Nick Perzacki > Recent Status Updates

Leto’s philosophical rants go so hard:
“The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it… I am not a leader nor even a guide. A god… Gods take no responsibility for anything except genesis… Gods do not need a spirit world. My spirits dwell within me… They are MY truth. Beware of THE truth… Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find and believe

Duncan is so fascinating with every reincarnation. I adored Hayt and was heartbroken when he died, and I really appreciate using him now as essentially audience surrogate, the only other person who remembers Dune rather than Arrakis. I also appreciate the Tleilaxu and Ixians having a more substantial role again - I find them much more interesting than the other Major Houses and the Corrinos.

A small but welcome change with this book is the new chapter formats from time to time. The chapters have always started with excerpts from relevant in-universe writings, but now we have interview transcripts and official assessments of the workings of the universe - I find it all very interesting. I’m also intrigued by the introduction of the Oral & Official Histories - the Oral seems controversial, I wonder why.

Oh baby it’s wormin’ time! Straight away this feels like Herbert at the top of his game. He quickly establishes a completely new Dune universe, unraveling the new characters and their relationships in a really engaging way, plus already some of my favorite of his philosophical musings; I particularly liked Leto’s discussion with Duncan on the historical part played by radicals. Also RIP Duncan #3 (+at least 20)

Fanon begins the third chapter discussing the self-imposed nature of the alienation the black Frenchman experiences, and their own dependence on relationships with white women to assert their equality.

Pulls a terribly sad poem snippet from a novel by René Maran:
“When you fall in love, you must never say so,
Better to keep it a secret from oneself.”

RIP #2 to my boy Duncan, you will be missed dearly, until you’re brought back again I’m sure. All jokes aside, Alia finally crying after losing him despite the Baron screaming in her skull was pretty impactful. I want poor Ghanima to get her memories back, she’s been doing all this lowkey half-blind since like midway through this book, let my girl back in on the plan.

Fanon does a great job building out why racial alienation affects both ends of the colonial black-white conflict: social inferiority alienates black people while social superiority alienates white people. This even impacts “mixed-race” people, whose proximity to whiteness leaves their identity almost more fragile, with any connection to being black seen as an affront against the (social) whiteness they pursue

“My skin is not my own” - we are oh so close, bring on the worm! Leto and Paul’s conversation is truly haunting, and feels like a capstone on Paul’s story right at the true start of Leto’s. The Jihad being likened to a picnic on Caladan compared to what Leto has in store doesn’t exactly foretell good things to come in God Emperor.

Everyone seems to be entering the final stages of their respective plans. I’m particularly curious what Jessica’s goals are with Farad’n and whether they’ll pay off when/if he meets Ghanima. I really enjoy reading Leto build confidence and push his powers beyond what we’ve seen before - don’t love reading about his “beefswelling”… I know it was your intention, but that was yucky, Herbert.

“One is white if one has a certain amount of money.”
“I am white… I embody the beauty and virtue which have never been black… I am black; I am in total fusion with the world, in sympathetic affinity with the earth, losing my id in the heart of the cosmos”, which the white man is incapable of.
“Unable to blacken or negrify the world, [Mayotte Capécias] endeavors to whiten it in her body and mind.”

Poor Leto is being absolutely put through it being dosed with spice over and over, but he’s sounding pretty ominous coming out of it. Ghanima can be so unhinged I love her, a meeting between her and Farad’n would probably be insane.

The separation of the twins lowkey hit hard. Ghanima is a total badass, and I love reading 9 year-old Leto work out his own philosophy. Very curious what Duncan is planning by renouncing the Atreides, and I honestly just feel kinda bad for Jessica, she’s had it rough. Paul finally directly confronting Alia was very cathartic, though it seems to have only made her mental state even worse.

I like Jessica going to an ex-Fedaykin sietch which lives in even more poverty than the typical sietch, I think it does well to show the disconnect between those who followed Paul and those who follow the religion formed out of him. Farad’n is growing on me, he’s showing himself much smarter than he initially let on, I love a little schemer.

Alia and Jessica’s conflict finally coming to a head was very intense, while also better establishing the wider issue for Arrakis of the loss of desert. I kind of wish the focus of their conflict was more centered on Alia’s resentment of Jessica for taking the Water of Life, rather than it being the demon Baron, but I can also recognize the importance of the shared Harkonnen ancestry

The use of pidgin to reinforce the colonized’s inferior status - “Whether he likes it or not, the black man has to wear the livery the white man has fabricated for him” - the colonized must recognize their reality, in order to be able to change it. Lack of this recognition furthers alienation of the colonized, and within them between those who strive to learn the colonizers language and those who reject it.

