeing it. Then Mapes comes in, and Paul grabs it and smashes it while it's distracted. Not sure how she got past Yueh, unless she came by one of the passages; it's not really explicated.

Mapes is quite nonchalant about the whole thing, though I guess being so old and living on a hellish desert world makes you not value your life too much. But she still now has a debt to Paul, which she intends to repay by finding the traitor the Fremen know is in the house. Plus, she mentions something called a "weirding room" which Paul is thankfully just as much in the dark about.

Another short chapter, so I'll fill this one out by giving my ideal casting choices for the new film that's supposedly in the works:

Paul: An unknown to keep the tradition, though preferably a real teenager.

Leto: Jeremy Irons

Jessica: Cate Blanchett

Harkonnen: John Noble

Feyd-Rautha: Mark Salling

Hawat: Sean Bean

Halleck: Bill Nighy

Yueh: Tim Curry

Mohiam: Judi Dench

Piter: Billy Drago

edited 7th Sep '10 8:53:26 PM by Eegah

The IMDB entry on the film currently in development hell is full of people's dream cast lists. Not a lot of people I've heard of on yours, which is refreshing.

However, there was once a thread of people's nightmare casts, which was amazing. Think Nick Cage as Duke Leto and BRIAN BLESSED as the Baron, etc. Naturally, like most everything funny there, it has since disappeared.

edited 7th Sep '10 7:20:14 PM by harmattane

Chapter 10:

Irulan explains Jessica's upcoming actions with a proverb about worrying about the journey, not the destination. As far as I can tell. Once again, the Bene Gesserit are about on par with the Architect.

Jessica finds an oval-shaped door with a personalized palm-print lock, though it's not hidden at all. And thanks to some training that's probably wisely not elaborated on, she's able to contort the muscles in her hand until the lock is opened. Mapes stops by and gives the door a dirty look, though she doesn't tell Jessica someone just tried to kill her son. Maybe there's one more person to add to the upcoming Thirty Xanatos Pileup.

The door leads to an airlock for a room with a specialized atmosphere, and the stick Hawat propped the door open with had fallen down. At least that's what Jessica assumes, though I'm pretty sure it'll turn out to have been deliberate on someone's part. It's that kind of story. Inside is a greenhouse with special glass to simulate an Earth-like sun, complete with running fountain and sprinklers. Well, the shit will hit the fan if the locals find out about this. Any takers on when that'll happen?

There's a note inside from "Margot Lady Fenring," the wife of the previous governor, telling Jessica the room is a gift to remind her of the evils of temptation. Why am I not surprised? Though it also contains a Bene Gesserit code phrase that leads Jessica to find a Morse Code-like message burned into a leaf about the plot to kill Paul. I really have no idea if this is part of the plan to frame Jessica, or if Margot is yet one more player on this little board.

Before Jessica can do anything, Paul runs in to shove the hunter-seeker into the fountain to make sure it's dead. No explanation of how he knew about this place, though they do have more urgent things to discuss. Plus, Jessica now suspects Hawat of being behind it. Paul: "It's the Harkonnens, of course. We shall have to destroy them." I knew I loved this kid, even if he is playing right into their hands.

One of Hawat's men reports that they caught a local man with a hunter-seeker remote control, but he died while being taken in. And now Paul will be sleeping in the greenhouse, since the message said it was safe. Paul is now also starting to suspect Hawat, though Jessica actually argues about it now that it's in the open. After they share all their information, Jessica insists they have to be very careful who they talk to about this. And to her credit, she also realizes the message may be part of a trap, whether or not Margot herself knew about it. But she gets her net gain back to zero by instantly shutting down Paul's suspicion of Yueh.

Jessica stays with Paul as the sun sets, and sees two people in the distance communicating with heliographs. She doesn't know the code they're using, but their not using the electronic communications can only mean they're Harkonnen agents.

Well, that goes some way toward answering the water question, though the purpose behind it is still pretty vague. But we have time with things getting more complicated by the chapter and not having hit a hundred pages yet.

edited 7th Sep '10 9:32:06 PM by Eegah

Chapter 11:

This time the quote is rather clear, questioning why Leto seemed to be fooled so easily. Though it does give away that he is a bit too early.

