Yeah, poor Doris Ritter. She really deserved better, and she definitely deserved to have come up in our anecdotes much earlier in these discussions. My bad. :'-(
Oh, Voltaire. But him being an asshole is to be expected. MacDonogh, in 1999, writes, "It is highly doubtful that she in any way merited the savage treatment meted out to her after Frederick’s flight." I mean...what exactly do you think would have merited that savage treatment, author? Murder? If you mean "she didn't do the things FW thought she did," say so. This is at best a very infelicitous phrasing; at worst, you and I have radically different values.
you know some incest shipping would happen these days regardless
Oh, of course, and I'm fine with it being a niche interest. I just don't want it being one of the major ways fandom has to deal with a no-homo-ing canon. (Suspect it'd still be a minority approach, but probably more common than if canon left out the Wilhelmine/Katte pairing.)
Meanwhile, the entire justification for anyone assuming Wilhelmine/Katte I can see is that Katte did have a double portrait of both siblings, but against that is Wilhelmine's stated distrust and antipathy and, well, Katte's everything else. Not that reality ever stopped any shippers.
Very true. The real reason here is "heteronormativity."
I've often wondered about that double portrait. Platonic admiration on Katte's part? Attraction? (She and Fritz had enough in common, especially at that age, that if you like one, you might well end up liking the other, platonically or romantically.) Trying to make nice to her because she's so important in Fritz's life? Seriously worried about her ability to turn Fritz away from him?
Love the Voltaire anecdote, thanks for sharing! I am now through the first ~18 months of Fritz and Algarotti knowing each other, and will try to put together a summary soon that's informative, if not entertaining. (And entertaining if the muses are with me; otherwise, you get copy-pasta from a dissertation.)
Re: Alternate universes where everyone is at least incrementally more happy
Oh, Voltaire. But him being an asshole is to be expected. MacDonogh, in 1999, writes, "It is highly doubtful that she in any way merited the savage treatment meted out to her after Frederick’s flight." I mean...what exactly do you think would have merited that savage treatment, author? Murder? If you mean "she didn't do the things FW thought she did," say so. This is at best a very infelicitous phrasing; at worst, you and I have radically different values.
you know some incest shipping would happen these days regardless
Oh, of course, and I'm fine with it being a niche interest. I just don't want it being one of the major ways fandom has to deal with a no-homo-ing canon. (Suspect it'd still be a minority approach, but probably more common than if canon left out the Wilhelmine/Katte pairing.)
Meanwhile, the entire justification for anyone assuming Wilhelmine/Katte I can see is that Katte did have a double portrait of both siblings, but against that is Wilhelmine's stated distrust and antipathy and, well, Katte's everything else. Not that reality ever stopped any shippers.
Very true. The real reason here is "heteronormativity."
I've often wondered about that double portrait. Platonic admiration on Katte's part? Attraction? (She and Fritz had enough in common, especially at that age, that if you like one, you might well end up liking the other, platonically or romantically.) Trying to make nice to her because she's so important in Fritz's life? Seriously worried about her ability to turn Fritz away from him?
Love the Voltaire anecdote, thanks for sharing! I am now through the first ~18 months of Fritz and Algarotti knowing each other, and will try to put together a summary soon that's informative, if not entertaining. (And entertaining if the muses are with me; otherwise, you get copy-pasta from a dissertation.)
Catherine: Lol!