I think the idea was that you knew that it'sa test and that you'd die if you remove the hand, so it's less willpower and more reasoning over instinct/fear, at least in theory. You have to presume the box is at least tuned to different people's pain thresholds or whatever.

Also, the text pretty much says that Mohiam is doing it wrong more or less on purpose:

"Enough," the old woman muttered. "Kull wahad! No woman child ever withstood that much. I must've wanted you to fail."

If you give the benefit of the doubt that Herbert figured out the practicalities and wasn't going by rule of cool (which he absolutely was) the implication is that the person administering the test has some control of the itnensity and you're supposed to deal with some pain you're supposed to hold, not become convinced that your hand is a charred stump like Paul is.

That, and the movie verisons amp the whole thing up a lot, so it comes across a bit differently.

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I thought it was less about the charred stump and more of another activation of his powers. Turning the inner eye, conquering it, knowing it won't come out a burning stump, because his whole arm and body would be that way if it was actually on fire.

[–] MudMan@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago

Well, it can't be that in the context of the story, because as it's presented, they give this test to pretty much everybody they train, including Jessica (although Mohiam clarifies that "seldom" to men).

Don't get me wrong Paul and all the other Dune protagonists don't need much encouragement to go supersaiyan on your ass, and this often comes in similar circumstances, but this particular first example seems to mostly be Paul taking his finals and things getting intense because his examiner turns the dial to eleven. In the book it isn't even that big of a deal, he just says the litany once, has the vision of his hand getting melted for like a paragraph and Moiham goes "phew, I went a bit hard on you there for a second and poofing away".

Also, this doesn't relate to anything else, but I went back to find the passage for this and man, both her and Paul are such little shits to each other in this bit. He calls her "old woman" and threatens to have her killed, she mocks him for being so privileged he has to know about poisons as a a teenager... They're so sassy, and neither movie quite nails that part.