Just... messing about in boats
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. ( Collapse )
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.
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.