I got word of a contest on boingboing.net that asks contributors to mash two writers’ styles/works.  I made an entry, which compared with some of other works there looks pretty pathetic; I probably should have gone with my original idea, below:

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Picture yourself in a realm where John Lennon was writing a song for SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HERTS CLUB BAND, but instead of seeing a poster for Mister Kite’s benefit, had instead before him copies of certain plays by Shakespeare and Stoppard:

For the benefit of the Prince of Danes

There will be a show this day

In Elsinore

The players will put on a show

That Hamlet hopes will let him know

What is the score

‘Tween him and Claudius he’ll try

To find out where

His guilty heart does lie

The play will catch the conscience of the King!

The players will perform their acts

So Hamlet can soon learn the facts

About Gertrude

And whether she had had a hand

In killing dad to seize his land

Oh how rude!

Until Hamlet is sure of whether

Dad’s ghost can be trusted,

He’ll act mad

And to Ophelia he’ll be a cad!

The players will hence depart

In order to pursuer their art

Off in England

Hamlet will with them then go

Perhaps to do another show

He’ll give a hand

His handlers will end up

Not having anything to do

With the next stand

For Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead! 

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As I said, there’s a lot of good entries on the site (many far better than mine, admittedly), and if you can get them something before Friday the 18th you might be in the running for the prize they’re offering!

Part the One Hundred Ninety Eighth is now up, and may be read here.

I found out today about Comic Creator’s Alliance and their campaign to do their part in an effort to end human trafficking.  

This group of webcomic creators is putting together a wallpaper to offer for a donation to support Love146 and Gracehaven, two organizations involved in fighting child slavery and the domestic sex trade.  It’s an effort that deserves the support of every decent person out there.

These are issues that I myself feel strongly about, on a number of grounds.  The main one is a matter of social justice, the belief that civilization is both founded on and striving forward to a better expression of the ideals that every person, regardless of background, gender or belief, is entitled to equitable treatment and respect.  

Human trafficking flies in the face of that-  No, it spits in the face of that, right before a full-on roundhouse assault to push you down and dehumanize you.  It’s the antithesis of thousands of years of culture, empathic belief and our understanding of what it means to be both human and good.

That shouldn’t be a surprise to readers noticing all the pirates in the novel here.  Pirates in the New World often ended up in the Sweet Trade on the grounds of social justice issues, real or imagined.  In fiction, there were a number of buccaneers going to sea to right wrongs, such as Sabatini’s Captain Blood and Charlotte de Berry, but there were far more in real life; one of the best sources for pirates were indentured servants and slaves who were brought over to work the newly claimed colonies, which a paper put online by the Whydah Museum discusses eloquently.

Think about it:  Many of the freebooters from the Golden Age of Piracy were the first abolitionists…

The other main ground is as a father.  I have a son, who has among his friends a lot of young ladies, any of whom could well end up suffering fates that this effort is fighting.  On those grounds alone, for all the kids, this must have your support.

And one of the better ways to support this is to donate for the wallpaper when it’s ready.  This wallpaper will be featuring one female character provided by each creator joining the cause, which means over fifty characters on a single page.  It’d be like going to one of the comic book companies with a sole piece of paper and getting everyone working there to do a figure on it, leaving you with something to give the cover of SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND a run for the money…

All kidding aside, among the folks providing a character are some creators whose work I’ve been following online from just about the beginning:

• Lora Innes from THE DREAMER (who is also the organizer of the effort, and for that alone deserves your attention)
• Bridget Underwood from THE BATTLE OF DOVECOAT CREST
• Scott Austin from HEROES, INC.
• Lar deSouza from LOOKING FOR GROUP
• Byron Wilkins from 1977 THE COMIC

Now imagine all of their good work with quite a few talented peers on the same donation wallpaper, and you have a good reason to do at least this for the cause.

If you feel compelled to go beyond and contribute to the organizations supported by this wallpaper, or any other group addressing the issue, by all means do.  Contribute, volunteer, advocate; and if it’s not possible to do any of that, than at least making a donation for the wallpaper is a step forward in bringing our better angels to the fore.

Part the One Hundred Ninety Seventh is now up, and may be read here.

Part the One Hundred Ninety Sixth is now up, and may be read here.

Last week’s examination here of the seizure of the Maran Centarus  included speculation that the taking of this oil tanker would bring with it a spike in petroleum prices.

