Saint Alia Of The Knife

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen & Marie Fenring, father and daughter.

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson | Jacek Jędral, Untitled, 2020 | "Black Bathing Suit" by Lana del Rey | Moebius' Dune concept art, 1974 | Imogen by Herbert Gustave Schmalz, 1888 | "Poacher's Pride" by Nicole Dollanganger | unknown | "Anecdote of the Pig" by Tory Adkisson | The Abduction of Ganymede, Gustav Moreau, 1886 | Snow Maiden, Viktor Vasnetsov, 1899 | A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

“They said you were dead,” Gurney repeated.

“And it seemed the best protection to let them think so,” Paul said.

Gurney realized that was all the apology he’d ever get for having been abandoned to his own resources, left to believe his young Duke … his friend, was dead. He wondered then if there were anything left here of the boy he had known and trained in the Ways of fighting men.

Paul took a step closer to Gurney, found that he had tears in his eyes. “Gurney ….”

It seemed to happen of itself, and they were embracing, pounding each other on the back, feeling the reassurance of solid flesh.

“You young pup! You young pup!” Gurney kept saying.

And Paul: “Gurney, man! Gurney, man!”

Paul could have fallen on his knife at any time.

The books, and the most recent movies, present Paul's descent from 'somewhat innocent son of Atreides' to 'dark Messiah' as something he had no control over, to an extent--the power of the prophecies, of the Bene Gesserit manipulations, of the political forces at work, and of eventually the actions of specifically Jessica were just too powerful and too inescapable. It is presented as a tragedy, with all of the inescapability that entails. There is no choice.

But there is always a choice. There always has to be a choice. These machinations only work if they have the right tool. So what do you do when you want to escape being the figurehead, the spark that lights the fire that is the Jihad? You must take away that spark. Permanently.

But that's the thing, isn't it? The only way out was so drastic Paul would never have taken it. To fall on his knife would be to leave behind his mother and his growing sister and Chani, it would be to betray Stilgar, it would be to end the male line of House Atreides (remember how gender works in this world, remember how women cannot hold power outside of religion) and betray his father, it would be to give in to the Harkonnens.

But to fall on his sword would also be to deprive the machinations of the Bene Gesserit of their Kwisatz Haderach, the corrupted fundamentalist faith of the Fremen their Messiah, the looming Jihad its figurehead and focal point. Perhaps it wouldn't be enough, perhaps the focus would have simply shifted to Jessica or even Alia, gender roles notwithstanding, but it's still a powerful act, a powerful message to send--that one would rather die than act to cause death.

Or perhaps the route the galaxy would go without the Jihad would be worse in the long run. Perhaps the Fremen would stay an oppressed people; but I want to believe that Chani (specifically Chani in the recent movies) is correct, that the Fremen need no outside Messiah and would have freed themselves. That maybe the galaxy wouldn't get better, but it certainly wouldn't have gotten worse.

And isn't that awful? For a non-tragic ending to require such a tragic choice?

“Memory never recaptures reality. Memory reconstructs. All reconstructions change the original, becoming external frames of reference that inevitably fall short.”

— Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune

Illustrations by John Schoenherr for The Illustrated Dune, 1978 by Frank Herbert. 🐛🐛

Haven't drawn much these days but have some sheeanaposting

for @dafoes

Sting as Feyd Rautha DUNE (1984) - dir. David Lynch

- Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

dune: part two // the lovers - rene magritte

John Schoenherr’s cover for the first edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune, 1965