“This book has been sitting on the bookshelf, unread, since I was little. Finally, the urge to read it struck on a trip to Savannah, upon hearing about the city pirating past and seeing the pirate frequented tavern that helped inspire Stevenson (the place is now a restaurant- but no, not a Long John Silver's chain).
I'm very glad I got around to reading this. Not only is it a breeze to read (please ignore the fact that it took me well over two months to finish- that was a result of me having much more important things to do like watch American Idol and play video games), but the influence of this book, in terms of providing us with images we now always associate with pirates, is pretty impressive. I'm not exactly sure how much of buried treasure, parrots, peg legs, shiver me timbers, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, etc was already kind of mainstream knowledge when the book came out, but even if you look at references from the book that are direct influences in today's culture, we have: the 2nd Pirates of the Carribbean movie entitled Dead Man's Chest, Muppet Treasure Island, that crappy chain of stores called Treasure Island that sells holidays crafts, the porn star Long Dong Silver that Clarence Thomas harassingly mentioned to Anita Hill, and the Las Vegas casino called Treasure Island at which 3 friends, my brother, and I got food poisoning at (and proceeded to lose hundreds of dollars at the blackjack table because we thought we could tough out the diarrhea and cold sweats- good times).
Some of the pirate vernacular is hard to figure out (tip- if you read the pirate dialogue out load with a pirate accent you can deduce meaning easier- ie. I didn't know what "jine" was, until I finally figured out that's how the pirates were pronouncing "join". A lot of fun to do especially if you're reading on a crowded train.), as is some of the sailing terminology… Also, they never say how old the boy who narrates is which gnawed at me because he does some rather ballsy stunts.
I feel like if you've watched 2 out of 3 of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, been on the Disney World ride, or dressed up as a pirate for Halloween, you kind of owe it to yourself to read this book to see what may have very well started it all. In fact I'm looking at Wikipedia, which we all know is always 100% factual and THE authoritative reference guide, and it says that "The effect of Treasure Island on our perception of pirates cannot be overestimated. Stevenson linked pirates forever with maps, black schooners, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders. The treasure map with an X marking the location of the buried treasure is one of the most familiar pirate props, yet it is entirely a fictional invention which owes its origin to Stevenson...". In closing, heed me words, land lubbers, and read this here book… aar.”
K wrote this review Tuesday, April 29 2008.
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