(I see the Prussian cyber agents are at it again. They're very dedicated to their jobs!)
[Hit reply too soon]
but here's the irony: he had no problem being wary of Wilhelmine as a source when it came to her actual criticism of her brother
Ah, yes, I reread what I wrote and realized it reads like a globally applicable comment. I meant specifically about Katte and Keith. And that is also why I think it's partly his own pro-Fritz biases showing: he follows W blindly when what she says *resonates* with him.
And when I said "homophobic," I phrased it as "reflexes of homophobic mindsets" deliberately, without specifying *whose* mindset. I need to read Wilhelmine's memoirs more closely, instead of skimming (it's next on my list), but just from recent rereading of the Katte affair, she comes across as unhappy with both his freethinking (which Carlyle would not be), and his and Keith's "inappropriate" relationships with her brother, which I've been taking to mean sexual. If I am way off the mark, let me know. Maybe she really was just worried about FW's homophobia, and distressed at her brother having intense emotional relationships with people who are not her...but her whole language about his boyfriends comes across as homophobic: "debauched," "dissolute," "irregular."
But whereas Carlyle was on board with the whole freethinking thing, and as I said I had no idea about his attitude toward sexuality one way or the other (thank you for clarifying!), I've been assuming that a lot of biographers are sometimes just not questioning what might lie behind the portrayals in their sources. And he always seemed like one of them when I was rereading this section looking for shipping material.
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Re: Tragic ship
Date: 2019-10-07 03:17 pm (UTC)(I see the Prussian cyber agents are at it again. They're very dedicated to their jobs!)
[Hit reply too soon]
but here's the irony: he had no problem being wary of Wilhelmine as a source when it came to her actual criticism of her brother
Ah, yes, I reread what I wrote and realized it reads like a globally applicable comment. I meant specifically about Katte and Keith. And that is also why I think it's partly his own pro-Fritz biases showing: he follows W blindly when what she says *resonates* with him.
And when I said "homophobic," I phrased it as "reflexes of homophobic mindsets" deliberately, without specifying *whose* mindset. I need to read Wilhelmine's memoirs more closely, instead of skimming (it's next on my list), but just from recent rereading of the Katte affair, she comes across as unhappy with both his freethinking (which Carlyle would not be), and his and Keith's "inappropriate" relationships with her brother, which I've been taking to mean sexual. If I am way off the mark, let me know. Maybe she really was just worried about FW's homophobia, and distressed at her brother having intense emotional relationships with people who are not her...but her whole language about his boyfriends comes across as homophobic: "debauched," "dissolute," "irregular."
But whereas Carlyle was on board with the whole freethinking thing, and as I said I had no idea about his attitude toward sexuality one way or the other (thank you for clarifying!), I've been assuming that a lot of biographers are sometimes just not questioning what might lie behind the portrayals in their sources. And he always seemed like one of them when I was rereading this section looking for shipping material.