Farther Than Earth From Heaven

Fanfiction
Title:	Farther Than Earth From Heaven
Author(s):	Destina Fortunato
Date(s):	2004 or before
Length:	54kb
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Stargate SG-1
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
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Farther Than Earth From Heaven is a Jack/Daniel story by Destina Fortunato.

Author's Notes: "Notes: This is a pre- and post-Meridian story about love, loss and closure -- but not a fix-it, and there's no glowing clouds. The title and section headers are taken from ancient Egyptian proverbs. Special thanks to elynross, Anais, quercus, Stacey and zoot for beta, comments and encouragement."

Reactions and Reviews

I adore this story. Destina Fortunato's fiction just gets better and better with every new story, regardless of fandom, and I'm thrilled she's now writing in the Stargate universe.

Farther Than Earth From Heaven is a delightfully melancholy story that deals with love and loss, and it hits a major kink of mine for bittersweet endings. It's set both pre and post Meridian and incorporates Daniel's ascension into its plotline. The action takes place primarily on Abydos and deals not only with the blossoming of Daniel and Jack's relationship into love and sexual desire, but also, inevitably, with Jack's overwhelming sense of grief and loss when he returns to Abydos alone.

The structure of this story is wonderful. There are seven sections and each part is preceded by what seems to be a proverb or saying. These are uncredited and I don't recognise them, so perhaps they are written by the author to evoke a certain tone to suit the action? They certainly function in this way for me. For example, "Every man finds himself in the world where he belongs" appears at the beginning of the first section, which deals with Daniel's love for the desert world of Abydos and the people he has come to consider family. "By knowing, one reaches belief. By doing, one gains conviction. When you know, dare." is a wonderful quote for the section that ends with Jack and Daniel's first tentative steps towards emotional and physical intimacy, while the final section is preceded by the melancholy warning: "For every joy there is a price to be paid."

The first and last sections deal with what is essentially the "now" in the time frame of the story: set after the episode "Meridian", an anguished Jack returns to Abydos alone to tell Daniel's people of his fate. These sections are italicised in the way that flashbacks usually are, and it's the bulk of the story, set in plain text, that takes place in the past. In a weird way, because of this reversal of the usual choice of font styles, it's the opening and closing sections that feel like the flashbacks—flashbacks into a grief-stricken future. This distortion of the reader's time perception is very clever, as it allows the reader to enjoy the main story of Jack and Daniel's visit to Abydos a year after Sha're's death—and the way they became lovers for the first time—without the grief of the reality of Daniel's absence entirely overshadowing the sweetness of the love story.

The beautiful, evocative language Destina uses is one of my favourite things about this story. It's very original in its descriptive images and metaphors and significantly avoids the use of fanon and cliched descriptions. When Daniel talks about Sha're, for example, phrases such as "She lives in my blood" are not only original but beautiful and full of emotional impact. The author's use of metaphor and simile are equally impressive: "Daniel wallowed in loss, lived in it like a home, wore the scent of it like expensive cologne", and "It was an order swaddled in velvet, its edges concealed by tenderness." Additionally, the motif of the endlessly shifting sand—"like silk"—echoes thematically through the story as a metaphor for the ephemeral, for change, for lack of permanence, and for the immensity of eternity against which one human life is but a grain of sand. This image is picked up again when Jack and Daniel finally make love for the first time. Daniel's voice is "like hot silk, flowing over Jack", and reminds the reader of the way the sand flowed over Daniel's fingers in a sensual touch on their arrival in Abydos. Even Daniel's fascination with the sand and Jack's instinctive hatred of it reflect the thematic concerns of the text. Daniel is the one that fate plucks away from his lover, as an insignificant grain of sand is plucked away by the wind, while Jack is left to deal with his grief, trudging once more across the hated sand. It's the first time he has done so alone, in what is the "longest walk of his life". Ironically, however, it's the hated sand, stirred by a light wind "like a subtle mist", that allows Jack to finally give into his grief.

I love the characterisation of Jack in this story. The text is written in a tight Jack third person point of view and the focus is kept wonderfully sharp and clear. I love the sweet but subtle way that Jack looks after Daniel: he comes with him to Abydos to protect him, even when he has no idea of the reason behind Daniel's visit; he makes sure he eats; and he's there to comfort and reassure his friend when he needs emotional support. A kind and caring Jack is one of my kinks and this story satisfies this kink perfectly. Jack is sweet and loving without ever degenerating into mawkish romanticism or moving outside of canon characterisation. The Daniel in this story is inevitably harder to know as his characterisation is filtered through Jack's perception. However, what you see is a wonderfully mature and responsible man who can, and does, stand on his own two feet, and who is a wonderful foil for Jack.

