[Reading Dune for the first time] Update 2: Dune opens just before a scene you’ve probably seen from a movie trailer. Paul Atreides, 15, stands before a revered, old woman for some kind of test that is rarely given to boys. He rehearses “the Litany against Fear” that his mother taught him from her background in the Bene Gesserit rite.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

The test he endures is brutal but clean–no blood spilled, just scorching pain. Paul reveres the old woman less by the end because he begins to see she doesn’t have the answers she claims to have.

This introduction to Paul could have gone the direction many lesser stories have gone by having Paul become very proud of withstanding a severe test as well as his acute perception and begin blowing off all responsibility because, darn it, he’s the best. He may think he’s the best, but he hasn’t allowed himself to think it yet, because he is the son of Duke Leto. The family is moving to the sand-planet Arrakis to assume a role given to the duke by the emperor, and at least one other royal house opposes it. The Harkonnens have been ordered to vacate, so Leto Atreides could take control.

Plus, Arrakis is a difficult planet to live on. Everyone wants the spice harvested there, but the harsh environment and sandworms, some of which could swallow a harvester whole, roam the dunes. The worms may even create the spice (if that’s revealed later in the book or other books, I don’t know).

Paul could be a huge jerk in the first book (section) of Dune, but he isn’t. He’s a serious-minded, young man, mature beyond his years. He will be duke one day, if he and his family can survive the treat of this new planet.

A lot of characters are introduced in Dune‘s first book, and though Paul is a central focus, he isn’t the leading man yet. That would be his father. a man of many admirable qualities but perhaps not enough skill to navigate a galaxy of ruthless politicians. I think the story has told us that at this point, but I’m not sure it’s fair to say that a man who is overwhelmed in a shark-eat-shark world lacks governing skills. Maybe he lacks ruthlessness. Maybe survival means cruelty. Maybe surviving, in this case, isn’t the greatest good.

On the other hand, fighting fear and training others to fight it as well may be the greatest good. By fighting the mind-killer, no matter who survives, you may still win.