Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

[cahn]

All Yuletide requests are out!

Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!

-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)

Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!

-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French

-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...

Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links

Comments

Re: Wilhelmine

[mildred_of_midgard]

I have a very good impression of Sonsine from the memoirs <3

Same!

Haha, I can imagine that Sonsine did that... for about five minutes. Then she can swear to it and Wilhelmine can go off and do her music and gardens. :D

Agree! This is my impression of almost anyone who had anything to do with young Fritz.

FW: Make my wretched son do X!

Sane person: Yes, Your Majesty! Right away, Your Majesty!

Sane person: Okay, Fritz, he's gone. We will now proceed to observe the letter of what he said and do total violence to the spirit.

Fritz: I am coming through my upbringing with my personality basically intact, due to the vast amounts of outside validation telling me it's not me, it's Dad.

selenak, are you familiar with the anecdote about FW ordering a military haircut for Fritz as a little boy, Fritz crying, and the haircutter managing to keep some of the curls while kinda sorta making it pass as a military haircut, from a distance? I've only seen this recounted without any sources cited at all, and would love to know if it's real.

Re: Wilhelmine

[selenak]

Nope, sorry, am not. The two recent bios I read don't mention it. The instant problem I see her is that FW was close enough any number of times that "military cut from a distance" would not work, and also that 18th century hair styles aren't comparable with modern ones, including what soldiers wore. The very term "military cut" makes me distrustful, because that sounds very 20th century USian. I mean: even your avarage non-noble Prussian soldier wore a)a wig, and b)if no wig, then his hair at shoulder length and bound into a tail.

Trufax: cutting one's hair was the rebellious anti older generation thing to do two generations later at least in the German speaking territories. See also: French Revolution. A shorter cut was cool, longer hair old fashioned and conservative. Heinrich Heine in his his great satiric poem Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen makes fun of "Prussian tails" (of hair, he means).

Now granted,for female hair the French ancient regime fashion went to elaborate lengths, see also MA's legendary hairdos, but for men, I don't think so. Especially given that the periwig went out of fashion in FW's youth already.

Re: Wilhelmine

[mildred_of_midgard]

*nod* I had the same immediate objection to whether it would work. Although if he *is* wearing a wig when his father sees him, it might work a bit better?

And as for the question of cutting--I *thought* soldiers had to have a long but narrow queue in the back but hair cut shorter in the front and on top (both to keep the queue narrow and to make the wig sit easier)? Certainly judging by the pictures I've seen, and my experience braiding my own hair when I had long hair, if you grow all your hair long and braid it, the result comes out approximately three times as thick as those pictures.

But I could be totally wrong about that. I do know FW objected to Fritz's hairstyle a lot, but I agree this particular anecdote seems rather unsubstantiated. It's in keeping with the theme of "spirit but not letter," though, of which there are numerous substantiated examples.