The author never makes the mistake of assuming that Jack is omniscient. He doesn't always instantly understand Daniel's real thoughts and feelings from his behaviour, but subtle clues within the text give the reader greater insight to Daniel's motivations. "The air was thick with unspoken words, with possibilities magnified every moment." This quotation refers directly to the growing sexual awareness between the two, but I also consider it an interesting way to look at how the story builds Jack and Daniel's relationship. Moment by moment the two grow closer, to the point where they admit to themselves and to each other what they are feeling—but nothing is ever overtly stated amongst the growing accumulation of small actions that leads, inevitably, to the moment their relationship changes from friendship to a deeper one of romantic love and sexual desire. It is the delicately portrayed emotional undercurrents that makes this version of the classic first time scenario so very enjoyable.

Even the sex scene is implied in evocative language rather than explicitly defined, and works to further the characterisation and plot, rather than just to titillate the reader with gratuitous detail: "'Nothing,' he said, and then they were moving against each other, pressed together, lips and tongues and Daniel had him, had always had him, although he was too blind to know it from the very beginning." I enjoyed this straightforward description of the physical action. The simple language is not unpoetic and the rhythmic use of punctuation and repetition of words cleverly echoes the gentle thrusting movements of sex, while still allowing the reader to gain a greater understanding of Jack's emotional reactions.

One of the things I really enjoy is a story that uses quotations to set a particular theme or to underscore its emotional tone, whether it's only a line or two at the beginning of each section, an entire poem that's placed at either end of the narrative, or something that's woven seamlessly into the text of the story. So one of the things I particularly like about Farther Than Earth From Heaven is the way the author uses particularly relevant quotations from two historical sources and fits them so naturally into the story that they never seem pretentious or out of place. Nobody would doubt that Daniel is that rare type of guy who would read that sort of thing for fun, and I found Jack's snarky reaction not only totally believable, but rather funny and sweet at the same time. The first quotation is a beautiful line from an ancient Egyptian love poem: "My beloved is like a garden, full of papyrus blossoms". I think this choice is a very appropriate one for the Stargate universe, not only because of the connection with the ancient Egyptian gods that are intimately associated with the Goa'uld, but also because the quote compares love to a garden full of the the plants from which paper is made—and that struck me as pretty apt for the bookish Daniel.

There are also two excerpts from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (an eleventh century Persian poem), the themes of which include the brevity of human existence, and the unknowable mysteries of the afterlife. This is very appropriate, especially if you consider that Farther Than Earth From Heaven is set around the time of Daniel's mystical ascension, and after an all too brief period of happiness for the two men as lovers. The first quotation is very well known and deals with the human need for love above all else: "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread---and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness". The second is not as well known and deals with loss: "Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears today of past Regrets and future Fears". These two quotations reflect the emotional intensity generated between Daniel and Jack, and they work together as a poignant reminder of the pain of past losses, the joy they might find together, and the irrevocable grief of further losses still to come.

Finally, I love the way Farther Than Earth From Heaven ends. The fact that Jack never reaches the end of his journey within the time frame of the narrative gives the reader the opportunity to view this story as a snapshot of Jack and Daniel's time together. It gives a sense of reality to the text that can only add to its overall impact, and works to highlight the love story. It also, to my mind, gives a forward thrust to the momentum of the internal action, so that we are aware that the story does not end here, but is part of the continuing saga of Jack's life. This effectively dovetails with its thematic concerns—so similar to those of the Omar Khayyam verses—and I was reminded of another famous quotation from the Rubaiyat which, for me, encapsulates the essence of both texts:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

Daniel is gone and Jack can't bring him back, no matter how much he might want to. His life must go on, too, no matter how much he might wish it would stop, or rewind, or even halt in one happy moment forever. However, although I enjoyed making these comparisons with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Farther Than Earth From Heaven doesn't need or rely on knowledge of anything except Stargate SG-1 - it contains, within its text, all a reader needs to know to enjoy this wonderful first time story.

While writing this review I tried very hard to think of something I disliked about this story - but I couldn't think of a single thing. I can't even say I want more of the story than is given because Farther Than Earth From Heaven is so complete just the way it is. This story is simply wonderful. For readers who enjoy expert storytelling, spot-on characterisation, fabulous writing, literary quotations, evocative use of language, and a bittersweet melancholia in their fiction, this story is something to treasure. It is, simply, one of the best Stargate stories I have ever read.

I don't usually go for the sad stories, but this is just so beautiful, and incredibly romantic, in a nonnauseating way. Meridian "death" fic.