(urth) Pirate Freedom revisited

Sat Nov 3 13:10:01 PDT 2012

On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 3:25 AM, Daniel Petersen <
danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Chris who is writing the story seems a bit more complex than some
> cunning greedy mob boss type.  His commentary on both his pirate adventures
> and his current Catholic and urban context suggests a very theologically,
> morally, and spiritually engaged character.
>

(Apols for the name change - I screwed up setting up a new gmail account.)
I read the book differently. I think in Chris Wolfe paints a picture of a
character who knows what "good" is but who wilfully chooses "evil" in his
*actions*, which is all that matters in the end. He makes repeated repeated
confessions, but they are all bad confessions, because there is no actual
repentance.
For example, look at how he discusses "offing" Michet & recall that
explaining this murder is why he says he is writing at all. Michet was a
pirate the Spanish would have hanged out of hand; Michet could have been
killed in the fight anyway & it's just chance that he wasn't; Chris didn't
have a choice, because he couldn't keep respect if he let Michet's
insolence go unpunished. Finally, it's God's fault for plopping Chris down
in those times, and Chris would do it all over again - "I would have to".
In the end, Ignacio of course does choose that it happen all over again. No
matter what excuses you can make for 17 year old Chris, you can't make any
excuses for that.
I think Chris ending up as an evil old mob reptile is totally appropriate
and it's one of the reasons why I like my elaborated chronology.

> On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 11:24 AM, Ed EDson <thalassocrat12 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Many moons ago I worked out the chronology below & posted it to this
>> list.  Having just re-read PF I think this can be elaborated in interesting
>> ways.
>>
>> The idea starts with my observation that Chris seems to return to the
>> future in the same year he was born, around 2007. This leads to thinking
>> about Chris' transitions. We are told nothing about how or why these occur,
>> but I think at first it is natural to suppose the transition ot the past
>> has something to do with Chris being at the monastery.
>>
>> However,  there are objections. First, only Chris and Ingnacio appear to
>> make the transition - Chris is convinced he would not be able to return to
>> the monastery, for example. Second, his return to the future happens from a
>> different place, out in the sea - so at least that transition doesn't
>> depend on the monastery.
>>
>> What if the transition is personal to Chris, dependent on time and not on
>> place? Wherever Chris is in ~2024, he would be sent to the past, and
>> wherever he is in ~1675, he would be sent to 2007.  But Ignacio is Chris,
>> so he goes back when Chris goes back - but also, he goes forward when Chris
>> goes forward.
>>
>> Now the direction in which this is heading should be obvious - perhaps
>> Chris is his own father. If the baby Novia is carrying is in fact Chris, it
>> (and hopefully she herself!) will be carried forward from 1675, along with
>> Ignacio.
>>
>> Obviously we don't know exactly what happens then, but we can make up
>> plausible stories. Perhaps Novia-in-the-future dies, perhaps Ignacio sells
>> her or kills her. In any event, whatever he says or believes of himself,
>> Chris' actions are motivated, overwhelmingly, by money. (Eg: see what
>> happens when he meets Lesage before the massacre at Rio hato - he hugs him;
>> he *thinks* of Valentin, but it "didn't seem to be the time to bring it
>> up", because he was too busy pulling gold off the mules.) To me it's surely
>> the case that Ignacio-in-1675 was working with Ignacio, sealing a bond by
>> killing Valentin for him, and then plotting with him the hijack of the gold
>> and the massacre.
>>
>> So when Ignacio and Chris meet at the end of the book, I think it's clear
>> enough that Ignacio has a share of the Rio Hato gold stashed somehwere and
>> of course plans to dig up Captain Burt's treasure also.
>>
>> But then he gets snatched back to 2007, totally unexpected. Imagine how
>> pissed he must have been! Back to the drawing board. He's now ~36 years
>> old. He'll spend the next 10 years getting mobbed up and raising Chris in
>> NJ, sans Novia. Sent to Cuba to run the casino, he'll do what needs to be
>> done to "engineer" Chris, by making sure he is under the wing of his
>> younger self at the monastery, and setting in place the events leading to
>> his own birth.  When Chris goes back, he does too, as a ~53 year old, and
>> does what needs to be done to make sure that all the treasure is someplace
>> where he can retieve it in the future - he knows everything that Ignacio
>> has plotted, of course, so for a man of his resourcefulness ripping off
>> both his younger selves shouldn't be a huge problem.
>>
>> Returning to 2007 as a ~55 year old, with access to treasure worth many
>> millions, and knowing everything that "Chris' dad" knew, perhaps on this
>> run-through he becomes some kind of mob top management, in a position to
>> send his younger self to Cuba to run the casino ...  Does he go back again,
>> or does he die sometime before the clock ticks on 2024 again - who knows?
>>
>>
>> Post from 2007:
>>
>> "I come to the following conclusions:
>>
>> - Chris1's "birthday" is around about now; 2007.
>> - Chris2 is writing in about 2017.
>> - Chris2 appeared from the past around about the same time as
>> Chris1 was born, so 2007 again (interesting ...)
>> - The pirate-action happens in about 1675.
>>
>> Here's how I get there. First, we have some information about
>> various events in Chris1's time-line:
>>
>> A: "Born"
>> B: Goes to Cuba
>> C: Enters monastery school
>> D: Begins novitiate
>> E: Ends novitiate & goes to past
>> F: Goes forward again
>>
>> We know:
>>
>> B = A+10 (he goes to Cuba at age 10).
>> C = A+13 (approx: he went to school "a few years" after arriving in
>> Cuba).
>> D = A+16 (approx: "A year seems like a lifetime at that age, so
>> three or maybe four lifetimes passed before I went from being a
>> student to being a novice ...")
>> E = A+17 (a novitiate normally lasting one year?)
>> F = A+19 (or less: the pirate-time doesn't seem to have been more
>> than this to me.)
>>
>> For Chris2, we know he is 28 or 29 when he goes to Cuba to become
>> Ignacio: he's 28 at the time of his interview with Bishop Scully,
>> with maybe a birthday before he finishes writing. Assuming "F"
>> above is right, he was 19 when he appeared from the past, so that
>> was about ten years before he heads to Cuba.
>>
>> And so, assuming he goes to Cuba at around "B", when Chris1 and his
>> father go, the date of his appearance from the past must have been
>> around about "A".
>>
>> In other words, he comes back at about the same time he was "born".
>>
>>
>> We have reasonable dating for the "past" action.  Captain Burt
>> speaks of Drake in the Golden Hind sailing around the world "almost
>> a hundred years ago". This voyage lasted from 1577 through 1580.
>> Let's say "E" = 1675.
>>
>> We can use this to kludge up an estimate for the "present" datings.
>> At the very end of the book, Chris2 says: "Today .. we have been
>> dead 300 years". This is rubbery, but let's assume that Chris2
>> assumes he's going to live a three-score-and-ten. That gives him
>> another 41 or 42 years at the time he's writing. So, back in the
>> "past", he would live until about 1675+42 = 1717. Three hundred
>> years on from then is 2017.
>>
>> That fixes an approximate date for "B", the date when Chris1 and
>> (presumably) Chris2 both arrive in Cuba - about 10 years into our
>> future. And Chris1 is being decanted from his test-tube or whatever
>> just about now."
>>
>>
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