t, man and woman, and humans and
             machines. This very last element may seem to be the most incidental upon a
             first reading, but it is in fact wholly important. Overall, these
             particular progress from two different and opposed forces to a synthesis
             between the two reveals a neo-Heglian understanding of the world at work in
             Herbert's universe, where oppositions are not so much real as they are the
             raw materials out of which a new and complete whole will be forged. In
             becoming the "man-machine" Paul Atreides brings together a union of forces
             that had previously been at war in what was known as the "Butlerian Jihad"
             of so many years before. Thus, the historicity of the novel proceeds from
             along these lines and the victory of Paul Atreides brings about an entirely
             new era in which an entirely different idea of historicity will likely be
             The Butlerian Jihad is a war that took places ten thousand years
             before the birth of Paul Atreides and was the primal event in the creation
             of the world as he now knows it. Indeed, it is the war and event that was
             responsible for changing the course of events across the universe such that
             they can be as they currently are, and without its occurrence, nothing
             would be as it is. Nonetheless, the Butlerian Jihad is largely relegated to
             the realm of "backstory" in the novel; it seems to play a secondary role in
             terms of narrative urgency and its main job is simply to explain why events
             are the way they are. Nonetheless, to mistake the fact that the Butlerian
             Jihad 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.
             Indeed, the presence of the Butlerian Jihad serves a narrative purpos
             ...