Great White Nothing

Fraser/Kowalski Fanfiction
Title:	Great White Nothing
Author(s):	ignazwisdom
Date(s):	2006
Length:	6400 words
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	due South
External Links:	online here online at AO3
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Great White Nothing is a Fraser/RayK story by ignazwisdom.

Reactions and Reviews

Why this must be read:

Because it’s great. And it’s heartbreaking. And it’s pretty much the only post-COTW story since Kat Allison’s End of the Road that manages to equal what Kat did when she broke our boys up. Ignaz packs a lot of punch into this relatively short fic, and I think it's because of her careful use of foreshadowing and the way she builds up to the relationship between Ray and Fraser. Love is something that the guys earn in this story, not something that just happens along with the sex. And when their bond isn’t strong enough to overcome geography and Ray realizes that he just can’t hack it north of the 62 parallel, it comes as a body blow that feels every bit as final as the ultimate parting in Road.

The contrast between Fraser and Ray’s growing intimacy throughout the story and the last, desperate fuck they share in a hotel room before Ray leaves the Arctic makes this story a worthy addition to the list of fics that are famous in the fandom for breaking our hearts. It shows us a side of Ray and Fraser where need and want isn’t enough. Compromise is the key, and Ignaz’s take on Fraser makes us understand why compromise is impossible for him. When I first read this story (and, in the interest of full disclosure, beta’d it for Ignaz) I couldn’t help but think of something Paul Haggis said about the differences between early dS episodes and the later second series. When the show transitioned from S1/S2 cop-buddy drama into the surrealist comedy of the RayK years, Haggis noted that Fraser became a much less tragic figure. That sense of the conflict and inevitable, tragic alone-ness of Fraser is fully illuminated in this story, because here he is seen as a part of the Great White Nothing that characterizes the land of his birth. There’s no place for RayK in all that white space, and this story is an exploration of that final irony.

Yeah, so, I liked it. You will too.