Awwww. That makes me sad. I had no idea people avoided visiting their dream countries, can't even imagine, but if that's a thing people do, it's very plausible in this case: Fritz was a hugely traumatized pessimist, and he'd totally been primed to believe the universe wouldn't let him have nice things. I could see him having an emotional "don't set yourself up for disappointment" reaction, and then rationalizing it. Man. And then trying to keep Wilhelmine from that disappointment he saw as inevitable. AUS FOR EVERYONE.
And omg, you're right, when he's sour-grapes-ing Wilhelmine, it's *right* after the whole Voltaire debacle went down. Wow. Okay, Fritz, you get like 5% more slack from me. Still try to have some self-awareness and let your sister enjoy her things, though, okay??
(The first time I tried to imagine what I would be like if I had depression, in my early 20s, the immediate conclusion I came to was that if I wasn't happy, no one around me was going to be happy either, and that the younger this started, the less I was going to be able to compensate. Thus leading me to the conclusion that I'm more an especially fortunate person than an especially good one.)
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Re: Prussian sibling correspondance
Date: 2019-10-14 06:56 am (UTC)hugely traumatizedpessimist, and he'd totally been primed to believe the universe wouldn't let him have nice things. I could see him having an emotional "don't set yourself up for disappointment" reaction, and then rationalizing it. Man. And then trying to keep Wilhelmine from that disappointment he saw as inevitable. AUS FOR EVERYONE.And omg, you're right, when he's sour-grapes-ing Wilhelmine, it's *right* after the whole Voltaire debacle went down. Wow. Okay, Fritz, you get like 5% more slack from me. Still try to have some self-awareness and let your sister enjoy her things, though, okay??
(The first time I tried to imagine what I would be like if I had depression, in my early 20s, the immediate conclusion I came to was that if I wasn't happy, no one around me was going to be happy either, and that the younger this started, the less I was going to be able to compensate. Thus leading me to the conclusion that I'm more an especially fortunate person than an especially good one.)