between the two of them, one had to learn to lie from early childhood onwards as a survival mechanism, and it wasn't Katte
Hard agree. This is one thing that skews me toward believing Fritz is the liar in the interrogation protocols, which is what leads me to the conclusion that Katte was sincere at the end.
Mildred did change her mind here (due to Hans heinrich mentioning in his letters that Hans Herrmann asked him to send younger brother Albrecht to Halle so he can be educated as a good Protestant).
Yes, because while atheists/deists/skeptics of all flavors are much more likely to pretend to be religious than pious people to pretend to be atheists, when the stakes are high, Katte has no ulterior motive to encourage the propagation of a religion he doesn't believe in after he's dead. A really committed atheist like Diderot would object on principle, and even someone who was just questioning wouldn't have an especially strong motive to go out of their way to encourage their younger brother to be indoctrinated in the true faith. (Technically, they might if they were absolutely agnostic and having an existential crisis and wanted to spare younger brother that, but we have no evidence for that for Katte, and an abundance of evidence he has sincerely found his way back to his childhood religion and is glad of it because it's helping him hold it together while he approaches his execution.)
And as I said even when I thought Katte might not have been sincere: this was probably one driver (of several) behind Fritz's oft-repeated conviction that Voltaire was going to recant on his deathbed.
It says something about both of us that this is the first plot kernel that could lead to me to write something Fritz/Katte focused (as opposed to having Fritz/Katte as an emotional brackground ship, which it is in several of my stories) and you to read it. :)
It says something about me that my first reaction was "I can just totally ignore the Hans Heinrich letter, it's obscure and doesn't count," though again, not because of Fritz's lying but because of Katte's sincerity. (Lol, look--if my faves weren't problematic, they wouldn't be my faves! That's true of every fave in every fandom in my entire life.)
It is very sad. Looking for a "well done, son" until he breathed his last breath, plus he had internalized the Protestant Work Ethic (minus the Protestant part) a long time ago by then.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Austrian marriage plans
Date: 2021-02-20 06:04 pm (UTC)Hard agree. This is one thing that skews me toward believing Fritz is the liar in the interrogation protocols, which is what leads me to the conclusion that Katte was sincere at the end.
Mildred did change her mind here (due to Hans heinrich mentioning in his letters that Hans Herrmann asked him to send younger brother Albrecht to Halle so he can be educated as a good Protestant).
Yes, because while atheists/deists/skeptics of all flavors are much more likely to pretend to be religious than pious people to pretend to be atheists, when the stakes are high, Katte has no ulterior motive to encourage the propagation of a religion he doesn't believe in after he's dead. A really committed atheist like Diderot would object on principle, and even someone who was just questioning wouldn't have an especially strong motive to go out of their way to encourage their younger brother to be indoctrinated in the true faith. (Technically, they might if they were absolutely agnostic and having an existential crisis and wanted to spare younger brother that, but we have no evidence for that for Katte, and an abundance of evidence he has sincerely found his way back to his childhood religion and is glad of it
because it's helping him hold it together while he approaches his execution.)And as I said even when I thought Katte might not have been sincere: this was probably one driver (of several) behind Fritz's oft-repeated conviction that Voltaire was going to recant on his deathbed.
It says something about both of us that this is the first plot kernel that could lead to me to write something Fritz/Katte focused (as opposed to having Fritz/Katte as an emotional brackground ship, which it is in several of my stories) and you to read it. :)
It says something about me that my first reaction was "I can just totally ignore the Hans Heinrich letter, it's obscure and doesn't count," though again, not because of Fritz's lying but because of Katte's sincerity. (Lol, look--if my faves weren't problematic, they wouldn't be my faves! That's true of every fave in every fandom in my entire life.)
It is very sad. Looking for a "well done, son" until he breathed his last breath, plus he had internalized the Protestant Work Ethic (minus the Protestant part) a long time ago by then.
Yeah. :/