Dune Messiah

“A: Why should I answer your questions?

Q: Because I will preserve your words.

A: Ahhh! The ultimate appeal to a historian!”

In this excerpt of Bronso of Ix’s Death Cell interview, Herbert hints at the temptation of legacy and eternity that motivates all power groups in the novel. Bronso is also invested in the survival of his own legacy, but more importantly, he wants to ensure a secular, objective narrative about Paul Atreides survives. Bronso fears that the religious mythos of the Fremen will obscure the political maneuvering of the Bene Gesserit that resulted in a Kwisatz Haderach they could not control.

“Q: As with all things sacred, it gives with one hand and takes with the other.

 A: As with all priests, you learned early to call the truth heresy.”

Bronso of Ix reveals Herbert’s thesis on the combination of religion and government. The Qizarate explains contradictions in Paul’s actions and nature through religious mysticism. Bronso exposes how religious fanaticism is used to discredit critics and quiet dissent. Truth becomes subjective, determined by the person or organization in power.

“Only through the lethal nature of prophecy can we understand the failure of such enormous and far-seeing power.”

Bronso of Ix leaves the reader with no doubts about how the novel will end: Paul will fail. The inevitability of Paul’s fate makes his arc a tragic one. Rather than Paul failing despite his prescience, Herbert indicates that Paul’s prescience is the cause of his failure. Able to evade his enemies through his foresight, Paul’s path to deification fails because he cannot commit to the terrible costs he has foreseen, even though the survival of humanity depends on them.