Dune

Sparknotes

Chapter One

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.
?from "Manual of Muad'Dib"
by the Princess Irulan

In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the finalscurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old cronecame to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.

    It was a warm night at Castle Caladan, and the ancient pile of stonethat had served the Atreides family as home for twenty-six generationsbore that cooled-sweat feeling it acquired before a change in the weather.

    The old woman was let in by the side door down the vaulted passageby Paul's room and she was allowed a moment to peer in at him where helay in his bed.

    By the half-light of a suspensor lamp, dimmed and hanging near thefloor, the awakened boy could see a bulky female shape at his door,standing one step ahead of his mother. The old woman was a witchshadow?hair like matted spiderwebs, hooded 'round darkness offeatures, eyes like glittering jewels.

    "Is he not small for his age, Jessica?" the old woman asked. Hervoice wheezed and twanged like an untuned baliset.

    Paul's mother answered in her soft contralto: "The Atreides areknown to start late getting their growth, Your Reverence."

    "So I've heard, so I've heard," wheezed the old woman. "Yet he'salready fifteen."

    "Yes, Your Reverence."

    "He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman. "Sly littlerascal." She chuckled. "But royalty has need of slyness. And if he'sreally the Kwisatz Haderach ... well...."

    Within the shadows of his bed, Paul held his eyes open to mere slits.Two bird-bright ovals?the eyes of the old woman?seemed to expandand glow as they stared into his.

    "Sleep well, you sly little rascal," said the old woman. "Tomorrowyou'll need all your faculties to meet my gom jabbar."

    And she was gone, pushing his mother out, closing the door with asolid thump.

    Paul lay awake wondering: What's a gom jabbar?

    In all the upset during this time of change, the old woman was thestrangest thing he had seen.

    Your Reverence.

    And the way she called his mother Jessica like a common servingwench instead of what she was?a Bene Gesserit Lady, a duke's concubineand mother of the ducal heir.

    Is a gom jabbar something of Arrakis I must know before we gothere? he wondered.

    He mouthed her strange words: Gom jabbar ... Kwisatz Haderach.

    There had been so many things to learn. Arrakis would be a place sodifferent from Caladan that Paul's mind whirled with the new knowledge.Arrakis?Dune?Desert Planet.

    Thufir Hawat, his father's Master of Assassins, had explained it:their mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, had been on Arrakis eighty years,holding the planet in quasi-fief under a CHOAM Company contract tomine the geriatric spice, melange. Now the Harkonnens were leaving tobe replaced by the House of Atreides in fief-complete?an apparent victoryfor the Duke Leto. Yet, Hawat had said, this appearance containedthe deadliest peril, for the Duke Leto was popular among the GreatHouses of the Landsraad.

    "A popular man arouses the jealousy of the powerful," Hawat hadsaid.

    Arrakis?Dune?Desert Planet.

    Paul fell asleep to dream of an Arrakeen cavern, silent people allaround him moving in the dim light of glowglobes. It was solemn thereand like a cathedral as he listened to a faint sound?the drip-drip-drip ofwater. Even while he remained in the dream, Paul knew he wouldremember it upon awakening. He always remembered the dreams thatwere predictions.

    The dream faded.

    Paul awoke to feel himself in the warmth of his bed?thinking ...thinking. This world of Castle Caladan, without play or companions hisown age, perhaps did not deserve sadness in farewell. Dr. Yueh, histeacher, had hinted that the faufreluches class system was not rigidlyguarded on Arrakis. The planet sheltered people who lived at the desertedge without caid or bashar to command them: will-o'-the-sand peoplecalled Fremen, marked down on no census of the Imperial Regate.

    Arrakis?Dune?Desert Planet.

    Paul sensed his own tensions, decided to practice one of the mind-bodylessons his mother had taught him. Three quick breaths triggeredthe responses: he fell into the floating awareness ... focusing the consciousness... aortal dilation ... avoiding the unfocused mechanism ofconsciousness ... to be conscious by choice ... blood enriched andswift-flooding the overload regions ... one does not obtain food-safety-freedomby instinct alone ... animal consciousness does not extendbeyond the given moment nor into the idea that its victims may becomeextinct ... the animal destroys and does not produce ... animalpleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptual ...the human requires a background grid through which to see his universe... focused consciousness by choice, this forms your grid ... bodilyintegrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness ofcell needs ... all things/cells/beings are impermanent ... strive for flow-permanencewithin....

    Over and over and over within Paul's floating awareness the lessonrolled.

    When dawn touched Paul's window sill with yellow light, he sensedit through closed eyelids, opened them, hearing then the renewed bustleand hurry in the castle, seeing the familiar patterned beams of hisbedroom ceiling.

    The hall door opened and his mother peered in, hair like shadedbronze held with black ribbon at the crown, her oval face emotionlessand green eyes staring solemnly.

    "You're awake," she said. "Did you sleep well?"

    "Yes."

    He studied the tallness of her, saw the hint of tension in hershoulders as she chose clothing for him from the closet racks. Anothermight have missed the tension, but she had trained him in the BeneGesserit Way?in the minutiae of observation. She turned, holding asemiformal jacket for him. It carried the red Atreides hawk crest abovethe breast pocket.

    "Hurry and dress," she said. "Reverend Mother is waiting."

    "I dreamed of her once," Paul said. "Who is she?"

    "She was my teacher at the Bene Gesserit school. Now, she's theEmperor's Truthsayer. And Paul...." She hesitated. "You must tellher about your dreams."

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