Re: Errors in the 'House Atreides' novel

[Tim Robb <timrobb@club-internet.fr>]

Thank you for your swift reply...

Dune News wrote:

>          Reply to:   RE: Errors in the 'House Atreides' novel
> Dear Tim,
>
> Thank you very much for your letter and your careful reading of HOUSE ATREIDES.  We hope the answers below will provide sufficient explanations for your questions.  Please bear in mind that the Herbert Ltd. Partnership, the holders of the DUNE copyright, are the only ones who determine DUNE "canon," and these projects have their full blessing and endorsement.
>
> 1)  Spice and Mentats.  One of the effects of the spice is to sharpen mental acuities.  Melange is often used during the initial training of Mentats.

Granted, although I still don't remember Frank Herbert mentioning that the Mentats NEEDED spice in the same way the Bene Gesserit or the Guild did.

> 2) Elacca wood.  Can you give us the reference in HOUSE ATREIDES?  If we did indeed call the planet "Elacca," that is an error.

G. Hussain Chinoy found the following reference:

page 26 of the Bantam edition mentions Paulus Atreides's pipe as being
"Elaccan jacaranda wood". Is that adjective there meaing Elacca wood or
"of the planet Elacca"?

"He stared at the pipe in his hand. Carved from Elaccan jacaranda wood, it
was deep brown, with swirls that glinted in the light cast by the
glowglobes."

Furthermore, one of Elrood's concubines is desribed as Elaccan, and the two lawyers Leto hires for his trial also. I must therefore assume that Elacca is a planet.

> 3) Jessica's mother.  This is directly from Frank Herbert's notes.  The "Tanidia Nerus" name is a code identification in Sisterhood archives.
>
> 4) No-fields.  Sorry, we can't give anything away, but this will all be explained in the course of the trilogy.  By the time you finish Book 3, you will have a full explanation about these.

> 5) Did Liet-Kynes marry his aunt?  Almost, but complex fremen clan relationships don't make it so simple.  Faroula was only an "adopted" sister of Stilgar, similar to how Paul claimed the sons of Jamis as part of his family.

Just a note: if the Zensunni come from an Islamic background, then they certainly follow the precepts of the Torah, which forbids one's marriage to one's aunt. However, I do agree that things might have changed much in 14+ millenia.

> 6) Guild Navigators' transformation.  Sorry, but your impression is wrong.  Navigators are often bred by the Guild, but others are chosen from human candidates as described in HOUSE ATREIDES, and are mutated over massive exposure to melange.
>
> We hope this letter has helped answer your questions, and that you enjoy the trilogy.
>
> Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

--
============

Tim Robb
office: Tim.Robb@compaq.com
home: TimRobb@club-internet.fr

There was a man who sat each day looking out through a
narrow vertical opening where a single board had been
removed from a tall woodden fence. Each day a wild ass of
the desert passed outside the fence and across the narrow
opening - first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the
long brown back, the hindlegs, and lastly the tail. One
day, the man leaped to his feet with the light of discovery
in his eyes and he shouted for all who could hear him:
"It is obvious! The nose causes the tail!"

- Frank Herbert


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