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Written in the Sand
Dune, Book One, Chaper One part 1
I want to take some time to establish a policy about direct quoting from the books. I'm going to limit how much I do that because I want to encourage you to actually read them yourself. Open them up, even just to get a refresher; it'll be fun. This episode we'll be looking at a very small section of Dune chapter one, and that is the opening quotation.
Yes, really.
I know...you're looking at the timer on the player and wondering how someone could spend that much time on just one paragraph, but I honestly believe it's an important one. This is something of a foundation episode. Last episode was to set the stage for the podcast. This one is more about setting the stage for the actual material.
The quote itself opens up with the idea that beginnings are a time for balance and there are certain things I think should be emphasized in the beginning because we don't know each other.
We can assume quite a number of things with varying degrees of accuracy. I can reasonably predict that we are all human, beyond assumptions like these everything gets a little fuzzy, doesn't it? It's because we have different backgrounds we need to go over this.
We need a common baseline, and that requires a certain mode of perspective and that is what this quote is about and therefore what this episode is about. If you need that refresher on the actual words of the quote feel free to pause and go check it, I'll wait. If not, here's the gist:
Paul existed in his own time. He was born on Caladan but Arrakis will always be his place.
Yeah, I'm going to pull ½ an hour or so out of that.
Paul has his place. Everyone has their place. Place is so much more than location, a place has its own natural rhythms and familiar sites. A location has its culture and it has moments that are impressed upon those that call it home. Those people are unique to that place, they are familiar faces, they speak familiar language, and they follow familiar routines. But just because you live in a place does not mean you fit there.
Related to that and just as important, everything has its own time to exist. Some people and ideas shine in their existence while others will barely sparkle. The phenomenon that Paul becomes can only happen on Arrakis and a thing that we will tackle in much more detail later on is that Paul can only fulfill his purpose within the time period he lives. My basic point with this is that some people are lucky enough to exist in the place and time where they can reach their full potential.
Does Einstein develop a theory of relativity if he's born in the Amazon Jungle 500 years ago? Instead of the thought experiment of the train, is it the thought experiment of the flying monkey or the falling tree? Or crouching monkey, falling tree? And who does Amazon Einstein tell? Does it become legend or is it just the crazy ramblings of a wild-haired shaman forgotten by a culture with no printing press or recording device? Being ignorant of physics and mathematics, does he invent something just as brilliant that is actually useful to his tribe and does he then get remembered as a demigod, or does he live his life and die with no achievement at all – not even worth a footnote in history?
Do we in the modern world even have the theory of relativity if Einstein isn't a patent clerk in 1905? Without it, what journey does science take? A person needs his time and a time needs it's history.
This idea that everything has its place in space and time, is a concept so basic you would hardly think it's worth mentioning.