(urth) Pirate Freedom revisited

Sat Nov 3 09:55:16 PDT 2012

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.

(Amazing effort trying to map out that chronology by the way.)

-DOJP

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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