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And now it's time for your Sunday Sad Story...
Title: Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: past Rodney/John
Category: angst
Length: long
Warnings: pre-story character death; although there is no explicit violence or sex, Freedom deals with mature themes, and I wouldn't recommend letting your 12-year-old read this.
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
synecdochic
Website: http://www.kekkai.org/synecdochic
Author's Summary: SGC finally stops calling him by December. Rodney celebrates by writing a final exam for his relativity class so difficult that it reduces four students to tears in the exam hall. Upon reflection, he decides to be merciful and offer partial credit.
Review:
Rodney returns to teach university on Earth after John's death. He remains harsh and abrasive, but somewhere deep down , he learns to love teaching, and surprisingly, some of the (less moronic) students.
Freedom is a couple years old and I'm sure most people in the SGA fandom have read it. I won't lie and tell you how uplifting it is. This is a immensely powerful, deeply moving but at the same time, truly depressing story. Yet I go back time and time again (despite the amount of Kleenex used) because I believe there is something very positive and hopeful about the story which lends me courage to face the difficulties of everyday life. This is a story about how people deal with traumatic events in life and how, even though they will never truly get over them, they learn to move on, eventually.
There is great interaction between Rodney and his students. Some of the classes he teaches are just fantastic ("PHY441: How You Too Can Avoid Fucking Up The World!")! He actually reminded me of some of my University profs., you know, the ones whose exams were so difficult that half the class failed, and all he/she ever said was: well, this year's class is simply more stupid. Oh, those good ol' college days. So, yah, this story brought back some good memories.
I've got no other words for Freedom other than -- go read, if you are strong enough.
Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose
And the Band's Playing "Hail to the Chief" (sequel to Freedom)
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Title: Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: past Rodney/John
Category: angst
Length: long
Warnings: pre-story character death; although there is no explicit violence or sex, Freedom deals with mature themes, and I wouldn't recommend letting your 12-year-old read this.
Author on LJ:
synecdochic Website: http://www.kekkai.org/synecdochic
Author's Summary: SGC finally stops calling him by December. Rodney celebrates by writing a final exam for his relativity class so difficult that it reduces four students to tears in the exam hall. Upon reflection, he decides to be merciful and offer partial credit.
Review:
Rodney returns to teach university on Earth after John's death. He remains harsh and abrasive, but somewhere deep down , he learns to love teaching, and surprisingly, some of the (less moronic) students.
Freedom is a couple years old and I'm sure most people in the SGA fandom have read it. I won't lie and tell you how uplifting it is. This is a immensely powerful, deeply moving but at the same time, truly depressing story. Yet I go back time and time again (despite the amount of Kleenex used) because I believe there is something very positive and hopeful about the story which lends me courage to face the difficulties of everyday life. This is a story about how people deal with traumatic events in life and how, even though they will never truly get over them, they learn to move on, eventually.
There is great interaction between Rodney and his students. Some of the classes he teaches are just fantastic ("PHY441: How You Too Can Avoid Fucking Up The World!")! He actually reminded me of some of my University profs., you know, the ones whose exams were so difficult that half the class failed, and all he/she ever said was: well, this year's class is simply more stupid. Oh, those good ol' college days. So, yah, this story brought back some good memories.
I've got no other words for Freedom other than -- go read, if you are strong enough.
Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose
And the Band's Playing "Hail to the Chief" (sequel to Freedom)
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chasethestars
chasethestars
Comments
You are absolutely right also on this being an uplifting story in the end too. My sister and I were discussing this story the other day and agreed that to us the real theme of this story is that of forgiveness and grace. Rodney, over many school years, learns that forgiving yourself is much harder than forgiving others. As he repents for his sins slowly and painfully through his classes and students, he begins to forgive himself a little and heal. He can never forgive himself completely nor should he but he learns to live with what he has done, the cost of his actions, what he has lost and through this, he achieves grace. Grace in my mind being accepting your faults and sins and those of others and learning to live with them in some semblance of peace.
You didn't excerpt the story but that incredibly memorable opening paragraph haunts me still:
"There is a gravestone in Arlington National Cemetery. It sits watch over an empty grave, and there is a vine with small blue flowers, one the gardeners can't identify from any book, twining up its side.
It is an utterly unremarkable memorial, name and rank and dates, no different from the thousands of others save for the verse that graces its face:
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea.
Every year, a few more flowers bloom."
--Absolutely! You've put it much better than I had. :)
Thank you for posting an excerpt; the opening and ending paragraphs of the stories are truly beautiful (and haunting).
Something I thought I'd never see!
A few years ago he settled on a four-semester cycle for his section of PHYS441. The official registration website lists the four classes as "Sociology of Scientific Discovery", "Current Problems in Science", "Practical Crisis Problemsolving", and "Scientific Ethics", but he still calls them "How People Have Fucked Up The World Recently", "How People Are Fucking Up The World Right Now", "How You Too Can Avoid Fucking Up The World", and "Why Not Fucking Up The World Really Matters". Kim, the departmental administrative assistant who is still the only person who knows everything about everybody, has learned his shorthand; his syllabi are filed under what he considers the courses' real titles.
I wish I had a physics prof. like him; that probably would have motivated me to go to class more.