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C O L L E C T I O N S |
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DUNE CHRONICLES
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| Introduction to a Child's History of Muad'Dib |
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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little
death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will
permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone past
me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there
will be nothing. Only I will remain. The Litany Against Fear Dune
A world is supported by four things: the learning of the wise, the
justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the
brave. But all of these are nothing without a ruler who knows the art of
ruling. Make that the science of your tradition !
To the Lady Jessica -
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 the who do survive.
Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'Dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his
sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils. But
there were, after all, a man born Paul Atreides and a woman born Alia. Their
flesh was subject to space and time. And even though their oracular powers
placed them beyond the usual limits of time and space, they came from human
stock. They experienced real events which left real traces upon a real
universe. To understand them, it must be seen that their catastrophe was the
catastrophe of all mankind. This work is dedicated, then, not to Muad'Dib or
his sister, but to their heirs -- to all of us.
Truth suffers from too much analysis.
Oh, worm of many teeth,
The audacious nature of Muad'Dib's actions may be seen in the fact that He knew
from the beginning whither He was bound, yet not once did He step aside from
that path. He put it clearly when He said: "I tell you that I come now to my
time of testing when it will be shown that I am the Ultimate Servant." Thus
He weaves all into One, that both friend and foe may worship Him. It is for
this reason and this reason only that His Apostles prayed: "Lord, save us from
the other paths which Muad'Dib covered with the Waters of His Life." Those
"other paths" may be imagined only with the deepest revulsion.
Tibana was an apologist for Socratic Christianity, probably a native of IV
Anbus who lived between the eight and ninth centuries before Corrino, likely
in the second reign of Dalamak. Of his writings, only a portion survives from
which this fragment is taken: "The hearts of all men dwell in the same
wilderness."
The sequential nature of actual events is not illuminated with lengthy
precision by the powers of prescience except under the most extraordinary
circumstances. The oracle grasps incidents cut out of the historic chain.
Eternity moves. It inflicts itself upon the oracle and the supplicant alike.
Let Muad'Dib's subjects doubt his majesty and his oracular visions. Let them
deny his powers. Let them never doubt Eternity.
We say of Muad'Dib that he has gone on a journey into that land where we
walk without footprints.
The sietch at the desert's rim
melange (me'-lange, also ma,lanj) n-s, origin uncertain (thought
to derive from ancient Terran Franzh): a. mixture of spices; b. spice of
Arrakis (Dune) with geriatric properties first noted by Yanshuph Askoko, royal
chemist in reign of Shakkad the Wise; Arrakeen melange, found only in deepest
desert sands of Arrakis, linked to prophetic visions of Paul Muad'Dib
(Atreides), first Fremen Mahdi; also employed by Spacing Guild Navigators and
the Bene Gesserit.
The Universe is God's. It is one thing, a wholeness against which all
separations may be identified. Transient life, even that self-aware and
reasoning life which we call sentient, holds only fragile trusteeship on any
portion of the wholeness.
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the sand; and he had two horns
like a lamb, but his mouth was fanged and fiery as the dragon and his body
shimmered and burned with great heat while it did hiss like the serpent.
It is commonly reported, my dear Georad, that there exists great natural virtue
in the melange experience. Perhaps this is true. There remain within me,
however, profound doubts that every use of melange always brings virtue.
Meseems that certain persons have corrupted the use of melange in defiance of
God. In the words of the Ecumenon, they have disfigured the soul. The skim
the surface of melange and believe thereby to attain grace. They deride their
fellows, do great harm to godliness, and they distort the meaning of this
abundant gift maliciously, surely a mutilation beyond the power of man to
restore. To be truly at one with the virtue of the spice, uncorrupted in all
ways, full of goodly honor, a man must permit his deeds and his words to agree.
When your actions describe a system of evil consequences, you should be judged
by those consequences and not by your explanations. It is thus that we should
judge Muad'Dib.
You have loved Caladan
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to
your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom
because that is according to my principles.
In this age when the means of human transport include devices which can span
the deeps of space in transtime, and other devices which can carry men swiftly
over virtually impassable planetary surfaces, it seems odd to think of
attempting long journeys afoot. Yet this remains a primary means of travel on
Arrakis, a face attributed partly to preference and partly to the brutal
treatment which this planet reserves for anything mechanical. In the
strictures of Arrakis, human flesh remains the most durable and reliable
resource fro the Hajj. Perhaps it is the implicit awareness of this fact
which makes Arrakis the ultimate mirror of the soul.
The password was given to me by a man who died in the dungeons of Arrakeen.
You see, that is where I got this ring in the shape of a tortoise. It was in
the suk outside the city where I was hidden by the rebels. The
password? Oh, that has been changed many times since then. It was
"Persistence." And the countersign was "Tortoise." It got me out of there
alive. That's why I bought this ring: a reminder.
The one-eyed view of our universe says you must not look far afield for
problems. Such problems may never arrive. Instead, tend to the wold within
your fences. The packs ranging outside may not even exist.
Only in the realm of mathematics can you understand Muad'Dib's precise view of
the future. Thus: first, we postulate any number of point-dimensions in space.
(This is the classic n-fold extended aggregate of n dimensions.)
With this framework, Time as commonly understood becomes an aggregate of
one-dimensional properties. Applying this to the Muad'Dib phenomenon, we find
that reduction through the infinity calculus) we are dealing with separate
systems which contain n body properties. For Muad'Dib, we assume the
latter. As demonstrated by the reduction, the point dimensions of the
n-fold can only have separate existence within different frameworks
of Time. Separate dimensions of Time are thus demonstrated to
coexist. This being the inescapable case, Muad'Dib's predictions required
that he perceive the n-fold not as extended aggregate but as an
operation within a single framework. In effect, he froze his universe into
that one framework which was his view of Time.
Because of the one-pointed Time awareness in which the conventional mind
remains immersed, humans tend to think of everything in a sequential,
word-oriented framework. This mental trap produces very short-term concepts of
effectiveness and consequences, a condition of constant, unplanned response
to crises.
Many forces sought control of the Atreides twins and, when the death of Leto
was announced, this movement of plot and counterplot was amplified. Note the
relative motivations: the Sisterhood feared Alia, an adult Abomination, but
still wanted those genetic characteristics carried by the Atreides. The
Church hierarchy of Auqaf and Hajj saw only the power implicit in control of
Muad'Dib's heir. CHOAM wanted a doorway to the wealth of Dune. Farad'n and
his Sardaukar sought a return to glory for House Corrino. The Spacing Guild
feared the equation Arrakis = melange; without the spice they could not
navigate. Jessica wished to repair what her disobedience to the Bene Gesserit
had created. Few thought to ask the twins what their plans might be, until it
was too late.
This rocky shrine to the skull of a ruler grants no prayers. It has become
the grave of lamentations. Only the wind hears the voice of this place. The
cries of night creatures and the passing wonder of two moons, all say his
day has ended. No more supplicants come. The visitors have gone from the
feast. How bare the pathway down this mountain.
To know a thing well, know its limits. Only when pushed
beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen.
Look at one way, the universe is Brownian movement, nothing
predictable at the elemental level. Muad'dib and his Tyrant
son closed the cloud chamber where movement occurred.
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