elanya

sorceror knows my weakness and asked about pirates! I thought I would have time to write a longer entry today, but work was kind of annoying, and then when I did have a bit of time, I used it to work on an overly ambitious Yuletide treat. Whoops!

So, I will give you the five coolest things about pirates.... But not in as much detail as I had hoped. Sticking with the general golden age, as they are the ones I know the best!

5. Ships! I do like ships, and maritime communities, so this aspect definitely appeals. Pirates were by necessity master tradesmen. They knew ships, and they knew how to fight with them.

4. They were socio-anarchists! Trapped in an exploitative system, pirates were made of desperate people who decided to say fuck it all and make their own way, for better or for worse. They looked out for themselves - and each other. Of course, this usually only lasted until they could get a real foothold back in society's warm embrace... Really, I'd say it was an on-again, off-again relationship.

3. World travel! Pirates got to go so many really cool places - they literally sailed the seven seas!

2. Their brass balls. Pirates were pretty audaious - peple were terrified of them, and they worked that to their advantage. Some of them exploited this by being terrifying, awful people. Others were just really cunning, but either way - some of the shit they managed to pull off was impressively epic - people thought so at the time, and we're still talking about them hundreds of years later!

1. The very coolest thing about pirates, to me, is that they were actual real people and that we have so much information about them as a group and as individuals. There are fantstic stories about pirates, but they are also *true* stories, and that's pretty amazing.