Have you finished Dune(cember)?

I have. Let’s talk.

That was a crazy 50 pages. To recap: Paul decides to drown a sandworm larvae in order to taste the spice poison/liquor and determine, once for all, if he is the Kwisatz Haderach. He goes into a near-death coma for 3 weeks, awakens as if no time has passed. Suddenly he sees everything that’s happening–the emperor, the Guild, the Harkonnens are all on Arrakis, ready to crush the Fremen rebellion and reassert their authority. Paul realizes he has the control, because “He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it” and the spice is the key to everything his enemies want. So the Fremen go to war against the Emperor, under cover of a sandstorm. They nuke the shield wall and rush the emperor’s camp on sandworms. In the meantime, his son has been killed and Alia has been taken prisoner. She talks back to the emperor, scares the Reverend Mother, and kills Baron Harkonnen after she informs them that Muad’Dib is Duke Paul Atreides. Victory is quick and decisive. Paul makes a base in the home his family first settled in on Arrakis and allows the Emperor and his entourage an audience. Hawat, on the brink of death, talks to Paul and Paul offers Hawat the chance to assassinate him. Hawat refuses and dies. Paul threatens the Guild’s livelihood (space travel is impossible without the Spice, it seems) and has them call off their ships orbiting Arrakis. Jessica and Paul together browbeat the Reverend Mother, Paul almost killing her with a single word. Paul then calls out the last Harkonnen–Feyd-Rautha. Halleck desperately wants to kill him a Harkonnen, but Paul refuses, especially when Feyd-Rautha calls for kanly. With Paul welcoming the battle (he has foreseen this as the nexus beyond which his “second sight” is unlimited), they fight. Feyd-Rautha tries several tricks, but finally Paul stabs him through the head, killing him. Paul then narrowly averts a confrontation with Count Fenring (more on this below), and he decides that the best way to end the jihad before it begins is to become next in line to the throne by marrying the Emperor’s daughter. Chani, already distraught by the loss of their son, is unsure of this plan despite Paul’s assurance that they will never be apart. Jessica assures her that this is the best possible position for them with regards to love, and the book smash-cuts to black.

Yeah, so, a lot of stuff happened. It’s like Frank Herbert realized he was approaching his page limit and had all this stuff to fit in to the book, so he his crammed it in the end. At the same time, this quick action works really well; it would be agonizing to slowly plod through these scenes. We’ve already been given so much description and background on these characters (except for the relative unknown of the Emperor) that we can imagine all of this taking place without reminders of grotesque suspensor-held fat or inkvine scars.

As for the Emperor, he’s one of the few characters who comes out of the book as rather one-note. We get the idea that he holds Duke Leto in high regard, but the impression I got was that he was just a stereotypical spoiled royal.

The thing I wanted to talk about, though, was the connection between Paul, Feyd-Rautha, and Count Fenring. Since early in the book, we’ve been given the facts about the Bene Gesserit and their plan to breed the “male…whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time.” It seems Paul, Feyd-Rautha, and Count Fenring were three of the possible endpoints for the Kwisatz Haderach. Fenring loses out on his ultimate destiny because he was born a “genetic eunuch” which I took to mean that he was somehow considered not entirely male. He gets trained in the Bene Gesserit way, and Paul makes a connection with him, acknowledging their kinship and his failure to be capable of being who he was meant to be. This illustrates to me that, despite Paul’s “otherness” and his cruelty to members of the Emperor’s entourage, Paul is still a compassionate human being. Feyd-Rautha was the endpoint of the Kwisatz Haderach breeding program as a counterpoint to Paul. It’s no doubt that they’re much more closely related than they assume (first cousins, at least). I think that their main difference is on the ‘nurture’ side of the ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate. While Paul was raised with a loving mother, an honorable father, and brilliant, trustworthy trainers, Feyd-Rautha was raised with his brutal uncle and with murder and debauchery. While Paul is confident but cautious, Feyd-Rautha is brash and a cheater. You can also contrast their treatment of women and their attitudes to those in authority over them–Paul wins out as, from where I’m standing, the “right guy for the job” and certainly the most capable ruler.

According to Bene Gesserit plan, Paul should never have been born. Feyd-Rautha should have been the Kwisatz Haderach. It was only through Jessica’s love for Leto that he came into being. This book seems to make the case for looking toward the unexpected, the uncontrollable, the “chaotic” over the planned and the foreseen. It’s an interesting way to look at things.

Here we are: halfway through book three, most of the way through Dune. Crazy things are still happening: our main character(s) are still finding their place in their world. The protagonist and the antagonist haven’t even met yet, and we’ve only got about 50 pages left (plus the appendices)!

