Oh, Lucchesini! I know him as gentleman of the bedchamber and person Fritz talked to the most in his last years. Should have guessed that would be his reader. cahn, you have provided a most excellent research forum. :D
Do you happen to know the names of any of his other readers? Unfortunately, this is difficult to google due to 1) the frequency of the word "reader" in English, 2) Henri de Catt (who floods the search results even when I use "Vorleser").
Is being called bloated or being referred to as the most German of Germans the worse insult for Fritz?
Depends. What does "bloated" mean in this context? Indolent? Something else? Literally bloated, yes, between the digestive issues and the edema, but I don't think that's what was meant. :-P
Btw, today's resarch according to the essay knows that in fact a substantial amount of De La Literature Allemande is based on an unpublished pamphlet Fritz drafted during his time in Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg? RHEINSBERG?! Oh god, this is so in character I'm dying laughing. Oh, Fritz.
we already knew he hasn't updated his literary taste since he was 16
Or his taste in much else. Time kind of stopped for him in the 17th century when it came to the arts. Neoclassicism? What Neoclassicism?! Frederician rococo all the way! (It has been pointed out that not only did he form his tastes early in the 18th century, but he got them from people who were a generation older than he was. And to use cahn's analogy, he was an absolute terrier when he got an idea into his head.)
Okay so very important question for my modern AUs: do you think anything has been created in the last 300 years that Fritz would actually like, if he was dropped by a time machine into the year 2019 with all his memories up through 1786 (or 1728, which as discussed is the same thing :P) intact? Having virtually no artistic tastes myself (tone-deaf, aesthetically blind, probably completely soulless :P ), I can't really judge, but I've been desperately curious for a long time.
Finally, while we're here, I have run across some quotes from people playing devil's advocate re Fritz and German. Some of them are, "Many of his contemporaries agreed, or partially agreed," but hilariously, many are "Well, of course he was terribly wrong, but there were silver linings, because Fritz being wrong was better than most people being right!"
"As Goethe noted, by simply publishing a pamphlet about German literature Frederick gave intellectual debate a momentum which no other living person could have matched. His declared aversion to their culture was paradoxically 'highly beneficial' for German writers, because it spurred them on by provoking a reaction. Goethe continued: 'Moreover, in the same way, Frederick’s aversion to the German language as the medium for literature was a good thing for German writers. They did everything they could to make the King take notice of them.' That Frederick’s remarks about German literature were ill-informed, one-sided and even at times absurd did not matter. What was important was the entry of the King of Prussia to the public domain to take on all comers."
"Paradoxically, this combination of goad and encouragement does seem to have promoted German literature."
"The Prussian writer Leonard Meister...could even find a beneficial side to Frederick’s alleged Francophilia: 'Even his preference for the French seems to have had a beneficial effect on the Germans. Not only did they learn from them, but there also developed a noble spirit of competition, with German intellectuals seeking to be worthy associates of their gifted French counterparts."
"Frederick himself...said to Mirabeau: 'What greater service could I have performed for German literature than that I didn't bother with it?'"
I love that last one. "I didn't micromanage it! What more do you want?" :P (I mean, I don't think that's what he meant, but that's what I'm taking away from it as the real silver lining here.)
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Re: On a lighter note
Date: 2019-10-23 07:05 pm (UTC)Oh, Lucchesini! I know him as gentleman of the bedchamber and person Fritz talked to the most in his last years. Should have guessed that would be his reader.
Do you happen to know the names of any of his other readers? Unfortunately, this is difficult to google due to 1) the frequency of the word "reader" in English, 2) Henri de Catt (who floods the search results even when I use "Vorleser").
Is being called bloated or being referred to as the most German of Germans the worse insult for Fritz?
Depends. What does "bloated" mean in this context? Indolent? Something else? Literally bloated, yes, between the digestive issues and the edema, but I don't think that's what was meant. :-P
Btw, today's resarch according to the essay knows that in fact a substantial amount of De La Literature Allemande is based on an unpublished pamphlet Fritz drafted during his time in Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg? RHEINSBERG?! Oh god, this is so in character I'm dying laughing. Oh, Fritz.
we already knew he hasn't updated his literary taste since he was 16
Or his taste in much else. Time kind of stopped for him in the 17th century when it came to the arts. Neoclassicism? What Neoclassicism?! Frederician rococo all the way! (It has been pointed out that not only did he form his tastes early in the 18th century, but he got them from people who were a generation older than he was. And to use cahn's analogy, he was an absolute terrier when he got an idea into his head.)
Okay so very important question for my modern AUs: do you think anything has been created in the last 300 years that Fritz would actually like, if he was dropped by a time machine into the year 2019 with all his memories up through 1786 (or 1728, which as discussed is the same thing :P) intact? Having virtually no artistic tastes myself (tone-deaf, aesthetically blind, probably completely soulless :P ), I can't really judge, but I've been desperately curious for a long time.
Finally, while we're here, I have run across some quotes from people playing devil's advocate re Fritz and German. Some of them are, "Many of his contemporaries agreed, or partially agreed," but hilariously, many are "Well, of course he was terribly wrong, but there were silver linings, because Fritz being wrong was better than most people being right!"
"As Goethe noted, by simply publishing a pamphlet about German literature Frederick gave intellectual debate a momentum which no other living person could have matched. His declared aversion to their culture was paradoxically 'highly beneficial' for German writers, because it spurred them on by provoking a reaction. Goethe continued: 'Moreover, in the same way, Frederick’s aversion to the German language as the medium for literature was a good thing for German writers. They did everything they could to make the King take notice of them.' That Frederick’s remarks about German literature were ill-informed, one-sided and even at times absurd did not matter. What was important was the entry of the King of Prussia to the public domain to take on all comers."
"Paradoxically, this combination of goad and encouragement does seem to have promoted German literature."
"The Prussian writer Leonard Meister...could even find a beneficial side to Frederick’s alleged Francophilia: 'Even his preference for the French seems to have had a beneficial effect on the Germans. Not only did they learn from them, but there also developed a noble spirit of competition, with German intellectuals seeking to be worthy associates of their gifted French counterparts."
"Frederick himself...said to Mirabeau: 'What greater service could I have performed for German literature than that I didn't bother with it?'"
I love that last one. "I didn't micromanage it! What more do you want?" :P (I mean, I don't think that's what he meant, but that's what I'm taking away from it as the real silver lining here.)