But not too much, as we immediately catch up with Leto at a landing control tower, incensed at the idea that one of the local trade kingpins allied with the Harkonnens tried to kill his son. He also ponders how official notices proclaim he's here to end the planet's internal conflict, when the Emperor privately considers everyone there thoughtless barbarians. But he's determined to hide how much he hates living here, so Paul can grow up to consider it a home. And he'll succeed, according to that first Irulan quote, but let's just wait for it.

Halleck arrives with the last group of soldiers, and we get a couple paragraphs of their jocular banter that's actually quite reminiscent of the Marines' first scene in Aliens. Pretty cool to see that influence. Leto gets him to reassign some of them to Hawat's border patrols, while Halleck himself has to try to persuade some of the hundreds of departing spice hunters to stay on. He also wants armored squads going out first, which Halleck guesses means he's expecting more trouble than they thought. And Halleck really gets his Warrior Poet on here, with a quotation for every situation. Though Leto finds it a bit annoying, so it doesn't actually become that.

Leto comes across one propaganda agent, and tells him to get the word out that there's plenty of women around for the single soldiers. Oh yeah, that won't backfire horribly at all.

Ah, the quintessential ingredient of Dune; everyone and their mother having a private agenda.

The TXP page puts it nicely: "Who's manipulating whom? Everyone and everyone, respectively."

Chapter 12:

Irulan's rather more on the point than usual again, bringing up how Paul saw an inscription shortly after the hunter-seeker incident about the need to remember the suffering he's seen, having been brought to the meeting that the last chapter was setting up.

We catch up just before that meeting, where once more Hawat's loyalty is questioned but defended. Hopefully we can get past that now that everyone's had a turn. Hawat himself arrives and after one more round of how he shouldn't be blamed for this, the meeting starts. Leto right away offers coffee; I would like to think it would survive to the 99th century.

Hawat reports that the Fremen are warming up to the family more and more, and there may be tens of thousands out there to call on, all led by someone named Liet. They do make deals with smugglers, but Leto is fine with that and comes up with a method I don't quite understand to get the operation legalized. And they've found the Harkonnens' account books which reveal they were making far too much to make their leaving it behind believable, which we already knew but at least it's more in the open now.

Harkonnen also screwed them over with the letter of the law: he left the full set of spice mining equipment agreed on, but almost all of it is broken down. And the Guild refuses to sell them a weather satellite but won't explain why. And however good equipment they might get, sandworms could always swallow it whole and shields just attract them. Though the Harkonnens used plenty of shields with no problem, and Hawat is assigned to find out why. Oh good, god forbid a chapter go by without adding one more plot point to the table.

Next we're introduced to carryalls, giant helicopters that drop the spice factories down, and pull them back up during the inevitable sandworm attacks. Then time for the profit margins, which are expectedly low with Leto's insistence on doing things more ethically than the Harkonnens. But Leto predicts that winning the battle with the Sardaukar that he knows is coming will get them the support they need, and shows his own Magnificent Bastard side with a plan to forge papers on the Harkonnen loyalists they've already caught to ruin the families legally, which Paul and Halleck are a bit put out by. Ah, character depth!

Then, the much-ballyhooed Duncan Idaho! He marches in with news that they caught another Harkonnen cell with the help of a Fremen who died, and was found to have a crysknife. And right on cue, Stilgar, the leader of the group Idaho's been dealing with, arrives and insists they don't have the right to look at the blade. And I'm certainly more inclined to respect Fremen traditions than Bene Gesserit right now. Leto agrees, and Stilgar spits on the table...a sign of respect, given how rare water is. He agrees to let Idaho keep the crysknife and hold allegiance to both Leto and the Fremen, since "Liet serves two masters." That's fairly ominous, given how may different sides we have already. Paul notices a tube under his hood as he leaves, and I have no freaking clue what to make of that.

Leto charges Idaho with getting five battalions of Fremen to fight with them when the Sardaukar attack, and Idaho returns that the Harkonnens have put a huge reward on a crysknife, which they both conclude is so Piter with his blue eyes can use it to infiltrate them. Always nice when the characters are smart; I never would have come up with that idea at this point.

