xlvi - Day 17 - Favorite Protagonist

Ok, so I did curse myself. It turns out actually having the baby (noting a previous post's caveat about being relegated to spectator status for the genuinely difficult bits, on account of my sex) is a lot more work than I imagined. I've been quite busy.

It's my daughter's two-month birthday today and things are apparently supposed to ease up from now on. There are undoubtedly parts of my life that will never be the same, but I'm holding out hope there are meals and full nights' worth of sleep in my future.

In the meantime I'm rediscovering my ability to string together more than a sentence or two, so it's looking like high time to reassemble the wagon.

Day 17 - Favorite Protagonist

Henry Dorsett Case.

Is that cheating? The "question" isn't specific. I didn't write him. I doubt he'll ever figure in anything I do. Of any character I've read or written, though, he's the one that drew me in the most.

It goes without saying that because I started reading for fun when I was a kid, that I wasn't the most refined reader. So, it didn't hurt that a lot of the stories I read in junior and early high school made liberal use of the "kid of modest origins becomes nigh-invulnerable" trope, but I can't say I identified with the protagonists.

As I made my way through high school that would change. Dune, being another boy-becomes-god story, served as a bridge to science fiction. The first character I developped a rapport with was Paul Atreides, even though the only thing we had in common was our age and general physical appearance.

It wasn't until after my introduction to the depression that would become my lifelong companion that I really clicked with a character. That character, you'd be right to guess, is Case.  The broader strokes of his storyline resonated with me at a time that I felt I'd lost something, and that feeling stuck with me.