Jorj X. McKie
Jorj X. McKie is the leading saboteur extraordinary in the Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab), an organization found in two science fiction novels by Frank Herbert, as well as two earlier short stories. He is described as a squat and ugly man of Pacific Islander ancestry, with green eyes and a shock of red hair. The Gowachin say they feel their bones age in his presence, because when he smiles, he bears a remarkable resemblance to their "Frog god", the nearly-divine Lawgiver, Mrreg.
Appearance
Jorj X. McKie is one of the Bureau's top agents, a squat and ugly little man with a mane of red hair whose bulk and features give him a gnomish or "grandfather toad" appearance. McKie deeply mistrusts power and those occupied in the exercising of it, extending his mistrust to his own department and himself. McKie has been trained for his position from a very early age when he first showed troublemaking tendencies; his energies were channeled through classes such as Applied Destruction and Advanced Irritation. McKie appears to be furthering his own career by sabotaging the Secretary of Sabotage, pugnacious Clinton Watt (McKie, using an alien device, triggers the growth of a wriggling rainbow mass of tendrils on Watt's head); he is certainly in the line of succession once Watt is officially declared too bizarre-looking to function. But has McKie also engineered this exploit as the kickoff of an investigation into the Tax Watchers organization, about which both he and Watt are concerned. A Pan-Spechi BuSab agent, Bildoon, has vanished while on the same task.[1]
Within the BuSab
A born troublemaker, Jorj McKie finds BuSab to be a natural outlet for his tendencies. But McKie's success as a BuSab agent is really the result of a formidable intelligence and an exquisite sensitivity to the traditions of other races combined with the ability to adapt to any circumstances. Sent by the agency to Dosadi as their "best", he was like an infant in swaddling clothes in comparison to a people honed by fifteen generations of violence. However, in less than a single week Keila Jedrik appraised him as "more Dosadi than Dosadi."
Personal life
Whipping Star is based on a concept of unusual communication — that of a sentient universe inhabitant, whom McKie appears to be, with the visual manifestation of a star who is called a Caleban.[2]
Despite his feelings of genuine love for the Caleban Fannie Mae (a love which is fully returned), McKie finds it difficult to form long-term attachments to human women; he has been married on no fewer than fifty occasions by the time of the Dosadi affair. Nevertheless, he finds in Keila Jedrik a companion who becomes far more than a soul mate.
Herbert's philosophy
Frank Herbert's creation of such character as McKie is based upon his belief that Great power makes the lack of ability to understand lower beings; the help of a much less powerful being, Jorj X. McKie, is a necessity, making the near-god dependent on someone who in turn depends on it for survival.[3]
References
- ^ Levack, Daniel J. H. (1988). Dune master: a Frank Herbert bibliography. Meckler's bibliographies on science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Westport, CT: Meckler. p. 127. ISBN 0-887-36099-8. OCLC 16649538.
- ^ The Library journal book review 1970. New York: R.R. Bowker. 1971. p. 782. ISBN 0-835-20470-7. OCLC 225912711.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Beacham, Walton; Niemeyer, Suzanne (1986). Beacham's popular fiction: 1950-present. Vol. Vol.2. Washington, D.C.: Beacham Pub. p. 618. ISBN 0-933-83310-5.
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Sources
- Herbert, Frank. "A Matter of Traces" (short story) Fantastic Universe, 1958
- Herbert, Frank. "The Tactful Saboteur" (short story) Galaxy, 1964
- Herbert, Frank. Whipping Star (novel) Galaxy, 1969
- Herbert, Frank. The Dosadi Experiment (novel) Berkeley, 1977.