C O L L E C T I O N S | |
DUNE CHRONICLES |
Arrakis Awakening |
Muad'Dib could indeed, see the Future, but you must understand the limits of
this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If
you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so,
Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He
tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of
one work over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells
us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a
narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe
course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation." from "Arrakis Awakening" by the Princess Irulan Dune
This Fremen religious adaptation, then, is the source of what we now recognize
as "The Pillars of the Universe," whose Qizara Tafwid are among us all with
signs and proofs and prophecy. They bring us the Arrakeen mystical fusion
whose profound beauty is typified by the stirring music built on the old
forms, but stamped with the new awakening. Who has not heard and been deeply
moved by "The Old Man's Hymn"?
"Control the coinage and the courts -- let the rabble have the rest." Thus
the Padishah Emperor advises you. And he tells you: "If you want profits, you
must rule." There is truth in these words, but I ask myself: "Who are the
rabble and who are the ruled?"
And that day dawned when Arrakis lay at the hub of the universe with the
wheel poised to spin.
And Muad'Dib stood before them, and he said: "Though we deem the captive dead,
yet does she live. For her seed is my seed and her voice is my voice. And she
sees unto the farthest reaches of possibility. Yea, unto the vale of the
unknowable does she see because of me."
He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent,
chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man. There is no measuring
Muad'Dib's motives by ordinary standards. In the moment of his triumph, he
saw the death prepared for him, yet he accepted the treachery. Can you say e did this out of a sense of justice? Whose justice, then? Remember, we speak now of the Muad'Dib who ordered battle drums made from his enemies' skins, the Muad'Dib who denied the conventions of his ducal past with a wave of his hand, saying merely: "I am the Kwisatz Haderach. That is reason enough."
|