(Untitled)

[ballincollig]

Title: Tabula in Naufragio
Author: ballincollig
Pairing/characters: Jack (in his younger life as John Teague), Captain Teague, a whole slew of OMCs and OFCs, the Black Pearl (in her former life as the Wicked Wench)
Rating: R, for some language and adult situations
Prompt: #56: "how Jack picked up all that Latin"
Summary: Young John Teague of Dublin indulges

Comments

[komandant_krech]

Tried to comment on your personal journal, but there seemed to be some problems... anyways:

Let me tell you, I haven't read a story this beautiful for ages or being so moved by one! Heart-wrenchingly sad with all the poverty and mistreatment, but so filled with genuine Jack-like optimism. You really made me feel little John's feelings myself.

Loved how he imagined impressing Saint Peter and the God himself with his writing and language skills, and how he idolized Father Cassidy. Perfect characterization ;) Ability to read and write was really something those days; it's so easy to overlook it now.

Those little references to "Sparrow" were clever ;) Loved the Irishness, too -- Ireland is one the places I've always wanted to visit myself...

Thanks so much, this was such a lovely treat!

[ballincollig]

Thank you for such a wonderful comment! I'm so very, very flattered!

Father Cassidy, believe it or not, was actual a school teacher at the chapel school in Coolock in the early 1710s; in my own mental timeline he's too late for Jack, but I felt the man did yeoman's work in eighteenth-century education and decided to give him a nod. :)

I'm delighted you found the hidden sparrow...hee hee!

Ireland is a fine, fine country. I lived in Cork City for a year about ten years ago and have so many good memories from my time there. Writing this fic was a way to travel there again, in a way...trying to remember just fantastic turns of phrase and the handful of Irish words I actually picked up (the Irish words for 'beer,' 'fun,' 'music,' 'idiot' and 'food' were the ones I used most often, haha!).

Thanks again for your very kind words, and I'm delighted you enjoyed it!

[sharklady35]

I'm late getting around to reading this, but am very I glad I did. This is an excellent background story- you did a wonderful job, capturing Young!Jack's POV. I always believed he respected learning, and am especially amused by his childhood reaction to the shapes of letters.

And of course, even back then he could never stay out of trouble for any length of time.

Bravo!

[ballincollig]

And I'm late in finding your comment! I'm so sorry! *blushes*

I'm glad to hear you're another believer in educated!Jack; it's something I've never had any doubts about, either.

Haha...I have to admit, I took Jack's delight in the shapes of letters right from my own experience. In kindergarten, I remember we learned a new letter every week or so, and the whole week would be devoted to that letter (a bit like a week-long interactive Sesame Street episode *g*). One of our activities each week was to trace a cutout of that week's letter into our drawing book and then color it in. I always made "things" out of my letters instead of just coloring them...I remember I made "A" into a person wearing a weird triangular dress and "S" into a very detailed snake...that sort of thing. I loved that activity! It's mildly embarrassing that I can remember kindergarten so vividly after 27 years, but hey-ho!

Thanks so very much for reading and commenting! I am so pleased you enjoyed the story :)