Hawat's last bit of information is that there are hundreds of abandoned bases on the planet that could have working equipment, but the Fremen will only say of their location "Liet knows." Leto tells him to get the help of the Imperial ecologist Kynes, though Harkonnen had mentioned him as "guarding" one way for Leto to escape the trap so that's probably a very bad idea. And everyone, including Paul, tries to talk him out of it, so Leto tells him to just find out if they really exist.

Everyone gets their final assignments, and Leto gets a Crowning Moment Of Funny against Halleck's newest Warrior Poeting: "Someday I'll catch that man without a quotation and he'll look undressed." Paul notes how everyone looked worried through the whole meeting and things are clearly not going as well as Leto wants him to think, even as bad as that is. Well, there's still quite a while for it to get better.

edited 8th Sep '10 1:58:01 PM by Eegah

Liet is one of the more interesting characters. Shame that he dies so soon.

If I recall, the tube is just part of the Fremen's water-collecting suits. It's not really a plotpoint or anything, so just letting you know.

Chapter 13:

The first day Paul went out into Arrakeen, a bunch of people thought he might be a prophecied Voice from the Outer World, and Jessica was another one. Good thing he's already been established as not buying into this stuff, or that would be a big Mary Sue turnoff.

Leto tells Hawat to take some of his own men along with Fremen to the planet Giedi Prime to destroy the Harkonnens' illegal stash of spice there, since they can't exactly complain to the Emperor about it. He also shares both Paul and Jessica's reports; after suffering through six years of Lost it's really refreshing to see the heroes sharing information like this.

But now back to falling for the plan completely, as Hawat tells Leto about a note his men got from a Harkonnen courier, with the remains after its failsafe destruction hinting at the traitor being close enough to Leto for their identity alone to destroy him. Leto insists it can't be Jessica, but ultimately decides to fake going along with it to draw out the real traitor. Hawat also brings up an analysis on the Fremen religion, revealing that the word "Mahdi" that a few of them shouted at Paul, as Irulan just talked about, means they think he's the prophecied child of a Bene Gesserit who will give them true freedom. I'll go with it for now.

Leto walks around, growing more determined that the whole feud will end right here. But it's hampered a bit by the Having a Gay Old Time of the dawn light described as "a faggot of luminous gray." And just when he's starting to feel better about the situation, he sees people gathering morning dew and is reminded of what a Crapsack World Arrakis is. I'm starting to see what drew David Lynch to the story; the man loves his dirty, hellish societies under fuzzy exteriors.

Chapter 14:

This time it's a quote from Muad'Dib himself, about the realization everyone must have that their father is just an imperfect man. They're actually starting to add to the atmosphere with these now.

Leto has shown Paul the file on the Mahdi (and Lisan al-Gaib; they mean the same thing as far as I can tell), so now he's got that to worry about on top of the Kwisatz Haderach thing. This is almost coming across as a parody of the "chosen one" concept now, and hey, maybe that's the point given how skeptical most of these people are about any of it. He's also planning to publicly confront his wife, making the real traitor think they've succeeded, and Paul can't tell her. He's only telling Paul so he can tell Jessica the truth if Leto is killed, something of a Tearjerker given how doomed the man seems already.

Leto's become depressed over the moral compromises he's been forced to make, and vents about them for a while, though we've heard them all before. He also needs to say this to Paul in case he's killed, so Paul will be prepared to do the same, and even advises Paul to use the people's belief in the Mahdi to his advantage. Things have really gotten dark all of a sudden, though I've read A Song Of Ice And Fire so just about everything else seems fun by comparison.

The staff meeting is actually a pretty critical scene. It serves more or less the same function as the Council of the Wise in Lord of the Rings. It gives the author a chance to show various allies confronting a threat that is too big for them, and a young, relatively powerless protagonist who will actually be the one to overcome it. The old order must fall apart before the new one can take it's place. All very The Hero's Journey

edited 9th Sep '10 2:23:37 PM by DeMarquis

In a lot of ways, the Dune series is a dark Deconstruction of the concept of a messiah.

