Everything about Melange totally explained
Melange is the name of the
fictional
drug (also known as [
the]
spice) central to the
Dune series of
science fiction novels by
Frank Herbert, and derivative works.
The most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, melange is a
geriatric drug that gives the user a longer
lifespan, greater vitality, and heightened
awareness; it can also unlock
prescience in some subjects, depending upon the
dosage and the consumer's
physiology. This prescience-enhancing property makes interstellar travel possible. Melange comes with a steep price however: it's addictive, and withdrawal is a fatal process.
Description
Herbert is vague in describing the appearance of the spice. However, he hints at its color in
Dune Messiah when he notes that
Guild Navigator Edric "swam in a container of orange gas ... His tank's vents emitted a pale orange cloud rich with the smell of the geriatric spice, melange." Herbert also indicates
fluorescence in
God Emperor of Dune when the character
Moneo notes, "Great bins of melange lay all around in a gigantic room cut from native rock and illuminated by glowglobes of an ancient design with arabesques of metal scrollwork upon them. The spice had glowed radiant blue in the dim silver light. And the smell — bitter
cinnamon, unmistakable." Herbert writes repeatedly, starting in
Dune, that melange possesses the odor of cinnamon.
In
Dune,
Lady Jessica notes that her first taste of spice "tasted like cinnamon."
Dr. Yueh adds that the flavor is "never twice the same .. It's like life — it presents a different face each time you take it. Some hold that the spice produces a learned-flavor reaction. The body, learning a thing is good for it, interprets the flavor as pleasurable — slightly euphoric. And, like life, never to be truly synthesized." the "half-plant-half-animal deep-sand vector of the Arrakis
sandworm." Gases are produced which result in "a characteristic 'blow,' exchanging the material from deep underground for the matter on the surface above it."
Collecting the melange is hazardous in the extreme, since rhythmic activity on the desert surface of Arrakis attracts the worms, which are four hundred meters in length on average, and very dangerous, capable of swallowing a mining crawler whole. Thus, the mining operation essentially consists of vacuuming it off the surface with a
harvesting machine until a worm comes, at which time a carry-all aircraft lifts the mining vehicle to safety. The Fremen, who have learned to co-exist with the sandworms in the desert, harvest the spice manually for their own use and for
smuggling off-planet.
Later in the series, an artificial method of producing the spice is discovered by the
Bene Tleilax, who develop in secret the technology to produce melange in
axlotl tanks. Still, the technology isn't fully successful in pushing natural melange out of the marketplace.
Use
Spice is in general use all over the universe, and is a sign of wealth; in
Dune,
Duke Leto Atreides notes that of every valuable commodity known to
mankind, "all fades before melange. A handful of spice will buy a home on
Tupile." which is something of a source of pride amongst the Fremen and a symbol of their tribal bond.
Paul Atreides, the main character in the original
Dune novel, initially has green eyes, but after several years on Arrakis his eyes begin to take on the deep, uniform blue of the Fremen. On other planets, the addicted often use tinted
contact lenses to hide this discoloration. In
Dune, Paul sees two
Guildsmen and notes:
The taller of the two, though, held a hand to his left eye. As the Emperor watched, someone jostled the Guildsman's arm, the hand moved, and the eye was revealed. The man had lost one of his masking contact lenses, and the eye stared out a total blue so dark as to be almost black.
In both the
1984 film and
2000 miniseries versions of
Dune, the eyes of spice users are shown as a luminous bright blue, with iris still distinct from sclera.
When aerosolized and used as an
inhalant in extremely high dosages, the drug has even more potent physiological effects. It acts as a
mutagen, causing the body to attain the fish-like state which Herbert described. This usage, however, can only be tolerated by those who have the affinity to become
Spacing Guild navigators, as evidenced in :
No one ever told him what he was expected to do. He never had a chance. He choked on the spice gas, became dizzy, fought to keep control of his faculties. The melange overdose stupefied him, so that he couldn't remember who he was or why he was there. He struggled to maintain focus, but lost himself.
References and notes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Melange'.
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