Thus far in Book Three, the focus has partially been on bringing the Atreides crew from Book One out of hiding. We find that, two (or is it three?) years later, Thufir Hawat, the mentat, is still in service of the Harkonnens. He has been busy, however. We find that he is playing multiple sides against each other, making it look as if each is the sole beneficiary of his schemes. Taking his sketched-out plans on the whole, it looks like he is going for revenge against the Baron, his chosen successor, and the emperor. His plans are also working to drive Arrakis into the hands of Paul, though he may not know it.

A word on the Baron real quick: I think Herbert’s emphasis on his huge fatness belies the power, intelligence, and scheming that the Baron seems capable of. He has plans layers and layers deep, keeping everyone who could be of any use to him beholden to him in some way. Every person who works with him or deals with him has an exploitable weak spot that the Baron is not afraid to take hold of and squeeze. This guy is a pretty great foil compared with the young, quick Paul. And they haven’t even met!

At the end of our section, Gurney Halleck (how awesome of a name for a fighting man is Gurney by the way?) rejoins Paul and Jessica. He has spent the time as a spice smuggler, and is still motivated by thoughts of revenging his Duke. He’s not the schemer that Hawat is, but it seems he was, in a way, the soul of Duke Leto’s former crew. He provides some of the more emotional moments in the book, I think.

Paul’s story is really coming to a head as a bildungsroman. He’s fathered a child. He goes through the Fremen rite of manhood in catching and riding a maker. He’s gone from reacting to things that are happening or are about to happen to planning for the future. Paul seems to have a lot of schemes laid out as well. I really really like his philosophy of compromise. He sees two distinct futures ahead of him and constantly tries to have it another way. It’s, in a certain sense, youthful rebellion; it’s also the sign of someone who refuses to just accept his fate and give up fighting. I am thoroughly convinced by his speech explaining the compromise of being leader while keeping Stilgar alive and in charge of the seitch (it makes Stilgar…governor while Paul is…president?). And I think he is up to some craziness with the ending of the chapter. What he has decided to do makes sense with his take-charge-instead-of-waiting method of leadership, even though it’s nuts.

This is our last week! Read to THE END OF THE BOOK! I’ll try to get a roundup in by Thursday or Friday, and then write another one for some Appendix discussion. Also this week I am looking to have some guests discuss their favorite characters or scenes or locations or technology or whathaveyou in Dune. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in sending me ~500 words on stillsuits (or whatever).

The picture up top is stolen from Brandon Graham’s livejournal. He’s one of my favorite comic book guys–his book King City comes out roughly monthly from Image. And, because I haven’t made a Star Wars connection in a while: Fremen with stillsuits = Tusken Raiders???

This was the setting-things-up section of the book. The first part gave us the facts about the planet and the characters. We learned of the political situation and were given some insights into what was going to happen (and some things that only might happen). This part placed all the pieces in motion. Betrayals were handed out, as were executions. Partnerships were formed, and titles were distributed. It seems that everything was laid out for the commencement of the action–the forward movement–of our last section.

I’m going to stick to my format from last time and bullet out some of the important plot points from the last ~160 pages:

• The Atreides have lost Arrakis to the Harkonnens–everyone’s believed dead except Hawat.
• Paul and Jessica survived in the open desert and were initiated into Stilgar’s Fremen tribe
• Paul > Lisan al-Gaib/Usul/Paul Muad’Dib
• Jessica > Reverend Mother
• Baron Harkonnen > Still a bastard

There is an insane amount of detail and complexity I am leaving out here, but, well there you go. The ending scene of Book Two was pretty dense with information. Jessica becoming a Reverend Mother seems to have awakened her generational insight while also awakening the child growing inside her. The spice that Jessica consumed and transformed is enjoyed by a drug in the seitch “orgy” which may be as much or more metaphysical than it is physical (though it seems that Paul and Chani–Liet-Kynes’ daughter–do get physical). The whole thing reminded me of that scene in Matrix Reloaded, except without Keanu Reeves’ naked butt.

We’re caught up to this post in DHarbin’s Dune book club. Read his stuff for more insight–and his comments for actual discussion!

Next week, we’re reading to around page 437–the chapter that begins “How often it is that the angry man…” and ends with “His body had slowly acquired…” Enjoy (I’ll round it up, I promise!)

his week we wrapped up the first part of Dune. There was quite a bit of action, and it was certainly thrilling. In classic unfolding drama fashion, get had a lot of questions answered and a lot of new questions come up.