Chapter 15:

Another twist to the opening, as now we get to learn a bit about Irulan herself: she’s the daughter of the Emperor, and is actually living during the same timeframe as the rest of the story. Apparently Paul will become this legendary figure pretty quickly.

Kynes meets with Leto, Paul, and Halleck to give them a tour of the mining procedure, and he’s quickly established as the more nasty, evil traitor in contrast to the blackmailed and tortured Yueh. Though it’s hard not to sympathize with his hatred for the schooling in how to address Leto and Paul; rather reminiscent of the scene with George III in John Adams. He’s the Judge of the Change we’ve gotten occasional reference to before, and a Fremen. So that nicely defuses any Can't Argue with Elves that may have been building up.

Kynes has provided stillsuits for everyone, which means they might be booby-trapped somehow. I’ve learned to always think ahead with these guys. Paul speaks up, and ends up fulfilling another part of the Lisan al-Gaib prophecy. That’s probably going to happen a lot. We get a bit of Leto’s thoughts, clarifying that he’s not from Arrakis, but has been accepted as a Fremen. There’s a bit more of that trouble with the proper introduction of information, though at least it wasn’t far.

While the stillsuits are checked, we get a more detailed explanation that includes not only storing sweat but separating the water and salt. And as noted before, the tube Paul noticed is just how that water is retrieved, so I don’t know why there was that focus on it before. Kynes notices Paul’s is already fit perfectly, as he had an instinct for it. And that’s a bit further into the process of fitting the prophecy than I’m quite comfortable with. You can’t exactly explain it with happy accidents like the rest.

They take off for the mines in an “ornithopter,” which seems to be just a sci-fi gussied up helicopter. Leto starts pushing Kynes on his loyalties, and eventually just openly asks him about the secret bases. Kynes keeps dodging the question, until they arrive. After a bit more likely Foreshadowing on someone possibly having to steal water if they get stuck in the desert, we find that the whole time Paul’s been Sherlock Scanning Kynes and now has a good grasp on him, including a hidden knife in his sleeve. You know that’s going to come back.

Time for more on sandworms! They’re a bit like starfish, made up of rings that all function separately, and have to get a high voltage shock one at a time to kill them. And with what Paul’s found out, he’s sure Kynes is hiding some further relationship between the worms and mélange, which is the real reason the Emperor hasn’t tried to wipe them out. Leto brings up homing beacons he’s having installed in the workers’ suits, but Kynes goes on that the sandworms emit static electricity that disrupts any signals. If you crash in the desert, your only hope is to get far away from the ship and hope they don’t spot you when they come to eat it, then walk back as quietly as possible. Okay, these things are officially High Octane Nightmare Fuel and we haven’t even seen one yet.

They reach a factory, which leads to more sandworm goodness: they typically throw up a huge dust cloud called wormsign, and from watching The Spoony Experiment I gather that at some point there will be one the likes of which not even god has seen. And what do you know, Leto spots one and Kynes warns the base. The workers have set up a bonus ration of mélange for whoever first spots a worm, so Halleck tells them to divide it between them. He tells Kynes that this will be good PR, plus they’re on a channel that the Harkonnens likely won’t be listening to. Dune, where every action gets a paragraph of explanation, and more often than not needs it.

The carryall doesn’t answer the factory, and Leto and Paul do the math and realize crowding the workers into the available ornithopters means three workers will be left behind. Leto complains a bit about why they don’t have redundant carryalls, but thankfully returns to business. Except the workers refuse to abandon their haul, so Leto yells at them until they do, plus getting a few of the crews to toss out their shield generators to squeeze everyone in. Well, they do just attract the sandworms, after all. Paul takes the time to note the workers aren’t wearing their stillsuits properly; maybe work a bit on your priorities there.

