Entry tags:
Frederick the Great reveal post / discussion post 8
In the last several months, as anyone who reads this DW knows, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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 YESand 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
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
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
Re: One admiring reader comments
Maximum angst. I mean, Wilhelmine's method of venting and self therapy - secretly writing memoirs and not secretly writing operas, complete with giving the one with a killed mother to Mom at her birthday - was definitely less damaging than Fritz' methods but those memoirs were a ticking time bomb. Though I can understand why she didn't go back to them for a rewrite post 1746/1747, when she was reconciled with Fritz and had made up with her husband. (They really end rather abruptly mid first visit with the new Würtemberg in-laws, just after Wilhelmine has deduced the Margrave is cheating on her with Marwitz, and there's no indication that this was a planned ending.) Best not go through that time again, etc; I'm also glad she didn't destroy them, because then where would we be? But it's a good, good thing Fritz never read them.
I can't stop thinking of Wilhelmine recording that she and their mother were the only thing that motivated Fritz to live after Katte's death. Now he's trying to use himself to motivate her to stay alive.
That's why I had them both remember in different stories that they promised each other to never ever die. Incidentally, Lehndorff, who didn't know Wilhelmine very well - just through her Berlin visits in the early 1750s - but of course had heard about her, reports the news of Hochkirch, EC's brother Franz' death, Keith's death and Wilhelmine's death arriving at EC's court pretty much all at once, and his entry offers a pen portrait/mini obituary for all of them from his pov:
Prince Franz, our Queen's brother, has remained on the Hochkirch field. She has been told the news by Count Finkck and is devastated. He was the youngest in her family and entered our - i.e. Prussia's - service early, since he was trained under the eyes of his cousin the Duke of Bevern in Stettin. He was with his regiment in Königsberg in der Mark. He was an able officer, dutiful in service and brave. Tall of figure, he had an ugly face marked by smallbox scars, and he stuttered so badly that you could hardly understand him.
The greatest lost is that of Marshal Keith. He's entered our service ca. 1748 and received 10 000 Taler salary by the King. He had an arresting face, was interesting company and always got invited to the intimate suppers the King held. He didn't value splendor and magnificence very much and gave nearly all his income to his mistress, a Finnish woman named Eva. She had an excellent figure, a quick mind and graceful behaviour, and she fancied an expensive life style. While she used his horses and his cook, he used a public carriage and had his food brought to him from a small cookshop. In our army, he experienced some slights. He could only express himself badly in German, and he was accused of handling his operations too slowly. The late Prince of Prussia loved and appreciated him. His older brother, the Scottish marshal, who is a very different man, was wood into our service by him.
That same evening, Princess Amalie received news of the death of the Margravine of Bayreuth via an express messenger. This princess had been sick for nearly a year, and not really healthy through the past decade; it was, Princess Amalie said, her willpower which had kept her alive. The war, her worries for the King and the loss of the Prince of Prussia used up her remaining life force. Of all the King's sisters, she was the one most like him in mind and heart. She felt only comfortable among famous people, loved magnificence, adored the theatre and composed operas herself. She always wore jewelry and used make up - Lehndorff writes "white and red", but that's what he means - despite denying that she did. Above all she was gracious and always kept her word. Her people did not love her much and claimed that she disliked the small principality and her husbands' subjects. This princess had been born for a throne, just not for the status of a Margravine of Bayreuth.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Couldn't agree more on both counts.
Lehndorff: those are awesome character portraits, all three! But especially the two I didn't know about as people, just names. Thank you for continuing to share Lehndorff's gossipy sensationalism. He is *such* a treasure hoard of information.
Re: One admiring reader comments
He does, however, faithfully report this gem:
Juli 11th. I'm busy with reading until 5, and then I escort the Queen to the theatre. They play Amelie by Voltaire. It is a bit odd that while the poet has been arrested in Frankfurt, at the King's insistence, we keep being presented with his plays here, also at the King's insistence.
