Chapter 15


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Freakzilla
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Chapter 15

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My father, the Padishah Emperor, took me by the hand one day and I sensed in the
ways my mother had taught me that he was disturbed. He led me down the Hall of
Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides. I marked the strong
resemblance between them--my father and this man in the portrait--both with
thin, elegant faces and sharp features dominated by cold eyes. "Princessdaughter,"
my father said, "I would that you'd been older when it came time for
this man to choose a woman." My father was 71 at the time and looking no older
than the man in the portrait, and I was but 14, yet I remember deducing in that
instant that my father secretly wished the Duke had been his son, and disliked
the political necessities that made them enemies.

-"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan

Kynes, who has been ordered to betray the Atreides, is waiting to meet the Duke for a spice harvesting inspection. He feels shaken by how closely the Atreides fit the Fremen prophesy. He notes how Paul wears the stilsuit and jubba cloak like he's had them all his life and how Paul acts like he's aware of things others are not. The Duke thanks Kynes for the stilsuits and cloaks, Paul quotes from the bible, "The gift is the blessing of the river." The Fremen jump up and mutter, "Lisan al-Gaib!". It is the Fremen prophecy that He will greet you with Holy words and your gifts will be blessings. Kynes checks their stilsuits and explains their workings. Leto's needed adjusting but Paul's fits perfectly. Again, the prophecy. Leto pilots them over the shield wall. On the way, he questions Kynes about what he does and the spice. Gurney plays a tune. They find the spice factory and the Duke spots wormsign. He divides the bonus for first wormsign among the workers. The carryall wing doesn't show up to pick up the factory and the Duke orders all the thopters to land and pick up the crew. They take off just in time as the worm swallows the factory. Kynes admires that the Duke values the lives of the men over the spice and admits to himself that he likes the Atreides.
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Hunchback Jack
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by Hunchback Jack »

How did Paul know how to wear the stillsuit properly? Did he "remember" from having worn them in prescient dreams? Or is this an indication of his emerging abilities in perception (BG) and deduction (Mentat)?

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A Thing of Eternity
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by A Thing of Eternity »

I'm betting on subconscious prescience for that one.
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Apjak
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by Apjak »

I'm going out on a limb to say that this one is mostly Mentat, but that's just my amateur opinion. Paul probably divined the purpose of each part of the suit just from examination. However, it is probable that it factored in BG and prescience as well. He saw fremen shortly after arriving on Arrakis and might have compared what he observed with the garment at hand.

Maybe it just seemed the proper way.
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by Idahopotato »

Don't mentats have to go into a sort of trance to use their abilities? Whereas the BG training was more focused on observation of minutia. I always thought it was his prescient abilities responsible for this. I figure that he may have subconsciously known, since he would be practically living in it for the next few years. A fourth answer would be some combination of any or all of the above.
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by D Pope »

How did Paul know to wear his still suit? "It seemed the proper way" is all we get, intellect, prescience, or both. I'm mechanically inclined so I think it's intellect. I mention it because there are so many times i'm surprised to have to explain how some new thing works to friends, i've always taken such knowledge for granted. I doubt that i'd know a still suit if I saw one, but, I do know the feeling of 'knowing what he did & why' like adjusting the fit to maximize pumping action. Furthermore, if prescience were involved, he'd have done better on his first night with Stilgar crossing to the cave of birds.

Question, unrelated to stillsuits, why is this chapter written so differently than all the rest? I feel Frank employed a completely diferent voice for just this one chapter, even a different tense. Why?
Leto II is gone for good, except for OM. The "pearl" was just that; a miniscule portion of what Leto was, and not a compressed version of the whole. The pearl that the worms have do not make them Leto, or in any way similar to him.
-Omphalos
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inhuien
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by inhuien »

Dune wrote:Paul stood passively as Kynes inspected the suit. It had been an odd
sensation putting on the crinkling, slick-surfaced garment. In his
foreconsciousness had been the absolute knowledge that he had never before worn
a stillsuit. Yet, each motion of adjusting the adhesion tabs under Gurney's
inexpert guidance had seemed natural, instinctive. When he had tightened the
chest to gain maximum pumping action from the motion of breathing, he had known
what he did and why. When he had fitted the neck and forehead tabs tightly, he
had known it was to prevent friction blisters.
Kynes straightened, stepped back with a puzzled expression. "You've worn a
stillsuit before?" he asked.
"This is the first time."
"Then someone adjusted it for you?"
"No."
"Your desert boots are fitted slip-fashion at the ankles. Who told you to do
that?"

"It . . . seemed the right way."
"That it most certainly is."
And Kynes rubbed his cheek, thinking of the legend: "He shall know your ways
as though born to them."
Rereading the passage I noted that he has not only configured the stillsuit correctly but in a particular fashion. I'm going for subconscious recall of prescient dreams.
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by D Pope »

I'll admit, when I first reread the quote i thought it did lean twards prescience but i've had that feeling before fixing things.
Have you ever felt that? Looking at some new object & knowing what that bump is there for or what that cover hides & why as well as how that info applies to the whole.

I'm not hammering the pulpit & declaring an absolute because I like that phrase 'subconsious prescience.' Perhaps that describes what i'm calling inclination.

I wish my Dune copy hadn't been misplaced, but if wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.

BTW, is that the cover art for the first editions?
Leto II is gone for good, except for OM. The "pearl" was just that; a miniscule portion of what Leto was, and not a compressed version of the whole. The pearl that the worms have do not make them Leto, or in any way similar to him.
-Omphalos
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by Freakzilla »

D Pope wrote:I'll admit, when I first reread the quote i thought it did lean twards prescience but i've had that feeling before fixing things.
Have you ever felt that? Looking at some new object & knowing what that bump is there for or what that cover hides & why as well as how that info applies to the whole.

I'm not hammering the pulpit & declaring an absolute because I like that phrase 'subconsious prescience.' Perhaps that describes what i'm calling inclination.

I wish my Dune copy hadn't been misplaced, but if wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.
Print is dead. :wink:
BTW, is that the cover art for the first editions?
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by D Pope »

Any thoughts on the different voice for this chapter? Is it just me? I've wondered if it was a mistake, as if FH simply overlooked it or felt he lacked the time to redo it- then again, can't see a carefull fellow like him not doing it for some reason I can't fathom. Pehaps he's generating a feel for Kines mind, no fuzzy edges, scientist type.
Leto II is gone for good, except for OM. The "pearl" was just that; a miniscule portion of what Leto was, and not a compressed version of the whole. The pearl that the worms have do not make them Leto, or in any way similar to him.
-Omphalos
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Freakzilla
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by Freakzilla »

It's from Kynes' POV.
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Re: Chapter 15

Post by Freakzilla »

Cleaned
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Paul of Dune was so bad it gave me a seizure that dislocated both of my shoulders and prolapsed my anus.
~Pink Snowman
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