I have a lot of backlog to catch up on with respect to my RMSE reading, which is gonna take a while (partially because of Darth RL, as selenak would say, and partially because my memory is so awful these days that I have to reread to remember what the heck I was going to say). But today I wanted to talk about Pamela! Recall that during RMSE I bribed mildred to write a script to bundle all the Pamela letters together (and machine translate) so that I could read them as a set, because I wanted to see what that would be like. (Mildred will at some point, when she's a little less busy, post this in the library.)
So honestly I would never have guessed this was not a straight series of letters if Magnan hadn't pointed it out. And also there is probably a LOT I'm not getting. (I'm guessing that I'm missing a metric ton of his references and discussion that don't strike me as particularly relevant but in fact are. Buuuuut even that being said, there are definitely things that pop out once one knows about the Pamela background.
-The beginning (Letter 2102, July 1750) is very ... how should I say this, praeludium-like. It does read more like the beginning of a novel or a play than like a random letter. The poem heading it says in its first stanza "It is to you that I am addressing This jumble of prose and verse, This story of my long journey"... and then he even lampshades it: "I am not yet at his court, and we must not anticipate anything: I want order even in my letters." I JUST BET YOU DO VOLTAIRE
-There is definitely some reworking to make through-lines to the letters, like La Mettrie and the orange peel (of course) showing up several times. (I... honestly find myself unwilling to believe he totally made up the orange peel -- it sounds like real emotion to me -- but perhaps he's just a good fiction writer :P )
-And then there's the bit about the rising and setting sun (Voltaire being the setting sun, and his student d'Arnaud being the rising sun). A few letters later, this is tied up neatly: d'Arnaud is kicked out and Voltaire, the setting sun, keeps keeping on with Fritz. ("The rising sun has gone to set.") But of course it's also foreshadowing the blowup Voltaire will have with Fritz...
-Maupertuis, lol. A quarter of the way in he's introduced: ""Maupertuis is not of very engaging ways; he takes my dimensions harshly with his quadrant: it is said there enters something of envy into his data." [Note: mildred sent this quote to me when I asked her for Maupertuis quotes early on in the game, and this particular translation is from Carlyle rather than Google, which mangles it a bit.] And he's mentioned once or twice... and then the whole Koenig thing blows up. [I didn't consciously follow exactly this structure in my fic, but I probably subsconsciously did!]
-Voltaire: "Maupertuis is TOTALLY spreading these STORIES about me saying that whole thing about Fritz's dirty laundry!!" ...huh, I just reread that bit and you know what he doesn't say?! He doesn't say that the dirty laundry story is false! He just, you know, implies and insinuates that it's false. But he doesn't come out outright and say it. Hmmmmmm.
-Koenig: lol, "This Koenig is in love with a geometry problem, like the old paladins of their ladies." That's... one way to describe the principle of least action, Voltaire. (Émilie: It is a really cool geometry problem!) Anyway, Voltaire is like "so, yeah, Maupertuis was Super Mean to Konig" and a few letters later he's like "so, Fritz wrote this pamphlet against Koenig, against me..." and he skips everything in between!... IDK, maybe I missed it, but I don't think it's until a bit later that he slips in "I unfortunately find myself an author too, and in the opposite party." Uh-huh, Voltaire. (I love the phrasing, like, he suddenly found himself having written his own pamphlet without knowing how it had happened! Maybe he wrote it in his sleep!)
-"Coquettes, kings, poets are accustomed to be flattered. Frederic unites these three crowns." LOL FOREVER
-The last letter in the set (2624: July 9, 1753) does also read like the conclusion to a story/tragedy. Voltaire rehashes the Frankfurt incident (which... I wouldn't be surprised if this was what tipped Magnan off to begin with, as it is by far the most suspicious part of the entire thing to me: if this were a real letter ...why would he have recited so carefully the entire story, given that she was, in fact, there?!) , washes his hands of Fritz, and ends: "Farewell; may I die in your arms, ignored by men and kings!"
-Because I was worried about missing letters, I asked mildred to pull a couple more than this, but Letter 2624 is such a clear ending that, well.
