Wherever it's darkest, you let the light through."
Terrific and touching explanation for the Diaphanes nickname!
AAAHHH you picked up on this! I put it in there knowing no one else would, and very much hoping you would. :DD
That's my headcanon for the nickname. I know most of Fritz's friends got silly or random or obvious nicknames, but this one is so obscure, with different historians putting forth different speculations, that I could do what I wanted, and I want something that's meaningful. And Blanning says Fritz was really big on light/dark metaphors as part of the whole Enlightenment thing. So this was perfect.
I didn't spell out that it was a nickname for two reasons. One, I couldn't make it fit as anything but a tangent. Two, I *do* have it spelled out in my fix-it fic1, and on the off chance that I ever finish it, I want to keep it there.
Until I got to this scene, it hadn't occurred to me that this would have been likely the first they met since before Katte's death.
I can't be sure it was, but it seems likely.
June 1730: Zeithain camp. Fritz and Katte are there. *Surely* Suhm is, short of being deathly ill.
1730, mid-July: Fritz leaves on the trip west with FW.
Rest of 1730: Fritz tries to run away, gets locked up.
November 1731: Fritz let out for the first time, to attend Wilhelmine's wedding. Now, maybe he met Suhm on this occasion, but Suhm wasn't in Berlin full time, I believe, and Fritz was still under house arrest and being watched like a hawk, so if they did meet, it might have been brief and supervised.
November 1732: Fritz's next visit to Berlin? Where was he when he got engaged to EC and met FS?
Anyway, there's at least a decent chance November 1732 was his first meeting with Suhm, especially with Suhm coming and going between Berlin and Dresden, and Fritz under supervision. I'm assuming that as time went on, his leash gradually got longer.
As for why they meet at Suhm's place and not at court...Pfff, I can come up with all sorts of in-universe explanations, but the real reason is I wanted Suhm to feed him and touch him like FW's not in the picture. :P Especially since Wilhelmine is freaking out about the marriage and Fritz can't talk about Fredersdorf to anyone else. I figured Suhm isn't deeply traumatized, isn't dependent on Fritz for his emotional well-being, and only sees him rarely, so it's easier for him to consistently present a supportive front without letting his own emotions get in the way.
As great as Fritz confiding in Suhm about Fredersdorf was, I adore Fritz telling Fredersdorf this even more; such a psychologically plausible detail that gets Fredersdorf to make the step, asking the question.
Aww, yay, thank you for telling me this. I wanted them to have a catalyst, because there are just too many forces ranged against them as far as becoming lovers.
Finally...
the noble Suhm, who is old enough to be the Prince’s father, practically has stars in his eyes when talking to the Prince.
Not from my fic, but I'm still squeeing over this, thank you so much. SPARKLY HEARTS.
1: Funnily enough, back in May, all my "Can't study German, must write fix-it fic!" really did start out about the fix-it fic. Then you signed up for the exchange, and I pretended for a while that I was still working on that fic. Then I started asking very specific Lehndorff questions and the jig was up. :P I still hope to go back to that fic at some point, but I'm trying to do some German first.
Re: With You, There's a Heaven - Suhm
Terrific and touching explanation for the Diaphanes nickname!
AAAHHH you picked up on this! I put it in there knowing no one else would, and very much hoping you would. :DD
That's my headcanon for the nickname. I know most of Fritz's friends got silly or random or obvious nicknames, but this one is so obscure, with different historians putting forth different speculations, that I could do what I wanted, and I want something that's meaningful. And Blanning says Fritz was really big on light/dark metaphors as part of the whole Enlightenment thing. So this was perfect.
I didn't spell out that it was a nickname for two reasons. One, I couldn't make it fit as anything but a tangent. Two, I *do* have it spelled out in my fix-it fic1, and on the off chance that I ever finish it, I want to keep it there.
Until I got to this scene, it hadn't occurred to me that this would have been likely the first they met since before Katte's death.
I can't be sure it was, but it seems likely.
June 1730: Zeithain camp. Fritz and Katte are there. *Surely* Suhm is, short of being deathly ill.
1730, mid-July: Fritz leaves on the trip west with FW.
Rest of 1730: Fritz tries to run away, gets locked up.
November 1731: Fritz let out for the first time, to attend Wilhelmine's wedding. Now, maybe he met Suhm on this occasion, but Suhm wasn't in Berlin full time, I believe, and Fritz was still under house arrest and being watched like a hawk, so if they did meet, it might have been brief and supervised.
November 1732: Fritz's next visit to Berlin? Where was he when he got engaged to EC and met FS?
Anyway, there's at least a decent chance November 1732 was his first meeting with Suhm, especially with Suhm coming and going between Berlin and Dresden, and Fritz under supervision. I'm assuming that as time went on, his leash gradually got longer.
As for why they meet at Suhm's place and not at court...Pfff, I can come up with all sorts of in-universe explanations, but the real reason is I wanted Suhm to feed him and touch him like FW's not in the picture. :P Especially since Wilhelmine is freaking out about the marriage and Fritz can't talk about Fredersdorf to anyone else. I figured Suhm isn't deeply traumatized, isn't dependent on Fritz for his emotional well-being, and only sees him rarely, so it's easier for him to consistently present a supportive front without letting his own emotions get in the way.
As great as Fritz confiding in Suhm about Fredersdorf was, I adore Fritz telling Fredersdorf this even more; such a psychologically plausible detail that gets Fredersdorf to make the step, asking the question.
Aww, yay, thank you for telling me this. I wanted them to have a catalyst, because there are just too many forces ranged against them as far as becoming lovers.
Finally...
the noble Suhm, who is old enough to be the Prince’s father, practically has stars in his eyes when talking to the Prince.
Not from my fic, but I'm still squeeing over this, thank you so much. SPARKLY HEARTS.
1: Funnily enough, back in May, all my "Can't study German, must write fix-it fic!" really did start out about the fix-it fic. Then you signed up for the exchange, and I pretended for a while that I was still working on that fic. Then I started asking very specific Lehndorff questions and the jig was up. :P I still hope to go back to that fic at some point, but I'm trying to do some German first.