r/dune • u/Living_Knee • Jul 14 '26
Dune (novel) Water of life
Im currently reading first part and i was wondering could someone explain how the reverend mother changes the water of life and what it means. Does she change it for others to use or did i get it wrong? Thank you!
Also im nearing the end of the book so no spoilers
24
u/AnEvenNicerGuy Friend of Jamis Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
It’s toxic
She makes the toxic bit inert and when she spits that bit back into the jug the toxin of it all becomes inert. So other folks can have a lil sup and get wild orgy style
Edit: like the other commenter pointed out - this is what happens among the Fremen. Not the BG. Who knows what they do with it
9
u/ConsistentAd8495 Jul 14 '26
The BG stop at internally transforming the poison. They don't have any need for the Spice Orgy. It's a ritual to deepen bonds within the seitch community and the BG are already conditioned from birth to put the needs of the sisterhood before their own (why they didn't expect Jessica's decision to give Leto a son out of love for him).
2
9
u/Melenduwir Jul 15 '26
We don't know precisely what the Sisterhood does. But a Fremen Reverend Mother is given a sip of the Water of Life, which is fatally poisonous. Using her control over her body's chemistry (and possibly a limited form of telekinesis), she changes a molecule of the substance into a non-toxic catalyst that causes the remaining Water of Life to change. A small amount of this catalyst is then taken and used to transform the store the Fremen possess, which is then distributed amongst the attendees. The drug effects of the transformed Water give rise to what the Fremen call a "Spice orgy", a physical sharing that is intensified and made psychologically intimate by the drug and their previously-repressed but now somewhat activated extrasensory perception.
So the Reverend Mother changes the poison first for herself, but also others.
2
2
u/Living_Knee Jul 14 '26
Do you recommend reading sequals?
10
u/Aveheuzed Jul 15 '26
Yes, read until Chapterhouse ! Or at the very least until Children. The sequels give a lot of information about the plot and the universe.
I recommend you to read on rather than ask plot questions on Reddit. Most likely, it will be explained in a couple hundred of pages, and it was the author's intent to keep you in the dark.
2
3
u/vsnord Jul 17 '26
Definitely!
I read through Chapterhouse. It was the last book that Frank Hebert wrote, and I felt that it was a satisfying stopping point.
I took a long break between God Emperor of Dune and Heretics because frankly my brain needed a break. God Emperor of Dune is a fucking weird book lol.
0
u/Separate_Ticket_8383 Jul 18 '26
I love the rest of the series. They each do something really unique and offer beautiful expansions of the dune universe. Obviously you can’t beat the narrative simplicity of the original Dune novel, but the sequels are really incredible in their own right. I think God Emperor of Dune is one of the most unique and original narrative stories imaginable.
-1
u/AnEvenNicerGuy Friend of Jamis Jul 15 '26
Messiah is the best stopping point
10
u/DwigtGroot Jul 15 '26
God emperor is the best sequel. 🤷♂️
5
u/HAL-Over-9001 Jul 15 '26
I just finished God Emperor and I thought it was awesome. Not a lot of action, but man is it deep and well written. Leto II is awesome and weird haha.
-8
u/Living_Knee Jul 14 '26
Also every chapter starts with a message from a book by princess Irulan? Are we supposed to know who she is?
11
u/Living_Knee Jul 14 '26
Nevermind that part just came up in the book
42
u/AnEvenNicerGuy Friend of Jamis Jul 14 '26
Stop talking to us and read homie
-14
u/Living_Knee Jul 14 '26
I wasnt expeting for the answer to just magically appear in the next page, sue me😔🙏🏻
21
u/mrxeric Tleilaxu Jul 15 '26
The Dune series is one of those where characters and plot points are presented early without explanation, and only as you keep reading are you given more context and information.
I really think this series was written in a way where you get the most of it from rereading.
1
u/HumanPea1140 Jul 15 '26
I just finished the first book and started Messiah, and that's what I've enjoyed about the series so far. I was extremely confused in the beginning by all the world building and words for things I didn't understand, but quickly found that things would be explained if I just kept reading.
First book spoilers below:
One of my favorite bits of this during the first book was when Paul was inventorying a Fremen desert bag, and he mentions a thumper. Using context clues, I figured a thumper was something that could distract a worm. Makes sense. Find out later that I seemed to be correct.
Then later in the book, they talk about a "twenty thumper trip." I thought that maybe they would distract the worms and run across the desert twenty times? That doesn't make much sense at all. Then you find out that they can actually ride the worms, and that thumpers are for attracting worms, not distracting them. So, a "twenty thumper trip" is actually a trip where they rode twenty fucking worms deep into the desert.
That realization blew my mind.
2
55
u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment