Grubbyhomunculus - Sailors With No Gods, No Glory

maybe it's just the Radical Rediker talking, but there's something pointed in the way that, say, popular pirate media like Pirates of the Caribbean dilutes the pirate's freedom to "bring me that horizon" as opposed to, say, "plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power" (Bartholomew Roberts).

broadly speaking, most pirates chose the life in order to escape and revenge the hard labour, corporal punishment, overworking, and unequal pay of merchant/navy/privateer ships; or the privations of their sudden unemployment once a war was over, ignored as soon as their ability to die for the state was unneeded. yes, many were thugs, but, consciously political or not, they were responding to a particular, material reality.

the pirate's desired freedom was from the effects of exploitative modes of statehood and capital production. but popular media usually shifts this into a general desire for freedom: freedom to roam, freedom to love (usually merely a cross-class white, heterosexual union), or freedom from the personal pressures of social norms. it's a vague, ahistorical, post-Enlightenment, libertarian ideal rather than a response to a real social and economic situation.

to be clear, this only really applies to specifically the late golden age of piracy, in the first quarter of the 18th century. earlier generations of pirates/buccaneers often displayed nationalist/religious motives, and were lauded, tolerated, or even encouraged by the French and English states for aiding their fights against the Spanish and Portuguese. only the last gasp of age of sail pirates had a truly anti-national energy, and both figured themselves, and were figured by the imperial powers, as the enemies of all nations.

but if we are to valourise the late golden age pirate, at his best, his ideals were for true democracy, and the abolition of nation, hierarchy, and labour exploitation; not "the horizon". he was striking out in response to specific political, social, and economic oppressions, rather than a general individual restlessness, and that reality - and its similarities to our own - are important.

I dunno, I just... have a lot of thoughts about the defanging of piracy in modern media. obviously there were a lot of things bad about them, too, and the level of egalitarianism varied between individual people and ships. but again, if we're going to be valourising them anyway... there were idealists. and they weren't subtle about they wanted.

"I shan't own myself guilty of any murder", said William Fly in 1726. "Our captain and his mate used us barbarously. We poor men can't have justice done us. There is nothing said to our commanders, let them never so much abuse us, and use us like dogs. But the poor sailors --"

Lunge Feeding Blue Whales © Gone Whale Watching Inc

isn’t it problematic to write non-con or dark fics?

isn't it problematic to make horror or slasher movies?

the answer to both of the questions above is no.

it is, however, problematic to judge a person based on something that is entirely fiction.

i love kids EXCEPT while im reading pinterest comments

i'm Zombie i'm almost 30 and i'm famous for having nothing at all to say about anything except what i cannot shut up about

---it/its---

The unwanted🫀

Please check out the rules before beginning to complete the prompts!

Continuing on if you have lmao

Maylancholy Prompts 2025:

May 1. "Don't leave me here."

May 2. Major character death

May 3. Shattered trust

May 4. Bleeding out

May 5. "I can't feel my hands."

May 6. Buried alive

May 7. Feverish and delusional

May 8. Shackled

May 9. Wrong place, wrong time

May 10. "You don’t remember me, do you?"

May 11. Cursed to suffer

May 12. Dragged back

May 13. Choking on blood

May 14. Paranoia setting in

May 15. "Please, just kill me."

May 16. Held at knifepoint

May 17. Left behind

May 18. Possessed

May 19. "I swear it wasn't me."

May 20. Overworked and collapsing

May 21. Stabbed in the back

May 22. Trapped with them

May 23. No way out

May 24. "You were never supposed to find out."

May 25. Drugged and defenseless

May 26. Branding iron

May 27. Forced into silence

May 28. Tied to the altar

May 29. Haunting whispers

May 30. "This isn't real."

May 31. Escape... or not?

Alternative Prompts (If any daily prompt doesn’t take your fancy feel free to replace it with one of these!):

Alt 1. Crawling to safety

Alt 2. No anesthesia

Alt 3. Drenched in something awful

Alt 4. The sound of chains

Alt 5. Shoved into a tight space

Alt 6. A wound that won’t heal

Alt 7. Gasping for breath

Alt 8. Marked for death

Alt 9. Waking up somewhere unfamiliar

Alt 10. "It’s already too late."