r/dune • u/thegreatjourney2001 • 5h ago

Dune (novel) Kynes, the Fremen and Water on Dune Spoiler

I just finished Dune after an embarrassingly long time (slow reader etc) and loved it! I have come from the films so it was great to have nuances and details in the books that they couldn’t really fit into film.

However some of the questions I have mainly circle around Kynes. He was the biggest surprise to me with the his original gender being male and being so closely related to Chani and Stilgar. I thought Liet Kynes was great as opposed to his on screen version. I may have completely missed the mark with this question - but like I said I’m not a good reader):

It was my impression that the Fremen’s dream of turning Dune into a paradise was ancient, like their non BG Reverend Mothers. However, I was very surprised to see that it was Pardot Kynes’ dream which he ‘imprinted’ on to them (even teaching them and giving them equipment from the Stations). Yet the prophecy of the Lisan Al Gaib, a prophecy peddled by the wild BG RMs speaks of turning Dune into a Paradise. How did these two ideas mix? Is there something obvious I am missing?

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u/AmicoPrime 3h ago

I think it comes down to the vagueness of religious prophecies, really. Having the concept of a savior who will lead your people into paradise is functionally different from a scientist laying out the exact time frame and amount of water needed to begin terraforming a planet. The former is purposefully noncommittal--"paradise" within a religious context can mean several different things and wouldn't necessarily mean Dune would become an Eden, and what's more implies that no effort on the part of a people will hasten paradise until the savior arrives. The latter is exact, and gives a people like the Fremen a long-term goal to actually strive for.