Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

The trance-state of prophecy is like no other visionary experience. It is not a
retreat from the raw exposure of the senses (as are many trance-states) but an
immersion in a multitude of new movements. Things moue. It is an ultimate
pragmatism in the midst of Infinity, a demanding consciousness where you come at
last into the unbroken awareness that the universe moves of itself, that it
changes, that its rules change. that nothing remains permanent or absolute
throughout all such movement, that mechanical explanations for anything can work
only within precise confinements and, once the walls are broken down, the old
explanations shatter and dissolve, blown away by new movements. The things you
see in this trance are sobering, often shattering They demand your utmost effort
to remain whole and. even so, you emerge from that state profoundly changed.
-The Stolen Journals

Leto lies awake after Audience Day, his mind reeling with thoughts of Hwi. They have discovered his most secret secret, Hwi is proof of this. Can he reverse the metamorphisis? No, even if he could it would take just as long as it did to get to this point. He could breed someone like Hwi for then, but it wouldn't be Hwi. But what of the Golden Path? To hell with it, nobody thinks about him... except Hwi. He tries to push down these thoughts of madness. What did he expect when he made this choice? His Other Memory mob laughs at this and reminds him he has a task to complete, they accuse him of self-pity and selfishness. They think it Ironic that the Ixians attack him with flesh rather than machines. He's never had feelings this powerfull before, they remind him of the antidote - Other Memory safari. He pretends to talk to an imaginary visitor about his Other Memory safaris. He contemplates going into his dream world and never comming back. This will eventually happen to him anyway. Leto realizes there is no antidote for these feelings and trembles. At the door, a Fish Speaker asks another if God is troubled. She replies, "The sins of the universe would trouble anyone."

Leto heard them and wept silently.

I think the dialogue Leto II has with himself in this chapter pretty much answers the question I had for the previous chapter. FH is exploring ideas by playing out a dialogue from different perspectives, like any good dramatist. And he's found a way to get at some big ideas.

I don't think Leto is talking to himself there, he's talking to his collective Other Memory.

Freakzilla wrote:I don't think Leto is talking to himself there, he's talking to his collective Other Memory.

Definitely. "Talking to himself" was a very poor choice of words.

I am on my umpteenth re-read through of this book and must say this is perhaps one of the best chapters in the entire story. I find it to be tremendously insightful and heartrending. The summation of it is particularly tragic and cements Leto II's place among the all time great pantheon of tragic heros. IMO. I think it is also particularly intense how FH really hammers home the point hes always trying to make of fallible humanity as manifested through the hero myth. The fish speakers are so convinced of Leto as "God" that they naturally assume he is sorrowful for the state of the universe and the irony of him sitting listening to the myth he has made and weeping alone at the horror of it is particularly moving.

It made you want to cry with him, didn't it?

Copious water being given to the dead.

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