Dune
Frank Herbert's Dune presents the reader with an imaginery world inwhich the broad sweep of history can be seen from the distance of a massiveamount of history. Indeed, one of the things that makes Dune so intriguingis its ability to locate the action of the present within the overarchingtimeframe of ten thousand plus years of history, such that all of thespecific events, while they are of great importance to the narrative, canbe seen merely as further developments in the overarching plot ofhistorical events. Dune offers us an immense backdrop of events andinstitutions to process, all of which have long and various historicalroles; there is House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the other various houses,the history of Dune/Arrakis, the history of the Fremen, the Guild, theEmperor, the history of the Kwitzats Haderach, and, of course, the historyof the spice, itself. Given all of these things, in combination with thecomplexity of the timeline and the political turmoil and underlyingpolitical machinations, navigating Dune in itself can be challenging.Attempting to derive some overarching theory of historicity and its effectson people out of this imaginary world is a daunting task altogether,
The result of all this is that thecreation of any sort of "thinking machine," who were responsible for aterrible and authoritarian rule in the thousand or so years prior to theButlerian Jihad, is the most profound taboo and severe sin possible in thesociety into which Paul Atreides was born. Indeed, this taboo permeates thesociety so deeply. As to the final question of whether or not Paul's eventual victoryover these forces and his ability to synthesize them thus ends history, orwhat not, well, such a question is at best irrelevant and at worst thelowest form of idiocy. Indeed, it is considered impossible for men to be initiatedinto the school because they are considered too weak for its demands. Thus, while we not have an end of history or anything resemblingit per se (because such an end of history would literally require thecessation of time, such that events did not continue to occur) in thisparticular instance, Paul's victory and transformation into Muad'dibsuggest something more like the resetting of the Chinese Dynastic Cycle inwhich a golden age is experienced briefly only to be slowly eroded by thecreation of an impotent bureaucracy and an increasing ignorance of thetruth and a refusal to follow righteous ways. Indeed, there is a myriad of other ways in which Paul, as a characterserves to transcend a seeming opposition. Indeed, hisability to transmute the water of life successfully suggests his ability tobreak down the boundaries between things. In the novel, Dune, the Bene Gessesrit essentially represent thehuman side of the human versus thinking machines conflict in the ButlerianJihad. Inbecoming the "man-machine" Paul Atreides brings together a union of forcesthat had previously been at war in what was known as the "Butlerian Jihad"of so many years before. In their development of theirabilites that rely on technology as little as possible preferring to usetechniques such as "the voice" and the "weirding way" in order toaccomplish the goals that they have set out before them. Not only is the foundation of their school linked directly to thehuman triumph within the Butlerian Jihad, but also their lineage tracesitself back to Serena butler herself, and they represent the human triumphover computers at the end of that conquest. Nonetheless, to mistake the fact that the ButlerianJihad is backstory for the idea that is thus inconsequential is,effectively, to miss a large part of the figurative resonance of the book,which allow us to understand it better and appreciate it more deeply. Nonetheless, Herbert willconstruct it such that this human element will ultimately contribute to thecreation of a new sort of being, a human computer, which we will seerepresented in the being of Paul Atreides, who, due to another sort ofteaching manages to bridge the gap between both humans and computers. Coming from a water planet likethe home of House Atreides to a dessert planet, Paul is already able tobecome a synthesis of these things, but there are several further examplesthat suggest his importance as a merging of these two things.
Common topics in this essay:
Bene Gesserit,
Butlerian Jihad,
Paul Atreides,
House Atreides,
Herbert's Dune,
Indeed Paul,
Kwitzats Haderach,
Dynastic Cycle,
Mentat Paul,
Butlerian Johad,
butlerian jihad,
paul atreides,
bene gesserit,
bene gesserit school,
gesserit school,
water life,
house atreides,
paul's victory,
represent human,
human computer,
thinking machines,
transmute water life,
paul atreides brings,
birth paul atreides,
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Acceptance Essays
