I was astounded at the fate of Leto II! Peering into the depths of his psyche through the snippets of his Stolen Journals was fascinating. I found that there are more quotes worth quoting here than in any of the 3 previous Dune novels; and with the multi-consciousness that made up Leto II, that would only be the logical case. Example:
"Paradox is a pointer telling you to look beyond it. If paradoxes bother you, that betrays your deep desire for absolutes. The relativist treats a paradox merely as interesting, perhaps amusing or even, dreadful thought, educational." -Leto II
and:
"Unceasing warfare gives rise to its own social conditions which have been similar in all epochs. People enter a permanent state of alertness to ward off attacks. You see the absolute rule of the autocrat. All new things become dangerous frontier districts—new planets, new economic areas to exploit, new ideas or new devices, visitors—everything suspect. Feudalism takes firm hold, sometimes disguised as a polit-bureau or similar structure, but always present. Hereditary succession follows the lines of power. The blood of the powerful dominates. The vice regents of heaven or their equivalent apportion the wealth. And they know they must control inheritance or slowly let the power melt away. Now, do you understand Leto's Peace?" -The Stolen Journals
The rebellious Siona called him the Ultimate Cynic. I believe cynicism can in rare cases be healthy. I was unimpressed with Siona and her rebels. Their motives were not very clear, other than to overthrow the worm and get at his spice hoard. I think the resulting consequences will be something in juxtaposition to the consequences of the revolution Lenin, Trotsky, and friends bore (note that the old Imperium is basically non-existent in the God Emperor's time)—I mean that the revolutionaries will find themselves wishing the old Worm was back in the end. The difference here is that unlike the Tsar and Tsarina, the God Emperor planned very carefully his own demise and the rise of the Atreides who could not be seen. Bleh, hope he knew what he was doing...again.
It is obvious that Siona was cruel and filled with hate. I can see her playing the future role of Stalin. At the end of the novel Duncan Idaho came to an epiphany. I do not understand why he then aided Siona. I enjoyed the entire novel but for the scene in Tuono. It reminded me of the old Westerns. I was disappointed. Certainly Herbert gave us strange twisted humor here with Nayla (I would wager that in life Herbert had a bit of a Rabalasian Nun-fixation—and really, who does not?!). I had been expecting Leto II to at last submerge into the desert sands, releasing his sand trout. I cannot say that I am disappointed in the death of Hwi Noree. I only wished Siona had preceded her.
Now it is obvious to me that the etymology of Moneo is "Neo Moses". Neo means "new, recent, revived, or modified". In Hebrew, Moses means "he who was drawn out" or "he who draws out", in Egyptian, the word for water, mo, and the verb to save out of water, `uses'. I do hope those sand trout survive!
There is much for a Bible scholar to ponder here, as well as, of course, much Eastern philosophy. At times I became nostalgic of Machiavelli's "The Prince". I believe The God Emperor was not all evil, but mostly good. He was certainly not as evil as the aristocracy of today. As Leto II put it:
"Safaris through ancestral memories teach me many things. The patterns, ahhh, the patterns. Liberal bigots are the ones who trouble me most. I distrust the extremes. Scratch a conservative and you find someone who prefers the past over any future. Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It's true! Liberal governments always develop into aristocracies. The bureaucracies betray the true intent of people who form such governments. Right from the first the little people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies. Of course, all bureaucracies follow this pattern, but what a hypocrisy to find this even under a communized banner. Ahhh, well, if patterns teach me anything it's that patterns are repeated. My oppressions, by and large, are no worse than any of the others and, at least, I teach a new lesson."
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