Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

What is the most immediate danger to my stewardship? I will tell you. It is a
true visionary, a person who has stood in the presence of God with the full
knowledge of where he stands. Visionary ecstasy releases energies which are like
the energies of sex-uncaring for anything except creation. One act of creation
can be much like another. Everything depends upon the vision.
-The Stolen Journals

Leto and Moneo are in the Little Citadel tower aerie. Leto tells Moneo that a Guild lighter will soon deliver Hwi’s uncle, Malky, and Anteac died finding him. The Guild and Tleilaxu moved first when the saw the Fish Speakers moving against Ix. The Ixians have invented a device which can hide things from Leto and this is where Malky was hidden. It is an improvement on the one that hides his Journals. When the attack came, they scattered the new technology far and wide, now many can hide from Leto. Moneo confirms for Leto his orders sent to Nayla that she completely obey Siona. Moneo begs him to call the messenger back and to hold the wedding in a different place but he refuses. The Guild lighter lands and Moneo brings injured, litter-bound Malky up to the aerie on Leto’s cart. Malky confirms for Leto that Hwi is an opposite-clone of Malky. The Ixians got the knowledge from the Tleilaxu but they did it on their own, in the “no-room” where Leto could not see. Leto tells him that he notices when something vanishes like that. Moneo wants to call off the wedding but Leto refuses. Leto turns his back, so to speak, and thinks about taking a fall off the Little Citadel. He can feel the Golden Path winking out of existence at the mere though of it. Moneo kills Malky and dumps him over the rail onto the sand below. Leto silently wishes he could pray.

God Emperor of Dune said:

"Indeed! This is what I said: 'The present is a distraction; the future a dream; only memory can unlock the meaning of life'.
Aren't those beautiful words, Malky ?"
"Exquisite, old worm"
Moneo put a hand over his mouth.
"But my words were a foolish lie," Leto said. "I knew it at the time, but I was infatuated with the beautiful words. No-- memory unlocks no meanings. Without anguish of the spirit, which is a wordless experience, there are no meanings anywhere."

I'm only in half-agreement with Leto. He is absolutely correct in saying that beautiful words seduce. Eloquence has been one of the most effective tools of manipulation for centuries, but this excerpt in particular does have some truth to it. It's from other memory, and I wonder if Frank Herbert quoted (or at least paraphrased) it from a real writer. It sounds familiar, maybe some of the 'better read' fans in-sietch can help me out in figuring out from whom did FH take this.

Out of the top of my head I think of Arthur Schopenhauer. He wrote something like: Trying to live in the present is like trying to enjoy the view while running downhill. (paraphrased) I think it's from his Essays on Pessimism

This chapter always leaves me craving for more Malky. It would have been really interesting to read some of their earlier exchanges.

What part don't you agree with?

I believe that, although wordless experiences do precede meaning, memories are our way of conceptualizing what our senses perceive. So, in my humble opinion, memory does unlock meaning. At the very least they (memories) do not preclude it (meaning).

Probably FH just wanted to emphasize the vitality of the present over the sterility of the past. I guess my disagreement has more to do with the wording of Leto's statement than with FH's intended critique of a past-oriented perspective.

Namely, the Bene Gesserit.

Revised