We finally saw:

• Yueh’s betrayal
• The Duke’s death
• Paul and Jessica’s escape
• The Harkonnen plan
• Jessica’s parentage

But we were presented all kinds of questions:

• Who of the Duke’s men made it out?
• Where will Jessica and Paul go?
• Who will win the battle?
• What is the true nature of Paul’s new found powers?
• Jihad?

The question about Paul’s powers is definitely, for me, the biggest one. It seems like he is looking into the future, but not just one, predetermined future, but all possible futures, based on his choices. He can also sense the past, and read more into people than we’ve previously been informed was possible. (He determines his grandfather is Baron Harkonnen just by looking at her face–and analyzing all the facts at hand!)

I’m interested to see what you, dear readers, think about his decision with the two paths laid out for him: He mentions one involves greeting the Baron by calling him “grandfather” and the other he sees a shrine of his father’s skull and “jihad.” I have an idea of what these mean (I’ve read this before, relatively recently) but I’d really love to hear what you think.

This week, the reading schedule doubles! We’re reading about 75 pages this week–half of book 2. Reading ends with the chapter beginning “This Fremen religious adaptation…” and ending with “Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.”

I made a sculpture last week, as a present for my brother. It is a ~250 lb, 3 ft concrete cross, with faceted sides; at risk of sounding proud, I think it is a beautiful design. I precisely cut 23 irregular quadrilaterals from plywood and attached them together with duct tape and spray foam, creating a form to hold the oatmeal-like wet concrete. When I poured it in the top, across the rebar built into the interior, I was nervous that the untested form would split open and waste my efforts all over my garage floor, but it held. I let it be for 24 hours while it hardened until it could support itself.

You may be wondering why I tell this story; maybe you see that I am about to compare Paul to my sculpture. But the point of my story is the part where I destroyed the wooden form on Christmas Eve. I used a utility knife to slice quickly through the tape and foam down the length of the mold, and piece-by-piece I pried off the wooden facets and tossed them into a pile on the floor. After I was done, I found my hands resting on something more than I had bargained for. Not only did I see the angles and proportions of my design, but I was presented with a wonderfully accurate, though pocketed and sandy, reproduction of wood grains and ribbed strips of tape.

This is why I think Mr. Herbert has written the first portion of Dune for us: so that as we begin to enjoy the main body of his epic storyline, we are not watching only the explicitly blocked-out, major facets of Paul’s character unfold upon Arrakis, exciting and enjoyable though they are. We are instead poised to watch the life of a fully textured and detailed man, formed with detailed imprints of his good and courageous father, his deep and sensitive mother, his quirky and wise teachers, the succulent household of his upbringing–all of which we know well and have now enjoyed with him.

I have not read this book before, so I could be entirely mistaken about the meaning of this first part, but I am (as you can see by my writing this) betting that I’m right. I don’t know exactly where the story is going, but I am morbidly excited to see how the good Duke follows his path to his end. I can’t wait to find out how well the desparate Dr. Yueh’s is able to execute his madly-outlined plans, and what possibly-unhappy destiny the Lady Jessica has in store for her. I am anxious to see what strange (tragic?) role the blue-eyed Piter has to play, and what will become of the disgustingly evil Barron Harkonnen. Even further, I can’t wait to find out about our mysterious almost-narrator and foreshadower Princess Irulan; how is she connected to the story?

We’ll be finishing book one this week (at page 200 or so), so I’m sure some of our questions will be answered. But many will not, and new loose ends and tensions will certainly appear. But that’s what it is to be human, right? We don’t get to see the world at once; we must watch it slowly ravel together. Enjoy your reading, and may you welcome the new year with Joy as it begins to take its course.

The focus this week was entirely the Duke Leto Atreides. We saw him deal with his son, his staff, and the unknown. I can’t help but feel that every moment we’re given with him is, in a sense, pointless. I know he’s going to die, so I feel myself writing him off. He’s pivotal to the book, though, in how he has shaped those around him. And the knowledge of his greatness develops what would otherwise be empty tragedy.

There is a a split, but not a dichotomy between how he deals with the issues facing himself and his son versus leading his staff. In the former, he’s compassionate and almost conspiratorial. He sees the man his son is becoming and is impressed but saddened by his (heavily foreshadowed) future. At the same time, he is reserved–he loves his son and withholds knowledge from him in hopes that Paul will be comforted by not having to bear the full doom of their situation.

