“Sly Little Rascal”

Paul Atreides’s first action in Dune is an imitation that fails.   As Reverend Mother Mohiam looks in on him, he pretends to be asleep.  Looking back from the end, we may call what he attempts “concealment in a no-consciousness,” while in light of Plato’s Sophist, we may call it “concealment in nonbeing.”  But Reverend Mother Mohiam, [...]

“Your Reverence”

The Reverend Mother Mohiam is an old woman who comes to test a youth and to kill him or let him live.  I think she bears comparison to a midwife as described by Socrates in the Theaetetus.

Sophists of Dune

The Dune series seems, in part, to be Frank Herbert’s exploration of themes and images he encountered in Plato’s dialogue The Sophist.  Herbert’s connection to Plato’s Sophist may be partly by way of Martin Heidegger, who wrote a commentary on The Sophist.

The Face Dancer Theaetetus

I think Plato’s character Theaetetus is in some ways Frank Herbert’s model for the Face Dancers in the Dune series.  I wonder if I’m the only person in the world who suspects this.