Avast ye mateys,
How we arrr doing? Yes, I am back after quite some time away from this blog, and this time, we are going to be taking look at the world of piracy, and all the linguistical quirks that come along with writing these stories.
Map of Treasure Island
So, this is why we are here, and what better place to explore the world of piracy than the Wolsey Writers group, which took place on Saturday the 5th of September. The group has sprung back into action after a two-month break (you will remember that there was no meet-up in August), and Katie had the honor of introducing a guest speaker that is none other than Dr Jenny Amos, the queen of everything to do with linguistics at the University of Suffolk.
But before Katie had the pleasure of introducing Jenny, we first had to do a quiz about all sorts of treasure memorabilia. Not quite being an avid reader of pirate novels, I answered a few of the questions blindly in the couple of minutes that we had to do it, and unsurprisingly, when it came to the answers at the end of the meet-up, I had flunked the quiz big-style! Still, there was quite a lot of fun to be had from doing it.
Having completed the most fun of quizzes that I had ever attempted, "naw" the actual "gentlemen o'fortune" chat can actually begin. To start things off, let's just say that the content of Jenny's pirate lingo talk was absolutely beautiful to listen all the way along - first up was the output of a LingoJam translation from normal English, showing us how a pirate would have greeted the Wolsey Writers group, and then it pretty much started getting even more interesting from there; in an interaction between Long John Silver and Israel Hands in the Treasure Island novel, there was a lot of code switching involved (given Silver is not quite as piratey), but the most fascinating part was only just up the road from there - Choundas had done some research in 2010 counting arrr's in film and TV shows, and can you believe that - there were 223 mentions of them in his study! What a high proportion to be had here.
The fun didn't stop there at the use of "arrr's" in films - at one point, we also got to explore the relationship between the ethics of old school pirate groups (aka "the pirate code") and how these analogies apply in present-day criminal underworlds. I must say that I am very much surprised to hear that criminals still have some sort of morals when it comes to activities that are happening within their niche, and it goes to show why people who end up exposing the illegal activities happening in their group are met with severe consequences - in some countries, gang members who betray their group can even lead to other members carrying out kidnappings and terrorist attacks in the wider community, as a means of showing revenge for their activities being exposed. There was even this mention at one point of piracy being linked to religious mythologies... defo' wasn't expecting to see that coming, but still interesting to know anyway.
With the arrr talking all being put to one side, it was time to put pens to paper and do some pirate writing, and for this exercise, I decided to follow on the criminal theme that we had explored a few minutes ago and swap sea piracy for movie piracy, while throwing in some sea pirate lingo for good measure. The story was about a man called Dick, who despite Andrew's desperate pleas for Dick to avoid getting into bother, goes to the cinema to illegally make recordings of movies to distribute to the community of fellow citizens (ahem, "pirates"). The plan however, was quickly scuppered, because it wasn't long after that Dick was caught by the police and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), and was subsequently arrested and thrown in the lockup.
Having been thrown off on time by the clock being miles off what it was supposed to read, I didn't quite manage to write exactly what I was hoping to achieve out of my story and therefore some aspects still have quite a lot left to be desired, but I do still think that it wasn't a bad try at applying pirate aspects into other forms of writing.
Anyways, here is my take on the pirate provocation:
With the time up on the writing exercises, and having gotten through some fairly wild pirate stories that others had shared with the group, it wasn't long before the pirate meet-up came to an end, and it was time to slowly pack up and head home to get some much needed lunch and rest.
What's next from there...
Returning back to the seriousness of normal life from the fun that was the arrr-pirate lingo, I really hope that this meetup is going to eventually lead to a build-up to what will be a fairly interesting week of literary events coming up in late September and early October.
Speaking of upcoming events, the British Library is running American Writers Week, and having enjoyed the History of Refugees talk at the University of Suffolk all the way back in February, my primary focus is on talks related to stories about escaping dangerous places all over the world. The events that I will be attending will involve Jeanine Cummins, who has published American Dirt, a novel about a Mexican journalist who had to flee north across the border after being rumbled by criminal gangs, as well as Viet Thanh Nguyen, who has published a story about his escape from Vietnam as a child following the fall of Saigon (nowadays Ho Chi Minh City).
Following on from that, the Ipswich Book Festival will come alive and kicking, where got plans to go to quite a fairly diverse range of events. In the St Clements Church, I will be trying out a completely new genre of creative writing, swapping historical fiction for crime fiction, along with a social media writing workshop, which considering my career ambitions to become a copywriter, is the most critical one of all the writing workshops that I will probably attend anywhere. On the talk side of things, things will get even more interesting, as there will be motorsport stories with Patricia Abbott, Suffolk landscapes with Jacky Colliss Harvey, and to close it off, yes, you guessed it, even more wartime stories with Janet Street-Porter in the New Wolsey auditorium all coming your way.
Signing off now,
Jakub
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