Frederick the Great, discussion post 16

[cahn]

We have slowed down a lot, but are still (sporadically) going! And somehow filled up the last post while I wasn't looking!

...I was asked to start a new thread so that STDs could be discussed. Really! :D

Comments

Re: Learning Frederick

[cahn]

I mean, maybe that's not so bad, I might not feel so bad about AW if I'm really annoyed at him? :P Nah, I still think wives should be last. Either splitting them up or not will work for me.

I miiiiight take you up on that skipping Sons. We'll see. It is possible my German might be good enough by that point not that I'll feel up to reading it, but that at least I might feel interested in seeing how much I can make out.

Though I think novels might actually work better for me for that -- are the other Voigts in German, or is it just Homecoming?

German reading group

[mildred_of_midgard]

Either splitting them up or not will work for me.

We'll see how I feel about the syntax of the others when they arrive, then, and play it by ear.

Everyone just remember: the quicker I get my German up to snuff, the quicker I can start reading things Google translate can't handle, like blackletter font, or lots of footnotes or other complicated formatting. :D

Though I think novels might actually work better for me for that -- are the other Voigts in German, or is it just Homecoming?

Nope, it's all of them! All the Tillerman books, I mean, I haven't checked her others. I just grabbed my personal favorite for my own use, but if you want to pay for one or more of the others, and possibly bribe me with a book of my own choosing to generate an interleaved translation for you, I'm game. :)

Re: German reading group

[mildred_of_midgard]

Royal reader selenak, how do you feel about reading a book for me/us in the name of a good cause? Two good causes, actually.

Because I'm going to produce an interleaved translation of a book cahn wants to practice her German on, and in return for my labor she's going to bribe me with a book of my choosing.

Now, as we all know, I have no time to read, I am busy learning your wonderful language. But I would very much like someone to read me Lady Mary Montagu's biography, which is supposed to be good, and definitive, and at least semi-recent (2001). It's also long, and apparently devotes a lot of page time to her literary output, but you can skim whatever is not of interest.

There's no particular rush, but would you have time and interest in the next, say, few months to read and summarize this for us? I feel that, in addition to cahn and me improving our German, letting Lady Mary be a little more three-dimensional in our fandom than "introduced inoculation to Europe and stalked Algarotti" is a worthy cause.

If you're too busy, no worries!

Re: German reading group

[selenak]

Right now I'm too busy, but I might manage it next month. I certainly want to know more about Lady Mary!

Incidentally: in the long term, I've also been meaning to read her letters from Turkey, aka the ones which made her famous. (And which Heinrich did read and recced to his friends and relations, which is the very flimsy ground on which I base my speculation he knew some English on.) So depending on when I manage the biography, I might add the letters after.

Re: German reading group

[mildred_of_midgard]

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope you do find time to read the letters! I very much want to read her correspondence, but the complete, non-bowdlerized set is $50 each for 3 volumes, and while my local library has it, I don't think they would like it if I ripped out all the pages and churned it through my document scanner. :/

The book is now on order.

cahn: I'm almost finished formatting AW. I was going to finish tonight, but then I discovered Google had decided to disappear the last 30 pages (too incendiary against Fritz? Prussian cyberagents from the beyond?), so I'm going to have to figure out what went wrong tomorrow and finish up. I should have the translation uploaded sometime tomorrow so we can resume our Hohenzollern and also German studies.

Yay reading group!