Chapter 19


Moderators: Omphalos, Freakzilla, ᴶᵛᵀᴬ

Post Reply
User avatar
Freakzilla
Lead Singer and Driver of the Winnebego
Posts: 18449
Joined: 05 Feb 2008 01:27
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Contact:

Chapter 19

Post by Freakzilla »

He has gone from Alia,
The womb of heaven!
Holy, holy, holy!
Fire-sand leagues
Confront our Lord.
He can see
Without eyes!
A demon upon him!
Holy, holy, holy
Equation:
He solved for
Martyrdom!

-The Moon Falls Down Songs of Muad'dib

It's been a week since the stone burner incident and the keep has become unnaturally quiet. Korba the Panegyrist has been taken prisoner and brought to a meeting of the naibs. Chani and Paul awaken and Chani is disturbed by the fact that Paul refers to her babies singularly and wonders why he doesn't know they are twins. She decides not to question him about it. Alia goes to preside over the council of naibs. She recalls a letter she received from Jessica refusing to make Caladan a stop on the Hajj. She accuses Alia of creating a dealy paradox be combining religion and government. The Fremen are upset that Paul is not presiding, she quotes Fremen Law that a Reverend Mother presides over matters of life and death. Stilgar reads the charges against Korba and recites Fremen Law. Korba demands to confront his accuser, Alia suggests that he accuses himself. This shuts Korba up, after all, Alia could accuse him herself if she chose to. She says their enemies have Fremen allies and are wrecking the ecological transformation. At that moment Paul enters and reveals that a worm has been stolen and taken off-world. The Fremen wisper about the Fremen Law that the blind are to be abandoned in the desert. He proves he is not blind by describing the scene around him miment by moment out of his prescient visions. Paul tells Korba Otheym accuses him, Korba protests that Otheym is dead. Paul wants to know how he knows this, he's incriminated himself. He looks to the gallery of naibs for help, revealing to Alia the rest of the conspirators among them. Paul orders Korba imprissoned in a maximum security cell and appoints Stilgar as his councel. After everyone leaves, just as Alia is about to take the morning audience, she tells Stilgar he's gone through a dramatic change. He's about to dissobey Paul and she hopes it doesn't destroy them both.
User avatar
Freakzilla
Lead Singer and Driver of the Winnebego
Posts: 18449
Joined: 05 Feb 2008 01:27
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: Chapter 19

Post by Freakzilla »

Revised, clean.
Image
Paul of Dune was so bad it gave me a seizure that dislocated both of my shoulders and prolapsed my anus.
~Pink Snowman
georgiedenbro
Posts: 1035
Joined: 11 Jun 2014 13:56
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Chapter 19

Post by georgiedenbro »

What's interesting about Alia telling Stilgar about the change in him is that Stilgar's attitude in this scene, in standing up for Fremen law and 'reminding' Paul of it, was choreographed in advance. And she also says this after being apprised that Paul and Stilgar had staged the scene as theatre; so either she formed an opinion and failed to revise it after being clued in, or she saw something subtle in the scene other than the 'defiance' that Stilgar was meant to show for the Naibs.

Either way the change she refers to is surely a reference to Chapter 9, where Paul decides to begin giving Stilgar reasons to doubt him. Paul wanted Stilgar to be the great Fremen he used to be, and not to become a sycophantic puppet like Korba. Not only are puppets a waste of space who do nothing but create bureaucracy and cozy niches for themselves, but since they are used to being slavish they can be made to be slaves to a new master if one should come to tempt them, as we see with Korba.

I also like the subtle way we see more of Alia's state of distraction in this scene, without us being told exactly what's going on. That even Stilgar can call her out on losing focus must be shameful for a RM. Not that Stilgar's a dope, and we assume he even has some BG training at this point (the weirding combat technique, at the very least), but still...ouch.

The only thing I'm a bit fuzzy on is how rebels could get a worm away from Arrakis. Since they'd need the Guild's help for this, and the Guild always knows its cargo, and since Paul still has total blackmail capabilities over the Guild, it seems like it would be a terrible risk for them to defy Paul in this way. For that matter, the only reason there weren't spy satellites above Arrakis before was because the Fremen needed to work in secret. Now that the climatology plan is out in the open it would seem to be prudent for Paul to have orbital/aerial surveillance everywhere on Dune. Maybe the Guild just shut it off momentarily when capturing the worm...I guess this is somewhat of a 'tech' detail that doesn't matter that much.
"um-m-m-ah-h-h-hm-m-m-m!"
Post Reply