The Very First Dis Book Club Discussion Thread - The Pirate Latitudes

[mainegal]

I was shocked at the amount of soldiers on the ship, too! The happenings on Mantanceros ran a bit slow for me, but picked up during the end. I hated the scene with the snake and Lazue. I'm very sensitive to animal cruelty and the image of the little chick being tied up for bait just made me ill. I noticed that the author never revealed what happened to the chick either. I'm assuming it was okay, but am not so sure.

I have a idea the chick did not make it. If the snake didn't get it, then probably one of the guys twirled it by the rope. Sorry. The way that book is, I can't see it any other way.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I was starting to feel that way, too. I was thinking it got killed in the pandemonium when the snake was shot.

 

[mainegal]

I have finished listening to the book.
I also read most of the book.

I needed to know the difference between pirate and privateer.
Googled and found in Wikipedia


A privateer was a private person or private warship authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Privateers were only entitled by their state to attack and rob enemy vessels during wartime. Privateers were part of naval warfare of some nations from the 16th to the 19th century. It has been argued that privateering was a less destructive and wasteful form of warfare, because the goal was to capture ships rather than to sink them.

for more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer

This helped me better understand the context of what was going on.

It really bothered me how little value a human life had. A man (well, usually a man) goes out to sea and in a flash of a knife doesn't get to go home. I kept thinking those men had mothers and wives and children at home who would never know what happened to their man. Of course, that was not an important aspect of the story! Just my personal concern, same as Nikki's concern about the animals.

I liked how the epilogue explained what happened to people.

 

[Merry Mousketeer]

Hi All!

Have you had enough Mantaceros? Are you finished "monkeying" around at Monkey Bay? Things have been relatively quiet here over the past 2-3 days so I just wanted to get a progress update. Is everyone ready to move on to Part v and VI? If not, I'll wait a bit to post the next deadlines. Otherwise, I'll post them here tomorrow. Please check in and let me know where you are in the book for those of you who are still reading. I know a bunch finished it already, but also recognize that many are sticking with the schedule.

I am ready to move to the next section when everyone else is. I finished the book a couple of nights ago.

 

[PinkBudgie]

I finished too but can't remember what happened in which part, so I'm not commenting on anything until someone else does so I don't accidentally give something away.

About the chicken- I was feeling rather "ooohhh" too but then thought better to loose a chick than a human life. And how lucky she was that they found one.

 

[Applemomma]

I'm really lookng forward to open discussion on the last part of the book....this is the part I think I'll have the most to say about! That and I can't remember which part was where so I won't have to worry about spoilers anymore

 

[Bornteach]

I agree! I am looking forward to just talking about the entire thing as well!

 

[hmonkeyruns]

This may be a little premature, but can we kick off a discussion either here, or in the main book club thread, about the next book we'll read as a group?

I think if we choose a book this week for April, it might give people a bit of a headstart to get a copy before it's time to start reading so we can all be more on the same page.

I think this has gone pretty well but there was a delay in the beginning getting the book since some people could jump in right away by Kindle and others had to wait for the library and stuff like that.

Just a thought.

 

[Tink rules]

I got the book from the library!!!

Time to start reading... good time anyway...it's cold and yucky here...

 

[sc9500]

As I move towards the end of this book Im leaning towards likening this adventure more to "The Odyssey or the Illiad" than to "Oceans 11"

 

[esddk]

Ready to move ahead, I should finish it by tomorrow night.

Thanks for the responses about the rope on the cliff. I am glad that I wasn't the only one and that I didn't miss something obvious. (It's happened many times before.)

 

[A.Mickey]

I am still half way through part III, but I have to return it to the library by Saturday. It is a new book, so only got to check it out for 2 weeks. I will have it completed by Saturday!

 

[*NikkiBell*]

This may be a little premature, but can we kick off a discussion either here, or in the main book club thread, about the next book we'll read as a group?

I think if we choose a book this week for April, it might give people a bit of a headstart to get a copy before it's time to start reading so we can all be more on the same page.

I think this has gone pretty well but there was a delay in the beginning getting the book since some people could jump in right away by Kindle and others had to wait for the library and stuff like that.

Just a thought.

I'm currently exploring ideas for the next round. If you have a suggestion, feel free to PM me. I will be asking for feedback on the first round soon.

I will set our last deadlines tomorrow. We all need to remember that everyone reads at different paces and there are some who don't have the luxury of time to read as often as some of us do. Those who listen to the book will also finish much faster.

In the meantime, I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on "Mantaceros" and "Monkey Bay."

 

[tanyabanana]

Checking in..I am almost done with the book. It has been a hard one for me to get into. It has picked up a bit for me towards the end. I am enjoying Anne and Lazue characters and agree with others who said they are interested in learning more about them. I also liked the grenade building explanation for some reason

I have never read a Crichton book before and even though is one has been slow going I am going to try another one of his books soon, maybe Jurassic Park.

I find everyone elses responses to this book interesting and look forward to finishing the book!

 

[tammyroo]

I learned something else at the Real Pirates exhibit that made me understand why men, and some women, would choose the violent lifestyle of a pirate. Evidently, the Navy was very hierarchical--meaning only the officers ever really gained anything and had any kind of comfort on board. The lower ranks made very little, if anything, in wages, which I found surprising. Sometimes, men and boys were "pressed" into service. So, basically they were slave labor.
Whereas, for pirates it really was a type of democracy (everything divided up equally) and could be much more lucrative in terms of making a living. Pirate captains weren't really any higher up than anyone else on board. He basically was the strategist for battle but otherwise had no special privileges. He didn't even have rights to the captain's cabin if someone wanted it.
So, pirating made much better since in terms of earning a living. I was a bit more sympathetic to their plight once I realized the Navy was pretty abusive at that time. Still, its all pretty ruthless.