-I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising that, given that Voltaire was reworking everything, that so many good quotes/bits are from here. The dictionary for the use of kings! The orange peel! The description of Maupertuis! I suspect basically all the Voltaire quotes historians/biographers pull from these years are in here, because they're so quotable.
-I would love to read Magnan's writing on this, if Royal Detective can get her hands on it :D
Pamela
So honestly I would never have guessed this was not a straight series of letters if Magnan hadn't pointed it out. And also there is probably a LOT I'm not getting. (I'm guessing that I'm missing a metric ton of his references and discussion that don't strike me as particularly relevant but in fact are. Buuuuut even that being said, there are definitely things that pop out once one knows about the Pamela background.
-The beginning (Letter 2102, July 1750) is very ... how should I say this, praeludium-like. It does read more like the beginning of a novel or a play than like a random letter. The poem heading it says in its first stanza "It is to you that I am addressing This jumble of prose and verse, This story of my long journey"... and then he even lampshades it: "I am not yet at his court, and we must not anticipate anything: I want order even in my letters." I JUST BET YOU DO VOLTAIRE
-There is definitely some reworking to make through-lines to the letters, like La Mettrie and the orange peel (of course) showing up several times. (I... honestly find myself unwilling to believe he totally made up the orange peel -- it sounds like real emotion to me -- but perhaps he's just a good fiction writer :P )
-And then there's the bit about the rising and setting sun (Voltaire being the setting sun, and his student d'Arnaud being the rising sun). A few letters later, this is tied up neatly: d'Arnaud is kicked out and Voltaire, the setting sun, keeps keeping on with Fritz. ("The rising sun has gone to set.") But of course it's also foreshadowing the blowup Voltaire will have with Fritz...
-Maupertuis, lol. A quarter of the way in he's introduced: ""Maupertuis is not of very engaging ways; he takes my dimensions harshly with his quadrant: it is said there enters something of envy into his data." [Note: mildred sent this quote to me when I asked her for Maupertuis quotes early on in the game, and this particular translation is from Carlyle rather than Google, which mangles it a bit.] And he's mentioned once or twice... and then the whole Koenig thing blows up. [I didn't consciously follow exactly this structure in my fic, but I probably subsconsciously did!]
-Voltaire: "Maupertuis is TOTALLY spreading these STORIES about me saying that whole thing about Fritz's dirty laundry!!"
...huh, I just reread that bit and you know what he doesn't say?! He doesn't say that the dirty laundry story is false! He just, you know, implies and insinuates that it's false. But he doesn't come out outright and say it. Hmmmmmm.
-Koenig: lol, "This Koenig is in love with a geometry problem, like the old paladins of their ladies." That's... one way to describe the principle of least action, Voltaire. (Émilie: It is a really cool geometry problem!) Anyway, Voltaire is like "so, yeah, Maupertuis was Super Mean to Konig" and a few letters later he's like "so, Fritz wrote this pamphlet against Koenig, against me..." and he skips everything in between!... IDK, maybe I missed it, but I don't think it's until a bit later that he slips in "I unfortunately find myself an author too, and in the opposite party." Uh-huh, Voltaire. (I love the phrasing, like, he suddenly found himself having written his own pamphlet without knowing how it had happened! Maybe he wrote it in his sleep!)
-"Coquettes, kings, poets are accustomed to be flattered. Frederic unites these three crowns." LOL FOREVER
-The last letter in the set (2624: July 9, 1753) does also read like the conclusion to a story/tragedy. Voltaire rehashes the Frankfurt incident (which... I wouldn't be surprised if this was what tipped Magnan off to begin with, as it is by far the most suspicious part of the entire thing to me: if this were a real letter ...why would he have recited so carefully the entire story, given that she was, in fact, there?!) , washes his hands of Fritz, and ends: "Farewell; may I die in your arms, ignored by men and kings!"
-Because I was worried about missing letters, I asked mildred to pull a couple more than this, but Letter 2624 is such a clear ending that, well.
-I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising that, given that Voltaire was reworking everything, that so many good quotes/bits are from here. The dictionary for the use of kings! The orange peel! The description of Maupertuis! I suspect basically all the Voltaire quotes historians/biographers pull from these years are in here, because they're so quotable.
-I would love to read Magnan's writing on this, if Royal Detective can get her hands on it :D