Pirates
My personal favorite blistering space-oath (after “Klono’s carballoy claws!” or “Suffering Sappho!” or “Frell!”) is, of course, “Noy Jitat!” which comes from Hanna Barbara’s PIRATES OF DARK WATER.
Oh, I am a sucker for pirates. What did the best movies of the last five years, CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL and DEAD MAN’S CHEST, have in common? Pirates. Tim Power’s ON STRANGER TIDES? Pirates. EE Doc Smith’s GALACTIC PATROL? Pirates! (Space Pirates count)! CAPTAIN BLOOD, SEA HAWKS, ELIZABETH AND ESSEX? Pirates!! THE CRIMSON PIRATE, DR. SYN, PETER PAN? Alan Moore’s WATCHMAN? Pirates!!! Poul Anderson’s STAR FOX? Pirates (Priveteers issued letters of Marque and Reprisal count)! MOBY DICK? TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST? (Yes, both have a short scene where they outdistance pursuit). BEN HUR (the galley where Ben Hur is a slave goes down fighting pirates). Shonen Jump’s ONE PIECE? Pirates !!!! The LAZYTOWN episode where Robbie Rotten impersonates a pirateand sings ‘Yo-Ho Fiddle-Dee-Dee’? Er–Okay. Strike that last one.
I thought Hanna Barbara in DARK WATER was actually trying something rather bold: to tell a story with better quality animation, serial-fashion, on a world that was both realistic and really alien.
And only seven of the twelve treasures were found! I always wanted to know what happened next.
One thing I like about Jack Vance is that, after leaving me hanging with three of the five Demon Princes dead (Vance stopped writing Kirth Gerson stories after PALACE OF LOVE) after a haitus of years, he started up again and gave a grateful and adoring world THE FACE and THE BOOK OF DREAMS. It was simply a delight to meet my old friends Saint Barnassus and Baron Bodissey again, or read the Scroll from the Ninth Dimension.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
