Heretics of Dune Club Session III: Questions and Observations

p.242 "The sweetest meat this side of heaven." You will live in the pod and eat the sligs. p.248 "Examples of what?" In their negotiations both sides devalue the general gene pool but one wonders if that's entirely sincere. Because by now, even -that- is the product of active meddling by both for a long time. p.251 A great need to get herself safely away from this room. I love how Taraza knows the -instant- to cut and run. And then the rest of it is just closing remarks, minus any further surprises. p.257 "Where does Odrade go when she's off duty? She goes to work." If you're someone who has to just -kill- a problem once it's identified, off work, for example by looking up the answer to a programming puzzle on stackexchange, then you're in the ballpark of being similar. p.260-267 regarding the Siaynoq dance one wonders if Leto was content with steering events more roughly so these dances would happen now and then as a result, or if even though Siona-genes prevent prescience most-of-the-time, if there are specific -days- (getting farther and farther apart from each other the longer he's dead) where his prescient grip for a single day would, not necessarily move all the people around like carpenter ants, but just be like 'It's important to have the dance this particular day because Odrade will be there to see it'. And then the grip loosens and stuff becomes unpredictable again. Who knows. The way Paul could see specific short periods in his visions but not other ones. p.269 I love the chapter heading about liberty and freedom not gaining their current meaning without the necessary oppressions as a contrast. And sources like Hobbes's Leviathan influencing it. p.278 "Use the instruments only when they are absolutely required to amplify the flesh." A lesson we should take a page from when dealing with the Internet Of Things. p.283 The No-Globe Interesting that Gurney was able to rename Giedi Prime to Gammu but in his dealings couldn't dislodge the cadet branch(es) of the Harkonnens as a defeated House from still existing well enough off to make the no-globe. That a House Major that's down on its luck would still have a long ways to tumble before going to House Minor. It gives things a sense of scale, if the Harkonnens are a big extended clan, and maybe local politics were complicated enough, or more obscure Harkonnens weren't as depraved as Vladimir's main family, or a young Leto II told Gurney to keep part of their family alive for this exact outcome. We don't know but it's fun to speculate p.288 "Was that old monster still active?" I love seeing rumblings of Teg's existence through the lens of Tuek's personality p.303 there was another question on Patreon accusing the Bene Gesserit of defying the Butlerians but I get a sort of sense that the computers they are using are more just primitive database stuff in text, sort of 'MS-DOS grade' and not even graphical. How advanced would they need to be with B.G. talents operating them. p.314 the brown drink that Duncan is drinking is the second time that there is a (maybe chocolate flavored) stimulant-drink of this type, the earlier was when Taraza shared the B.G. drink with Teg. Makes you wonder how much Ovaltine Frank drank back in the day growing up.

So, I finished the reading with less than 30 minutes to spare. The editor needs to be fired for not capitalizing the O in Occam ('s razor, being named after a medieval monk, Occam has multiple acceptable spellings, but they all take a capital O). Note that it is not a logical principle but a probabilistic one: "entities should not be needlessly multiplied." From this, it is inferred that of two (or multiple) different potential explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest one is *probably* the best/correct one. So it is not a principle of logic to discern the truth of a statement, but more of an aesthetic consideration in approximating truth. So to me, it is not about "logic failing" but for the truth-seeker to fail to properly examine their assumptions. That being said, "logic" can run into paradoxes and unresolvable statements. In any case, Gurney Halleck gets a mention, and all I can say are these two things: 1- release the balliset cut 2- the Bene Gesserit have something in common with the Taliban for not liking music.

PJ B

Shocked Observations:. The BG had never honored the Butlerian ban against thinking machines! During the mother superiors time in the archives it mentions that The Bene Gesserit kept using computers while they were banned. I knew the BG were never ones to passivley follow trends, but I always thought they supported and were a part of the power behind the ban against thinking machines as a necessary measure against the degradation of the human race.. It makes it look like the BG didn't follow one of their own rules. We all know that Leto the second was a bastard by necessity, and it doesn't surprise me that he let his priesthood sink to such a sad state since I never thought he cared much for priests, but I am disappointed that looking into the future he didn't take some steps to make sure his beloved fish speakers didn't get crushed by the tide of History. I got the impression he really did care about them and it's sad to see the state they're in now. They've gone from being the baddest b****** anyone ever conceived of, to being a bunch of easily dismissed tools. Harkonnan No-Globes:. The existence of these confused me. I thought the no globe technology was invented near the tail end of leto the second's reign. Since gurney hallock is the one given credit for transforming Geidi Prime into what would become Gammu, which must have happened no later than at the beginning of Leto II tenure as God King, how the heck was there any sort of harkonnen power structure in place to snatch up the new no globe technology and make the secret no globe to begin with? I do not see gurney or any of his Calledonian friends being inclined to leave anything of the old Harkonnens intact. Finally, I can now count three times where love influenced someone to defy the overwhelming conditioning available to the various groups of Dune. Dr. Yueh define Suk conditioning for love of his wife, Lady Jessica defied the BG for love of Leto I, and Miles' Mother defied the BG for love of her son.

What are ur top three moments in the book for any reason? Thanks Professor.

Captain Marvel DMB MSc