omicrontheyta

[omicrontheyta]

some background info on a cardassian book ("in the heart of the devil") i made up, for garak & bashir to discuss in a fic i wrote, available on archiveofourown and on tumblr. when i came up with the idea for my fic i wanted to fully flesh out the book they were discussing so that i wouldn't have to just bullshit my way through their conversation. i thought it would be more involved in that story than it ended up being, but, here is what i wrote.

CW: kafkaesque shit, and state-and-military-loving plot and themes typical of cardassian culture as depicted in the actual show. also use of it/its pronouns to dehumanize. christianity mentioned as a comparison.

"in the heart of the devil" is a cardassian judicial romance novel. it follows "the conservator", who falls in love with her client, "the accused", over the course of a criminal trial (which only truly lasts a few hours - a very long story that takes place in a very condensed time, like that one part in hxh chimera ant arc). it's an extremely long book, notorious among non cardassians (and cardassians who aren't that into literature) for its tediousness and long-winded tangential nature that spares no detail. the conservator is established as a paragon of cardassian morals, never having commited even a minor crime in her entire life. her love and passion for the accused reflects her love for not just the accused itself, but the cardassian state as well. at multiple points she's brought to tears just by thinking of her deep dedication towards the state.

the narrative portraying a criminal as worthy of love would normally be very very risky in a cardassian book, it would simply not be publishable. but the saving grace here is that the accused admits guilt entirely and had experienced mitigating factors that contributed to them turning to a life of crime, the accused is portrayed very negatively during the time in which he is asserting his "rights" (described with terms one would use to describe trash or a diseased animal, referred to as "it"), and the two of them do not end up together. when normally admitting guilt would be a shortcut to skip the trial entirely, at this trial it is not an option, because the conservator has only very recently been appointed her title and new conservators are required to fully represent their clients (in order to build the skill). she falls for the accused due to his evil criminal wiles.

at the start of the story, the accused admits fully that he has committed the crime, but contends that he was right to do so, and that prosecuting him would be unethical. throughout the trial, to the conservator's neverending delight (and only serving to deepen her love for him), the accused comes to "see the light", that his prosecution is not only necessary but good, beautiful even. he proclaims his guilt and accepts his sentence with gratitude (at this point he's shown still in a negative light, as an inferior thing in comparison to law-abiding citizens, but making an attempt to repent at least, and thus deserving of pity. the kind of concept i'm thinking of here is one i'm not sure you'll be familiar with or well versed in: how the sinful man is described in comparison to god in much of christianity, a despicable and cruel and ugly thing doing its best to uphold holiness)

further details on the ending are not revealed because garak doesn't want to spoil it for bashir. also, at no point in the book are the details of the crime or the sentence discussed. garak had implied to bashir that the conservator was Not the main character - she is though. he was trolling.

[omicrontheyta]

i love data so much