Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 30

[cahn]

In which, despite the title, I would like to be told about the English Revolution, which is yet another casualty of my extremely poor history education :P :)

Also, this is probably the place to say that RMSE opened with three Fritz-fics, all of which I think are readable with minimum canon knowledge:

The Boy Who Lived - if you knew about the doomed escape-from-Prussia-that-didn't happen and tragic death of Fritz's boyfriend Hans Hermann von Katte, you may not have known about Peter Keith, the third young man who conspired to escape Prussia -- and the only one who actually did. This is his story. I think readable without canon knowledge except what I just said here.

Challenge Yourself to Relax - My gift, I posted about this before! Corporate AU with my problematic fave, Fritz' brother Heinrich, who's still Fritz's l'autre moi-meme even in corporate AU. Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with the corporate world and the dysfunctions thereof.

The Rise and Fall of the RendezvousWithFame Exchange - Fandom AU with BNF fanfic writer Voltaire, exchange mod Fritz, and the inevitable meltdown. (I wrote this one and am quite proud of the terrible physics-adjacent pun contained within.) Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with fandom and the dysfunctions thereof :P

Comments

Re: Salon original discoveries

[cahn]

Yeah, when I say "exonerate" I really mean "there's no evidence that Fritz dismissed him for embezzlement and he died of a broken heart!" I care less about whether there might have been financial irregularity than if it makes Fredersdorf and Fritz unhappy, what can I say :)

My strong preference (given that I am not doing any of the stump-pulling) is for you to work on stump-pulling Essay 1-3. 4-5 if you have time as well (would love 5, I ship them a bunch), but those sound a little less like they have a path to a complete published article.

Re: Salon original discoveries

[mildred_of_midgard]

care less about whether there might have been financial irregularity than if it makes Fredersdorf and Fritz unhappy, what can I say :)

Hahahaha, you. :P

In my case, I care, I just have to be rigorous when writign scholarship, and I can't say that Fredersdorf didn't do anything wrong. Just that there's plenty of evidence that he stepped down of his own accord, and the claim that he didn't fails to present evidence.

4-5 if you have time as well (would love 5, I ship them a bunch), but those sound a little less like they have a path to a complete published article.

Yeah, 4 I couldn't even start now if I wanted to, it's still in the research phase and I'm not even doing the research. 5 I could, I'm just not sure it's meaty enough.

At some point I may bug you for cheerleading like you did with German, then. In the meantime, thanks for the support!

Re: Salon original discoveries

[cahn]

Yeah -- I mean, I don't *not* care about it, I just care not as much :)-- I think also my emotional response to this is colored by totally thinking, when first learning about the embezzlement story, that the idea was that he had embezzled from Fritz, which really made me upset!

*cheerleads*

Re: Salon original discoveries

[selenak]

Yeah, when I say "exonerate" I really mean "there's no evidence that Fritz dismissed him for embezzlement and he died of a broken heart!"

In which case I withdraw any objection, because I entirely agree with that. :) The order and focus of essays 1 - 4 I also support.

Re: the shortness of essay 5, the Fredersdorf's engagement and marriage stories - how about beefing its length up with a little speculation re: the timing of the engagement and marriage in connection to the Voltaire implosion? And also Fredersdorf taking all these medical leaves?

Re: Salon original discoveries

[mildred_of_midgard]

how about beefing its length up with a little speculation re: the timing of the engagement and marriage in connection to the Voltaire implosion? And also Fredersdorf taking all these medical leaves?

Hmm. I feel like I would have to keep it short, because it's so circumstantial and speculative. The real evidence we have is that he had worsening health problems, traveled for health reasons (and to do some art acquisition in Paris for Fritz??), and got married for health reasons. I wouldn't blame an editor or peer reviewer for suggesting I cut it even if I do include it. And even if I left it, I don't think it would be enough to turn a too-short article into a proper article.

But if I do the other essays (if), and if I still feel like doing more stump-pulling and/or cahn's enthusiasm prevails ;), we'll see how much we know then and assess accordingly. (We're always learning new things! Just think that it was only a few weeks ago that we got Caroline's life story in her own words. :))