Dune Club Session One!

I haven't received my Dune Box yet. Is there something I can do to fix this situation?

For session 2: is the water of life like the drug DMT

"The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance." Can you please extrapolate on this?

EvilDeadTiM

Questions I had for session 1 : 1) The Bene Gesserit order asked Jessica to only have daughters and she defied them, how is that done exactly? Do they control their body to the point where it can just be a conscious decision on her part or do they manipulate the embryo and manually implant it in her? Or do they just abort the male embryos? 2) How could the Baron's Mentat, Piter, predict that the Duke would get daughter that could be married to the Baron's nephew, I thought Mentat only calculated things and that the Bene Gesserit were the ones with the gift of foresight.

Malbeth

Here are my questions: 1) How would that bible Yueh gave Paul work? I was having trouble visualizing it - maybe you could act it out? Hahahaha 2)What's the condition-ut-extremis mentioned on page 76's "Analysis: Arrakeen Crisis" excerpt? Was it mentioned before? 3) Can you elaborate a bit more on the Mentat training? Why do they need to start training so young without knowledge of the purpose of the training and choose for themselves to continue?

Niko Ketsilis

QUESTION: Why did Duke Leto and Jessica never marry? What are the benefits of Jessica's current status as a concubine rather than Duke Leto's wife? Is she treated differently in their society? There is a hint that she may retain more personal freedoms as a concubine when Duke Leto says: "Be thankful that I never married you, my dear. Then it would be your duty to join me at the table for every meal." I imagine the Duke never married AFTER Jessica out of his great love for her, and to maintain Paul as his heir.

Rachael Root

There's a ton questions, especially regarding Yueh and Jessica's suspicions, and about Paul, but I wonder about the Duke Leto. He knows the Harkonnens abd the Sardukaurs and the Emperor are preparing his end, so why walk into the trap knowing it'll destroy him and his house?

Yeah I trigger something similar whenever I get up after only a couple hours; there were some hushed conversations about things from the book, I definitely remember Bene Gesserit and Kwistatz Haderach bouncing around... I think I had only read about 30 pages at that point, was pretty shocked a book I had just started was having such an effect on me.

I have a couple questions/things to talk about for the next sesh. First off, can you go into the Duke and Lady Jessica's relationship? They are almost written like we have missed a lot of their character development. We know Lady Jessica was basically bought (maybe because the Bene Gesserit talents are useful?) and ended up being a concubine.(p78) The only time they've spoken so far is prefaced with how he became a more savage person after they received the order to move to Arrakis. They have different rooms,(p 80) although I'm guessing that would be something they carried over from Caladan. She says "A secretary bound to one by love is so much safer," and thinks about how the Duke has a cold side. (p102,104) The whole relationship and their conversation is all weird and strained. Second, do you think you could say something about culture and control? As far as I can tell most of the Fremen culture that isn't directly about survival is something that was created for them. It's used exclusively by the upper class to control the Fremen in case they need to mobilize them to some purpose. Leto hints at Selusa Secundus having a similar environment, but with a kind of nazi like superiority complex or cultish behaviors. (p71.) Anyway, I'm loving the book club and I hope you do more!

Oh but yes I wanted to ask that too about 3), why do they skip the space folding, it goes from Paul and his father talking about the trip, to Leto and Lady Jes talking on Arrakis. I loved the movie space folding scene and music. In one of the games you get to exit the ship on the highliner and go sabotage the other houses, pretty fun.

I had a vivid waking dream the other night, I get them semi often anyways but this one was longer. You know when your just falling asleep but still awake and you flash through what seems like a long time but in only minutes or less.

So excited for this!! I have a couple of questions; 1) has anyone else been having weird dreams since they started reading? My first night after starting I tried waking up mid-REM sleep and was pretty sure I was living a few lives simultaneously. 2) I'm curious about the powers/abilities of the BG, especially Jessica. She was able to detect that Mapes had a hidden dagger, but can't tell that Yueh is nefarious? Is it just because he had some training from Wanna? 3) Spaceships, will we ever see the inside of one? I was disappointed that we jumped to Arrakis without getting to see the journey, I'm also a little confused about how long it would have taken.

I am so happy you are doing this and hope you do the rest of the books, too. Dune runs deep in my family. We had the Lynch version on Beta (I think) and I watched it a million times growing up. I have the Litany Against Fear tattooed on my arm and my little brother had a dog named Muad'dib. I thought it would be really cool if both my bros and my mom read along so that when we get together this summer we can talk about Dune and follow along with you when we don't see each other. LOVE IT and you CBG19! Bringing families together with Dune.

Hey guys, Vicky here! Apologies for the link not working earlier. It's been fixed, you can also find the live stream recorded on our Facebook page. I'll be pulling questions from this post up until Sunday! Thank you everyone!

DanikaXIX

I guess I'm like the dork in high school that can't get into the cool parties.

Jason James