I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean last night, and really can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s as much fun as movies can get. Johnny Depp is a revelation as Captain Jack Sparrow, moving like a fey, drunken Keith Richards who hasn’t gotten his land-legs; Geoffrey Rush is nearly as good. The plot is hokum of course, something about cursed Aztec treasure and blood sacrifice, but you don’t notice while you’re watching; you just go along for the ride.
By coincidence I’m reading a really fun book which also features sinister Aztec relics, Alex Irvine’s A Scattering of Jades. Selecting on the dependent variable, I’ve come to the conclusion that all forms of popular entertainment with Aztec treasures are ipso facto good. Jades is Irvine’s first novel, but it’s really very difficult to tell. He’s maybe a little too obviously influenced by Tim Powers, but that isn’t a bad influence to have - and A Scattering of Jades stands up to comparison with Powers’ best work.* Closing the circle of reference, Powers has also written a pirates’n’zombies novel, On Stranger Tides, which reads in places like a more literary version of POTC. Somehow, somewhere, it all connects together …
Keith has always been a great hero to me and I felt that pirates of the 18th century were sort of rock and roll stars. Who better than Keith Richards to be your inspiration? Pepe LePew - I always liked him. LOL
I wasn’t following this post at all until I realized that I was thinking of Pirates of Penzance, which is something altogether different.
“all forms of popular entertainment with Aztec treasures are ipso facto good.”
Yes. Further evidence is Donald Westlake’s novel Dancing Aztecs.
Not one that I’ve read, although I’m a big fan of both Westlake-as-Westlake and Westlake-as-Stark. Is it one of the Dortmunder books, or a stand-alone?
The movie has some pacing problems, for sure, but my god, Depp is fantastic.
One of the things that I really liked about the movie was that the plot has the cursed pirates entirely obsessed with food. This reminded me of the late 90s changes to the theme park attraction, where animatronic pirates formerly chasing young girls now chase young girls with plates of food. These changes got a lot of press back then, a big PC brou-ha-ha. Every time Geoffrey Rush fondled an apple, I had a big grin on my face, thinking of this.
Scuttlebutt has it that Depp was heavily channeling Paul Whitehouse (notably the Ken “Suits you, sir!” persona from the Fast Show) in his role; anybody care to confirm or deny that assessment?
A counterexample: Clive Cussler’s Aztec Gold.
Dancing Aztecs is a stand-alone, written in Westlake’s persona, published in 1976. Still available in the used-book market, and very funny.
I couldn’t agree more - Pirates was utterly enjoyable. Depp is amazing as Sparrow, Orlando Bloom is becoming quite the charismatic hero. Plot was nothing new or surprising, but really, the film was what it was based upon - a really fun ride.
After the disaster that was T3 (last weekend’s viewing experience, a very miserable viewing experience), I had given up hope for a while. Nice to know Hollywood - and Disney - can still pleasantly surprise me.
Classics
The Virtual Tophet
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (theology)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Amity Wilczek (biology)
Theodore Wong
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Irascible Professor
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review