Irulan Seems to Be Mostly Wrong

A beginning seems to be a fine time at which to note that a character, even one that is made to speak authoritatively, is not necessarily a spokesman for the author.  A beginning may not be a time for letting some literary princess tell us what is so.  Consider what a poor model quantitative precision of correct balances is for the delicate matter of understanding the meaning of  Muad’Dib, whether considered from Irulan’s standpoint as a real human being, or from the standpoint of the author and his readers as a character.  Different sorts of inquiry seem to require different sorts of precision.  When one comes to the point of inquiring as to what sort of inquiry one should make, it seems that inquiry requires the precision of the fullest openness to possible problems.

For the moment, we may consider the subject of Muad’Dib’s “place.”  What, other than Irulan’s apparent certainty, supports the opinion that Muad’Dib has only one place, and not Caladan, but Arrakis?  Careful consideration of Caladan as Muad’Dib’s origin would raise a question as to what “Caladan” was for Muad’Dib.  Was it a water-world?  It seems young Paul led a life apart from his father’s subjects, held apart and sheltered in Castle Caladan.  The castle was not more watery than Dune, but more stony, that is, more solid.  Unlike Castle Caladan, Planet Caladan was in flux, like the sands, winds, worms, and spice-blows of Arrakis.  When Paul and his mother the Lady Jessica crashed in the desert, they were forced to sink or swim.  If you think that’s just a metaphor, then please recall Paul’s rescue of his mother from beneath a wave of sand.  And if you still will not consider the equivalence I’m making, of flowing water to flowing sand, then remember that Paul fixed the sand in place using foam, that is, a mixture of air and liquid.  The earth of Arrakis became more solid, less “watery,” when Paul mixed it with a mixture of air and liquid.

To come to a point, then, Irulan’s precision about Muad’Dib’s place obscures the question as to whether flowing ocean and flowing desert may be much the same.  Drawing such an equivalence seems to be a sort of precision, even a sort of equalizing or correction of balances.