DUNE: Chapter Eight Thoughts

And so we continue with the reading of Dune.

The Opening Quote

Irulan and the Cult of Maud’Dib really hits on Yueh’s betrayal. We’re only getting excerpts, so maybe it’s not as big of a thing as it seems. However, what we are getting suggests that he’s a Judas figure without identity or reason beyond the betrayal. Dune does go to lengths to explain Yueh’s actions and to humanize him, so there must be something being said in the difference between the book’s and Irulan’s portrayal of him.

But what?

Perhaps it is simply that even Judas thought he was doing what he had to, and religious propaganda can blind us to that? Or is it just highlighting that religion can be/is propaganda? I’m not sure. It’s possible there isn’t a specific answer to this. The pieces are given to the reader for them to take their own message from.

That is, ultimately, the big problem with what I’m doing. It may not make sense to ask what the message of Dune is. Herber is clearly aware of zen koans. The book might just be the equivalent to that. No message, but designed to get you to break out of stale patterns of thought. If true, I’m certainly doing a lot of thought about it, but nothing I come up with should be seen as the message or the purpose of Dune. It’s message or purpose was to be a thing that provokes these thoughts.

I also am writing this after Dune took the world by storm and molded the media and games that influenced me as a child. I think it’s clear Star Wars is extremely influenced by Dune, and Star Wars has had a big impact on me. So, I don’t view Dune from an unbiased position. I’m digging down into the foundations of my understanding of the world, to see how I feel about what I find.

All stories, all communication, is propaganda of a sort. The treatment of Yueh in the opening quotes may be a reminder of that.

Jessica and the Doctor

Dr. Yueh has known Jessica for six years. That likely makes him the most recent addition to the household. If the death date of his wife marks when she was kidnapped, that seems to put it after he started working for the Atreides, but within a year or two. That no one has mentioned the disappearance of his wife to this point is a little curious, but then you wouldn’t expect it to be a part of regular conversation. Paul didn’t react surprised at the revelation that the passage he read from the O.C. Bible was one of Wanna’s favorites. So, presumably everyone knows about her disappearance.

He’s trying to cover his nervousness with plausible mistakes, relying on Jessica to not deep deeper than the easiest answer.

Wanna had been a Reverend Mother. Or at least she had the full “Truthsay,” and Jessica does not.

I suspect Yueh is wrong about the people looking at the palm trees with hope. They aren’t waiting for dates to fall. They tie the presence of Jessica to their dreams of restoring the natural ecology of Dune, making it a wet world again. His point about the math of the excess of nobility holds, though. If water is the coin of life here, then those palm trees cost five lives a day each.

Yueh does know that Wanna is probably dead. But, he doesn’t know it for certain. He goes along with the betrayal to gain certainty and to have the opportunity for revenge.

She thought of the boy’s features as an exquisite distillation out of random patterns—endless queues of happenstance meeting at this nexus.

—Lady Jessica watching Paul sleep

Except he isn’t exactly random. He’s the product of a breeding program. Maybe the exact details have random elements, but the outline is pre-planned.

Why did Wanna never give me children? …I know as a doctor there was no physical reason against it. Was there some Bene Gesserit reason? Was she, perhaps, instructed to serve a different purpose? What could it have been? She loved me, certainly.

—Dr. Yueh watching Lady Jessica with Paul

Well, this brings up an interesting question. Was her purpose in the Bene Gesserit plan to make Dr. Yueh vulnerable to coercion by the Harkonnens? The Reverend Mother was sure there was no saving Leto. I’ve already mentioned the possibility that Leto’s death is a necessary part of the plan. The death of Leto and possibly the Baron forces leads to a forced marriage between Feyd-Rautha and the female Paul (Alia?), leading to the combining of the Houses and the birth of the Kwisatz Haderach. Wanna is sent to Dr. Yueh specifically to give the Harkonnens power over him. After all, they sold a daughter of Baron Harkonnen who was a student at one of their schools to Duke Leto. How much further is it to send a student off to die for the cause?

It’s a mystery why water is so scarce. They dig wells, which yield some water for a short time, then they dry up. There should be more water on the planet. The answer is, of course, the water is being sequestered by the sandtrout, but, if I remember correctly, only the Fremen know that at this point. Well, either the Fremen or Keyns.

Jessica knew Wanna was a Bene Gesserit, but she didn’t know the Harkonnens had taken her. It hadn’t come up in six years? I guess they are just now getting on first name terms, so maybe it never came up. Still, he’s part of the household and training Paul. You’d think there would be some social situation where there would need to be some explanation for the absence of Wanna.

Yueh is able to manipulate Jessica through the truth and grief.

Jessica is not naive. She’s in favor of the death and deceit used by Thufir Hawat to try to ensure their safety.

Jessica is also Leto’s secretary and has Bene Gesserit business training. That’s a very sixties relationship. And it’s a bit odd that Dr. Yueh takes issue with the idea that Jessica was chosen in part due to her business training. I suppose the idea is that Jessica was suggesting his love was feigned, and Dr. Yueh was objecting because he probably acquired Wanna is a similar fashion to how Jessica was acquired.

Why do the Harkonnens care that their titles are purchased rather than coming from royal blood? I suppose that’s a class thing tied to nobility that I just can’t understand. The grudge over the Battle of Corrin seems much more the kind of thing I’d expect, though it’s not really less weird when it comes down to it.

Herbert leaves the taste of the spice vague. It’s cinnamon plus, but it changes every time you taste it. it tastes good because your body knows it’s good for it. Yueh’s description ends with the following quote.

And, like life, never to be truly synthesized.

—Dr. Yueh on melange

That’s a rather pregnant sentence. Given the statements around the Butlerian Jihad, Herbert puts a premium on not turning the living of life over to others.

This amorphous nature of the flavor of spice may play a part in its name being melange. it doesn’t taste like a single spice. it tastes like a mix of all the spices you want at that moment. It’s probably also a pointer towards it representing a trade opportunity like all the spices traded by the Dutch East India company.

Jessica could have made the Duke marry her or do anything else. She didn’t force the marriage in part for political reasons. It’s best that the Duke remain open for a political marriage. The Great Houses are interested in this, presumably because of the Duke’s royal blood. But the bigger reason is that it would make her too cynical, and she wants to know it’s him proposing if he ever does.

Jessica does not like the Old Duke. That’s likely the real reason why she refuses to eat in the dining hall while his portrait is hanging. She blames him for the parts of Leto that him callous and selfish at times. It’s likely she blames that part of Leto for agreeing to take over Arrakis.

Dr. Yueh almost confesses, but Jessica complains about the Duke and ruins the moment. Another case showing the importance of being aware and the value of silence.

Jessica leaves the conversation knowing that Dr. Yueh is hiding something, but she decides not to humiliate him by pushing for it. That’s clearly a mistake.

Conclusion

We did get a couple of answers in this chapter. Nothing major when it comes to the message, but answers none-the-less. The new questions raised are:

• Was Wanna’s death at the hands of the Harkonnens part of the Bene Gesserit plan?

• Is the part of Leto that Jessica hates the reason why the Reverend Mother says he’s not a good ruler, or are they the parts of him she agrees with?

• Why does Jessica dislike the Old Duke so much?

• How much can we even speak of Dune having a message or a meaning?