The towns in the book that welcome the pirates also make sense given that the pirates had a lot of money to throw around and keep the businesses and town afloat. I wouldn't want to live in such a place but it certainly makes sense if people are trying to survive. Sounds a bit like the Wild West....lawlessness, people turning a blind eye, etc

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Hi All!

Here's the updated reading schedule for the rest of the novel. Please feel free to discuss anything from Parts I through IV at this time. I already posted a few thoughts above. Feel free to comment or bring up something else that intrigued you. For example, did you find a specific character different in Part IV than towards the beginning of the text? Did you find yourself identifying more with someone? Was there a specific scene that you wanted more information on?


UPDATED Reading & Discussion Schedule as of March 23

Part II - March 13
Part III - March 17
Part IV - March 22
Part V - March 28
Part VI - March 31

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I needed to know the difference between pirate and privateer...It really bothered me how little value a human life had. A man (well, usually a man) goes out to sea and in a flash of a knife doesn't get to go home. I kept thinking those men had mothers and wives and children at home who would never know what happened to their man. Of course, that was not an important aspect of the story! Just my personal concern, same as Nikki's concern about the animals.

Thanks for posting information about privateering, Lyn. I was thinking about how different they were too while reading last night. The concept of valuing human life is definitely not something that really presented itself here in the text. I think it was probably honorable for men to go out to sea, and people realized that they may never return.

About the chicken- I was feeling rather "ooohhh" too but then thought better to loose a chick than a human life. And how lucky she was that they found one.

I'm not sure if I agree here. This relates to the common debate about medical testing done on animals (or that with products like shampoos, soaps, etc.). I personally feel that the animal's life is just as important as the human's. I cringed when the chick was being used as bate and thought that they could have found other means to get the snake out of Lazue's pants.

However, I do also realize that this cruel act was presented in order to show, once again, the personalities of the pirates and how gruesome and careless they can be. Without scenes like this, we'd have a very skewed perception of them.

I have never read a Crichton book before and even though is one has been slow going I am going to try another one of his books soon, maybe Jurassic Park.

I was thinking about reading JP as well. I have never read anything by Crichton, but am enjoying Pirate Latitudes.

I learned something else at the Real Pirates exhibit that made me understand why men, and some women, would choose the violent lifestyle of a pirate. Evidently, the Navy was very hierarchical--meaning only the officers ever really gained anything and had any kind of comfort on board. The lower ranks made very little, if anything, in wages, which I found surprising. Sometimes, men and boys were "pressed" into service. So, basically they were slave labor.
Whereas, for pirates it really was a type of democracy (everything divided up equally) and could be much more lucrative in terms of making a living. Pirate captains weren't really any higher up than anyone else on board. He basically was the strategist for battle but otherwise had no special privileges. He didn't even have rights to the captain's cabin if someone wanted it.
So, pirating made much better since in terms of earning a living. I was a bit more sympathetic to their plight once I realized the Navy was pretty abusive at that time. Still, its all pretty ruthless.

The towns in the book that welcome the pirates also make sense given that the pirates had a lot of money to throw around and keep the businesses and town afloat. I wouldn't want to live in such a place but it certainly makes sense if people are trying to survive. Sounds a bit like the Wild West....lawlessness, people turning a blind eye, etc

Very interesting stuff. That must have been neat to see this exhibit while reading the novel. I'm glad you had a chance to do both!

 

[esddk]

I learned something else at the Real Pirates exhibit that made me understand why men, and some women, would choose the violent lifestyle of a pirate. Evidently, the Navy was very hierarchical--meaning only the officers ever really gained anything and had any kind of comfort on board. The lower ranks made very little, if anything, in wages, which I found surprising. Sometimes, men and boys were "pressed" into service. So, basically they were slave labor.
Whereas, for pirates it really was a type of democracy (everything divided up equally) and could be much more lucrative in terms of making a living. Pirate captains weren't really any higher up than anyone else on board. He basically was the strategist for battle but otherwise had no special privileges. He didn't even have rights to the captain's cabin if someone wanted it.
So, pirating made much better since in terms of earning a living. I was a bit more sympathetic to their plight once I realized the Navy was pretty abusive at that time. Still, its all pretty ruthless.

The towns in the book that welcome the pirates also make sense given that the pirates had a lot of money to throw around and keep the businesses and town afloat. I wouldn't want to live in such a place but it certainly makes sense if people are trying to survive. Sounds a bit like the Wild West....lawlessness, people turning a blind eye, etc

This is really interesting information and certainly does explain why pirating would be a popular lifestyle choice. Also, better to be Lazue than a woman with no say in her life choices.

 

[mainegal]

Was there a specific scene that you wanted more information on?

We got introductory background on the sailor / privateers.

I would have liked to known more about Anne Sharpe. She was young in years and new to Port Royale, but certainly knew how to manipulate and gain her way in the world.

 

[DisneySunflower]

I finished the book today and I enjoyed reading it! I can not wait for our next book. I have enjoyed reading the comments applicable to each section. My 2 cents: I loved Hunter and Lazue, I hated Hacklett and I want to visit the Caribbean even more now. Overall, I give this book a .

Happy Reading!