Dragaera

Concerning Matters Nautical

David Silberstein davids at kithrup.com
Sun Nov 16 00:12:13 PST 2003

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003, Steven Brust wrote:

>
> > I just thought I'd mention that if you like this sort of thing, you
>> might very well enjoy "Master and Commander".  Speaking as a 21st-C.
>> landlubber, I think this film went to great lengths to provide an
>> excellent & reasonably realistic reproduction of a 19th-C. naval
>> campaign.
>>
>> I also found myself trying assign Dragaeran Houses to the characters.
>> Captain Aubry's tenacity, ferocity & suprising cleverness do seem to
>> be definitely Orca-ish.  Dr. Maturin is very much like a Hawk.
>>
>
>Good to hear they did a good job.  I'm going to be seeing the movie
>in the next week sometime, I hope.  I'd always figured Jack as a
>Dragon, actually,

I've always assumed that there must be a certain amount of overlap
between House characteristics.  Certainly the Orca must have a
sufficiency of martial nature, given that they make up the Imperial
Navy.  Or did I misunderstand something?

There are a couple of ruses that we see Aubrey use - if you've been
reading the books, you probably know what they are - that reminded me
of Kiera's thoughts about the air-pressure-alarm she finds.  Although
I may have been predisposed to think in that direction, given that the
whole film takes place at sea.

>
>though certainly you're right--Stephen is a textbook Hawk.
>

Heh.  The movie does tend to emphasize those qualities of his nature.
I'm glad that I guessed *something* right.