Well, that didn’t happen, according to Brian Baskin at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.  According to him, January crude prices settled at $75.47/bbl, with today’s spot price reported at $74.20/bbl.  And according to the AAA Fuel Gage Report (as of 12/7/09), prices at the pump only went up $.004/gal. 

I’m not sure which plunderers I’m more disappointed with, the ones holding the oil hostage, or the Somalis…

Part the One Hundred Ninety Fifth is now up, and may be read here.

Part the One Hundred Ninety Fourth is now up, and may be read here.

My thanks to Annalee Newitz discussing the Somali pirate stock market at io9.com  Pointing out the way the booty from those ventures have encouraged investment, turning such ventures into financed forays at sea, shows how entrenched the pirates of Somalia have become in their lands.

Which raises an interesting question:  How new is what the Somalis have done as far as the elements of piracy are concerned?

Short answer: Not very.

Remember that during the Golden Age of Piracy, when crews banded together, they would draw up articles that they would sail under and make agreements for how to divide the booty from each venture.  Said pieces were often called “shares,” a term also applied to portions of profits in publicly traded companies; I’d love to draw a direct connection between these terms, but that’s a plank I don’t feel like walking tonight…

Which brings up an observation: Had the models been in place earlier, more such investment opportunities like this would have sent more pirates to sea.  During the high days of Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts, mercantilism was the ruling economic theory, whereby the main economic driver was hard currency, gold and silver, the basis for which goods could be exchanged.  It’s not until 1776, well after the Golden Age of Piracy has come to a close, that Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations first gets published, wherein belief in the hard trade in goods is challenged by the value of labor as contributing to wealth.  Simply put, after Smith, wealth was considered less by what you possessed than by what you could do.

And here, in a post-mercantilist system, does the prospect arise for pirate shares that could be invested in by the sutters and other land lubbers willing to risk some for a piece of the action.  The pirate crew articles that come from that period demonstrate some basic understanding of Smith’s ideas, but without the economic models to guide them most folks are limited to being shareholders only if they take a direct hand in the venture, not realizing that making a capital investment alone is enough to promise you a return should the voyage succeed.  And the issuance of letters of marque showed a desire to invest in such ventures in return for potential profits was there, though the option was limited to those benefitting most in a mercantilist economy (representatives of royalty mostly).

The closest you come to application of these ideals during the time is in the underwriting business being pioneered by Lloyds of London.  Without reliable communications in place, however, the idea of wealth disbursement in anticipation of profit couldn’t effectively leave the coffee house on Tower Street; had everything not been so centralized in London during the time, insurance would not have been practical.  

Keep in mind post-Wealth of Nations the career of Jean Lafitte.  With the benefit of more modern economic theory to draw upon, he engaged in raising revenues much the way the Somalis are reported to be doing; he becomes a bit more famous, however, when he decided to move off the trading floor and into the field with the Acquisitions arm…

The article Annalee cites in her piece at ForeignPolicy.com is also of interest, as it discusses (obliquely) the organized criminal element that has probably infused the Sweet Trade.  And if we started here going deeper into the history of the links between pirates and organized criminal elements, I’d never write another chapter of the novel…

Part the One Hundred Ninety Third is now up, and may be read here.

Word this morning came in about the seizure of the Maran Centarus. While her capacity is for 300,000 tons, there’s no confirmation how much oil she was carrying when they seized her, though considering she was en route from Saudi Arabia to the US it’s probably likely she was fully loaded.

In addition to all the stated worries about environmental damage if she breaks apart during her captivity (and using live ammo atop an oil tanker is not on most people’s list of “safe and harmless activities”), there’s the potential for economic mayhem.  With oil this morning at $73/bbl and continued volatility in that market, a spectacular failure could give a slight spike in the price, giving gas stations an excuse to jump pump prices drastically, which this holiday season would be the last thing the economy here needs.  It’s already been tough to predict how oil will behave, and this won’t make it any easier…

Word of this came just as it was announced that the Ariana was released, one out of a number still held.

Of course, one of the potential elements of the ransom for the Maran Centarus will be for the release of pirates held in captivity, which may surprise some folks who think that there are not that many out there.  With reports from the TIMES of pirates being let go after seizure, it’s hard to argue there’s anyone in the brig to trade for oil…

Part the One Hundred Ninety Second is up now, a day early in order to work around the Thanksgiving weekend here in the States.  Unless you’ve said to yourself on reading the last sentence, “I have to deal with turkey a day early?” you can find the next part here.

And a happy and safe time this weekend to everyone.