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05/ 5/24 17:26:05 [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

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Date Posted: 21:16:59 07/06/03 Sun
Author: IDAHO
Subject: Paul did INDEED have Other Memory: The Proof and conclusions

A little while ago on this website I asserted that Paul Atreides had Other Memory and it launched the board here into a polarized debate. Both sides had compelling arguments, but it seemed that the side asserting that Paul did not have Other Memory seemed to have the weight of evidence on their side. This was largely comprised of a passage in Dune Messiah where Leto II presents Paul with the vision and voices of all his ancestors and Paul is overwhelmed. It also consisted of a challenge: Prove Paul had Other Memory and we'll believe you. Subsequently I have reread the first Dune novel. Though my sole intent wasn't merely to prove Paul had Other Memory, I did keep a look out for it during the course of my reading. In doing so, I have found the evidence to support the claim that Paul did have other memory. The proof consists of what it means to be a Kwisatz Haderach by definition, and several instances of Paul hearing his ancestors. Though, it is questionable to what degree the Other Memory is present in Paul's consciousness, the evidence is there that he has it.

By definition the Kwisatz Haderach is one who can bridge space and time. He is often referred to as a male Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, with all the according powers and skills of a Reverend Mother. One of those skills is Other Memory. But not just Feminine Other Memory, he is supposed to bridge the male and female past according to the Bene Gesserit as described by Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam in the first Chapter of Dune:

"The drug's dangerous," she said, "but it gives insight. When a Truthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memory- in her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the past...but only feminine avenues." Her voice took on a note of sadness. "yet, there's a place no Truthsayer can see. We are repelled by it, terrorized. It is said a man will come one day and find in the gift of the drug his inward eye. He will look where we cannot- into both feminine and masculine pasts."

"Your Kwisatz Haderach?"
"Yes, the one who can be many places at once: the Kwisatz Haderach. Many men have tried the drug...so many, but none has succeeded."

"They tried and failed, all of them?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died."

This is compelling evidence especially since by the end of the novel, both Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Paul Atreides himself asserts that he is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach. Logically it follows that Paul then has all the powers that are outlined as being the powers of the Kwisatz Haderach.

However, many people have said that Paul is an aberration from what the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood expected. Futhermore, it was argued that the Sisterhood really had no reference for what to expect when they created a Kwisatz Haderach so they really didn't know what they were going to get. These are both valid arguments, but further evidence shows that regardless of what the Sisterhood did or did not expect, Paul did have Other Memory.

When a Reverend Mother changes the Water of Life, she becomes privy to her own feminine ancestral memories, then upon the sharing with another Reverend Mother, she becomes privy to all that Reverend Mother's memories and all the ones before. Thus she has access to a line of successive Reverend Mothers' memories as well. This is never explicitly stated in the text of Dune, but is implicated in it and the subsequent novels. Paul's journey through the Water of Life also is never explicitly discussed, though we know that he did indeed convert the poisons and transmute them. Paul never went through the sharing so we must assume that he did not gain the past lives of a successive line of Reverend Mothers like Jessica did. Before transmuting the Water of Life, Paul can see glimpses of the future and has higher mental thinking than even a mentat, but he has no access to any kind of Other Memory. His deduction that Jessica was a Harkonnen, is just that: A deduction, based on his mentat like computing prowess in examining the facial and bone structure of himself and his mother. No Other Memory is involved. However, we know that Jessica gained her feminine ancestral memories when she took the Water of Life. Logically it follows that Paul would gain the same thing when he takes the Water of Life. But since Herbert didn't write about Paul's experience, the reader doesn't know for sure that he does gain these memories.

When Paul awakens from the Water of LIfe trance after three weeks, it is clear that he has been through an ordeal. He has gained the power to be "many places at once." He can see the past and the future, but also the "Now." The vision is so powerful and entrancing, Paul takes three weeks to wake up rather than the customary few moments. Upon waking and seeing Jessica, he also explains:

" 'There is in each of us an ancient force that takes. and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed...I'm at the fulcrum,' he said. 'I cannot give without taking and I cannot take without...' "

This quote in a round about way alludes to the fact that Paul has bridged the masculine and feminine in some way just as the Reverend Mother Mohiam had said the Kwisatz Haderach would do. However, it doesn't prove that he has Other Memory.

