Fear is the mindkiller
"I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little death that
brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to
pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn
to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only
I will remain." - Frank Herbert, "Dune"
One of the best quotes in
Frank Herbert’s Dune. It was first appeared when Paul Atreides was
tested by Reverend Mother Mohiam. Although Paul was the first who said
the quote in Dune, actually it’s one of the teachings of Bene Gesserit.
I’m
very fascinated by Dune and the world revolving it. Such a fantastic
story. I liked it the first time when I played the PC game Dune (which
now becomes an abandonware). The story is about politics, religion,
philosophy, and a premonition about technology. There’s space travel
using space fold technology that was monopolized by the Spacing Guild.
Bene Gesserit that’s a society of selective breeding, and with mental
and physical training of prana-bindu training they wanted to improve
humanity by creating the Kwisatz Haderach, "the one who can be many
places at once.". There’s a century old feud of House Atreides and
House Harkonnen. The Imperial House Corrino with an army of Sardaukar
elites. The sand people, Fremen. Shai-Hulud a.k.a. sand worm. Minor
House Tleilaxu which have advanced biogenetics engineering that can
produce face-dancers (shapeshifters) and gholas (clones from human
tissues). And of course the spice Melange.
Having played the
game and seen both the film (which has the singer Sting in it as
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen) and mini series, I’ve come to realize to these
questions. What is human? What is time and space? What is superhuman?
And furthermore after I watched the Children of Dune miniseries about
Paul’s twin children there’s so many thoughts came up. What is the
benefit of premonition or the ability to know the many paths of the
future? The one who has it (Paul) didn’t want it, yet the one who
didn’t have it (Alia) crave for it. So what then if we can see the
possible future and can make judgements according to the best possible
future. I mean, is it actually the best future / the best path? If so
the best from whose point of view? What if it is the best for us human
beings, but the worst for the planet? Also, wouldn’t knowing the future
make the whole surprise in life be nullified and life will become so
dull? Paul himself didn’t know this answer. Paul himself didn’t know
how to achieve "The Golden Path".
Resources about Dune:
- Dune novels in Wikipedia
- Dune the movie in Wikipedia
- Dune the miniseries in Wikipedia . The best ever Dune interpretation
compared to the movie
- Dune abandonware game .
- Dune 2 abandonware game . A non-canon version of Dune with another Great
House of Ordos
October 16th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
I have learned to not be afraid of the sand worm, to lure it, surface it, use it against my enemies, and then kill it.
Such is the way fear should be utilized.
“In order to conquer fear you must become fear”