cahn

I still think it's silly that past Yuletides in the last two years signed off on "19th Century German Literature RPF" (which in theory would have encompassed anyone from E.T.A. Hoffmann to Thomas Mann, who did start to publish before the century ended), and "19th Century British Writers RPF" (ditto, and did include Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll as well as Byron and the Shelleys), i.e. an enormous amount of time, and a cast of thousands who don't have anything in common but geography, but "Enlightenment Writers and Scientists" is too broad.

I'm not going to pick a fight in the Yuletide admin community, but let's not forget "Historical Royals and Their Favourites RPF", which the mods and a couple of us, myself included, arrived at after much discussion, for which the nominated characters included Alexander the Great (4th century BCE Macedon) and James VI and I (17th century CE Great Britain). 2000 years and an entire continent, and we went with a gender-neutral "royals" specifically to make sure women like Anne could get included if needed. I mean, we could have included Catherine and Poniatowksi for 18th century Russia! Gilgamesh and Enkidu, probably. :P

But all right, Circle of Voltaire it is. :D

Algarotti: *I'm* the one who's six degrees from everyone who even slightly overlaps the 1700-1799 period!
Voltaire: Nobody knows who you are. Even in the salon, nobody had heard of you before last year.
Algarotti: :(