Just... messing about in boats

[flemmings]

Inspector Yashim has a habit of taking caïques. In the current book a character compares them with gondolas, to the disparagement of the latter. I thought gondolas were pretty slim and light for boats, but evidently caïques are slimmer and lighter.

Historically, a caïque was a boat of 5–6 meters (16–20 ft) in length, and 1 meter (3 ft) in width, used mainly for transportation. It had a shape similar to that of a skate. Both ends of it were in such a form that it could be rowed in either direction with equal ease. The sides consisted of two long embellished boards. There were also lateral boards supporting the sides against water pressure.

There were also imperial caïques used by the Ottoman sultans and his suite for ceremonial and daily excursion purposes. The size and grandeur of this type, adorned with imperial armorials and floral scrolls, was a reflection of his royal power. Another feature of imperial caiques was the deck pavilion, a partition or a small kiosk for the Sultan. By reason of this feature they were also called the pavilion caïques.

Picture of imperial caïque to be found here. Three feet wide, though? That's worse than a canoe. I see why he said that if you stand up in a caïque you have three seconds before it tips.

In other news, Mieville's imagination makes me feel grubby no matter what he's writing. When he's writing worshippers of the giant squid it gets worse. And he still has this obsession with turning people into machines, if not actually Thomas the Tank Engine.

Comments

[yumiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Interesting observation on Mieville, hmmmm, now I wonder why that is. (I'd only read City & City, Embassytown, and Perdido, so only 1 out of 3), I'll have to watch for it. But dude does seem to have a proclivity for the distinctly non-human in his works.

P.S. I dunno how you feel about fic, I'm not sure it's ever come up, but there was a pretty cool Matthew Swift one that came out for Yuletide if you want the link, I saw it and thought of you. XD (And AO3 has a small smattering of others!)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

If you don't have the Mievillian reaction then you may not get what I'm on about. It was in Perdido in spades, and from what I hear all over City, so you're probably immune. A certain kind of blokeishness that you expect him to be too intelligent to possess, and then it whaps you in the face.

I'm not usually one for fanfic in book fandoms; for me it all depends on getting the voice right, and not everyone does or wants to. But I've been pleased by the quality of the Rivers fic over there, so I'd be very interested to see what anyone could do with Matthew Swift.