Welcome to MEAT&MARROW, a new series where I delve into body horror and all things fleshy, transformative and unusual. I’ll be taking a dive into overlooked body horror in media as well as personal faves. Let’s get to the meat of it!
DUNE is many things; the best selling sci-fi novel of all time, an extremely dense story of interplanetary politics and giant sand worms, and–a personal favourite of mine. With the new film adaptation set to (hopefully) be released in late 2021 it feels like a good time to look back on a few particular body horror elements contained within–and not just the God Emperor himself.
Everything in the universe of Dune revolves around the spice melange. Created as a by-product of the sandworms of the planet Arrakis the spice grants longevity and prescience–the ability to see the future. It’s the most important substance in existence. “He who controls the spice controls the universe” is quite literal. Withdrawal from melange is always fatal. At the beginning of the books Paul and his family are forced to go to Arrakis, which is framed as both a huge accomplishment as well as a type of open air prison. For once they live there, they have consumed the spice in one way or another and cannot live without it. Melange is in everything on Arrakis: food, beverages, the air itself. High consumption is marked with the trademark blue-in-blue eyes. (Fun fact: “The Spice Must Flow” is a term coined by the 1984 film, not the books, but it still slaps.)
Metamorphosis from spice consumption has many forms, from the simple (blue eyes) to the extreme.
REVEREND MOTHERS
There are several main factions in Dune that hold enormous power, with an extremely important one being the Bene Gesserit. They’re sort of warrior nuns, with years of intense training leading many to fear the women. They can kill with a touch, know every seduction method known to man, and have physical control over their organs (they can choose the sex of a fetus, for example). High ranking Bene Gesserit are called Reverend Mothers and are elevated to this rank with a trial known as Spice Agony.
To preform the Spice Agony, a young sandworm will be drowned in regular water. Upon death it expels a poisonous blue liquid that’s consumed by a Bene Gesserit sister. Her task it to neutralize the toxins now coursing through her body and transform it into “The Water of Life”, which will either be sweated out her pores or just straight up vomited back up. Then everybody drinks it and has a Spice Orgy. Which is basically that scene in The Matrix Reloaded.
So what does a sister GET from this ordeal? She unlocks the Other Memory, the knowledge and memories of all of her ancestors and her eyes instantly go blue-in-blue. It’s pretty OP. An important aspect of this is that you MUST be an adult with years of training to take part in the Spice Agony. Paul’s mother, Jessica, takes part without telling the others she is pregnant. She know the risks but at that point in the story doesn’t really have any other options. The Spice Agony also effects the fetus and creates a child who is a Reverend Mother from birth. The problem with this is that a baby hasn’t developed it’s own personality–the memories of their ancestors will “take over” and drive the person insane. By having life experience you cement your sense of self.
I can’t imagine being able to control my own organs. Dune describes how hyperaware of their bodies Bene Gesserit are, mastering their physical bodies in every sense of the word. Body horror doesn’t just cover “a person turning into goop”, but any drastic or unnatural transformation of the human body and this fits quite well into that. Plus they have to do this every time they need some orgy juice which sounds awful.
SUK DOCTORS AND MENTATS
One of the ways the world of Dune sets itself apart from other sci-fi giants is the complete lack of Artificial Intelligence and computers. It is said that long ago there was a great war between man and machine and they were outlawed basically forever. (There’s a few planets that secretly use stuff, but it’s only mentioned briefly.) To get around this lack of databases and computing power Mentats were created.
Mentats are people trained to be super computers, capable of completing massive calculations in mere moments. They’re employed by businesses and royal courts and are extremely important to day-to-day life. To increase this ability even more some drink Sapho Juice which can lead to addiction and red stained lips.
On the medical end of things are the Suk Doctors. Highly skilled physicians with mental conditioning preventing them from taking a live or harming a client, marked with a diamond tattoo on their foreheads. Since everybody is murdering and assassinating each other it’s pretty helpful to have someone that cannot be used this way. Although a major plot point in the first Dune book is how they get around this with Dr. Yueh, so it’s inherently flawed. (essentially: blackmail.)