The worm swallows the factory, its mouth twice as wide. As everyone complains about the loss, one of the workers appears to address Kynes as Liet, which he isn’t too happy about. If that really is what just happened, I didn’t see it coming at all, but it does make sense; almost a Wizard of Oz type story with a guy going native but still using his advanced knowledge to take over the society. Anyway, there were still two people who stayed behind, and Leto insists on sending a rescue when they get back despite Kynes saying it’ll take too long. And Paul knows from the shaky explanation of how they survived that they’re actually Fremen who don’t need to be rescued, one more piece of the prophecy. Yeah, more like that, please. And Kynes now finds himself liking Leto a bit for valuing lives over mélange; that’s quite the character development in just one chapter.

And it occurs to me, Leto’s letting them spread around the bonus spice is now useless. Well, maybe they’ll still remember the gesture.

edited 10th Sep '10 10:32:23 AM by Eegah

Kynes is my favorite character, the poor bastard. I almost used him as an avatar.

"...a guy going native but still using his advanced knowledge to take over the society..."

Yep, pretty much. Actually this guy is what "Methods of Rationality Harry Potter" wants to become. And he would have gotten away with it too if it wern't for those meddling kids

By the way, this is the first scene where we get to see the deep desert for the first time. This is going to become an important motif within the story, so another key scene. The worm symbolizes the Fremen, so also foreshadowing. The influences and relationships that all the main character groups have with each other are perfectly demonstrated here: The Atreides, the Harkonnens, the Emperer, the Fremen natives, the non-fremen natives, the desert itself.

By the way, it's fun to watch you read this thing, and seeing your impressions. I know what's coming, and you dont. Some of your guesses (based on tropes you've seen in many other books I'm guessing) are on target, some aren't. You're also thinking of some things I never did (and I've been reading this for years) like the spice bonus going down the worm gullet- hah, you're right!

By the way, the appendix labelled "The Ecology of Dune" provides some backstory to Kynes character.

edited 10th Sep '10 7:17:15 AM by DeMarquis

Here's something you might find entertaining—some information about a third film adaptation, which was apparently too weird to happen. From the works page, this one:

Cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky...came to the project after having a bizarre dream almost identical to the broader plot of the first novel and then hearing about a book of almost exactly the same story. Convinced that there was something more here he resolved to make a movie based on his dream, with bits of the book itself thrown in (that's not hyperbole, that's his stated agenda). Comic artist Moebius and fellow Heavy Metal writer/artist Dan O'Bannon...worked on concept art and designs, as well as Aliens designer HR Giger, whose work actually ended up in the final film in small doses. Salvador Dali was cast as the Emperor...Pink Floyd had agreed to provide the score.

That's not even the half of it. Here, and do not read without a sense of humor. And the script summary: [1] Though there are some spoilers you may wish to avoid, there is very little in there that has anything to do with the plot of the book. It goes to show that yes, it is possible for the concentration of crazy awesome people in a project to reach critical mass. As well, it also produced some very colorful concept art (not totally safe for work) that ranges from avatar-worthy to way off the mark, and sometimes both (Kynes looks pretty good; Feyd-Rautha is a good-looking blonde crossdresser). There are also a couple of storyboards on the same page. What is this I don't even◊

My take on the lost adaptation? That it would have made the best liveblog subject ever...[sheds single tear]

edited 10th Sep '10 7:20:26 PM by harmattane

Chapter 16:

Another Muad’Dib quote, about the true meaning of “greatness” involving both the rest of humanity’s willingness to accept it, and the great person themselves never letting it go to their head. Right with you there.

We get a detailed description of the fully stocked dining room, including a device to detect poison hidden in the chandelier. And one more Kick the Dog for the Harkonnens, as they’d made a custom of sloshing water onto the floor, wiping it up, and then wringing the towel out over the teeming masses just to degrade them further. Leto orders that instead, anyone who asks during dinner will get a cup of water. Um, you might want to be a little more careful there if you don’t want people constantly fighting to be first in line.

Jessica has fallen in with various entrepreneurs, including one woman who’s a pimp, smuggler, spy, and blackmailer. A little more about that one, please. Idaho has been called back to keep an eye on her, and Paul is hobnobbing with some of the younger locals, though he secretly hates it, seeing them all as posers. And it’s time to meet one more enemy, Lingar Bewt, a water merchant who even the Harkonnens couldn’t fully control, and disapproves of Leto changing the custom. Leto wonders if he’s prepared mines on all the water facilities, which would quickly move him into Complete Monster territory if he set them off.

