Bene Gesserit from Dune

Who Are the Bene Gesserit

Criticism

The women of the Bene Gesserit in Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune train themselves in rigorous control of body and mind to gain a wide array of skills. With religion as a cover, they use these skills to wield political influence under the noses of the Imperium’s most powerful rulers. What kind of skills? The Bene Gesserit can: choose when to conceive and the sex of their fetus gain expanded consciousness of their female ancestor’ memories implant phrases in others’ subconscious to control them in the future alter the chemical composition of poisons in their body to make them

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planet with light glare on top

My First WorldCon in Aotearoa New Zealand

Community

Indigenous voices were the first ones I heard at CoNZealand – the 78th World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) that was based in Aotearoa New Zealand but went virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This happened to be due to the fact that I had work until mid-afternoon on opening day so had missed the previous sessions, but the “Infinite Entangled Futures: Indigenous Voices in Conversation” panel was a wonderful introduction to my first WorldCon. Admittedly, I wouldn’t consider myself a typical science fiction and fantasy (SFF) fan, even though I have enjoyed these genres since youth and devoted a considerable

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sand dune with blue sky

Falling for Dune

Academia

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows.” – From “Manual of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan (Dune pg 3*) I discovered Dune (1965) because the book had been bothering me. When I was a young teenager, my family bought our first desktop computer, and I started spending more time in the home office. But every time I walked by the row of bookshelves in the room, I saw the orange and brown spines of a set of books sitting by themselves on the highest

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