InfoCentral
Every week the library publishes an article in the Westland Observer on a new subject. Below is this week's article.
Pirates
InfoCentral, October 18 - 24, 2007
December 4 heralds the release on DVD of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” – the final movie in a trilogy that has broken box office records. But the success of the franchise is only the latest proof that people are fascinated by piracy. Recent books such as Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s great pirate army, the epic battle for the Americas, and the catastrophe that ended the bloody outlaw’s reign, or The sack of Panama: Captain Morgan and the battle of the Caribbean (call numbers 972.904 Tal and 972.87 Ear respectively) are only the most recent examples of corsairs in literature. In fiction, of course, there are boatloads of pirates – from the classic Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (J FIC Ste), to the more recent Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry (J FIC Bar). There are even books about pirates in the future, such as the Planet Pirates series by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye. We’ve even got pirate music, like Rogue’s Galley (CD Vocal Rog) {watch it, though, the language on this one is pretty spicy…}
In the wider world, there’s national “Talk Like a Pirate Day” – celebrated on September 19 this year (see the website at http://www.talklikeapirateday.com), there’s bands that recreate sea songs and chanties and other piratey music (like The Seadogs – at http://www.seadogs.org/), there’s entire groups who recreate pirate life professionally on the Renaissance Faire circuit (The Cardiff Rose, http://www.cardiffrose.com/) or just for fun (the Pirates of Rogues Cove, http://www.roguescove.org). You can even tour the oldest warship still in commission in the U.S. Navy, which chased privateers (http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/index.htm).
So…Avast ye! Weigh anchor and sail into your library afor we keelhaul ye….errrrr. Please come into the library at your earliest convenience, and peruse our fine materials on pirates.
