Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)

[cahn]

ETA: Whoops, I missed my cue -- this might as well be the next discussion post, I guess! :)

This is about the fic I didn't author (I have another reveals post for the fics I did author).

So my goal this Yuletide was NOT to write any historical fandom (because hard!) and just enjoy the excellent stuff that other people wrote. And... that sort of happened? I didn't end up authoring anything history-intensive? Buuuuut I ended up spending a lot more time than I did on any of my own fics working with mildred_of_midgard on her fic, which she was worried about being able to pull off because she had had this completely insane idea to write a long casefic about Frederick the Great that every time I turned around had another twist put in :P :) She supplied me with what we called a "rough opal in matrix" bus pass casefic, and I cut away the matrix that remained and in some cases carved the opal -- that is to say, writing additional text for some of the scenes, what we liked to call "putting in feels," and in at least two cases entirely rewriting and/or restructuring the scene she'd written. She didn't always keep what I wrote (which we'd agreed upon in the beginning), but when she did (which was most of the time :) ) she then went in and rewrote/restructured what I put in to wordsmith (some of the words I gave her were really rough) and match her style, adding even more scenes -- that is, polishing it up and adding some gold and diamonds -- and voila, a beautiful pendant, I mean, story :)

I'm really proud of it and also it was really fun and also what I could handle this year, especially because mildred did all the parts I thought were hard and also wrote all the parts involving actual history or subtle AU before I was brought in so I didn't actually have to know historical stuff (though I guess I will never forget the battle of Leuthen now), and took full responsibility for how the whole thing turned out, so all I had to do was be like "Here, I'll write some rough feels for you for this scene!" The funny part was that I would often then write a paragraph justifying why I *had* to write the scene the way I did, and more likely than not mildred would be like, "yeah, I was sure you would do that, of course it should be written like that." (The most glaring example of this was where I inserted the Letter of Doom at the climax. I was worried there was some reason she didn't want it there, but she said, no, she just didn't have time to put it in herself and was just trusting me to do that :) ) She started jokingly calling me her "other self," to which I replied that it was with 1000% less angst and frustration -- as Frederick the Great's brother was his "other self" (which actually comes up in the fic) that he could trust to do all kinds of competent things, but they had a relationship that was, um, fraught? radioactive? Whereas this was just fun :)

Mildred did so much more than I did (we estimated a 90%/10% word ratio, not even counting the part where she wordsmithed a lot of my text) that I felt very uncomfortable being listed as a co-author, but hey, ~3000 words is a respectable Yuletide fic length :)

Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small (30384 words) by mildred_of_midgard
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Anna Amalie von Preußen & Wilhelmine von Preußen, Anna Amalie von Preußen & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen, Wilhelmine von Preußen & Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia
Characters: Anna Amalie von Preußen (1723-1787), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1732-1780), Wilhelmine von Hesse-Kassel (1726-1808), August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Alcmene 1 | Frederick the Great's Italian Greyhound, Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dysfunctional Family, Suicide, Alternate Universe - Dark, Siblings, Canon-Typical Violence, Mystery, Tide of History Challenge
Summary:

January 1758. Prince William is dead, some say of a broken heart. Frederick wants to absolve himself of blame for William's death. Henry schemes to end the Third Silesian War on his terms. Amalie and Wilhelmine team up to find out what really happened to their brother. Alcmene just wants to be told she's a good dog.

Comments

Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[mildred_of_midgard]

Way back in November (I am so behind, omg), selenak made a post on her personal blog about nude statues, and naturally Voltaire's came up.

To which I wrote: Also, I still want to know why Fritz didn't want it. We know he liked nude statues of, or at least, symbolically representing, his boyfriends! Total missed opportunity there. :P

He did at least get a copy of the bust, iirc.

selenak replied: Well, if Orieux is right he never unpacked the bust because he was pissed off about the memoirs, so not wanting the statue might have had a similar reason. Except that the memoirs were only published in 1784, so that wouldn't explain why Fritz didn't aquire the statue previously.