For now, he just challenges them about the house’s conservatory, and Jessica has to step in and rescue Leto by promising to ration all its water out to the people at the proper time. And by doing so, there’s one more part of the prophecy. They’re really not wasting any time here. Kynes covertly asks Jessica straight out about the Kwisatz Haderach, which makes her more hopeful that it could be Paul. And if it is, I hope it happens soon; all this dancing around is starting to get annoying.

Dinner is started, and Leto remembers how Hawat advised him not to attend. Paul’s now escorting the daughter of a subpar stillsuit manufacturer; that kind of came out of nowhere. More importantly, Jessica, Hawat, and Halleck arranged to invite a smuggler named Esmar Tuek at the last minute, just so everyone else will wonder what he’s doing there, and to subtly enforce that even the smugglers will be held to the new rule against political corruption. I get the second point, but not quite the first. But it doesn’t really matter, as the real reason is so they can bribe him if they need to make a quick getaway, and Jessica’s a bit disappointed when Leto doesn’t catch on. And in this kind of story, that really is a death sentence unless you hold on as the Spanner in the Works, and I really don’t see that as the case here.

Leto makes a rather awkward toast that he’s here to stay and business will prosper under his new rules. That’s what we like to call Tempting Fate. The food is brought out but Leto still won’t let them eat before reciting song lyrics as a tribute to the people who died bringing them all here. And he finally makes everyone empty their water glasses onto the floor. Things just started to get weird again. Kynes manages to pour his into a hidden container in his jacket; he’s starting to become pretty fun.

Jessica tries to process what the hell just happened, and figures something much more serious than the loss of the factory is affecting Leto. But that’s still what everyone wants to talk about, and the obvious conclusion is that someone on the carryall crew was being paid off by the Harkonnens. Or another of the family’s enemies; why limit themselves? Kynes refuses to discuss it, because that’s his own instructions from Harkonnen and it’s his bad luck that Leto himself saw this one.

And It Got Worse; Jessica notices that a Spacing Guild banker is trying to hide his Giedi Prime accent, meaning he’s with the Harkonnens and maybe the whole Guild is too. Well, why not at this point? The man soon brings up how Arrakis birds are all scavengers, depending on blood for their water supply, something so out of left field that it has to be a cover. And Paul’s date is in on it, setting the banker up to make a veiled reference to his own control over the water supply. Paul also notices and decides to have a little fun, drawing him into an analogous economic debate with an assist by Kynes. This leads into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for Kynes, when the banker insults Fremen and he intimidates him into backing down, also laying more praise on Leto and Jessica by saying they’re not the type who would be insulted by a duel breaking out.

Jessica notes that Tuek was ready to help Kynes during the whole exchange, and figures there’s some connection between them, while Leto just notes that Kynes has warmed up to him. Yeah, he’s losing some of his edge. And yet more discussion about the water; we get it already! Kynes thinks that a more habitable ecology can be created on the planet, which gets Leto to realize he started acting more friendly once Jessica made her promise about the conservatory. Hints of a Heel–Face Turn all of a sudden. Kynes is forced into a bit of a corner, as there is enough water for such a project but he doesn’t want anyone to actually be sure of that.

Jessica realizes from watching the others’ reactions to the argument that there’s far more about the players involved that she needs to know, so she has to get more information sources. But for now one of Hawat’s men talks to Leto and he leaves without explanation, telling Paul to take over as the host. Though he does manage to pass on in code that it’s not a violence problem, so he does still have a bit of the game in him.

The banker makes a condescending remark about Paul, so he gets his own Crowning Moment Of Awesome, telling the man off through an analogy of one drowning man trying to survive by drowning someone else, and how that behavior doesn’t make any sense at the dinner table. What really sells it is that he still sounds badass despite having to clarify every term related to water so all the guests can follow him. And Jessica joins in by adding to the insult, while also throwing in a code word to prepare to fight. If this whole family wasn’t awesome before, they are now.

