I think I may have solved a mystery that I didn’t even know was one.
So. In Peter Pan, the novel, this is the first mention of Captain Hook:
“Who is captain now?”
“Hook,” answered Peter, and his face became very stern as he said that hated word.
“Jas. Hook?”
“Ay.”
Then indeed Michael began to cry, and even John could speak in gulps only, for they knew Hook’s reputation.
“He was Blackbeard’s bo’sun,” John whispered huskily. “He is the worst of them all. He is the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid.”
Later, we learn this:
Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze; but as those who read between the lines must already have guessed, he had been at a famous public school; and its traditions still clung to him like garments, with which indeed they are largely concerned.
“Barbecue” is Long John Silver from Treasure Island. Jas. is short for James, but in “Captain Hook at Eton,” he’s also called Jacobus. The biblical figure Jacob was renamed Israel.
Blackbeard’s historical boatswain, and also a character in Treasure Island, was Israel Hands.
I’m just saying, if I got a hand chopped off and my last name was Hands… I might want to change it.
Many kudos to OP, I’m still processing Captain Hook = Israel Hands. Because of this post, I stumbled upon this 2020 article. It is a fascinating and bittersweet read about Barrie, Stevenson, and the Peter Pan+Treasure Islandconnections.
Now, the letters of JM Barrie to Robert Louis Stevenson – presumed to be lost by several key Barrie biographers for over 70 years - will be published for the first time in a forthcoming book. The letters reveal how ardently the young Barrie both adored and admired Stevenson, who was an older and more established writer. A year into their friendship, which was initiated by Stevenson, Barrie wrote to him: “To be blunt I have discovered (have suspected it for some time) that I love you, and if you had been a woman…” He leaves the sentence unfinished.
and
Barrie has a real desire to incorporate Stevenson and his affection for Stevenson in his works, he believes. “I think what Barrie is saying is: if I can never meet Stevenson, because he has unfortunately died, then I want to create the opportunity for our characters to meet.
“I think he liked that idea that they could occupy the same world, and could potentially bump into each other.”
Okay, but in the context of Our Flag Means Death this becomes about two hundred percent funnier for the following reason:
Captain Hook is framed very much as a darker, more bloodthirsty version of the same ‘gentleman pirate’ archetype as Stede. Like, he has the gentlemanly manners, the fine clothes, the fancy quarters, some pretentions to honour…he doesn’t always carry it off quite as well as he intends to, but this is clearly a man trying to present himself in a very specific way, and that way has a surprising amount in common with Stede’s intended presentation.
Now, I am not sayingthat this is Izzy trying very hard to Pygmalion himself into a version of what Ed apparently wants in a partner that is still compatible with the way Izzy himself needs Blackbeard to be…but I’m not notsaying that either.
…what I am also saying is that I want Izzy to be harassed by a crocodile.
Honestly, given how many “Izzy is in the wrong genre of pirate fiction” posts I’ve seen on Tumblr, it would be just his luck to escape a queer romcom only to end up in a children’s book and/or a Disney animated feature.
“Believe me there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory… everything is forgotten, even a great love. That’s what’s sad about life, and also what’s wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That’s why it’s good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion… it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from.”
“There is no country for those who despair, but I know that the sea comes before and after me, and hold my madness ready. Those who love and are seperated can live in grief, but this is not despair: they know that love exists. This is why I suffer, dry-eyed, in exile. I am still waiting.”
what is the thing you love the most about writing and what is the thing you most hate?
reblog this with your answer, please
for me, I love the process of imagining it, but I hate the process of truly sitting down and writing, especially those bits where there’s “less” action.
