"'...it all happened long ago and far away.'"
-Frederik Forsyth, Avenger (London, 2004), p. 431.
An sf story ends:
"'That was long ago and far away.'"
-James Blish, Earthman, Come Home IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, London, 1981), pp. 235-465 AT CHAPTER FOUR, p. 333.
That phrase, "long ago and far away," is extremely evocative in relation to personal experience. For some of us, our earliest childhood was long ago and, even if it was not literally far away, might as well have been. The world has become a different place, a foreign country. Of course, a human life is short in historical, evolutionary or cosmic terms. We imagine that the historically long ago and far away could be personally close to a time traveller. In 2319, Carl Farness looks at Earth from the Moon:
"I lost myself in the sight of that glorious white-swirled blueness. Jorith had lost herself there, two thousand years ago."
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," p. 375.
Two thousand years ago: not that long ago for Carl Farness.
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