This is great and I'm glad Sabrow wrote this (and did a respectable job, I'm always glad when you find someone who does their job well) and that you reported on it <3
the key point here is that according to the court news Gundling hadn't just lectured the Tobacco Parliament on ghosts not existing but that he had "professed atheism". And then the gang managed to frighten him with fake ghosts. This wasn't just a loss of face; in a system where FW had made Manly Courage such a big standard to achieve, it marked Gundling as a coward, and resulted in an instant loss of respect from FW.
This is very interesting, and I really appreciate this extra information about what would have made it quite so vicious. That atheism thing, like felis says! ...It sounds rather like Gundling just wasn't quite... good enough at dissimulating or disguising his unpopular opinions (like the atheism and the beer thing), in contrast perhaps to Morgenstern, and that turned on him in a really awful way, because FW.
(This version is even worse than the one from Morgenstern, because of the additional fireworks to upset the bears.)
OMG.
Freylingshausen's report contains nothing derogative about Gundling; he talks about him just as a scholar whom he has had a good conversation with. Sabrow constrasts this almost en famille picture with what happens in the same month when Gundling isn't a guest at a family meal but in the tobacco college where the other guests are all military: his wig is set on fire.
I JUST CAN'T EVEN. Poor Gundling, as always; in addition to being constantly humiliated and bullied (AND HIS WIG SET ON FIRE), it must have been a lot of whiplash to go from one to the other constantly. I imagine more mentally healthy people than him would have ended up insane by the end.
Re: Martin Sabrow's Gundling Biography: I
the key point here is that according to the court news Gundling hadn't just lectured the Tobacco Parliament on ghosts not existing but that he had "professed atheism". And then the gang managed to frighten him with fake ghosts. This wasn't just a loss of face; in a system where FW had made Manly Courage such a big standard to achieve, it marked Gundling as a coward, and resulted in an instant loss of respect from FW.
This is very interesting, and I really appreciate this extra information about what would have made it quite so vicious. That atheism thing, like
(This version is even worse than the one from Morgenstern, because of the additional fireworks to upset the bears.)
OMG.
Freylingshausen's report contains nothing derogative about Gundling; he talks about him just as a scholar whom he has had a good conversation with. Sabrow constrasts this almost en famille picture with what happens in the same month when Gundling isn't a guest at a family meal but in the tobacco college where the other guests are all military: his wig is set on fire.
I JUST CAN'T EVEN. Poor Gundling, as always; in addition to being constantly humiliated and bullied (AND HIS WIG SET ON FIRE), it must have been a lot of whiplash to go from one to the other constantly. I imagine more mentally healthy people than him would have ended up insane by the end.