![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnIn 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 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: The Heinrich Letters - Our Younger Days
Date: 2020-01-12 06:50 am (UTC)Ahhh, okay, that explains it. Of course the Marwitz letters won't make the cut under these circumstances.
Fritz might not have been playing lightside Dad here, but actually Wilhelmine.
Good point. Especially since Dad was all about the work, but anti reading (other than religious, history and economic reading), and the younger brothers' teachers aware of that (and not wanting to get beaten like the Crown Prince teachers), which is why AW and the four years younger Heinrich were on the same level of education before Fritz took over.
Fritz? If Heinrich really was ignoring him and he wasn't just claiming that Heinrich was? Armchair psychology here, but I have to go with genuinely insulted.
So basically "here I am, having taken the trouble to make sure you got the education for free which I had to fight and got beaten for, telling you for your own good that your crush is a slut, and how do you repay me? By sulking - btw, love that he keeps using that word - and ignoring me! How dare you."
Young Heinrich, though, seems to have concluded he'd hit on a winning "how to annoy Fritz efficiently" strategy there, because decades later, he's still practicing it whenever they have a bust up. As in the aftermath of the 7 Years War, when things after the heart warming triple sibling Amalie-Fritz-Heinrich handholding at the victory party quickly detoriate, because, as far as I can tell, the following happens:
October 1763: August III of Poland and Saxony dies. (Fritz to Heinrich: "He never could do anything right, this is most inconvenient.") Poland being a kingdom where the Poles get to vote for their King, several candidates are named. Heinrich - whose civilians considerate behavior has just made him popular with the Saxons, and who has demonstrated military talent against a superior foe - is one of them. Considering Catherine is backing Poniatowski and considering the recent war has demonstrated that peace with Russia is rather essential for Prussia, Fritz absolutely forbids it. Now, one of my biographies has said Heinrich didn't find out he was a candidate until later, but another points out that Lehndorff - by no means a political insider - has heard rumors that Heinrich is a candidate (at a point where Heinrich is in Rheinsberg and Lehndorff is not, so he's not heard it from his bff). Now, there's a sound political reason (peace with Russia) for not going that route, but a suspicous mind could also conclude that Fritz isn't too keen on having his military competent resentment filled younger brother next door as a fellow monarch, who as King of Poland would undoubtedly feel obliged to actually work for Poland, not Prussia. Be that as it may, it's time for the big revue in Spandau again, and this happens:
Heinrich: Not coming. I'm staying in Rheinsberg.
Fritz: You what?
Heinrich: Staying in Rheinsberg. My regiment can parade in front of you without me.
Fritz: If you don't show up in Spandau to salute me in front of your regiment, you can damn well stay away.
Heinrich: Is that supposed to be a threat or an incentive?
One year of fraternal silence: *ensues*
(Lehndorff: All right-thinking men must regret this fallout between two great princes, woe!)
Heinrich's private lifle: Is a disaster, as per usual. Expensive boyfriend Kalkreuther becomes ex boyfriend Kalkreuther, not without that awful last attempt at keeping favour by incriminating Mina. New boyfriend Kaphengst is even more expensive.
Fritz: You know what to do.
Heinrich: Shows up for the next Spandau revue. Saluting Fritz in front of his regiment.
Lehndorff, in his diary, only slightly paraphrased: relations are still somewhat tense between the King and the Prince, but at least they're talking again, phew. Also, the King has sent the Prince a gift. His portrait in a snuff box framed with diamonds. Not sure how the Prince has taken that.
Speaking of which! Remember MacDonogh? Winner of the Unreliable Biographer of the Decade award? He actually says "l'autre moi-meme" was Henricus Minor, not Henricus Major.
Which made me super curious to see the original context. I suppose the citation is in a Ziebura book you've returned to the library?
Indeed, but I remember the context in which she says Fritz first used the term, to wit: mid 7 Years War, - "I can't be here, but my other self will be" re: some front line. Which would make no sense for young Henricus Minor. I also don't recall Fritz after Henricus Minor's death saying anything of that nature in the letters or remembered statements that I've read. A lot of praise for him and a lot about how much he loved him as if Henricus Minor had been his own son, but definitely no "he was my other self". The only direct comparison to someone else I recall is from the letter to Ulrilke you've quoted, and there Minor gets compared to AW (minus the bad qualities), not Fritz.
Is it true that this was the condition for releasing him from house arrest, i.e. eerie roleplay?
Not deducable from the letters; what I recall from the returned biographies is that Heinrich wasn't allowed freedom of residence until he'd agreed to the marriage. For example, in theory Fritz had given him Rheinsberg but in practice he wasn't allowed to go there, nor was he allowed to go anywhere between Potsdam and Berlin where the King didn't say he should reside. Hence him telling Lehndorff that the one good thing about being a married man was that he had the freedom to be a Berliner now. (This was before he discovered Rheinsberg for himself.)
Re: The Heinrich Letters - Our Younger Days
Date: 2020-01-12 09:18 pm (UTC)I mean, none of that *doesn't* sound like Fritz to me.
Heinrich: Is that supposed to be a threat or an incentive?
Heinrich: Shows up for the next Spandau revue. Saluting Fritz in front of his regiment.
AHAHAHA. OMG, those two. I await your hateship fic eagerly.
"I can't be here, but my other self will be" re: some front line. Which would make no sense for young Henricus Minor.
Yep, that checks out. This reminds me of the time MacDonogh said EC had a miscarriage, when I'm convinced he's thinking of the next generation EC. I should start keeping a list of corrigenda.
Heinrich wasn't allowed freedom of residence until he'd agreed to the marriage
Ahh, okay. Thanks.
Re: The Heinrich Letters - Our Younger Days
Date: 2020-01-14 08:56 pm (UTC)Heeeee.
(I
Heeeee.
<i>(I <Lehndorff: All right-thinking men must regret this fallout between two great princes, woe!)</i>
I <3 you Lehndorff <33333333
<i>Fritz: You know what to do.
Heinrich: Shows up for the next Spandau revue. Saluting Fritz in front of his regiment.</i>
AHAHAHAHA OMG. This is going to be in the hateship fic, right? [and then I looked at mildred's reply and she had the same reaction, ha!]
<i>Also, the King has sent the Prince a gift. His portrait in a snuff box framed with diamonds. Not sure how the Prince has taken that.</i>
Lehndorff is great for everything, omg.