The incontrovertible evidence is in the text. Just before Paul leads the final attack at Arakeen against the Emperor, he receives a communique that his son, Leto II (his very first child), has been murdered in a raid. At the end of the chapter, stricken with grief, Paul feels something inside him:

"He could feel the old man wisdom, the accumulation out of the experiences from countless possible lives. Something seemed to chuckle and rub its hands within him. And Paul thought: how little the universe knows about the nature of real cruelty!"

This is the first real clear example that Paul has Other Memory. It blatantly states that he has the accumulation out of the experiences of COUNTLESS possible lives. Perhaps, the quote can be construed when it says "possible lives" that these are merely experiences that Paul has seen from the future and it is only his own life that he is looking at. We know that Paul saw many possible paths of his own future, many of which resulted in his death. He could be talking about the accumulation of those possible lives rather than any ancestral lives within Other Memory. However, I think that is a misinterpretation of the passage, considering that it is logical that Paul has most probably gained Other Memory from the Water of LIfe experience and due to the fact that Other Memory is referred to in the text often as "an accumulation of lives".

This example is very compelling, however, not as compelling as the final chapter of Dune in which Paul, kills Feyd-Rautha in single combat and thus removes all obstacles to the Throne. Before the combat, Jessica, fearful for her son's life, tells Paul that often the Bene Gesserits implant codewords very deep in certain peoples' psyche if they are dangerous and need to be killed or controlled. She guesses with certainty that Feyd-Rautha is such a one and that the word is "Uroshnor". She suggests that Paul use this word to immobilize Feyd's muscles if he sees no other way to win. Paul, determined with a very Atreides like air, refuses to give himself an unfair advantage. At the critical moment, Paul hears the Other Memory inside him:

"Paul strained, hearing the silent screams in his mind, his cell stamped ancestors demanding that he use the secret word to slow Feyd-Rautha, to save himself.
'I will not say it!' Paul gasped.

Paul's vocalizations, though not capitalizing on the immobilizing word are enough to confuse and unbalance Feyd-Rautha and Paul slays him. In this example Paul has clear access to Other Memory. His ancestors inside him speak to him. There is no denying that they speak to him, though Paul chooses to ignore their advice in the moment.

Due to the fact that Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach which is a male Bene Gesserit who is expected to be able to bridge the masculine and feminine paths, and the fact that he successfully converts the Water of Life which is the ceremony in which all Reverend Mothers gain access to their ancestral feminine memories, and finally due to the fact that he actually hears his own ancestors speak, the reader must conclude that Paul indeed has Other Memory. It is unclear how strong the Other Memory is inside him, though. Other Memory is discussed very little in Dune and is discussed to a great extent in subsequent novels. My personal conclusion is then that this is a concept that Frank Herbert started with, but got more infatuated with as his writing progressed throughout the series. By the time of Chapterhouse, Other Memory is talked about a great deal. It is also clear that Other Memory is stronger in, and probably more thought out by Herbert, in the examples of pre-borns. The Pre-Borns, Alia, Ghanima, and Leto II, clearly have this ability/curse to a much greater degree than any others and my guess is that Other Memory was a concept that was fully fleshed out with the inception of these characters. This would explain why Other Memory is not only talked about in greater detail, but also why Paul is shocked at the vivdness of the vision of the ancestors within his own son in Dune Messiah. I think that Frank Herbert's intention also was always the progression of generations. Thus Paul's children and successive generations have his powers, but to an even stronger extent. So while Paul's Other Memory may not be as strong as later characters like Leto II or Odrade for example, it is hard to deny the fact that he did have the ability.

And if you made it to the end of this, you deserve a prize.

Peace
-IDAHO-

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