Fear is the mindkiller

"I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Frank Herbert, "Dune"

My first entry to this blog. The quote above is one of the best quotes in Frank Herbert's Dune. It was first appeared when Paul Atreides was tested by Reverend Mother Mohiam. Although Paul was the first who said the quote in Dune, actually it's one of the teachings of Bene Gesserit.

I'm very fascinated by Dune and the world revolving it. Such a fantastic story. I liked it the first time when I played the PC game Dune (which now becomes an abandonware). The story is about politics, religion, philosophy, and a premonition about technology. There's space travel using space fold technology that was monopolized by the Spacing Guild. Bene Gesserit that's a society of selective breeding, and with mental and physical training of prana-bindu training they wanted to improve humanity by creating the Kwisatz Haderach, "the one who can be many places at once.". There's a century old feud of House Atreides and House Harkonnen. The Imperial House Corrino with an army of Sardaukar elites. The sand people, Fremen. Shai-Hulud a.k.a. sand worm. Minor House Tleilaxu which have advanced biogenetics engineering that can produce face-dancers (shapeshifters) and gholas (clones from human tissues). And of course the spice Melange.

Having played the game and seen both the film (which has the singer Sting in it as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen) and mini series, I've come to realize to these questions. What is human? What is time and space? What is superhuman? And furthermore after I watched the Children of Dune miniseries about Paul's twin children there's so many thoughts came up. What is the benefit of premonition or the ability to know the many paths of the future? The one who has it (Paul) didn't want it, yet the one who didn't have it (Alia) crave for it. So what then if we can see the possible future and can make judgements according to the best possible future. I mean, is it actually the best future / the best path? If so the best from whose point of view? What if it is the best for us human beings, but the worst for the planet? Also, wouldn't knowing the future make the whole surprise in life be nullified and life will become so dull? Paul himself didn't know this answer. Paul himself didn't know how to achieve "The Golden Path".

Resources about Dune:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28novel%29 - Dune novels in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28film%29 - Dune the movie in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28TV_miniseries%29 - Dune the miniseries in Wikipedia. The best ever Dune interpretation compared to the movie
http://www.abandonia.com/games/en/46/Dune.htm - Dune abandonware game.
http://www.abandonia.com/games/en/36/Dune2.htm - Dune 2 abandonware game. Non-canon version of Dune with another Great House of Ordos