review of Black Sails season 3 finale 

Who exactly is Captain Thockmorton and why is he important to the season 3 finale of

Black Sails, just shown on Starz?  Well, he has a great name, doesn\'t he, but I\'ll say no more except stay tuned to the end of the episode.

Until that great send-off into season 4, we\'re treated to a great sea battle, with Jack, Anne, and Blackbeard in top clever and conquering form, and an equally rousing fight on the land, in which Flint and freed slaves literally rise up to beat the English. It\'s nights and fights like these that show why the Brits lost the American Revolutionary War.   They\'re good, but ultimately no match for Western hemispheric intelligence.

And the Pirate Republic thing is, as I\'ve mentioned before, a template for the American Revolution, in terms of the limits of British power and the restless, irrrepressible success of the democratic impulse.

Interestingly, the season ends short of the battle for Nassau, with Eleanor and Rogers still the devoted couple, and Vane still hanging from the public gibbet.   Our pirates are seated around a table in the last scene, intercut with a reading by Max of a letter by John Silver, introducing the aforementioned Throckmorton, and signed Long John Silver, which has the effect of making his name, the sound of his name, something to be respected and feared, along with Throckmorton.

Earlier and throughout the episode, in a crucial conversation with Flint, Silver explicates what it is that now makes him unique among this pirate force: he is not only feared but liked, and that\'s a powerful combination, unique into its capacity to truly move the men.

It will seem like just a blink before season 4 continues the story, and I\'ll be in my customary front seat in the audience, right in front of my big glimmering television screen.

See also Black Sails 3.1: Restored ... Black Sails 3.2: Flint vs. Sea ... Black Sails 3.3: Gone Fishin\' ... Black Sails 3.4: Mr. Scott\'s People ... Black Sails 3.5: Alliance ... Black Sails 3.6: The Duel ... Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver ... Black Sails 3.8: Whether Vane? ... Black Sails 3.10: Wither Vane

And see also Black Sails 2.1: Good Combo, Back Story, New Blood ... Black Sails 2.2: A Fine Lesson in Captaining ... Black Sails 2.3: "I Angered Charles Vane" ... Black Sails 2.4: "Fire!" ... Black Sails 2.5: Twist! ... Black Sails 2.6: Weighty Alternatives, and the Medium is the Message on the High Seas ...Black Sails 2.7: The Governor\'s Daughter and the Gold ... Black Sails 2.9: The Unlikely Hero ... Black Sails Season 2 Finale: Satisfying Literate and Vulgar

And see also Black Sails: Literate and Raunchy Piracy ... Black Sails 1.3: John Milton and Marcus Aurelius ... Black Sails 1.4: The Masts of Wall Street ...Black Sails 1.6: Rising Up ... Black Sails 1.7: Fictions and History ... Black Sails 1.8: Money

w/stories about Orson Welles, John Lennon, David Bowie

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The Plot to Save Socrates on 10 Perfect Summer Reads Authored by NYU Alums

my Internet Science Fiction Data Base bibliography

This blog quoted in New York Times & Los Angeles Times & Boston Globe & The Atlantic!

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Sopranos Conference at Fordham Universty, May 22-25, 2008

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Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.  His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003),  Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).  His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.  Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"  “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),  “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

Chronicle of Higher Education puts Paul Levinson in Top 10 (#7) of Academic "High Flyers" on Twitter ... Online University Data puts PL in "Top 50 Online University Professors on Twitter Worth Following"...

Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren\'s fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom

President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1998-2001

I’m proud to be on the May 8 page of this calendar, with the following quote:

"What begins as a seemingly innocent campaign against indecency … always segues in short order into political censorship."

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Hillary Clinton Sweeps All Five States Tonight: Th...

Black Sails 3.7: The Blackening of John Silver

Colony 1.8: Moon Base and Transit Zones

The New Knife in the O.J. Simpson Case: Reality a...

"the only people who have proof of their sanity are those who have been discharged from mental institutions"— Marshall McLuhan

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James Harris covers my "Looking for Sunsets (in the Early Morning)"

100 rare + unreleased tracks were on sale April 18-21, 2011. All proceeds went to help Japan! Thanks for your generosity! Tracks included Tori Amos, Sara Bareilles, Josh Ritter ... and Paul Levinson singing "Sunshine\'s Mine"!

Twice Upon a Rhyme reviewed in Jan-Feb 2011 Shindig Magazine

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Paul Levinson appears on "The O\'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News," "Nightline" (ABC), the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" (PBS), "The Dylan Ratigan Show" (MSNBC) and frequently on NPR and all-news radio...