For "odd", substitute "Fritzian", Lehndorff. Your monarch sees no contradiction there at all. Hasn't he always insistent Voltaire is scum and he only cares about his genius? (It's not like he'll write "letters and greetings are no substitution for Voltaire, if one has had him in persona", oh no.)
Lehndorff's comments on the Voltaire implosion in general amount to "WTF? I mean, WTF?" in the polite Rokoko way, of course.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Not that I remember. I have a vague memory of EC being shocked by Algarotti's dissing of religion, but this was critically at Rheinsberg, when she and Fritz still lived together. Imagine how she'd react to Voltaire! I wouldn't be surprised if Fritz saw no need to inflict the boring pious woman on Voltaire.
For "odd", substitute "Fritzian", Lehndorff. Your monarch sees no contradiction there at all. Hasn't he always insistent Voltaire is scum and he only cares about his genius?
LOLOLOL
(It's not like he'll write "letters and greetings are no substitution for Voltaire, if one has had him in persona", oh no.)
It's hard when you're in love with someone you know is no damn good for you. And that goes in both directions. As they both seem to have been aware of it and suffered from the eternal tension between what their mind knew and their heart felt.
Lehndorff is the best
I really like the one of Marshal Keith too <3
Lehndorff continues to be the absolute awesomest <3
Re: Lehndorff is the best
I make the aquaintance of the famous Marshal Seckendorff, whom the King had had arrested on his country seat Meuselwitz and ordered to be brought to Magdeburg. Some think the King wants to have someone he can exchange for Field Marshal Moritz, others suspect Seckendorff to have conspired with the Austrians and thus of having been responsible for Hadik taking Berlin. I visit him as often as possible and listen to him with great entertainment. He's still the sly fox he's ever been. Right now, he's wrapped himself in the cloak of piety and has surrounded himself by prayer books. When one mentions his 86 years to him, he says: "I am alive, but not I, Christ lives in me."
Sometimes, however, he forgets hinmself, and then his old doubledealing, his greed, his scheming, in short, all that he's been famous for emerge. He can't forgive the King of having called him an ursurer in his memoirs. "At least," he claims, "I have not been one towards the King to whom I've given 1500 ducats without having gotten a single coin back. Or anything else." He's truly a living chronicle. His imprisonment, he bears with great calm, though he's insisting on his innocence. His manner of living is somewhat poor; he takes his meals from the cookshop and only drinks the wine his friends send him. For his age, he's well off; he can climb stairs without catching his breath. His face is somewhat ordinary, and his speech somewhat distorted through the loss of so many teeth.
See, Lehndorff, you're so good with his that it's doubly frustrating you got along so badly with the Katte clan and weren't interested in learning anything about Hans Herrmann.
Unrelatedly, because I never get tired quoting Lehndorff on the love of his life; in December of 1752, he's basically with him every day and still laments they're not together often enough:
December 6th. After supper, I go back to H. I wish I could always be with him.
December 7th. After dinner, I rush to my heavenly H. and stay there until he has to visit the Queen Mother.
Dember 8th. Dinner with H. How charming he is! The only thing that makes me unhappy is that I'll never have the courage to tell him just how much I love him!
I think he got the point, Lehndorff, considering earlier entries already mention you two tenderly embracing and what not. 1907! Editor: It was the age of Empfindsamkeit ("Sensibility"). Just Rokoko emo. Go with it, readers.
Re: Lehndorff is the best
I think he got the point, Lehndorff, considering earlier entries already mention you two tenderly embracing and what not. 1907! Editor: It was the age of Empfindsamkeit ("Sensibility"). Just Rokoko emo. Go with it, readers.
LOL forever. So many LOLs.
Re: Lehndorff is the best
(BTW: one reviewer says "better than Thiébault". I mean, not that I disagree, but I also think you can't really compare someone's memoirs, written many years after the fact and of course focused on the central character the memoirs are about, with a selection from someone's journals written without hindsight.
Re: Lehndorff is the best
Agree re Thiébault. It wouldn't occur to me to compare them.