In article <TpydnQOA85hMQL3VnZ2dnUVZ_vyinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
"Tony" <tony@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> How impressed are we supposed to be with Stilgar?
>
> In Dune Messiah, one paragraph suggests that he is a wise and shrewd
> individual:
>
> "As I love you both, I must speak," Stilgar said, a profound dignity in
his
> tone. "I did not become a chieftain among the Fremen by being blind to
what
> moves men and women together. One needs no mysterious powers for this."
>
> However, in another paragraph he comes across as unimpressive:
>
> "Alia studied Stilgar, sensing the savage sideshow of ideas taking place
in
> his mind. He hung on a rack of enchantment. Magic! Magic! To glimpse
the
> future was to steal terrifying fire from a sacred flame."
My take on this, Tony, is that Stilgar is ****trayed a hugely impressive
"normal" person, in that he seems a couple of standard deviations above
the mean in intelligence, insightfulness, fairness, leader****p skills,
maybe physical prowess--normal attributes. The second paragraph you
cite contrasts him with Alia, a person whose "supernormal" attributes
separate her from those who have not reaped the changes produced by
surviving the spice trance. I think that showing Stilgar as a primative
in comparison to Alia, in respect to their aptitudes and attitudes
regarding prescience, is a clever way of driving home this qualitative
difference. Consequently, it speaks to me more of Alia than of Stilgar.
My 2 cents.
--
Emerald
|