I've been meaning to reply and now finally am here to say that I misremembered slightly: the bust in question was not from Voltaire/Voltaire's people to Fritz, but vice versa. Quoting MacDonogh:

Three years later [so in 1775] KPM was issuing busts of Voltaire, ‘which resemble you in the old days, perhaps even now’, said Frederick. Voltaire peevishly acknowledged the gift of an ‘old man in porcelain’. The king thought it a very good likeness and told d’Alembert it lacked only the power to speak. He recommended that the best effects could be had by reciting the Henriade to it and watching it at the same time.

I absolutely love this image. Oh, Fritz, you never got over your ex, did you? :D

Continuing with the theme of their contentious relationship and its give-and-take:

Voltaire wanted revenge in the form of a Frederick, but the king of Prussia still adhered to his policy of keeping portrait painters at arm’s length, deeming them as adept at flattery as the most refined courtiers. He allowed Anna Dorothea Therbusch, however, to make the familiar bust of him that served as the KPM’s model, injecting a little youthful grace into his raddled face. Voltaire received one in good time. Frederick decided that the bust would be more likely to ‘ruin an apartment than to decorate it’. The king joked that the sculptress had refused to clothe him in the garb of an anchorite.

Never change, Voltaire and Fritz.

KPM is the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur, or the porcelain factory that Fritz founded after the Seven Years' War.

(I'm still on partial salon hiatus, but have a little more time today, especially as sciatica is interfering with German studies. I mean, in theory I *can* study German at the computer, but it's too easy to get distracted. As you can see. :P)

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[selenak]

There is still a copy of that Voltaire porcellain bust at Sanssouci!



Today, it's in the "Voltaire Room", of course. Missing someone reciting the Henriade to it. That really is a wonderful and so telling story.

Tiny correction of KPM - while it's true it didn't exist under that name yet, which was only provided by Fritz post war - it did exist in its earlier form as the Wegely'sche Manufaktur, which was founded in 1751, then sold from Wegely to Gotzkowsky in 1757 because SOMEONE suddenly had access to all the Saxon porcellain they could want and Wegely, to whom Fritz had been his primary patron, promptly went broke. Gotzkowsky kept it going until 1763, and then Fritz bought the factory and renamed it.

(I had to look this up last year at the KPM website because reasons.)

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[mildred_of_midgard]

Today, it's in the "Voltaire Room", of course. Missing someone reciting the Henriade to it. That really is a wonderful and so telling story.

It *is*. Next time I go there, I will imagine Fritz reciting to it, with a complicated expression on his own face. "I miss you, you bastard!"

KPM: Yes, you're correct; I was oversimplifying, which I should not do in salon. :) Especially given how if I catch anyone else oversimplifying, I am *right there*. :P

Speaking of Fritz and businesses he owns, I missed my chance to match off HRE in my corporate AU with KPM. :P I was actually imagining Fritz not as the founder (because FW--whom I may have to split into previous CEO and abusive father, who are two different people in this modern AU) but as the new CEO who rebranded the company under a name he liked better when he took over, which is pretty much what historical Fritz did with KPM. That said, Sanssouci has better name recognition among readers, and two three-letter acronyms could get confusing. Still, I'm chuckling at the thought.

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[cahn]

Heh. KPM surely would be a subsidiary that Fritz took over? :)

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[mildred_of_midgard]

That could work! Another one of his dodgy acquisitions. ;)

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[felis]

He recommended that the best effects could be had by reciting the Henriade to it and watching it at the same time.

Well, that's. Something. Amazing. <3

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[cahn]

He recommended that the best effects could be had by reciting the Henriade to it and watching it at the same time.

Wow! Oh Voltaire.

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[mildred_of_midgard]

Oh Fritz, I say. But yes, two peas in a pod. <3

ETA: Especially since Voltaire wants his revenge. I wonder if he recited Fritzian poetry (complete with laundry-cleaning, I mean literary criticism) aloud to the Fritzian bust.

Re: Voltaire, Fritz, and statues

[cahn]

LOL! I mistyped (probably because I was thinking about Candide, lol) :) But yes, they are both something :)

HAHAHAHA to him reciting plus criticism to Fritzian bust, this is my headcanon now.