#dune first read

Helloooo! Guess who’s back? The Dune notes! yaayyyyy!

ok, chill.

SPOILERS BOOK 2 : MUAD’DIB (Chapters 1-4)

Chapter 1:

I’m still struggling to get all the politic aspects and understand who’s on which side but that’s not what I’m focusing on right now. Once I’ve read the whole thing and had the whole picture, I’ll study all the details of this part of the story.

I loved this quote:

in the French translation, and thought it was beautiful to see Arrakis through Paul’s mind and eyes only to find out that the original quote said stuff like Cheddar-colored. Damn you, American people.

Chapter 2:

Bless you, Muad’Dib, your father and Princess Irulan. Might your words be heard loud and clear on every planet of every universe.

I love, love, love this chapter. This whole conversation between Hawat and the Fremen, the world building made through it and through the Fremen is really good. I don’t think the Fremen has a name because he’s exactly what he describing of his people. He’s only one to serve the whole clan.

Many interesting stuff about the conversation and the scene.

First, I wonder if the Mentat’s abilities can work on Fremens? This part seems to say that they can’t : "But still he did not know what this Fremen wanted and this rankled. Mentat training was supposed to give a man the power to see motives." Then here again : "He said worm. He was going to say something else. What? And what does he want of us?" It’s funny to see how Hawat’s powers seem to be limited after we saw part of what Jessica and Paul were able to do.

"You must make a water decision, friend."

is my favorite quote of the chapter. The whole chapter is built to make Hawat and the reader really understand how primordial the water is. Blood doesn’t exist in the Fremen’s mouth, life is all boiled down to water. They doesn’t seem to care about the Spice either. When he’s thinking in terms of currency, it’s not about the Spice or money, it’s still about water:

"You think we have the Byzantine corruption. You don’t know us. The Harkonnen have not water enough to buy the smallest child among us."

It’s one thing I find fascinating about sci-fi/fantasy writers who are creating whole new worlds in different universes. It’s not only about thinking about crazy new technologies or super powers or anything like this. It’s when they shift the whole logic because context is different and you see it in the smallest details, in ways of speaking, in turns of phrases. It’s where you find so much richness for a fandom. And get so easily immersed in the said new universe. Every time I'll get really thirsty in the future, I'll think about this chapter. And the water decision.

I’m guessing water is one of Dune’s real plot? Every stranger coming to Arrakis comes for the Spice, thinking it’s the goldmine of the planet, the way to conquer it and truly owns it. But it’s not and the Fremen are still the one owning the desert powers because they’re the only one seeing that Arrakis needs to be ruled by water and not by the Spice? I don’t know. But that’s where my guesses are heading at the moment.

About this,

I’m really curious about how they’re going to handle on screen the deep religious roots of a large part of the story. We all know how tricky it can be. Is it going to be tone down? Are we going to see people living in the desert worship a young white male? We’ll see.

Chapter 3:

It’s cute to see how, even if Paul sees himself as a some kind of monster or as something else and undefined, he’s still sensitive to what he sees with his powers of prescience. But it's difficult to get a grip on what he is exactly, and how he feels.

Ok-- wait a minute. Last time I’ve heard about Liet, it was supposed to be a local divinity and now… Liet is Kynes. Ok. If you say so. — does it mean there going to be some kind of competition between Liet and the Muad’Dib? About who has the biggest divine aura? About who’s supposed to lead?

Anyway, what Kynes says, it goes with what I mention earlier. About how all the different people who came on Arrakis have failed to make it a Paradise because they were all focused on the Spice instead of the water.

I love how convenient Paul and Jessica are as characters to introduce the descriptions of every room they step in. You can go wild on details and just be like that’s not me, the bene gesserit/mentat/whatever Paul is things are calling for all. the. details. I should do that. Only write characters who allow me to naturally waste 7 lines of words on the pattern of a wallpaper. Frank Herbert doesn’t do that, but I definitely would.

Again, it’ll be interesting to see how Tim is going to handle the Paul and Kynes’ confrontation/conversation. We’ve seen him touch on these kind of feelings and behavior with The King but Paul seems to require a lot more of everything. So I’m impatient to see.

And I’ve already leaked the quote but let's look at it once more time. Quickest way to prove Timmy is the right cast for Paul.

"In this moment he'd give his life for Paul, she thought. How do the Atreides accomplish this thing so quickly, so easily?"

Because that’s what Timmy does, right? Makes people ready to give their life for him.

Ok about Duncan… We’re back at it, right? He’s not dead until I’ve seen the body. And I didn’t see the body so, he’s not dead. I think? Paul’s abilities don’t seem to be 100% reliable (at least not yet) so even if he believes Duncan’s dead, he might not be. I certainly hope so. My boy Jason deserves more.

I still wonder how the power of prescience is working. Are the blind spots blind because Paul is living through them at the moment and can’t have knowledge of the immediate future OR would they have been blind even if he had looked in their direction long before?

I was also wondering if Paul was going to rely too much on the new dimension of his abilities and how long it was going to take until he realized he made that mistake. It was… quick but I guess it’s Paul, so it shouldn't be surprising.

