SBD - Pirates
Jun. 12th, 2006 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksNot so long ago, I read a blog (Bookseller Chick's, maybe?) that suggested that pirates will be the next big trend in romance publishing. I saw a trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mens' Chest and it got me thinking about pirate heroes. Et voila, we have the topic for Smart Bitches Day!
I know that Johanna Lindsey has a pirate series, and there are a few other historical writers who specialize in scurvy sea scoundrels, but I just can't get interested. As a teenager, I read a couple of bodice ripping pirate romances. One with a female pirate named Royale Carrington (yeah, the name stuck with me); another with a plot I remember well, even if I can't remember names. Of course, in both books, the pirates were gentlemen pirates -- nobles on the high seas for some reason, either because they had been disowned or somehow forced into it. Other pirate books I've read: Cecily Rees' Pirates!, a YA book, and Darlene Marshall's Captain Sinister's Lady, an ebook set in 19th century Florida.
Those books notwithstanding, I just can't get into pirates as heroes. See, to me, they aren't romantic hero material. The idea of sailing the open sea, moving from one exotic locale to another, yup, they score on the romance scale. But theft, ransoming, pillaging, wrecking, not so much for me. Yes, Captain Jack Sparrow was charming, but that was Johnny Depp, who can make anything sexy, even being an unwashed scoundrel.
No fresh water, no fresh veggies, brackish water, lack of hygiene, scurvy, violence, weevily rations, rats, bilge, constant danger from the sea and from the company the pirates kept, plus the regular risks that came with the job. No, not so sexy to me.
Of course, now that I've written that, I'm reminded that many, many of the professions in romance novels are not all that romantic, despite how they are portrayed. Cops? The few that I know live high stress lives, and it takes a toll on their personal lives. Federal officers/agents, very much the same. Lawyers - ugh, the ego; I stopped dating them after law school. I guess in the end it is all about characterization. Does the author make the reader care about the characters despite what the reader may know about the profession in a practical sense? Darlene Marshall did. Cecily Rees did. Other pirate authors might . . . if I could get myself past my automatic prejudice about pirates.
I know that Johanna Lindsey has a pirate series, and there are a few other historical writers who specialize in scurvy sea scoundrels, but I just can't get interested. As a teenager, I read a couple of bodice ripping pirate romances. One with a female pirate named Royale Carrington (yeah, the name stuck with me); another with a plot I remember well, even if I can't remember names. Of course, in both books, the pirates were gentlemen pirates -- nobles on the high seas for some reason, either because they had been disowned or somehow forced into it. Other pirate books I've read: Cecily Rees' Pirates!, a YA book, and Darlene Marshall's Captain Sinister's Lady, an ebook set in 19th century Florida.
Those books notwithstanding, I just can't get into pirates as heroes. See, to me, they aren't romantic hero material. The idea of sailing the open sea, moving from one exotic locale to another, yup, they score on the romance scale. But theft, ransoming, pillaging, wrecking, not so much for me. Yes, Captain Jack Sparrow was charming, but that was Johnny Depp, who can make anything sexy, even being an unwashed scoundrel.
No fresh water, no fresh veggies, brackish water, lack of hygiene, scurvy, violence, weevily rations, rats, bilge, constant danger from the sea and from the company the pirates kept, plus the regular risks that came with the job. No, not so sexy to me.
Of course, now that I've written that, I'm reminded that many, many of the professions in romance novels are not all that romantic, despite how they are portrayed. Cops? The few that I know live high stress lives, and it takes a toll on their personal lives. Federal officers/agents, very much the same. Lawyers - ugh, the ego; I stopped dating them after law school. I guess in the end it is all about characterization. Does the author make the reader care about the characters despite what the reader may know about the profession in a practical sense? Darlene Marshall did. Cecily Rees did. Other pirate authors might . . . if I could get myself past my automatic prejudice about pirates.
