Frederick the Great reveal post / discussion post 8

[cahn]

In the last several months, as anyone who reads this DW knows, mildred_of_midgard and selenak and I have been part of this quite frankly amazing Frederick the Great fandom, and I sort of assumed that the two people in this fandom who actually knew anything, mildred and selenak, were going to write fics for Yuletide, and I (who know nothing except what they've told me in the last several months) was going to awesomely enjoy reading them. In fact, mildred wrote a Fredersdorf fic for selenak's prompt which I betaed, but then mildred's medical issues got bad enough to interfere with her writing fic (making the beta edits would have involved a substantial amount of rewrite), and she wrote a post lamenting she wasn't going to be able to produce any yuletide fic. Meanwhile, I had two fics that I was pretty sure were from selenak, and I thought it would be a shame for her to write us fic and for her not to get any :(

So then mildred and I had this (very paraphrased) conversation (mildred_of_midgard has her own account here, and she has promised to reproduce the actual conversation in comments to this post):

me: You know, we should really write something for selenak! Now that I've read what you wrote about Fredersdorf, I think I could take a stab at her Fredersdorf prompt, if you edited and otherwise helped me out with historical stuff and also if you don't mind it being way more about music than something you would write.
mildred: YES GOD YES and also oh you sweet summer child thinking you know enough to write this. [Mildred was far FAR nicer than this in real life.] For starters, here are 3500 words [really!] of things I know for a fact you don't know about Fredersdorf.
me: ...I was clearly overoptimistic. But I can work with this. Um, also, all the creativity-generating bits of my brain are already being used for my assignment, so can you also come up with an idea for the fic and also answer all my historical questions?
mildred: Sure! While I'm thinking about this, have 2k more words of historical grounding! Ok, and here are some ideas too. In fact, here's a whole plot for you!
me: Great! *writes 4k words of the plot*
mildred and me, more-or-less in unison: You did all the hard parts!

Then mildred fixed all my extensive historical errors and was fortunately able in between various medical woes to add various parts like the entire Wilhelmine subtheme and the entire last scene, and we deleted some of my words, and then I wrote some more paragraphs about music at her request and edited some of her stuff. I estimate that I probably ended up writing ~4.5k of the final fic, and mildred ended up writing ~ 2k of it (does that sound about right?) Of course that does not count the... I have no idea how much historical consultantcy stuff mildred ended up writing in the end, but I imagine it was significantly upwards of 10k :P And of course she wrote the detailed endnotes :D It also does not count all the words written in comments to the google document where we argued things like that Fredersdorf should be more zen than mildred wanted to write him and less zen than I wanted to write him :)

Although mildred and I mostly agreed on things, I had final veto power (and I did wield it a couple of times), so any remaining problems should be thought of as mine :) I'm very curious, though, as to how evident the collaboration was, and how evident the seams were, as I think mildred and I have very different writing styles, but it went through enough editing passes and discussion that I suspect much of the differences got at least somewhat smoothed out?

Counterpoint for Two Flutes

Comments

Re: Fredersdorf gossipy sensationalism

[selenak]

Possible mercury poisoning symptoms: you could be onto something, Detective Mildred, these sound familiiar, though possibly more because I watched my share of soaps. (Originally Dynasty had one character poison another by the mercury in his wall paper.) I must admit I didn't pay major attention to the symptoms when reading the letters, though. Anyway, given 18th century gents, like my guy Boswell, used Mercury as a free for all when treating their STD, and given Fritz kept making unfunny STD jokes - to 19 years old Heinrich about Marwitz, and to and about one unfortunate page as mentioned in one of the Fredersdorf letters - I think someone in his acquaintance must have used it. At some point. It's also possible the one indication that those homophobic historians who wanted anything but a same sex orientation as an explanation as to why King Fritz didn't get it it on with women and came up with the "he got STD as a young man, and that was that" might have accidentally hit on some kernel of truth.

"Within 24 hours of Fritz giving permission" can't be right since Lehndorff spots future Mrs. Fredersdorf in society on 15th December 1752 and knows the King will make her a wedding present of 5000 Taler. He doesn't treat Fredersdorf getting married at all as fresh news in the entry.

Love the nurse announcement letter. Clearly, this is why Mara-Schmeling and Barbarina had to elope; they could hardly sell their guys as nurses.

Re: Fredersdorf gossipy sensationalism

[mildred_of_midgard]

Lehndorff spots future Mrs. Fredersdorf in society on 15th December 1752

This book didn't have any credibility with me before you mentioned this; this just confirms it. Oh, well. I do like their mercury theory!

I do keep seeing references to Algarotti getting STDs, and yes, when I think of mercury, I think of STDs (even before I think of alchemy), so I wouldn't be surprised if Algarotti had tried it too. But Fredersdorf, who was involved in alchemical experiments over the course of several years, might have had very long-term exposure and it might, who knows, have played a role in his death at age 49.

I was thinking of Lehndorff and Hotham too when I wrote that! Hotham isn't a potential nurse, and England's climate didn't attract many people for health reasons, either. But for guys like Seydlitz, it worked like a charm.

Lehndorff: Not a chance

[selenak]

Now I‘m wondering how an interview with Lehndorff trying to use the nurse excuse would have gone. (In rl, he got his requests denied in writing, he never made it as far as a personal audience.)

„Your Majesty, Chevalier Hotham has told me wonders about Bath. It‘s practically my only hope for recovering my health. And since he‘s kindly offered to take me there, I thought...

„I wasn‘t aware your health was suffering. Considering all the time you‘ve spent hanging out with my brothers. If you absolutely need to visit a spa, go to a German one. That‘s cheaper.“

Incidentally, yet another reason why Fritz declined Lehndorff‘s emigration-with-Hotham request occurred to me, and it‘s one related to why he was so against Marwitz, female edition, marrying an Austrian count, and why it was so unusual for him to gift the non-noble Fredersdorf with an estate. Due to the death of his older brother, Lehndorff had become heir to the family estate, and Fritz, like his father, was paranoid about any of the Prussian estates getting claimed by anyone not a Prussian noble inside the country. (Which is why FW had made Wilhelmine promise that the Marwitz daughters who went with her upon her marriage would only be married to Prussian nobles.) If Lehndorff emigrates to England with Hotham, chances are he‘ll stay there, will get married there (since marriage isn‘t about love and Lehndorff is now the one who has to continue the family line), and that in turn means a Hannover or a Brit or both could be entitled to a Prussian estate.

(Note that Fritz had zilch objections to either of Lehndorff‘s two actual marriages later, both to Prussian nobles within Prussia.) (At which point Lehndorff also finally got the permission to travel abroad.)

Re: Lehndorff: Not a chance

[mildred_of_midgard]

„I wasn‘t aware your health was suffering. Considering all the time you‘ve spent hanging out with my brothers. If you absolutely need to visit a spa, go to a German one. That‘s cheaper.“

Hahaha, so Fritzian.

Fritz: But not one in Bohemia, which belongs to THAT WOMAN. (cahn, this is where Schmeling Mara ended up escaping with her husband, when Fritz wouldn't let her go to a spa.)

ETA: Oh, and the inheritance considerations are fascinating. I hadn't realized/had forgotten Lehndorff was the heir to the family estate, and would not have made the connection with the emigration request being denied. But that makes perfect sense!