Many of my critics have thought: Clag sticky in English but a more convincing one, Anklaegar accuser in Greek (which alludes to Satan meaning accuser and adversary in Hebrew). I may have drawn inspiration from Paradise Lost. Being foreign, neither English nor Latin in origin of his name, is what makes this character stand out as was the accuser foreign and sudden, with no background, from the garden. Perhaps this was my intention or perhaps not but alas, I cannot remember for I am old in my days. Maybe if my characters could just speak to and remind me… Related

….not. I think our Handsome Sailor is setting up a mutiny, why else would he be so nice? The way he charms all my men on the ship, the way he acts so “sweet” and inn-nnn-nn-o-ccc-eeennnt. I think he’s up to no good. I heard stories, about what happened with that man Delano and the slaves revolting against that poor Cereno lad.*  He thought that soup incident was so funny. Wait till he thinks how funny he is when he walks the plank.

****”You just couldn’t let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.” The Dark Knight, Dir. Christopher Nolan. I chose to reference this quote because like Batman and the Joker, Billy and Claggart are forces that (by virtue of being opposite) are by nature destined to clash. In the context of this quote, the Joker is the “unstoppable force” (signifying “evil” like Claggart), Batman being the “immovable object” (signifying “good” like Billy). In that sense, Claggart is the unstoppable force, in which he eventually provokes violence against Billy the immovable object, leading to Claggart’s demise. Related

One of the most interesting moments for me in the Dansker’s narrative is when he cries this utterance, and I was desperate to find the different connotations of the phrase. I really like the idea that Dansker couldn’t quite verbalise what he was saying to Billy, that his language is so caught up in the nautical (cat’s-paw is also a knot often used in maritime settings), that he can’t quite breach into the wider English language. Related

With each wax and wane of the sun and sky the tension builds. I’m not the only one on the ship to notice it, and neither am I the only one to ignore it. But these young ones, these children – babies! They don’t ignore because they know the world like I do. They ignore the problem to save their wet hides, like a stowaway among the onions.

How I long for the days with Nelson, when the most thinkin’ I’d do would be in combat; when this scar on my face meant something more than “This old timer stood for something once”.