Also, would Fritz say, "The whores can't enjoy your body" as code for "and neither can I, thanks a lot," if he were sleeping with Algarotti? I.e. would he class himself with the whores?
Well, he does like those who pay better than those who get paid, so... Okay, more seriously now: if it‘s „putains“, I do think the passage makes it sound more likely he hasn‘t (yet?) had sex with Algarotti when he‘s writing it, and is definitely not concerned Algarotti might have infected him.
Mind you: that Algarotti tells him at all about the STD is interesting. Because when I recall Boswell‘s London journal, the first of his published diaries, and what I was reminded of when reading the Beuys biography again, Georg Wilhelm of Hannover telling Sophie about his, there‘s this common denominator: you tell your potential and actual sexual partners that you are infected, but you do not tell anyone else. (Your doctor, of course, knows.) It‘s definitely not something to boast of even among the guys, see also that sad scene of dying Seydlitz trying to hide his Syphilis-ravaged face when Fritz visits him the last time. Conversely, taunts that X had STD , amply documented in the thread, would not not work as taunts if it wasn‘t regarded as something shameful usually even by ribald guys.
Re: Algarotti's STD and Fritz's sexuality
Well, he does like those who pay better than those who get paid, so... Okay, more seriously now: if it‘s „putains“, I do think the passage makes it sound more likely he hasn‘t (yet?) had sex with Algarotti when he‘s writing it, and is definitely not concerned Algarotti might have infected him.
Mind you: that Algarotti tells him at all about the STD is interesting. Because when I recall Boswell‘s London journal, the first of his published diaries, and what I was reminded of when reading the Beuys biography again, Georg Wilhelm of Hannover telling Sophie about his, there‘s this common denominator: you tell your potential and actual sexual partners that you are infected, but you do not tell anyone else. (Your doctor, of course, knows.) It‘s definitely not something to boast of even among the guys, see also that sad scene of dying Seydlitz trying to hide his Syphilis-ravaged face when Fritz visits him the last time. Conversely, taunts that X had STD , amply documented in the thread, would not not work as taunts if it wasn‘t regarded as something shameful usually even by ribald guys.