ENCOUNTERS WITH TEXTS
Passage room.
Approach the books’ own words. Original English passages, commentary, source records, and related reading.
32 / 32 passages
Destiny
Before it all begins
In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.
DuneRead ↗
PowerUnderstanding your enemy
To attempt an understanding of Muad’Dib without understanding his mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be.
DuneRead ↗
EcologyMore than survival
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.
DuneRead ↗
EcologyThe planet Pardot saw
To Pardot Kynes, the planet was merely an expression of energy, a machine being driven by its sun. What it needed was reshaping to fit it to man’s needs. His mind went directly to the free-moving human population, the Fremen. What a challenge! What a tool they could be! Fremen: an ecological and geological force of almost unlimited potential.
DuneRead ↗
History and memoryOne ruler, countless historians
Muad’Dib’s Imperial reign generated more historians than any other era in human history. Most of them argued a particular viewpoint, jealous and sectarian, but it says something about the peculiar impact of this man that he aroused such passions on so many diverse worlds.
Dune MessiahRead ↗
IdentityA conspirator’s compassion
Despite the murderous nature of the plot he hoped to devise, the thoughts of Scytale, the Tleilaxu Face Dancer, returned again and again to rueful compassion.
Dune MessiahRead ↗
CultureThe garments of power
Presently the royal pair met in the antechamber, noting the sudden stillness of the attendants. Leto, it was observed, wore a black-edged tan cape over his stillsuit’s grey slickness. His sister wore a green cape. The neck of each cape was held by a clasp in the form of an Atreides hawk—gold with red jewels for eyes.
Children of DuneRead ↗
History and memoryChildhood and millennia of memory
The twins must be made to try, she told herself. They could be lured into it. They had the curiosity of children and it was linked to memories which traversed millennia.
Children of DuneRead ↗
History and memoryChoosing a lifetime
This morning I was born in a yurt at the edge of a horse-plain in a land of a planet which no longer exists. Tomorrow I will be born someone else in another place. I have not yet chosen. This morning, though—ahhh, this life! When my eyes had learned to focus, I looked out at sunshine on trampled grass and I saw vigorous people going about the sweet activities of their lives. Where . . . oh where has all of that vigor gone?
God Emperor of DuneRead ↗
TimeThe speed of change
Explosions are also compressions of time. Observable changes in the natural universe all are explosive to some degree and from some point of view; otherwise you would not notice them. Smooth Continuity of change, if slowed sufficiently, goes without notice by observers whose time/attention span is too short. Thus, I tell you, I have seen changes you would never have marked.
Heretics of DuneRead ↗
PowerThe contradiction within peace
When I set out to lead humanity along my Golden Path I promised a lesson their bones would remember. I know a profound pattern humans deny with words even while their actions affirm it. They say they seek security and quiet, conditions they call peace. Even as they speak, they create seeds of turmoil and violence.
Chapterhouse: DuneRead ↗
MindFearing a change of mind
The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. “I already know the important things!” we say. Then Changer comes and throws our old ideas away.
Chapterhouse: DuneRead ↗
EcologyA planet has no boundaries
We are generalists. You can’t draw neat lines around planetwide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.
House AtreidesRead ↗
EconomyThe cost of spice
Melange is a many-handed monster. The spice gives with one hand and takes with all of its others.
House CorrinoRead ↗
CultureIn the desert, blood is water too
Blood covered her hands, and when it dried in the hot desert air, Mapes regretted the waste of water. But that couldn’t be helped—these men needed to die. They were Harkonnens.
Sands of DuneRead ↗
TechnologyWhat remains when war ends?
After being enslaved for a thousand years, we finally overwhelmed the forces of the computer evermind Omnius, yet our struggle is far from ended. Serena Butler’s Jihad may be over, but now we must continue the fight against a more insidious and challenging enemy—human weakness for technology and the temptation to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Sisterhood of DuneRead ↗
PowerThe duration of punishment
Bene Gesserit punishments must carry an inescapable lesson, one which extends far beyond the pain.
Tales of DuneRead ↗
CultureOne House, different lives
But Abulurd Harkonnen, the Baron’s younger half-brother, preferred smaller vessels with native crews. To them, whale hunting was a challenge and an art, rather than an industry.
Tales of DuneRead ↗
WritingThe writer who studied heroes
For a long time he had been intrigued by the effect of heroes upon human history. A student of the flawed, tragic heroes of Greek mythology and Shakespeare, he also studied the gospels of a number of religions. He was especially intrigued with stories of great religious leaders—messiahs. Among his favorite nonfiction works were biographies of great leaders such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Washington.
Dreamer of DuneRead ↗
IdentityHumanity’s benefit, the human cost
The Kwisatz Haderach breeding program was designed to benefit humanity, but at what cost? At what human cost?