With his staff, he takes command and doesn’t stand for any nonsense while demonstrating that he is a fair leader. He cares less for ceremony and titles than doing what’s right when it needs to be done. This is demonstrated first with the Freman Stilgar and the second crysknife to pop up thus far in the story. I love scene’s like Stilgar’s (and later Kynes’) introduction to the Duke. The Freman clearly doesn’t care for ceremonial titles, and Leto is not the least bit insulted by their neglect. But everyone else is quickly enraged. It’s a classic moment showing the humanness of a leader, and it plays really well here.

Kynes’ introduction is similar in tone, but it feels more serious to me. He’s an important character, both in the situation at hand and in the book itself. He seems to balance himself between a cold matter-of-fact manner and a more mystically-minded, questioning thought process. There is certainly a lot going on with him (hints!!!).

The whole spice harvest set piece is pretty exhilarating. We finally get a hint of where the spice comes from and we get our first “glimpse” of a sandworm and the destruction and danger it represents. I love the concept, put forth thus far only lightly, of the sand as an ocean. That is, rather than hard, packed ground, it is a shifting medium containing both wealth and danger. The spice crawlers have the feel of whaling or fishing ships, especially in that scene, with the sandworm standing in for some mighty whale or kraken. Plus, Leto exhibits his fairness and concern for people over profits which is a great thing to see even if it feels a little cliché.

Oh! And stillsuits. What a fascinating, disgusting, brilliant concept. I realize that modern space suits aren’t entirely unlike this, but the idea of the stillsuit makes me think of the line, from a Venture Brothers episode, about Doc Venture “basting in [his] own juices.”

Herbert continues his heavy foreshadowing, with the Duke and even with Paul. I have some thoughts about his use of heavy near-spoiler levels of foreshadowing, but I’m going to address it in a later post where it can be tied better into the story.

[If you're supplementing my commentary with Dustin Harbin's we're up to his week 2/2.5. We've read most of what he talks about in week 3, but not all of it (one of the major things he talks about is in this coming week). His week 3 commentary is also peppered with little spoilers, so maybe read half of next week's reading before jumping over there.]

We’re reading to page 162ish this Christmas week. The final chapter starts with “Do you wrestle with dreams?”

Don’t worry too much if you’re behind or ahead. If you’re behind, curl up in a comfy chair some afternoon this week and catch up. If you’re ahead, try not to blaze too far ahead. I know the schedule is slow for this month, but weekly page count doubles starting January 1.

(by Paul Pope, for DHarbin’s Dune Book Club, which wrapped up this week)

This week was full of mostly quiet character moments and bookended by Paul’s father, the Duke Atreides. We saw him in a moment as a father with Paul,  in a hushed moment with Paul’s mother–who we learned is not his wife, though he is also unmarried–and in a moment of leadership with his lieutenants. Paul’s father is interesting, as he is doomed from the start but upholds his nobility and values while focusing on laying the groundwork for his son to ascend.

Through Jessica we learned more about the Bene Gesserit in the form of the Missionaria Protectiva. This is a really brilliant concept, this panoplia propheticus. The idea that there’s a group subtly spreading “prophecies” that will protect its people belies a number of Herbert’s themes pretty early on. The MP is incredibly cynical for something approaching the religious nature of the Bene Gesserit order, though not that different from the legends that pervade the universe in Asimov’s Foundation series concerning the Foundation itself. However, the Foundation is simply a society preserving useful knowledge, while the Bene Gesserit seems to have (at this point) some sort of mystical connections. Herbert tries to make them science-based, with his talk to body language and “hearing the truth,” but there is an almost Jedi-like ability in ladies like Jessica with regards to their bodies and the casually-dropped hints at mind control.

The Fremen were introduced in the form of the Shadout Mapes (future band name, to be sure). The Missionaria Protectiva’s panoplia propheticus definitely holds sway in her, and Jessica is able to feign her way through that interaction (which seems heavy in subtext but is mostly impenetrable) and comes out with a crysknife. How hardcore is it, by the way, that the knife must not be sheathed unbloodied. Eeeesh. (Also, for our D&D metaphor, Jessica HAS ACQUIRED crysknife [properties unknown])

Paul also used some of his Jedi sorry, Bene Gesserit training to dispatch a crazy flying knife, and Jessica discovered an extravagant luxury and grave warning (partially illustrated above by the great Paul Pope, drawn for DHarbin’s Dune Book Club).

This reading has still been pretty heavily forshadowing doom to come. Any thoughts?

