Having diarrhea and taking a dump in the catch basin
From what I read in Dune, even if it was a perfect closed system,all water belongs to the tribe. The conservatory may have been concidered hoarding.
Declan
A Sandmage ( from Sandmagic, an old short story by Orson Scott Card ) would offend just by his existence, much less what he’d do. A sandmage gains his magic by serving the desert and giving it what it “wants”; dryness and death. A sandmage would be committed to scattering what little water they have; he’d “teach” the sands to overrun and dry their farms, to insinuate itself everywhere like a live thing, to creep into and fill what wells they have, to mound up against that conservatory until the walls are breached and the sand pours in to scatter the water. A literal “servant of dryness” who gains powers from his destructiveness would be a walking water crime, I’d think.
I would think spitting toward his feet, like in the old westerns, would be the ultimate insult/outrage to a single Fremen. Don’t know if the whole tribe would get in an uproar about it.
Las Vegas’ tourist cooling system.
Perhaps, but it wasn’t made clear in the context that it appeared in the novel. Particularly when you consider that the book also describes a really bone headed action taken by Duke Leto during a well attended official dinner. This was done at a time when he was trying to establish and consolidate his position on Dune. It would more likely have inspired a rebellion:
It’s been years since I saw the original movie and can’t recall whether or not that scene was used or not. I haven’t seen the series but I’d be interested to know if this scene was used in it.
Just to veer slightly off topic, a bit of Dune related news from astrogeology.usgs, the descripter term planitia has been approved for use on Titan with the theme “Names of planets from the Dune series of science fiction novels by American author Frank Herbert (1920 - 1986).” The first planitia name on Titan has also been approved; Chusuk Planitia is located at 5.0S, 23.5W.
I’m not sure that a moon like Titan, awash in methane and oil, is really a good match for Dune.
No, that’s actually considered a sign of respect. IIRC, it’s an Atreides that gets outraged when a Fremen spits at his feet.
You’d think the first one would be Arrakis.
Considering what Herbert meant melange to stand for, I think the match may be perfect.
Off topic : Keanu-style woah. I must be awfully slow, because I never made the parallel. You just blew my mind.
A super-soaker yard fight.
Southern California style watering down the sidewalk.
Nobody’s mentioned flush toilets yet?
There is a scene in The Three Amigos where they’re out in the desert on their horses. Steve Martin takes a drink (and I believe gets only a drop). Then Martin Short pulls out his canteen, looking like he’s dying of thirst and gets a mouthful of sand from the canteen. Then the two of them look over at Chevy Chase, who takes his full canteen, washes up a bit, gargles and spits, then throws the mostly full canteen onto the ground. The other two look frustrated.
Fremen would kill him for that.
Who would make those when they can just poo in their suits.
Sorry for the hijack, but is there some particular reason that the planet Arakis, home of the most precious resource in the known universe, can’t simply import whatever water it needs? I mean it ain’t exactly rare in the rest of the galaxy.
Oh and I’m going with a Slip N’ Slide.
The Fremen control the planet (once you get out of the cities). The Fremen actually have more access to the spice than the government. The Fremen bribe the Spacing Guild NOT to orbit weather satellites.
The reason is that if Arrakis became non-arid, the source of the spice would die. The sandworms create the spice. Water is fatal to the sandworms. So: Water=no spice.
Another reason is that the Fremen consider Arrakis (or actually, Dune) their testing ground. It’s what’s kept them a strong people for so long. It’s their religion, in a way.
Grumman said:
IIRC, it isn’t spit at his feet, it’s spit on his face. Which has to be explained as an act of giving water. Though that still seems a poor way to show respect and giving water. Maybe pissing in his stillsuit would be better. 
Spitting on the ground would be wasting water. So that might be taken as an insult. “I’d rather waste this water than share it with you.”
Aquila Be said:
I think you misunderstand. This occurs after Duke Atreides learns that the spilled water is taken out and given to the poor. He does this to force there to be a lot of water for the poor, rather than a small quantity. This is done as an act for the people, and is one of the things that the Fremen are aware of.
Though it may not put him in good with the power base in the city.
And yes, the spitting scene was in Lynch’s Dune. I don’t recall about the Sci Fi version, but possibly.
Stilgar spits on the conference table.
Watching the Tank Girl movie.
Watching Waterworld.