The Golden Path and the Scattering

[Lori S.]

For a long time I've wondered about the meaning of the Golden Path and what the Scattering (and return) means to the humans in the books. Herbert never got to finish the series, so we're left - assuming you don't read the KJA/BH books[1] - with a question at the end of Chapterhouse: Just what the people of the scattering are running from and, more importantly, what they are bringing back to the known universe?

I'm currently listening to the audio book of Heretics and the discussion between Miles Teg and Darwi Odrade is really significant, though there are other points in this book which are equally interesting: The discussion of log jams and how Leto II was one such huge log jam, the way the Sisterhood is so careful in its breeding program, always fearful of "wild talents" and the possibility of new unknowns, Miles telling Darwi that the Reverend Mothers have essentially lost their basic human-ness ... Makes me wonder if the Golden Path is an attempt to gain back something which is essential to human survival?

The Scattering has allowed humans to develop in new and unexpected ways away from the ever watchful BG and their quest to keep to a particular pattern. No one knows which way they will go and this has thrown the old patterns out of synch. Is the Golden Path a way to regain the survival mechanism, something basic and essential which humans need and which Leto II saw, but never really explained (or did I miss something?)?

I'm wondering what other people think about these things?

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[1]: I found the end of the Herbert/Anderson books to be extremely disappointing, though I can't exactly say what about them failed to satisfy.

[Rick]

It's been decades since I read Chapterhouse and Heretics, but if memory serves - I had thought that the scattering had something to do with the collapse of the empire after the God-Emperor passed on - but you probably already have that. I'm guessing they were fleeing the chaos and uncertainty of the fall of the empire.
And wasn't the Golden Path something about the need for humanity to leave the confines of the known universe in order to not fall into extinction? So the scattering helped save humanity from extinct by fulfilling the prescience of the Golden Path.
I am just stating the obvious? Seriously, it's been years since I read those books - clearly I need to get back to my re-reading of this series. ;)

[Mark]

I always thought that LetoII made sure that mankind was no longer dependant on spice and the guilds to move about and that somebody with his skills could no longer follow people around. It was no longer possible to rule mankind as the model before his ruling was, he freed mankind.

[Rick]

That sounds right. Although I haven't read God Emperor of Dune since it was published.