Explore fear in a Friday Zoom event through Auntie’s

Above : A scene from Denis Villeneuve’s forthcoming film “Dune.” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

One of the best mantras about fear can be found in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel “Dune.” Now that the world is engaged in fighting off a pandemic, it’s time to revisit what Herbert called a Bene Gesserit litany against fear.

It goes like this:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

This mantra comes to mind for a couple of reasons. For one, the COVID-19 virus has caused theaters chains to shutter across the U.S., with Regal Cinemas announcing that it will re-close the 543 theaters it operates across the country (including Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium). Because of this, the release of Denis Villeneuve ‘s much-expected adaptation of Herbert’s novel, along with many other films, may now be postponed until 2021. Or even later.

As Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger told the Wall Street Journal, a theater not having access to new releases was “like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat. We cannot operate for a long time without a product.”

For another, fear is the topic of a literary Zoom event that will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday through Auntie’s Bookstore. Eva Holland, author of “Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear,” will discuss her book with Ben Goldfarb (author of “Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter”). For information, call (509) 838-0206.

A correspondent for Outside magazine, Holland has written for Esquire, Wired and National Geographic News. Mixing science with personal experience, Holland asks and answers a number of questions, including the following: “To what can we attribute a phobia? Is it a bad memory metastasized, or is extreme fear unrelated, or not always related, to memory? Furthermore, what exactly happens when we feel fear?”

Now might be a good time to take in such an event. After all, “Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”