After starting A stitch in time, it’s crazy to me how buck wild Cardassians are. Like they are psychologically torturing their youth and for what? No wonder all cardassians are like That
so I’m about a third of the way into A Stitch In Time and I just have so many thoughts.
this is unexpectedly one of the most fascinating books I have ever read, because the circumstances of its existence (tie-in novel for established tv show, written by the actor, largely taken from his character-dev writing) create a novel that would’ve never existed otherwise.
in any other normal novel, the protagonist with a sad childhood who gets shipped off to train to be a weapon of the state, in a violent, loveless institution, would be… taking a stand against the status quo! that’s what protagonists do, they make unlikely friends and they stand up for what’s right and they change their world etc etc. yahoo. yay !
but as we good and goddamn know: garak’s not a protagonist
these flashback portions follow so many classic sf/f coming of age tropes of a young lad finding himself in a harsh new world, but instead of the main character being guided by a convenient moral compass and growing in defiance of the competitive, cruel environment– garak adapts, learns to outcompete his peers, learns to be crueler.
it’s not so much that you’re reading garak becoming worse (though he is, for sure)
it’s more that garak is drifting from being a mere product of his environment, to a perpetuator of it