Description of Barony, on Giedi Prime


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jardindegivre
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Description of Barony, on Giedi Prime

Post by jardindegivre »

Hello!

I haven't read the books for a while, but I have a memory of a description of the capital city of Gammu, in one of the last two books, where it is described as a large cubic structure several kilometers wide. Anyone of you remember that? I haven't read the books by the two bozos, so I assume this is orthodox, but I'd like a reference. I don't plan on reading the books for a year or two, so I thought about asking you!

Thank you in advance!
Serkanner
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Re: Description of Barony, on Giedi Prime

Post by Serkanner »

In Heretics of Dune a lot of the plot takes place on Gammu which previously was named Giedi Prime. The capital was Barony but in the Gammu days renamed to: Ysai.

Here are some quotes from Heretics of Dune:

The lights of a city and a great black rectangle of building near the center. He knew this place: Ysai.

...

"I know." Duncan lowered the scope and returned it to Tormsa. "It was called Barony."
"Ysai," Tormsa said.
"That's what they call it now," Duncan said. "I have some different names for it."
Duncan took a deep breath to put down the old hatreds. Those people were all dead. Only the building remained. And the memories. He scanned the city
around that enormous structure. The place was a sprawling mass of warrens. Green spaces lay scattered throughout, each of them behind high walls. Single residences with private parks, Teg had said. The monoscope had revealed guards walking the wall tops.

...

As though a switch had been thrown, Duncan's memory vision changed. He was in the no-globe's library with Teg. The projector was producing a series of views through modern Ysai. The idea of modern took on an odd overtone for him. Barony had been a modern city, if you thought of modern as meaning technologically usiform up to the norms of its time. It had relied exclusively on suspensor guide-beams for transport of people and material -- all of them high up. No ground-level openings. He was explaining this to Teg.

The plan translated physically into a city that used every possible square meter of vertical and horizontal space for things other than movement of goods and humans. The guide-beam openings required only enough head room and elbow room for the universal transport pods.
Teg spoke: "The ideal shape would be tubular with a flat top for the
'thopters."
"The Harkonnens preferred squares and rectangles."
That was true.
Duncan remembered Barony with a clearness that made him shiver. Suspensor tracks shot through it like worm holes -- straight, curved, flipping off at
oblique angles . . . up, down, sideways. Except for the rectangular absolute imposed by Harkonnen whim, Barony was built to a particular population-design criterion: maximum stuffing with minimum expenditure of materials.
"The flat top was the only human-oriented space in the damned thing!" He remembered telling that to Teg and Lucilla both.
Up there on top were penthouses, guard stations at all the edges, at the 'thopter pads, at all the entries from below, around all of the parks. People
living on the top could forget about the mass of flesh squirming in close proximity just below them. No smell or noise from that jumble was allowed on
top. Servants were forced to bathe and change into sanitary clothing before emerging.
Teg had a question: "Why did that massed humanity permit itself to live in such a crush?"
The answer was obvious and he explained it. The outside was a dangerous place. The city's managers made it appear even more dangerous than it actually was. Besides, few in there knew anything about a better life Outside. The only better life they knew about was on top. And the only way up there was through an absolutely abasing servility.
"... the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve but a reality to experience."

“There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.”

Sandrider: "Keith went to Bobo's for a weekend of drinking, watched some DVDs,
and wrote a Dune Novel."
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