"There are some prices an Atreides cannot pay," Paul said. "You know that." "I know," she sighed. "But I was tempted... " "Who was not tempted?" Paul asked.
Imagine being like. A normal citizen on a random tiny exoplanet at the edge of the Known Universe only hearing about the events of Dune from like. vague news reports because it's so far from anything going on. Oh there's a new emperor? Ok I guess didn't know much about the first one to begin with. He's also the leader of that crazy cult on Arrakis?? Since when are there cults on Arrakis I thought it was just like. spice and nothing else?? Sure I guess. Oh we all um. need to accept him as leader or he'll destroy our entire planet. Ok I guess sure dude it doesn't make much of a difference to me!!! I am just trying to go to work! There are pilgrims flocking to Arrakis to meet this guy??? Can't you not access coordinates to Arrakis or something?? Hell no *I'm* not going I don't gaf about sand dunes or weird brutalist megastructures thanks very much. Ohhh turns out the culty emperor is also the son of the former Duke of Caladan...ok I *kind of* know what his deal was like, vaguely? Is there even land on Caladan or is it entirely water I can't remember. Wait hold on he's *not* emperor anymore? He just. decided to fuck off into the desert one day and never came back and now his sister (did not know he had a sister) is in charge. Okay. Their mom was Bene Gesserit? They're Bene Gesserit? Or can read minds or something idk. What even *are* the Bene Gesserit come to think of it?
Oh there's. There's yet another emperor guys. From Arrakis again for some fucking reason and this time it's. it's a giant worm ? That ate a person? Did it eat the old emperor? Or is it the old emperor? It's just a person who looks like a worm? I'm picturing like an earthworm guys I don't even know how to visualize this.
needing to invent a way for stillsuits to handle periods. i can't believe this is just never addressed (i mean. i can. herbert not knowing what women are, many of whom experience some kind of period, is a huge component of dune) but it also can't be just like "technologically advanced tampon" bc also the environment is Supposed to be moist and perpetual tampon sounds a bit miserable. tbf afaik he doesn't really go over waste processing either so i'm inventing shit (haha) there too, at least for my own sanity re: internal logic being consistent
this is related but more applicable to everyone who wears a stillsuit: i'm concerned about the sweat catchment system not allowing for evaporative cooling. because. i feel like you'd just cook alive in the stillsuit if you don't have a way to do that. i'm sure this is feasible with future tech (fabrics and systems and material sciences dedicated towards moving heat off the body while still keeping the sweat encased in the ecosystem) but. thinking emoji. what's the material reality of that.
wrt periods - stillsuits also have tubes hooked up to handle faeces (which zantara lampshades by mentioning that you don't want to mess those tubes up), so i figure it's kinda similar to that? like, for all the weird shit frank herbert writes, i don't think he intended for that to come across like the fremen are constantly wearing butt plugs or shitting themselves. he's not subtle when he's writing freaky shit (see: everyone trying to covertly spot leto ii's worm-dick).
and turns out the semi-canonical dune encyclopaedia actually has a section on fremen menstruation so... interesting. idk what you know abt the encyclopaedia, but it was basically approved by frank herbert as a biased in-universe source written during leto ii's reign. hasn't been printed in decades since his death, but pdfs are freely available online, though with some typos from the ocr. anyway, behold the in-universe view on fremen periods:
From their earliest designs, stillsuits for women were constructed differently from those of the men: in addition to the thigh pads which processed urine and feces, the women's suits included a third processing unit for reclaiming the water lost in menstrual blood. In the later, even more efficient versions, these units kept female water loss on a par with that of the male, in spite of their physiological handicap.
[...] By the third generation [on Arrakis], they had discovered a partial solution. During the two weeks that bracketed a woman's flow, she could be put on a carefully regulated diet which decreased the water level of her body even below the Fremen norm, to bare minimum. This regimen both lessened the amount of moisture available to be passed and dropped the level gradually, to avoid the sudden shock.
The Fremen also discovered during these years that the bodies of the women were making their own effort to adjust. The length of the menstrual cycle gradually lengthened, increasing the interval between flows and thus decreasing the number of times a woman would menstruate between puberty and menopause; by 8570, the average cycle had leveled off at fifty-six days, double the Imperial norm.
your mileage may vary on what "a third processing unit" looks like, but i think something like a menstrual cup wouldn't be too ridiculous? obviously, the whole 56 day menstrual cycle isn't achievable for non-fremen, but given nowadays we have contraception that can wholly suppress menstruation, i think the fremen would be pretty enthusiastic about getting access to any in-universe equivalent or making their own.
(there's also a whole bit about how fremen boys are taught to practice contraception through dry ejaculation and they're not considered men until they've mastered it, which is hilarious since dune makes it clear that paul's adoption includes a thorough education in fremen ways and that he's a man in all ways but worm-riding by the start of part 2. imagining him or zantara receiving that lesson is just too funny, especially when the most of the imperium apparently uses scrotal implants instead, according to the encyclopaedia.)
also, agree on the stillsuit front. i don't have dune itself to hand, but the encyclopaedia specifically says that the innermost layer allows perspiration but acts as insulation from evaporative cooling, but that the tubes release air into the suit that uses the joule-thomson effect to cool the wearer and the thigh pads that process the urine (to liquify the ammonia for powering the air cycle). like, i guess that's fine, but surely just allowing evaporative cooling would also work. i'm not a biologist but it just seems. very convoluted.
"A place for every man and every man in his place" or, the origins of the Faufreluches
(Note: just tried to post this on r/dune and it's in moderation hell, so guess I'm posting it on here too.)
FAUFRELUCHES: the rigid rule of class distinction enforced by the Imperium. "A place for every man and every man in his place".
