Pirates
Arts & Ideas
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The Shape of a Pirate
One of the most successful novels featuring pirates is Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island narrated by Jim Hawkins. How formative is it in our perception of this group? I think Treasure Island is absolutely central to our contemporary modern day understanding of what a pirate should be, what a pirate does, what a Pirate should look like. All of these troops are in there, the treasure map, the buried treasure, the pirate warning of the black spot, walking the plank - all springs from Treasure Island. It really does form a powerful visual template for what a Hollywood pirate is going to look like and whether we like it or not, we are shaped by Hollywood pirates. Oh I am the pirate king and it
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