Dune and fear

I’m just over half-way through reading Dune.

The pacing was excruciatingly slow and then insanely fast. It’s amazing how foundational this is for so much later sci-fi and fantasy.

So many interesting ideas, a non-techno-utopian view of the future, where high-technology doesn’t lead to social development.

And religion, or something approaching an Eastern spiritual discipline is at the center of it all.

So yeah, I’m enjoying the read.

I’ll end with the Litany against fear:

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.