FIC: Torchwood (drabble) - "Jack's Heritage"

[fajrdrako]

Title: Jack's Heritage
Challenge: challenge: heritage
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: Cross-posted to my LJ and tw100.



Jack's Heritage

Jack's first life was light-years away and millennia in the future. His second was that of the Time Agency: a created universe, twisted, magnificent, ultimately worthless.

Then Earth, World War II, and the TARDIS, followed by abandonment, loss, Victorian England. He picked up customs and manners quickly, from people, books. Then there were the motion pictures; the talkies; technicolor; Gary Cooper, Richard Burton, Harrison Ford. Jack drank it up eagerly, studying every nuance. The film industry made his past out of bits of light and sound.

Celluloid heritage: it served him well, for a life he could call his own.




~ ~ ~

Comments

[atheneunknown.livejournal.com]

wow. For some odd reason this made me think of the movie version of interview with a vampire. Louie seeing the sunrise only thru film, because its been taken away from him in reality by Lestat.

God thats well done, I could see this. It makes sense. Jack, not knowing who he is really, anymore. Turning to film, as a way to find himself. A way to know what he actually likes.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten that from "Interview with a Vampire", but I like the image. I can see parallels between Lestat and Captain Jack - the longevity, the charm, the sense of engagement with life.

Jack has to find a way of fitting into the culture in which he finds himself. Film would be a sort of godsend.

[atheneunknown.livejournal.com]

but then you start to wonder, how much is him, and how much is a character he created so he could fit into this time.

I mean honestly, con artists are basically actors anyway.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

but then you start to wonder, how much is him, and how much is a character he created so he could fit into this time.

This is one of the things that make him so fascinating. I think I understand Jack very well: part of that understanding is to realize how his whole life (and his version of Torchwood) is all a con. It's built on an imaginary foundation and made into something real - all created by a con man's skills. The central fact of his existence is that "Captain Jack Harkness" doesn't exist, he's a borrowed name with a made-up identity, who has managed to get exactly the power and position he needs to do what he wants to do (save humans from alien threats and the dangers of the Rift) without compromising his unreality. It's an amazing achievement!

I love it. No wonder Jack is my hero. "The lie that becomes the truth" is one of my favourite fictional themes, and it's illustrated over and over again in Jack's life. Lying as a process of creation.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oooh... this is so true. Jack is such a hero these days it's hard to remember that it is really all a con. He may no longer be a coward, but that doesn't make who he is today any more of a real person than he had been before

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Jack is such a hero these days it's hard to remember that it is really all a con.

It's a fabrication. I don't think it's a "con" in that his purposes are not self-serving - and are, in fact, exactly what he says they are. I think it's true that "the 21st century is where it all changes" and Jack is trying to prepare the world, or perhaps to stave off disaster as long as the world is still unprepared.

His purposes are heroic. And to a large extent he's not lying about who he is any more - he uses a name not his own, granted, but he hasn't made up an elaborate cover story, he just lets himself be the mystery leader of Torchwood. Which he is. He talks - at least to his team - fairly casually about meeting aliens, having sex with aliens, knowing what will happen, knowing things no one else on earth knows... having been pregnant. What they make of it is unclear. Presumably they all think Jack is full of it, but he amuses them.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

ahh, you are right.. It's not really a con, but its not rooted in the truth either. I think he relishes being the 'mysterious leader' and likes that air of mystery and confusion it creates. Or maybe its just that I like it so much I'm projecting...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It could be that I like it so much I'm projecting, too. But it's at least based on canonical evidence, and it makes for a very pretty and interesting package all together.

[ffarff.livejournal.com]

wow. For some odd reason this made me think of the movie version of interview with a vampire. Louie seeing the sunrise only thru film, because its been taken away from him in reality by Lestat.

good point.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't see much direct influence of Anne Rice on Torchwood, but the show does have some of the same sensibilities.

[damalan.livejournal.com]

You must be touching off thoughts with this one, as it made me think of Jon and Vangelis, The Friends of Mr Cairo:

Silent golden movies, talkies, technicolour, long ago
My younger ways stand clearer, clearer than my footprints
Stardom greats I've followed closely Closer than the nearest heartbeat
Longer that expected-ther were great-
Oh love oh love just to see them
Acting on the silver screen, oh my
Clark Gable, Fairbanks, Maureen O'Sullivan
Fantasy would fill my life and I
Love fantasy so much
Did you see in the morning light
I really talked, yes I did, to God's early dawning light
And I was privileged to be as I am to this day
To be with you. To be with you.

I would say we all construct and reconstruct our past, selecting the building blocks, consciously or unconsciously. Jack has a whole lot more time to do his, and in truth a whole lot more reason. I wonder what he recalls, when he thinks of his past?

[P.S. sorry I've not been in touch recently - RL got busy, some good,some less so]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Excellent quotes - yes, the same idea entirely, and the same mood.

I would say we all construct and reconstruct our past, selecting the building blocks, consciously or unconsciously.

Yes. Jack would have to pick and choose what he wanted to keep from the 51st century, and what he wanted to hide, and what he wanted to discard. It's interesting that there are some things he clearly has kept - such as his attitude to sex, which he sees no reason to change. If I want to be optimistic about our world, perhaps it's because he knows the 21st century will soon catch up to his perecptions?

So the reality in which Jack lives isn't the same as our reality, because he has seen the past (both from a random taste-test and living the slow path), and has experiened the future - he knows what is going to happen. It must give him a very different perspective on everything he sees. Like Ianto showing the people from 1953 around a supermarket in 2008 - Jack has seen the content of supermarkets into the distant future. So to speak.

Looked at another way: he has the big picture, what he had to learn was the little picture, the minutiae of day to day life decade by decade.

And Jack being Jack, he's never just a passive observer of life - he affects those around him, he makes a splash, there are things he wants to do and ways he wants to change things.

I wonder how the Time Agency handled this, training Time Agents to blend in. Assuming they even tried.

sorry I've not been in touch recently - RL got busy,

I'm glad if it wasn't just that you got bored and didn't want to talk to me any more. I missed you - but didn't feel I knew you quite well enough to poke and say "where are you?" You seem to be able to spark ideas from me - trains of thought - I love it! Besides, you're interesting and you have good taste in sexy heroes.

some good

Excellent

some less so

Oh dear. I hope that part goes away and troubles you no more.

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Lovely! Totally Jack. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I do love getting into his head.