The Lady of CaladanRead ↗
CultureThe legend of Ampoliros
A pre-Guild legend appearing on many planets, including Arrakis, Ix, Kronin, Reenol, Ecaz, Caladan, Bela Tegeuse, Giedi Prime, Gamont and all the planets of Niushe. It tells the story of the "starsearcher" spacecraft Ampoliros, in reality a limited-range interplanetary cruiser of class three, power amplitude 7. In the legend the Ampoliros takes on grander proportions, becoming a class nine, power amplitude 35, long-range explorer with the military capability of a support fighter.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
EcologyThe transformation of Arrakis: the encyclopedia’s account
Pardot Kynes (10121-10175) was appointed Planetologist for Arrakis by Elrood IX in 10149. The 28-year-old ecologist was considered too young for the post by his enemies, and overdue such an appointment by his supporters. Public opinion aside, Kynes had already proven himself one of the leading practitioners in his field with his handling of the Cartha outbreak on Ecaz1, and was Elrood's logical choice.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
InstitutionsBene Gesserit archives
The Archives (officially, the Archivae), as distinct from the Bene Gesserit Library and the Chronicles of the Chapter House, is a private collection of the Sisterhood's records, files, papers, and literary collections, so private that only a select group of Reverend Mothers has access to it. The Archivae is located on Wallach IX, under the main Chapter House building in three levels of subterranean vaults. In order to enter the Archivae, one must traverse a series of mazelike tunnels connected by shafts with lifts — obviously once powered by machinery but now traversed by one's own muscles. In order to facilitate the Dar-es-Balat research work, the Bene Gesserit has opened a portion of the Archivae to Ahna Judehic, linguistic historian, whose work is associated with that of R.M. Cassius Ida Treac. Supervising and directing the translation work is R.M. Marcellus Irulan Moiam. Only those sections of the Archivae containing documents pertaining to the history of the Atreides family and the more public aspects of the history of the Sisterhood have been made available for study.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
MindBene Gesserit training philosophy
The essence of the Bene Gesserit training philosophy seems to be that, if one can control oneself, or "know thyself," ultimately one can control the universe. Its first axiom is "My mind controls my reality." The training itself is based on a series of progressive exercises, lasting approximately ten years, which give the student power to control herself mentally, physically, and psychologically, and to control others. This control is used not to withdraw to an internal fantasy world but rather to observe and understand reality with detached objectivity. Thus, the prana-bindu training, begun if possible during the child's first year of life, assures the candidate that mastery of herself is mastery of illusion, both of her own and of other people's. Most of the information available concerning traditional Bene Gesserit training is taken from an analysis of the texts and manuals found in the Irulan materials at Dar-es-Balat. The modern Sisterhood will not release its contemporary material for research use, and has withdrawn the texts formerly available in the open collection of the Wallach IX library.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
CultureCheops: pyramid chess
Cheops is a game of intellectual skill, demanding an alert mind and a high order of concentration. It is played throughout the Old Imperium, although in some remote parts it has few devotees. While the game's origins are lost in the mist of antiquity, the earliest reference to Cheops is found in a fragment of the poet Goarsun, who lived only two generations after the Butlerian Jihad. Partial descriptions of the game exist from the third millennium, and a picto-disc from the eighth millennium shows a game in progress in the background of a diplomatic conference, perhaps a Landsraad meeting with Emperor Istaivan II (r. 7711-7746), an aficionado of the game and no mean player himself, according to contemporaries.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
EconomyCHOAM’s institutional history
The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles is usually thought of as an economic entity, and so it was. But the degree to which it was created by political and military forces, sustained by them, and in turn maintained those powers, is a far more important side of CHOAM. CHOAM was a creation of the empire, brought about as a reaction to the formation of the Spacing Guild. CHOAM's creation marked the true beginning of the Imperium, and became one of its chief elements. CHOAM and the Imperium were inseparable.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
EcologyFremen agriculture
Prior to their destiny-fixing encounter with the Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes in 10151, the Fremen were accustomed to consuming only those fruits, vegetables, and nuts they could purchase from the village folk nearest their sietches or (more rarely) gather from the terraform planting areas or the high-altitude temperate zones.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
CultureFremen cooking
The ordinary Fremen family of the sietches lived on simple, healthy fare. (The donkeys that carried the family's belongings also provided milk, which was made into butter, cheese, and kvetch. a clabbered milk drink.) Fruits were mostly dates, figs, and apricots grown in the palmaries, and the occasional portygul or melon imported from Caladan, especially the pink-fleshed, sweet, and fragrant paradan melon. Fruits were eaten fresh, made into conserves, pickled, or dried.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
CultureFremen education
The four thousand years of Atreides rule on Arrakis is a case study in how a self-sufficient, proud, healthy culture can be destroyed through a clumsy, thoughtless educational policy.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
CultureFremen water rituals
The intricate mystic rites with which the Fremen surrounded almost every contact with water are made far more understandable when one considers the environment which inspired them: the harsh, sand-covered surface of Arrakis, possibly the most inhospitable world ever colonized by human beings. Water, which made life possible, was seen as being the carrier of that life. It was something to be fought for, conserved, treasured — and in the eyes of the Fremen, descendants of the Zensunni Wanderers and shaped by the trials those outcast mystics had suffered, it was holy beyond all other things.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
InstitutionsThe Mentat order: the encyclopedia’s account
The name "Mentat" is derived from mentis, meaning "of the mind" in Latin, an ancient Terran language. The founder of the Order of Mentats, Gilbertus Albans (1192-1294), a logician and philosopher of interstellar repute, coined the term to refer to those fully trained and proficient in the techniques he prescribed for the Order. For thousands of years, society thought of Mentats as the embodiment of logic and reason.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗
TechnologyThe technology of the stillsuit
The Fremen garment which allowed desert survival by cooling the wearer and by preventing water loss. These slick, gray bodysuits were the second skins of Fremen — and of all those with good sense who had occasion to venture into the Arrakeen desert. An unprotected human, without access to a staggeringly large water supply, could last no more than a day on the sands; one wearing a stillsuit of Fremen manufacture, however, could keep water loss under fifteen milliliters per day. The less efficient versions of the suits produced in village factories by the Arrakeen peons were greatly inferior and offered no such level of protection.
The Dune EncyclopediaRead ↗