And that fear litany ❤️ I could kill to write something as iconic and powerful. I could read it every day and still got the chills each time.

Chapter 4:

The Baron is like me, he needs to see bodies to believe in death. I’m delighted to have common ground with that creepy, disgusting asshole. Delighted. To be honest, I’m not that interested with the Baron himself. So far, he’s been nothing but clichés over clichés and really not the best ones. He’s the evil character so he's all the kinds of evil. Shocker. I usually like evil characters (very often more than I love "good" ones) but not him. Really not him. I hope it'll change but I’m afraid he’s too far gone and beyond redemption.

I’m very interested by what’s Hawat is going to become though. Will he turn his allegiance to the Baron? It kind of remind me of Teal’c in Stargate SG-1, but the other way around. The Baron opposes two things : Hawat’s loyalty and his admiration towards those who calculate without emotions. Based on what we know about Mentats and how the human part carried by the human body overpower the Mentat’s education and training, I’d say loyalty should win? And the part of me who is part Mentat agrees on the loyalty so, we’re all good. But it can be an interesting storyline, so I’m waiting for it.

What’s funny about this quote

is that he could very much be talking about Paul and still be right. Or the baby sister. Or Lady Jessica. All Harkonnens are waiting.

And what’s also funny is how The Baron thinks of Feyd-Rautha. In addition of being absolutely disgusting there are some similarities between what the Baron wants for Feyd and what Paul is meant to be/already is.

I wonder if Feyd is meant to become some kind of opposite alter-ego to Paul. A better, more subtle opposant than the Baron. Could be fun.

Hello and welcome back to let’s read ALFT talk to herself about Dune, asks rhetorical questions and making a thousand theories about everything. Hope you’re aren’t bored yet :)

BOOK I - DUNE (SPOILERS) 7-13

So Chapter 7 is almost all about Lady Jessica, and I have to say, she’s kind of the most intriguing character so far. Or with the most mysteries around herself at least. I don’t really know what to do about all the infos about her latent/dormant powers (a psychic of some sort?), the fact that the Duke bought her to the Bene Gesserit School (so much for equality) and the fact that she doesn’t know anything about where she came from or who her parents are. Could she be a Harkonnen without knowing and that would be why betrayal is expected from her? I have no idea. I’m also still not sure about women’s place in the Dune universe. Doesn’t seem as good as I was expecting in the first place. Lots of men around.

There is a quote I like in this chapter.

The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.

Again, Dune seems to be a lot about mind and control and knowledge of our own mind, it’s always something I love to hear or read about. And I see where Star Wars and the Force come from.

Chapter 8 : so not only there isn’t that much water on Arrakis but it’s drying up? Who's making it disappear, meaning who’s making more money out of the water shortage?

Chapter 9 : I really, really like the beginnings of each chapter, with the quote from historian books. So much informations in each and the atmosphere it gives to the story is really good. And there’s something interesting in this one :

We can say that Muad’Did learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Did knew that every experience carries its lesson.

Every experience carries its own lesson is quite common but the first part is an interesting mindset that worths thinking about.

I didn’t take any notes on chapter 10 and chapter 11 but maaaan, chapter 12 is something. First thing first it’s interesting how the chapter starts with Duke Leto being angry with Thufir Hawat and Paul defending him and later on Paul being the one who mentioning Hawat as a potential traitor and Leto kind of brushing him off.

Which seems symbolic of both of their attitudes during the meeting in the chapter. A few times, Paul disagrees with his father and even guides/leads his father where he wants him to go near the end. I’m not quite convinced by the differences of leadership that seems to be shown between Leto and Paul so far. Leto is more about moving by force and with a narrower vision that what seems to be Paul’s one. It does look like bad leader vs good leader, the bad being the old, the good being the young. I hope it’ll get more nuanced later on.

What does seem interesting for me is what Paul says… Which only translate in the translation, from what I’m seeing right now 😭 But still, what I mean seems to be a Dune thing. I’m talking about how truth is a nebulous concept. From what I understand Paul and Lady Jessica can perceived when someone’s lying which I think means they can be fooled by someone who actually believe their lies? I would like to see truth treated as a complex thing, something that is more personal than universal.

What is also interesting to me is Paul’s attitude at the end of the meeting. This whole part :

For the first time, Paul allowed himself to think about the real possibility of defeat— not thinking about it out of fear or because of warnings such as that of the old Revered Mother, but facing up to it because of his own assessment of the situation.

I like this, I like this a lot. Sometimes life is about eyes of the prize but we too often forget about the other side of life when the only way to come through and to stay up and alive is to face things as they are and, as the famous Dune quote say, let them pass over and through us. It’s not about changing the events but how we react to them and find a way to remain calm and serene even in the worst situations, and in every situation.

I’m also still asking myself a lot undefined questions about Mentats and their nature and what it could imply.

I’m waiting to see more about Duncan with the Fremen. It seems promising.

Chapter 13 : Nothing to say but this poetry :

To the east, the night grew a faggot of luminous gray, then seashell opalescence that dimmed the stars. There came the long, bell-tolling movement of dawn striking across a broken horizon.

It was a scene of such beauty it caught all his attention.

Some things beggar likeness, he thought.