I just love so many of the characters for so many different reasons: Stilgar the questioning zealot; the twins and Alia as mirrors to one another built on very similar pasts with distinct motivations; Duncan the walking contradiction; Paul as a weird little freak; Jessica and her ever-mysterious aura; even Irulan with her strange relationship with the Atreides. I am so engrossed with them and their dynamics.

It’s been a while since I read Wretched so I had lowkey forgotten, Fanon is just so damn interesting to read. He’s sarcastic and a little flippant, giving an informal feel, but demonstrates an extensive understanding of what he speaks on. Found it interesting to start with studying the psychological causes and effects of colonized subjects seeking out the language of their colonizers to assert their own humanity.

It’s all but outright stated that Paul is the Preacher. Leto seems to be a lot more open to prescience than he’s been letting on. I think it was really smart to use Stilgar to finally truly reckon with the feudalistic world of Dune, the conservatism, the restrictions on development, and the all-encompassing nature of that ideology in all parts of that society, most felt and upheld by its most subjugated.

Alia being possessed by the Baron was not what I expected as the explanation for what made her an Abomination. I’m looking forward to learning more about these outcast Fremen. The twins consulting their parents has probably been my favorite chapter so far, I really like the way the two of them play off of each other, and it builds a ton of intrigue around the Golden Path and what it means to pursue it.

Really fun to read a double conversation with Jessica and Gurney. If Paul is the Prophet that is kind of hilarious. I straight up can’t remember if the old Emperor was established to have multiple daughters or not, but this new Princess is an absolute savage. Curious what the Bene Gesserit plans are with Leto - do they think he’s a more malleable Kwisatz Haderach?

Jessica’s comeback was wild and kinda scary, I’m curious what her true intentions are here, is she just back to all-in on the Bene Gesserit? Also happy to see Stilgar getting to be more active in the story again, even if it’s to help her assassinate people. I really wonder what the distinction is for an Abomination; does that just mean they “give in” to the visions? The capacity/attempt for foresight?

Off the jump, I feel like I’m already going to enjoy this a bit more than Messiah. The twins and Alia’s dynamics are already pretty intriguing, Jessica and Gurney are coming back, and it seems like rebellion is growing off-Arrakis.

Bijaz has broken my heart, how dare he mind-control Hayt. Eyeless Paul is such a wild and interesting place to take him, literally trapping him in his visions. Nearing the end, Alia and Hayt are probably my favorite characters by now.

Overall, the second half of the book has picked up the pace considerably and I’m flying through like I was during the first book.

Absolutely insane to introduce Bijaz, the most whimsical character in the series so far, 10 minutes before Paul gets his eyes burned out of his face, just to not even tell me if poor Bijaz even survived standing right next to him. Where is my riddle-speaking dwarf??

Paul clocking Scytale literally immediately was pretty funny. I like that Paul and Alia have different relationships to what they presume to be basically the same powers. Also Alia puts on a crazy sermon, I’d go to that.

I’m really dreading what will happen if Paul’s visions of Chani come true. It is a little tough that a large portion of the story is arguing about who will birth whose children. However, I particularly enjoy both Paul & Hayt’s and Scytale & Edric’s dynamics.

Hayt is such an insane way to screw with Paul and Alia. I love that he’s forced to be honest, but yet still manages to maintain the mysterious aura about him; I genuinely can’t tell if the advice he’s giving them is legitimately helpful or just serving the conspiracy’s goals all the more.

This book overall feels much sassier than the first, I’m kind of loving it; Alia remains the funniest character, I adore her.

Edric was sorta played as a joke in his first chapter, but I loved him fucking with Paul non-stop, even if it left him tuckered out by the end.

I find Paul’s relationship to his power, both as Emperor and his prescience, so interesting, he’s as addicted to them as he is to spice

Right out of a 12 year time jump and we’re back into plans within plans within plans. I’m intrigued by Scytale, who’s both just cool as a shapeshifter but I also want to learn more on his motivations.

Paul seems basically how I’d expect him to be after all this time has passed; freaky, detached, and sad after carrying out the jihad & I like him and Chani having more of a relationship here

Continuing in the manuscripts, Private Property & Communism is a fantastic follow-up to Estranged Labour, describing the different methods in which private property as a relationship between labour and capital comes to be annulled negatively, incompletely, and positively, and what this means for humanity as a social being.