Jack of Hearts and Captain Morgan

[asakiyume]

I was taking a shortcut from one strip of depressing stores to another, and it had me scrabbling down a slope, covered in these landscaping rocks, when I spotted this playing card and nips bottle:



Like out of a story.

The Jack of Hearts strikes me as a trickster character. Is that an established thing, or just something I'm imagining? I mean, the jack isn't as powerful as the king, he's the interloping male who can enchant the women, steal them away from the king. And hearts! Hearts is hearts.

(Side Quest: You are in charge of creating four new suits of cards. What are they?)

And then the nips bottle. Cards and drink are stereotypical downfalls, but there's something extra mean and tragic about a nips bottle, fortunes fallen so low that that's all you can afford. Maybe the Jack of Hearts was your lucky card... now it's lying in a wasteland between strips of stores, beside a state highway, next to the nips bottle.

(Side Note: Actually now it is lying in the pocket of my coat. I am not sure what quest I've accepted by picking it up.)

The real-life Captain Morgan raided Spanish galleons hither and yon, plundered cities, engaged in torture now and then, and owned several slave-run plantations. He also drank a lot. I wonder what he'd think about his image decorating nips bottles?

Comments

[sovay]

(Side Quest: You are in charge of creating four new suits of cards. What are they?)

Tides, Storms, Immolations, Stones.

I don't think you are imagining the Jack of Hearts. I look forward to the fruits of your side quest.

[asakiyume]

I like your suits!

The four of tides. The nine of Immolations. The seven of storms. The ace of stones.

ETA: don't ask why I only capitalized "Immolations".... I am not sure, myself.

[sartorias]

My mind goes immediately to the ballad "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" on what I think of as Bob Dylan's greatest album, "Blood on the Tracks."

[pameladean]

That was my immediate association too. And that is absolutely Dylan's best album.

P.

[asakiyume]

Strengthening my resolve to go listen!

[asakiyume]

I feel certain this was on *frequently* when I was a kid, and it probably soaked into me. Because yeah, just looking at the title! (But now I need to go listen to it and see if I remember it.)

[sabotabby]

There's gotta be a good story there.

[asakiyume]

I'm thinking of something like the story told in Leonard Cohen's "Stranger Song" which has these lyrics:

(These aren't all the lyrics, but they're the part of the song I pinged on, especially the highlighted parts. Except maybe it's a little heavy and dark ... I need to go listen to that Bob Dylan song the others are referencing!)

It's true that all the men you knew
were dealers who said they were through
with dealing every time you gave them shelter.
I know that kind of man. It's hard to hold the hand of anyone
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.

And sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
you'll find he did not leave you very much not even laughter.
Like any dealer he was watching for the card
that is so high and wild he'll never need to deal another.
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.

And then leaning on your window-sill
he'll say one day you caused his will
to weaken with your love and warmth and shelter.
And then taking from his wallet an old schedule of trains, he'll say,
I told you when I came I was a stranger.

But now another stranger seems
to want you to ignore his dreams,
as though they were the burden of some other.
You've seen that man before, his golden arm dispatching cards,
but now it's rusted from the elbow to the finger.
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter.