And most wickedly I did as I sailed

[sovay]

Just got back from seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with my family. I realize that I am building up a positive backlog of posts that must be made about this, that, or the other, but I must here take a moment to say:

DAVY JONES' SAILORS.

DUDE.

Whatever the flaws of the overall film, that entire thread just made me smile. Stellan Skarsgård's Bootstrap Bill plays right into one of my favorite character obsessions, and if someone was going to fuse the legends of Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman (not to mention Koschei the Deathless), this was actually quite a good way. It's the combination of metamorphosis—so long under sea that the sea has changed them into itself, like something out of Patricia McKillip or Caitlín R. Kiernan—and moral compromise, tarnish and sea-change. As matociquala might say: kicked me right in the squid.

Er. So to speak.

Comments

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Mmm...squid.

I am really stupidly in love with that Davey Jones.

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, which gets neatly around the problems I was having without increasing or decreasing their potential verity.

:D

I did like the sailors, and I'd managed to bury that....

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

While others are mooning over Captain Jack, there you are imagining squid kisses? Heh, I like that. (I believe I'm responding to further comments below actually, but ...)

The movie definitely made me want to do some research on Davy Jones. You have a lot of the sea in your poems and stories--has any of this folklore appeared in them?

[yukihada.livejournal.com]

I was struck as well. I kept repeating the words a great sea change to myself.
I was definately reminiscing about Something Rich and Strange while watching the film...I kept wanting to turn to someone and point this out but no one with me had read the book. Most of my friends were more interested in pointing out possible ships (yes the puns) in a pirate film. So I am glad you brought it up.