THE TLEILAXU
Also known as the Bene Tleliax, the Tleilaxu are masters of manipulating human flesh. They have created the shapeshifting assassins known as Face Dancers and discovered how to clone someone perfectly. While not much is ever really explained about them, they’re clearing a superpower in the universe and not to be trifled with. The leaders of Tleilax purposefully look weak, described as grey dwarfs with pointed teeth.
The secret of their success is a apparatus called an Axolotl Tank, using the womb of a brain-dead woman to grow whatever they desire including gholas. (clones of dead people created from recovered cells.) No Tleilaxu woman has ever been seen, leading to some unsettling realizations.
Not only clones and Face Dancers are created and bred but a new form of livestock that is a mix of a slug and a pig, a Slig. Reported to have multiple mouths and feeding on garbage, they’re apparently quite delicious. I think I’m good.
Another invention of the Tleilaxu and one that makes me the most uncomfortable are the chairdogs. Quite literally living, furry chairs. They shape themselves to fit whomever is seated on them and also massage the person. I cannot imagine sitting on a lumpy furry blob created purely for such a purpose, it just makes me uncomfortable to think about. I’m not alone in this as several characters in Dune prefer regular, non-sentient chairs. Chairdogs are mentioned in several of Frank Herbert’s books, and even a bed version. Ugh.
GUILD NAVIGATORS
So how do you travel through space without a computer system? By using a Guild Navigator–a person who’s entire life revolves around consuming hugeeeee amounts of spice and even living in a huge tank of it. Because of this non-stop saturation their bodies evolve and atrophy and turn into fish men with elongated heads. Since their speech is also effected, a translating device is attached to their tank, which can also be wheeled around by attendants. In Lynch’s film a Navigator appears at the very beginning, a massive tadpole like creature, while in the mini-series it’s more like Abe Sapian from Hellboy. They reportedly also have spice orgies, so maybe they have a big party tank for that.
GOD EMPEROR LETO II
The most well known character in Dune besides his father Paul, Leto II goes through an immense transformation over 3000 years from a young handsome man to a giant sandworm with a face. It’s a bit complicated but basically Leto II saw the future and realized that for humanity to survive they’d need to scatter across the universe, taking sandworms with them to create new deserts and more spice. To do this he became a tyrant and made everybody hate him.
The process began when Leto observed some children playing with sandtrout, the larvae form of sandworms. Since sandtrout cannot live around water, you can trick them into forming a “glove” over your hand as they attempt to close off and contain the water inside your body. So Leto does this, letting the sandtrout form a protective layer over his entire body, which he was able to survive because of the high spice concentration in his blood. This gives him super strength and he jumps around like a Marvel character discovering their powers.
After he goes home and tells everybody about this he explains that he’s going to turn into a sandworm soon and his reproductive organs are already useless. When we pick up the story thousands of years have passed and he’s in full worm-mode. The only trace of humanity is his (now giant) face and some little stubby useless arms. His enormous weight means he must travel on a floating cart. He is spice given form, with tendrils around his face able to produce a liquid version of it like a horrible LSD camelbak. A tiny section of desert is kept so he can wiggle and swim around which seems like the only fun he ever has.
Leto’s life is brought to an end when a bridge underneath him collapses, causing the worm-man to fall into a huge river. He explodes on contact, turning into thousands of sandtrout. This part of the book is quite descriptive, going into how ridiculously painful the death would be. And while this was part of his plan all along it’s just kind of gross to think about. However this is not the end for Leto, as fragments of his memory are contained within each sandtrout, so in a sense he will go on forever.
While this was partially an excuse for me to blab about Dune, which I love !! I’ll be covering a huge range of body horror in the future. If you have a recommendation, please let me know! ※
LORMAGGOT 