Chapter 18


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Freakzilla
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Chapter 18

Post by Freakzilla »

The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from
ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of
one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a
difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy.
Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of
power over another the ultimate assumption remains: "I feed on your energy."

-Addenda to Orders in Council The Emperor Paul Muad'dib

As Paul leaves the culdesac he meets Stilgar and tells him about the dwarf and the house of conspirators at the end of the street. Stilgar leaves with the dwarf and orders are given to take prisoners at the traitors' house. Out of the sound of Imperial troops attacking arrises the hiss of a stone burner. Stilgar gets away but everyone else is blinded by the nuclear radiation as the weapon burns a hole in the ground where Otheym's house used to be. Paul calls up his vision to guide him and tells the men to sit tight, Stilgar will bring help. Stilgar sheds a tear when he sees that Paul is blinded. Paul tells him not to worry because he is living out his prescient vision now. It is Fremen law that the the blind should be abandoned in the desert. Paul explains to Stilgar that only his body is blinded and that his vision guides him, he orders no one be left in the desert and he will pay for new eyes for anyone that wants them. Paul orders the traitors to be traced through the fuel and manufacture of the stone burner. He notices the smell of fear in the perspiration all around him.
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Demerzel
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Re: Chapter 18

Post by Demerzel »

I cannot believe the emotions that this chapter stirs within me.
When Paul was three I found him wearing lingerie I was planning to wear for my Duke. I asked him: "How can this be?" and he answered: "For I am the Kwisatz Haderach!" I was proud since these were the first words Paul ever spoke, but now I knew for certain that my Paul was a special boy. I brought him to Duncan's room while he was busy "training" a young maidservant in the Art of Sword-Handling. My Paul shall be the best! - Tleszer
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Freakzilla
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Re: Chapter 18

Post by Freakzilla »

Revised, clean.
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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
georgiedenbro
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Re: Chapter 18

Post by georgiedenbro »

I find it amazing that a nuclear device such as this, which is capable of devastating an entire planet, has an alternate function of merely blinding the people in its immediate vicinity (with a surprisingly small radius of effect). Maybe the radius can be set in advance. This is like having a rocket launcher with explosive shells that has a B setting to cause sneezing. What a design...

I do love the implication, though, that while Paul had been wrestling for the entire book with longing to live in the present while knowing that he was walking in footsteps he had already tracked, here we see Paul finally relent and live entirely in the set path of his vision. I assume that from here on there will be no deviation for Paul, no wondering, no grappling with past/present/future; they no longer matter, the story is already written and he has to go along with it.

I find myself thinking of Paul's physical blindness as him relinquishing all sense of agency, of no longer being in a position to think that his personal perspective has any more relevance in the events to come. There will be a chain of events already calculated and chosen, and Paul may as well be no more than a robot in going through those motions. The only things that I think will make him feel like more than a robot are his love for Chani and their unborn child, and his sadness that there are no more decisions to make on this path, no hope of anything novel.
"um-m-m-ah-h-h-hm-m-m-m!"
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Freakzilla
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Re: Chapter 18

Post by Freakzilla »

I think that was where Paul was heading anyway, the stone burner just quickened it.
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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
georgiedenbro
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Re: Chapter 18

Post by georgiedenbro »

I think what we see through Paul is that if you are absolutely dead-set on controlling what will happen in the future then you are left with first making your calculations, and then just sitting back and following through. Paul was inevitably going to do this because he wouldn't have been able to accept worse consequences at the cost of granting himself the sense of personal freedom to choose. I consider this to be what he meant when he said this:
Dune Messiah wrote:The audacious nature of Muad'dib's actions may be seen in the fact that He knew
from the beginning whither He was bound, yet not once did He step aside from
that path. He put it clearly when He said: "I tell you that I come now to my
time of testing when it will be shown that I am the Ultimate Servant
." Thus He
weaves all into One, that both friend and foe may worship Him. It is for this
reason and this reason only that His Apostles prayed: "Lord, save us from the
other paths which Muad'dib covered with the Waters of His Life. " Those "other
paths" may be imagined only with the deepest revulsion.
-from The Yiam-el-Din (Book of Judgment)
Is it despotism to sacrifice your own freedom to force a better result for others? Or is despotism allowing things to take their own course for, knowing it will be worse? :think:
"um-m-m-ah-h-h-hm-m-m-m!"
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