But it’s Kynes who sorts things out, giving a toast to Paul so his influence will get everyone else on Paul’s side. Paul gets to show another character flaw to keep him out of Mary Sue territory, as he’s privately upset at Kynes butting in when he thinks he had perfect control of everything. Then back to Jessica, who realizes the ditziness of Paul’s date is Obfuscating Stupidity and she was a Honey Trap, which Paul likely spotted right from the start.

The woman with the stillsuit maker is another agent, and tries to get the fight started again, but by now Jessica easily defuses things again and goes right back to finding out more about the planet. Kynes gets back to his own brand of deceit, talking about how there’s lots of stories about Fremen going into dangerous areas and finding water but he’s sure they’re not true. Which may be meant to bait Paul into trying it, but this guy’s motivations are getting murkier by the line now.

Jessica gets a message that Leto left to see the missing carryall that was just found, having been stolen by a Harkonnen agent after all. They move on to dessert, and she notes the stillsuit maker for someone else they can bribe from his asking about the recipe. Not sure how that works. She considers the coded part of the message: the thief was smuggling lasguns (lasers just too blasé a word, huh Frank?) to the Harkonnens, which means that more have probably succeeded, and there must be a reason they’re not worried about the force field around the house. And so ends the most badass dinner party ever.

One nice little tidbit I noticed here: there’s a clear Green Aesop with all the stuff about water conservation and how the environment can be fixed if the right people care enough, but it’s one of the more subtle I’ve seen. There’s plenty more going on besides the ecological message, to the point that the story could still work if it was removed completely, and it becomes just one more piece of world building. Given that the book was written when this kind of thing was very “in,” it shows a lot of restraint.

edited 10th Sep '10 7:23:13 PM by Eegah

I like that, too—what environmental message it has is more in actions than in the characters' words, which is why it doesn't come off as tacked on or heavy-handed, but adds to the story's drama.

Chapter 17:

Muad'Dib says people must pay for the violence of their ancestors. So let's see just how he came to think that.

Jessica is woken up at 2 AM by a bunch of shouting, but it's only a completely plastered Idaho, who left the dinner with one of the escorts. He refuses to drink the medicinal caffience Mapes gets for him, so Jessica gives him a slap that only gets him to call her a spy. This gives Jessica a "Eureka!" Moment for all the strangeness around her recently, and she demands to see Hawat, the only one who could make that accusation and be taken seriously.

Hawat comes in, pissed at Idaho for spilling the beans, and Jessica asks right away if he's the spy. Oh, so we're back to that, are we? Well, no, as his reaction gets her to drop the suspicion once again. And out of nowhere, we learn Jessica is a few weeks pregnant, with a girl this time, and didn't want to distract anyone when they didn't need it. Yueh's brought up for a bit, but again discarded as Jessica brings up how a few more of their men have gotten drunk recently, which she figures is because they've suddenly found themselves consigned to such a dead end assignment.

With suspicion off Hawat, Jessica's now driven even further off the mark as she now thinks there is no traitor, and those stolen lasguns are being set up on timers to take down the shield without anyone getting hurt by their subsequent explosions from the energy feedback. And she accuses Hawat of being a Straw Vulcan, refusing to consider his emotional investment in an issue as personal as this one. Hawat strikes back by saying he doesn't trust any Bene Gesserit, to which Jessica says she could easily kill Leto at any time she wanted with her abilities. Not exactly the way to go if you want to clear your name, which she does acknowledge.

But she quickly recovers, pointing out that Hawat is actually the most enticing target for the Harkonnens' plans given his natural suspicion. I think there's some of the inspiration for Garibaldi's storyline in season four of Babylon 5. Then she edges into Nightmare Fuel by displaying a power that's pretty much People Puppets, being able to have commands obeyed by giving them the precise pitch for a person's mind to instinctively obey. One more reason not to trust these people, I say, and Jessica even admits that the reason the Bene Gesserit don't use this ability more often is that it would make people distrust them. But the fact that she isn't killing him right now should be enough to clear her.

Hawat leaves, having been very shaken up by the whole thing, but also remembering Leto's father; he was killed during a bull fight, having arrogantly turned his back to a bull he hadn't quite cowed yet. And despite the moral ambiguity involved, I'll definitely call this Jessica's Crowning Moment Of Awesome.

