Behaving Boldly and Badly: The Lure of Pirate Lore
by Andrea Jones, Author of The Hook & Jill Saga
Master of all he surveys, Captain Jack Sparrow stands at the masthead. When he steps unruffled from the mast to the dock, something sings in our hearts. “Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. Smith.”’ Damn and blast, me hearties— Mr. Smith is us. I’m Andrea Jones, “Capitana RedHand” of Under the Black Flag, a member of the Brethren of the Great Lakes, and author of The Hook & Jill Saga. I’m honored to help hoist the anchors of Great Lake Pirates. The appeal of pirates to modern folk is many-layered. The clothing, to begin: bright colors, sashes beating in the breeze, long coats to swirl about our ankles. Flashy jewelry, the weapons, the boots and jingly things. What’s not to love? But the clothing lies on the surface. Beneath our buckles beat hearts of abandon. Who doesn’t want to break the rules, burst from the office, and climb up the rat-lines? Modern life has us battened down, buttoneddown, and boring. We long to cast our responsibilities to the four winds and lock our troubles in the brig. Pirate re-enactment is an opportunity to behave boldly and badly— if only just for pretend. Aye, we be hooked on pirates. I was snagged by Hook himself. I’ve rebooted Captain Hook for adult readers in an award-winning book series. But why, after all these centuries, do we love to read about, sing of, re-enact, and idolize piracy? Curse me for a lubber if we don’t all have our own stories of how we got hooked.
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