In Dunes, San Swept colonialist dystopia of the distant future,

power is a force best handled and transferred surreptitiously.

In a world of ultra-wealthy spice barons and interplanetary warfare,

the greatest asset in both diplomacy and resistance is an intangible one, language.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the film's portrayal of Sign Language.

The Ben and Jessorate is an all-woman dynasty

leading an empire from behind the scenes.

Their arsenal of powers include the mastery of dozens of languages. With these they conduct

diplomacy in public for the benefit of the men they pretend to serve.

Meanwhile they enact their true plans in secret through whispers, telepathy, and the native languages of their conspirators.

Paul Etratus is a reluctant Messiah, whose prophetic ascendancy is spurred on when there are attempts to have his family

exterminated. Believed dead, Paul retreats to the desert with his Benigeserate mother, Lady Jessica.

There they find the Fremen, the free indigenous peoples of the Dune Planet Arrakis.

Paul and Jessica's knowledge of the Fremen language is crucial to their acceptance by the community.

Paul's initiation into their ranks is also linguistic, the choosing of a Fremen name.

But Jessica and Paul's use of the Ben and Jeserit's

sign language is the most literal and urgent use of language

as they survive threats in both Dune Part 1 and the New Dune Part 2.

And there's a super cut of hand signals from the Part 1 movie on YouTube that shows how they were

used with subtitles, including the lines,

tell no one of this. Remember your training, find the right pitch, and so on,

and I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

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