Dunno there seemed to be hints that pointed towards that end, not so much Arrakis being earth but that worms had ALMOST died out and been saved several times.
Since the “Weirding Devices” were only in the movie they were never well explained.
The sonic devices were from the David Lynch movie adaptation and did not appear in the book. The weirding way is simply a martial art that was developed by the Bene Gesserits.
Edit: In the movie, there were certain “killing words” which could be used with the sonic weirding modules. Muad’Dib was a killing word for example.
Yeah, in the book, the “secret weapon” is that the Fremen are unbelievably good hand to hand fighters. Better even than the Saudaukar. Weirding just referred to Jessica’s Bene Gesserit skills, first in fighting, but also her use of The Voice and her ability to detect lies, etc…
Only the Kwisatz Haderach gets the prescience part. For other people, it just tastes good, gets them a little high and makes them live long.
What I wonder is why spice is confined to Arrakis (other than “because otherwise there’d be no story”). It’s been a long while since I’ve read the books but do only the Fremen know about the worms => spice connection ? And if not, why haven’t worms been introduced to other planets ? There can’t be a shortage of shitty little dustballs that could be repurposed into major spice factories.
It was haphazard and sloppy because the Fremen made it that way. They owned the desert, so the Harkonnens always had a tough time retrieving it. And the Fremen were bribing the Guild with spice to keep prying eyes out of the desert. So the organization that really needed it, the Guild, had their own private supply of spice, and no reason to rock the boat. Remember too that no one else knew that the Guild depended on spice so heavily.
It was definitely given to Fenring on a temporary basis - it’s mentioned in one of the appendices. Presumably some other up & coming House Major would have gotten it later.
The Navigators got prescience too - that’s how they navigated safely. The whole folding space thing was just the movie as well (and may have been in the Brian Herbert /Anderson abominations). It was much more limited than Paul & Leto’s prescience though.
The Fremen definitely knew about the worm/spice connection. Liet-Kynes explains the entire worm/spice life cycle while he’s hallucinating/expositioning right before his death. No one else (with the possible exception of the Guild) knew about the connection until the end of the first book. Even if they did - no one had the technology/knowledge to capture a worm. IIRC, in Children of Dune, they mention that a small captured sandworm had been brought to Salusa Secundus, but was poisoned by too much moisture.
It has been a long while, so I don’t fully remember now. I thought it was the transfer of Duke Leto and his family to control of the more prestigious Arakis (and the subsequent betrayal plot hidden within), while transferring Caladan to control of Harkonnens, as a mitigation for their loss of status from Arakis.
Not only is prescience how the Navigators do their thing, but it is also obtained by the Bene Gesserit. The problem is the Bene Gesserit version is locked and can’t see everything, because of their gender barrier. Thus the need for the male balance.
Paul was something more, because he wasn’t gender locked.
Right before Liet-Kynes dies, we find out he has learned the secret and not reported it. Since he is the Imperial agent most aware and in tune with things, specifically sent to Dune to study the Fremen and learn about the spice, I think it is safe to say no one else knows the worm-spice connection, they just know that harvesting the spice calls the worms.
I still have a hard time with the logic of it all… in all that time, nobody noticed:
- That the spice is unique to Arrakis, and
- That the worms are unique to Arrakis
And thought to put 2+2 together?
More specifically, if spice is so critical to the functioning of everything, you’d think they’d have scientists (plural, not just Lyet-Kines gone native) working around the clock trying both to figure out where it comes from, and for ways to synthesize it.
Then again, I suppose there still are controversies today about where oil really comes from on our only planet so…
It is mentioned in one of the books, I can’t remember which, that sandworms had been moved to other planets. They all died. They died because the full nature of the spice cycle wasn’t known. The only attempt to take worms off Arrakis that worked was when the Bene Gesserit did it in Chapterhouse. They knew enough to take a bunch of sandtrout along with the worm.
The sandtrout sequester the water in the environment. Since water is toxic to the worms this step was important to ensure the worms would survive off of Arrakis.
IIRC
The navigators are a mixture of extreme spice immersion and selective breeding. Barlowe’s Guide To Extraterrestrials has a page on them.
If memory serves, Arrakis orbits a star visible from Earth and named Arrakis or Dancer.
As has been mentioned, melange grants longevity.
BTW
My therapist gave me a print out on the nature of fears and overcoming them. She included the Bene Gesserit litany against fear.
Last night, BBC America played the four hour “Alan Smithee” version of* Dune*. The re-made opening is so awful it made me want to yell, “I WILL kill THEM!”
After I finally got around to reading the book, I didn’t think David Lynch’s version was a bad adaptation.
The Bene Gesserit didn’t have limited prescience, they had limited access to genetic memory; specifically, memories of their female ancestors. The Kwisatz Haderach would have had access to male and female ancestral memory both, as well as being prescient.
Always wondered how that one’s supposed to square with Alia being ‘possessed’ by her grandfather.
I mean… Oops?
I agree. It simply suffered from a) trying to translate a story heavy with internal monologue and speculation, and b) having a very rich setting that impacted heavily on the immediate story. There was just no way for Lynch to cram all of the needed background info and character opinion into the final cut.
Ah, would that it were so! I’m reading his biowarfare novel The White Plague (1982) right now, and it’s, um, not very good.
Which is why I always wondered why the Fremen’s ultimate goal was said to be turning Arrakis into a garden planet. It’d kill off all of the sandworms, and destroy the universe’s sole source of spice!
That was addressed to a large extent in the books.
Alia was Paul’s sister, after all, which meant she had the Kwisatz Haderach genes (as did Paul’s children).
And there were several notes in the books about going through the Spice Agony while pregnant, which would create “Abominations”, which apparently means they are pre-born as pseudo-Reverend Mothers with access to their own genetic legacy, which usually ended in possession by one’s own ancestors.
I think the book mentioned that the deep desert would be preserved for the worms and to continue the Fremen culture.
Remember that this was a society that was to some extent hostile to science in general (apart from breeding, because you can do that without machines).
Alia was Paul’s sister and thus the product of the same genetic line, so she was arguably something of an Ersatz Haderach. Also, she was an abomination because her mother had tripped on spice water while pregnant. These factors, plus Baron Harkonnen’s sheer malignancy, allowed that possession.