Stay tuned, there are plenty more, for all the characters...

Chapter 18:

The Dirge for Jamis on the Funeral Plain tells us to focus on the things that really matter and not waste our lives on trivialities. Now maybe we can find out who Jamis is to get to the full effect.

Leto has gotten a note saying "A column of smoke by day, a pillar of fire by night." He doesn't know what it means, though I'm thinking it's about an attack at night. Now that Hawat has told him what Jessica said, he decides he needs to tell her the whole story. Oh that's just great, just try not to die before you do it now.

On his way, there's a strange sound, and then the dead body of Tuek. Too bad, I kind of liked him in his one scene. The noise is from the shield generator room, where Mapes has been stabbed in the back, and mumbles something about escape at him before she dies. That's when Yueh hits him with a paralyzing dart, having already shut down the shield. You just had to think about telling Jessica, didn't you?

Yueh tells Leto his plan to replace a false tooth of Leto's with one that will spread poison gas when his supposedly dead body is presented to Harkonnen. In exchange, Yueh will fake Paul and Jessica's deaths and they can keep living under the Fremen's protection. He also takes Leto's ring to give to Paul. So, they get to live their lives in a cave, drinking their own sweat and urine. I'm not really seeing an upside here.

And another thing that just came to me: there goes Mapes' debt to Paul, unless the other Fremen feel obliged to honor it. Not that I'm complaining; there's plenty of plot to worry about without throwing that in. Though you can always fanwank that she'd done a bunch of detective work and tracked down Yueh, which is why he killed her.

edited 11th Sep '10 4:17:47 PM by Eegah

Chapter 19:

Muad'Dib says psychic powers can only grow through oppression. That's a new one to me, but it certainly fits.

Jessica wakes up after being kidnapped and shackled, with a nice little detail of taking a few seconds to remember being drugged. She's now in the cellar bedroom where she sent Paul to sleep, and Harkonnen comes in to let her know that the drug was timed so he knew when she would wake up, cluing her in that Yueh was the traitor as he could give her physical details. I hope she actually gets to apologize to Hawat over this.

Piter comes in, and "something about him suggested effeminacy." I know, different time and all that, but I really hope Herbert's not going the Depraved Homosexual route. All in front of Jessica, Harkonnen says that he knows Piter was in this for her, but he makes a counter-offer of the entire Atreides duchy, just to make a point that he can tell what people really want. And in case Piter chooses Jessica he's arranged for a deaf guard to accompany them off planet who can knock Piter out if Jessica hypnotises him. But Piter chooses the duchy, and Harkonnen leaves the room refusing to know what he does with Jessica, so a Bene Gesserit won't be able to pull it out of him. I'd say he's earned Magnificent Bastard status right there.

Piter orders Jessica and Paul be left stranded in the desert, so he also technically won't know for sure what happened to them. But it was Yueh's suggestion, so he pretty much remains Dumb Muscle himself. She's taken outside and put next to Paul, who's been pretending to be asleep again so he knows about the deaf guard. He still doubts Yueh is the traitor, despite Yueh giving him the drugged drink. Oh, please not more of this, there's really no point to it anymore.

They're taken into an ornithopter, while the two guards have kind of a funny conversation acting like old high school buddies. Then they discuss if they could get away with raping Jessica, just so we remember they're the bad guys. After they land, Paul manages to do the hypnotizing voice on a few words, getting the guard who can hear to ungag Jessica, then she leans up into the light so the deaf one can read her lips as she finishes the job, getting them to fight each other. The deaf guard is killed, and once Paul gets his legs free he tries an Indy Ploy with a quite nastily described kick before he and Jessica help each other get loose. Jessica grabs a strange package from under the seat, presumably left there by Yueh as per his promise, but then they have to run as the other guards sent to keep an eye on these two start heading for them. Let the pileup begin.

edited 11th Sep '10 7:47:38 PM by Eegah

Don't worry, Herbert's not going to make Piter a Depraved Homosexual.

...He's saving that for the Baron.◊

The next couple of scenes are really well done...