Most of us are probably familiar with this entry from the appendices of Dune, where it defines the Corrino Imperium's system of the faufreluches. The faufreluches, as Paul's early chapters tell us, are the foundation of the Imperium, which Yueh hints that it "was not rigidly guarded on Arrakis". We don't get much of an understanding of how the system works, really, beyond the fact that Paul gives Mohiam a bow specifically for "when in doubt of another's station".
Class means everything in the Imperium, we just don't get to see much of it before Paul tips it all over.
Faufreluches itself almost certainly comes from the French "fanfreluche", which means (decorative) frills/embellishments. Which is a pretty nice summary of its role in the plot - it embellishes the society of the Imperium, but plays a purely decorative role in Dune's actual plot, for the most part. But where does the phrase come from?
This excellent comment by u/maximedhiver tracked it back through a multitude of appearances to 1830, where it appeared in a prison report. That's not actually the first appearance, albeit it's an earlier report by the same authors: the Second Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society in 1827. Same society, mind you, so this post is mostly elaborating further on the context around this phrase.
But that sounds like a super boring report, doesn't it? How on earth did it take off from there to become a cliche within the next ninety years? Well, turns out that the Prison Discipline Society was founded in 1825 by a Quaker, Reverend Louis Dwight. To quote an article on the founding of the Society:
Not the first such society [for prison reform], it soon, however, became the most active, most vocal, and most widely known of all American prison reform groups. Its annual report, were purchased by many state legislatures and read, as well, throughout Europe. Dwight, as the secretary and the only paid member of the Society, travelled extensively, visiting many prisons, interviewing wardens and keepers, and reporting his findings.
This was an internationally renowned society - it's like the 1820s equivalent of Amnesty International. But, by our standards, it certainly wasn't as benevolent. Dwight advocated for the Congregate System, which prevented prisoners from talking to each other during the day and isolated them at night, enforced through whipping and violence, and opposed the Separate System, which also called for isolating prisoners from each other, but with less physical punishment and "frequent visits from chaplains and other morally uplifting visitors from the community". Not great to our eyes, to put it mildly.
But this doesn't really explain what the point of that saying was, and why Herbert might've chosen to use it. So let's look at the original quote:
A place for every man , and every man in his place. A convict should have the same cell at night, the same place in the shops, and the same relative position in the column, while marching to and from the shops. Thus if there is any communication, except between those Who are near each other, it is interrupted and difficult. The practical effect of this rule will be understood by the following illustration. A convict from a Prison containing several hundred prisoners, where this rule is not observed, said he could ordinarily see and converse with any prisoner in the establishment in the course of a day.
On the contrary, where the rule is observed, old comrades have been in the same Prison, passed through the same yard daily, and worked month after month in different shops connected with it, without ever having an opportunity to speak to one another, and each without knowing that the other was there. It is not perceived how order could be produced, and evil communication prevented to this extent, without having a place for every man, and every man in his place. But sometimes it is necessary for men to leave their places: to guard, therefore, against the danger of having several gone, at the same time, to a place of common resort, it is beneficial to use. (pp. 36-7).
This, I think, is a perfect summary of why Herbert chose this phrase to summarise the Imperium's society. The faufreluches system enforces a stasis on the Imperium by preventing people of different classes from intermixing as much as possible. As Leto II would argue, without adversity, there can be no change, let alone improvement. The Imperium of the Corrinos, where everyone - bar those on Arrakis - are perfectly orderly, is doomed to fail.
It's incredibly subtle, but it must've been a fairly obvious reference for Herbert and men of his generation as to what the underlying conflict throughout the series would be - stagnation and separation vs progress and intermingling.
- finwë was delighted by the club. unfortunately the concept of the club only began to form after finwë hit the elven equivalent of having to go to bed strictly at 9 pm with a set of your comfiest jammies on. probably clapped his hands and said "how quaint!" when he was invited to the club's opening.
- miriel was too busy being dead to go clubbing.
- fëanor was NOT at the club. are you kidding me? that man had gems to smith. the forge was his club.
- fingolfin was NOT at the club. he was born in an age where the eldar began to develop classism and decided that clubbing is not for the blue-blooded aristocracy. we cannot blame him for being a product of his time.
- you better believe lalwen was clubbing. whispers are still told about her unparralleled moves at the dance floor and somewhat concerning taste for elven tequilla.
- findis did not go to the club, she was too busy making her resume look perfect for ingwë's court.
- finarfin had his first child by the elven equivalent of 20 yo. he was not clubbing.
- finrod was clubbing for the joy of it. he made many a friend at the club. once nargothrond opened its own club, he want disguised as a commonner and as he reminisced of the careless time of his youth he saw visions of death and ruin and floors covered in blood. he did not go clubbing again.
- maglor was HITTING it at the club scene. the best parties were thrown when maglor was around. unfortunately the constant threat of morgoth's destruction kinda stood in the way of establishing a club at Maglor's Gap. you might say it really killed the vibe.
- galadriel did not go to the club because she was too good for the club. she also didn't drink (valid) and had a meticulously plotted out diet tracking her daily protein intake (the most athletic of noldor hitting the gym? unbelievable.) she was really into cottagge cheese for a while. thankfully she grew out of that phase but still didn't go to the club because 1) she was god's favourite princess and 2) as we established earlier, blue-blooded aristocracy did not go to the club.
- beren was too busy being haunted by horrors beyond comprehension to have a chance to explore the local club scene
dont store a knife with the point facing down, it damages the blade. no, dont do that either. when you store it with the point facing up you might accidentally hurt yourself when you try to grab it. dont store a knife at all actually. your blade must never leave your hand, always ready, ruthless and waiting. you know deep down that ever since you learned the stench of blood you will never be able to cast it aside. or just get a sheath for it i guess.
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