Talk:Melange

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1 BG failures
2 Spice Agonies
3 Sources
4 Addictiveness
5 Effect on eyes
6 Merge with Pre-spice mass
7 Blue or brown-orange?
8 Other meanings
9 Bad movie!
10 Source of the spice

[edit] BG failures

What happens to an acolyte who does NOT master the melange overdose experience? Does she leave her body permanently?

Curious minds want to know.

aloha from Maui .

--ed jor-el elkin evolutionary agent www.evolve.org www.jor-el.org

She essentially dies, I think because melange is a poison (much like alcohol). Reread the first book for a detailed account of Jessica's Spice Agony.

Does anyone think that it's worth mentioning the SPOILER SPOILER axlotl tanks as a secondary source of mélange? The current entry says that sandworms are the only source.

---perhaps not. axlotl tanks actually produce amal, not melange. granted, it has similar effects but in the strictest sense it is not melange.

That is not correct. The word "amal" never shows up anywhere in the original six books--that is a "new" canon term for synthetic spice. The Tleilaxu are making actual Melange in their tank. There is never any indication in the originals otherwise. Tleilax Master B 18:05, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spice Agonies

spice agony does not occur through spice overdose. Spice is in fact not used at all. The narcotic consumed is the water of life: the exhaled bile of a drowning sandworm.

It is important to note that the water of life is deadly until it is changed by a Reverend Mother. Reverend Mothers can ingest the spice essence and alter their internal body chemistry in order to change the chemical make up of the water itself, making it safe for others to drink. However, the water of life remains a powerful narcotic which is then used in Freman spice orgies. --ben.kent@charter.net

[edit] Sources

Perhaps it should be amended to 'only *known* source of melange'? After all, we are told that the sandworm cycle is not native to Arrakis, that it came from somewhere else. --maru 22:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Addictiveness

Blue eyes are a trait of someone exposed to the spice too much for too long a time. It may not even indicate an addict. And even if it does, visible physical changes are NOT a prerequisite for addiction, or even neccesarily a part of it.

It coincides with the addiction, it shares the same origin, but it is NOT evidence that the spice is addictive.

Here's an example: Argyria The silver compounds that people who suffer from this took generally are NOT addictive, yet their skin turns grey. Same thing in this (fictional) context.

[edit] Effect on eyes

"Extensive use of the drug tints the cornea and iris of the user to a dark shade of blue"

I'm pretty sure it's the sclera (white of the eye) and not the cornea that is tinted blue by the spice. If the cornea was tinted blue, it would affect eyesight. —Preceding unsigned comment added by B.d.mills (talk • contribs) 17:42, 17 November 2005

The books speak of "blue within blue" eyes, and the movies show the same. I think it should indeed be the Sclera though, as the Cornea is in front of the Iris, and the pupil does not even glint blue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.120.85.242 (talk • contribs) 10:35, 17 December 2005

One thing I never understood is why the blue within blue eyes are unique to arrakis, even though rich nobles on other planets are addicted to the stuff and live longer. Even the emperor drinks that spice beer all the time and lives to be over 150. Why is he not showing the same side effects? ONLY people on arrakis, primarily fremen, are ever depicted with these eyes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.122.44.100 (talk • contribs) 18:59, 29 March 2007

The spice is literally everywhere in the deserts of Arrakis, the air, the sand; the saturation is high for inhabitants, I'm imagining like second-hand smoke! But there is some indication in the books (I'll research where) that nobles on other planets due sometimes suffer these effects but wear special lenses to hide them. TAnthony 03:11, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Oh hi, you replied to my inquiry about harkonnen uniforms! I would appreciate if you could find that information about the special lenses; as far as the idea that on Arrakis its everywhere, in the miniseries I remember they only portrayed fremen with the eyes and not local city inhabitants. But that is the series, for the book I cannot quite remember if they mention just local city dwellers having the eyes. Lol, spice is sooooooo expensive would it not pay for even a regular person to just save up to move to arrakis if he wanted all its benefits hehe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.122.44.100 (talk • contribs) 18:47, 30 March 2007

OK, I added some quotes regarding the lenses. Please sign all of your future posts. TAnthony 03:18, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge with Pre-spice mass

Support: Pre-spice mass is such a small article that it needs to be brought over. Lady Aleena | Talk 08:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Since this suggestion is 1,5 months old and no one objected to it I merged Pre-spice mass into Melange. Bisco 08:40, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blue or brown-orange?

It is said that melange is somekind of orange in Herbert's books. But in Dune Encyclopedia it is stated that the colour of melange is blue due to a heme group (hemocyanin?). Could it be that whereas melange is produced naturally with an iron atom in its heme group, when it enters the body the iron atom is interchaged by two copper atoms (so that would be the reason of the blue eyes)?

No. The Dune Encyclopedia was not written by Herbert, and not only does he state it in a roundabout way in the intro to the Encyclopedia, but it has been stated by both Frank and Brian Herbert that it's not canon. Kuroji 06:56, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, its stated in the originals that it is blue also--but for some reason the gas in a Guild navigators tank is orange. Here is a quote from the GEoD:

"Great bins of melange lay all around in agigantic 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."

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Tleilax Master B (talk • contribs) 10:10, April 9, 2007

Actually, in Dune Messiah, melange is called "cinnamon colored." It is hard to find an accurate description of the stuff, despite its constant use. It seems to be a flakey powdery substance, which probably looks like cinnamon too, although I have yet to find a perfect description. (Stexe) 76.116.109.221 (talk) 12:49, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

The actual text from Messiah to which I believe you're referring is "Behind the throne, draperies cascaded in burnt orange, curried gold of Dune earth, and cinnamon flecks of melange. To a trained eye, the symbolism was obvious, but it contained hammer blows to beat down the uninitiated." Mohiam is not really describing the melange itself, she's describing drapery; as the color gold suggests Dune to her, "cinnamon" (palette color or color of the kitchen spice itself?) suggests melange. This requires interpretation, and so is tricky to add to the article. I think using all the bits it can be suggested that melange is orange and yet glows blue, but I'll check the texts before I add anything to the article. — TAnthony^Talk 17:31, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

In Children of Dune it mentions violet melange sand spots. "They passed the leprous blotches of violet sand where a spiceblow had erupted and he held the worm firmly until they were well past the vein," I've found other references and the description seems to change from orange (spice gas) and cinnamon (fleck of melange) to blue (radiant blue) and violet (spiceblow). There was a discussion on this issue here: http://www.dunenovels.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=28074&highlight=#28074 and while it isn't official information, it does cite a large list of passages from Dune to Hunters. -Stexe 76.116.109.221 (talk) 06:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other meanings

Moved from article page -- Fagstein 08:59, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

See this website for an alternative use of the term - meaning rocket fuel ctod 21:46, 13 November 2006 (UTC) [1]

[edit] Bad movie!

Is there any reason that this article must quote David Lynch's "Dune" movie? It is largely unfaithful to the original work and does not feature the spice in any significant way. Why include a quote that is exclusive to it?--Thehighseer23 02:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

The quote is not an endorsement of the film, it just sums up the importance of the spice pretty well. Some people like the film, some don't, does it matter? TAnthony 02:44, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

No, it doesn't matter.--Thehighseer23 16:43, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Source of the spice

The article says the only source of the spice is Dune. However, isn't it true that in later books worms (or at least one) are transfered to another planet to create a 'new' Dune? That said, the original source is Dune, but in the complete works of Frank Herbert, it's not the only source.

At least, this is what I can remember; I read the books years ago, so forgive me if my memory betrays me. :)

Van der Hoorn 03:15, 28 June 2007 (UTC)