magda's travels

After a year at home in San Diego I picked up and moved to Tanzania, so I thought I would dust off the old blog again so I could keep people up-dated on my life. But as always its content is not a reflection of the U.S. government, Peace Corps or anything else.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

An excerp from Gideon Defoe

Please allow me to set this up. This is a character decription of all the pirates in the Pirates! Adventure with books. It is written by Gideon Defoe, who is the author of my beloved Pirates! Adventure with books. He is amazingly dry, sarcastic, and piratanical- so of course I am in love, sigh...

This can also be viewed as a means of response to Mr. Kniola who whilst visiting our dear Azerbaijan asked me, hey Magda why are you so in to pirates. Maybe it's cause they are awesome maybe because if you search Gideon Defoe on Amazon you will find his books tagged with these five words: adventure, fiction, ham, humor, pirates- pretty sure that could be my motto. Or maybe it's just because of detailed characters such as these. So Mr. Kniola, all you Xanims out there, and the rest of you lot, ENJOY YOURSELVES---






It’s been suggested in some circles that the Pirate books lack a certain depth of characterisation. Those circles are circles of idiots. EVERY SINGLE pirate has got at least two identifiable characteristics. This officially makes them multi-faceted, like diamonds. Here is a quick character guide to the pirate crew:

The Pirate with a scarf - the pirate with a scarf is reliable. He is also loyal. And he has a scarf. That’s THREE characteristics! Even Anna Karenina doesn’t have that many characteristics (she has two - being a bit sad, falling under trains).

Jennifer - Jennifer is also reliable. But to differentiate her from the pirate with a scarf she is a woman. Obviously nobody really knows what goes on in the mysterious brains of women, so she is by definition an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a big Victorian hooped skirt.

The pirate in green - the pirate in green is an everyman. He is also quite tidy. If they were to make a sitcom of the pirates in the 1970s he would be played by Richard Beckinsale.

The albino pirate - In many ways the heart and soul of the pirate boat, the albino pirate’s main characteristic is being pale. But he is also very enthusiastic. The albino pirate uses more exclamation marks than any of the other pirates.

The pirate in red - the pirate in red is quite surly. He is also a bit of a show-off.

You see? One dimensional ciphers my ass.