Dragaera

Concerning Matters Nautical

David Silberstein davids at kithrup.com
Sun Nov 16 12:34:02 PST 2003

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003, Philip Hart wrote:

>On Sat, 15 Nov 2003, Steven Brust wrote:
>
>>> David S. wrote:

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

[snip spoilers about Stephen Maturin, who does sound like a more
complex character than what was portrayed in the movie]

I should mention that my perceptions are only derived from the movie;
I have not yet read the O'Brian novels, although I have heard good
things about the books before seeing the movie.

>  We're a bit lacking in Hawks to compare him to, unless we want to
>consider Daymar typical...

Paarfi is a Hawklord as well (although I sometimes suspect him of
actually being a Yendi, although that may just be Steve).  Keep this
in mind as you read his histories.

>Also note that Jack is not very Orcaish on land - he's got too much
>Falstaff in him, and he's too bad with money.

As I've suggested elsewhere, Orca seem to have the greatest
amount of internal variation of the Houses.

Also, consider that not all Dragons are great generals; there are no
doubt Orca who are bad with money.  I think the point of /Orca/ is
that the merchant banks are what arise when Orca who *are* good with
money go into the money-making business. 

Heck, consider that Fyres' problem was that he was not, in fact, good
with money.  He was good at *pretending* he was good with money.

>  And he's into astronomy, not a usual Dragaeran pursuit... 

I bet there are a *lot* of Hawklords who would be very much into
astronomy if they could be.  Orca would also be, if only for the
practical value of navigation.  In fact, I bet some of the elfs (or
"demons") out East (or West) are just astronomers who are fed up
with the bloody damned Overcast.