This week, read to page 126-ish, to the chapter concerning Kynes, which ends with “Against his own will and all previous judgements…”

There’s a fair amount of exposition in these opening chapters. We’re introduced to a number of systems, which are the real rulers in Dune. There’s the environmental systems on Arrakis, the fiefdoms of the Imperium, the Spacer Guild, the Bene Gesserit and all kinds of other certifications and classifications and bureaucratic powers. Even the members of the “main cast” that we’ve been introduced to are like members of a D&D (or WoW) raiding party, each with their own powers and allegiances. While there’s certainly some action (the gom jabbar is a great scene, and the carefully controlled shielded sword fighting [swords!--there's your second Star Wars reference], plus there is already so much intrigue with Yueh’s CONSTANTLY MENTIONED betrayal), these opening chapters are clearly setting the stage for excitement to arrive in full force when the Atreides family arrives on THE DUNE PLANET.

There’s a lot to take in, in the beginning. The characters are not only the people, but the whole of the world that Frank Herbert’s built for this story.

–
So, for the discussion. Feel free to talk about the first part we’ve read in the comments. I’ve got threading turned on, so you can reply directly to someone’s comment and start your own mini-thread if you feel the need. Here’s the rules, in ALL CAPS because I am shouting them:

BE NICE
KEEP YOUR SWEARS TO YOURSELF (at least humorously self-censor, like we’re watching the TV edit of your comments)
NO SPOILERS (that means discuss nothing after the first week reading line)
SERIOUSLY, BE NICE

that’s it! For supplemental reading, check out the first post over at DHarbin’s Book Club.
If you are reading this and have not caught up–be aware that spoilers await. Also, don’t stress. The first month is easy reading because I figured some of you bums would take a while to jump in. Feel free to revisit these posts+comments once you get to this point.

Below is the reading schedule. Since the chapters aren’t numbered and there have been many different printings of this book, I am posting lines from the beginning and end of the cutoff spots. These haven’t been chosen for any significance to the plot, but for being roughly a good amount of pages apart in the sixteenth printing, my January 1977 Berkley Medallion Edition. The reading is roughly 6-8 pages a day during December (to build in some catchup time for those busy with school, the holidays, etc.) and 11-12 pages a day during January. Some of the beginning and ending quotes are not the exact beginning and ending of the chapters–I’ve tried to cut out anything that could be considered a spoiler.

Book I: DUNE

Dec 1 – 7
Starts with: The beginning of the book.
Ends with: “Why did they choose me for their abomination?”

Dec 8 – 14
Starts with: “How do we approach the study of Muad’Dib’s father?”
Ends with: “He breathed a sigh of relief when the lift swallowed him…”

Dec 15 – 20
Starts with: “Over the exit of the Arrakeen landing field…”
Ends with: “Against his own will and all previous judgements…”

Dec 21 – 27
Starts with: “Greatness is a transitory experience.”
Ends with: “Cool remoteness spread upward…”

Dec 28 – Jan 3
Starts with: “There should be a science of discontent.”
Ends with: The end of book one.

Book II: MUAD’DIB

Jan 4 – 11
Starts with: Beginning of book 2.
Ends with: “Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.”

Jan 12 – 18
Starts with: “Prophecy and prescience…”
Ends with: End of book 2.

Book III: THE PROPHET

Jan 19 – 25
Starts with: Beginning of book 3.
Ends with: “His body had slowly acquired a certain…”

Jan 26 – Feb 1
Starts with: “And it came to pass in the third year…”
Ends with: End of the appendix. (This means you’ll finish the book on or around January 29, with a couple of days to read through the appendix.)

Remember – the reading pace is a suggestion! If you read ahead, that’s fine. If you get behind and read a couple weeks’ pages in one sitdown, that’s cool too.

Welcome to Dunecember.

THE IDEA: Read Dune, starting December 1, ending January 31.

Why Dune? It’s a stone-cold science fiction classic, considered among the top of the genre. It’s had several filmic adaptations, all of which are considered vastly inferior to the book. And most of the people I know either read it quite a while ago or have meant to read it for a while. It’s also a not-quite-400-page book, which makes this endeavor much less intimidating than some other inspirational internet book clubs.

Reading’s going to be about 8 pages a day, which works out to roughly 56 pages a week for nine weeks. This does include the appendices, but the glossary you’ll want to reference as you read.

If you don’t have a copy of the book, there are several cheap places to look: Your local library should have a copy. Your local library bookstore, used bookseller or thrift store might even have a copy or two, as this book has been around for a while. Besides that, there’s always the chain bookstores or the internet. (that’s an amazon affiliate link–if you buy from there, I might get a nickel or something)

So check out the #Dunecember hashtag, and ask someone on there about access to the Dunecember Wave. If there’s enough demand, we’ll put up a forum here and start some serious discussions.

Please tweet using the hashtag, vote on Google Wave, or comment on this post if you’re reading along!

THE SPICE MUST FLOW