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: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[cahn]

Sorry I am slacking on yelling, but here is some yelling! How are you ever going to write your papers if you slack off on German??

I have finished Faust (it took me a while to get started, and then I was riveted -- thank you for reccing that translation, Selena!) so... now I have to figure out whether to read Winter Queen or Maria Theresa first, any votes? (If Winter Queen, can you give me a text file rather than a PDF? It makes my life much easier...)

Also: FW UGH!

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[selenak]

Yay for you finishing Faust! What Howard B. lacks in poetry he makes up by getting the bite and wit across, both severely lacking in what samples of other translations I'd seen, and they're really important. Also one of the many differences to Gounod's opera version, which has virtues of its own, beautiful music chiefly among them, but wit and bite are not included. When I read in Fanny Mendelssoh's biography and letters that young Gounoud wanted to be a priest but also severely crushed on her (she was the one introducing him to both Beethoven and Goethe when she and her family lived in Rome for some months), I was not surprised.

Winter Queen definitely first, especially if by Maria Theresa you mean the Stollberg-Rillinger, which is as I often said really rather dry and academic, if informative. Go with the Stuarts in Germany (and Bohemia) for now. Nancy Goldstone: definitely not dry or academic.

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[mildred_of_midgard]

especially if by Maria Theresa you mean the Stollberg-Rillinger

No, I'm pretty sure she means Nancy Goldstone's new MT + 3 daughters book that just came out yesterday! That's why it's so hard to choose.

cahn, I'm torn, because Winter Queen was really good and I wished we could do a readalong and talk about it, *but* I'm about to finish it (about 15 pages to go) and start the MT book today or tomorrow. So maybe you should start with MT so we can do it together?

Also, both are on Kindle for reasonable prices: $15.99 for the new one and $12.99 for the other one. I recommend you just buy whichever one you go with on Kindle.

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[cahn]

Yessss the Goldstone MT book! Aww, man, if I'd known a readalong was possible for Winter Queen (AND that it was available on kindle, lol, for some reason I thought I'd looked before and didn't see it -- but I am probably confusing it with some other book) I would have bumped it up in priority :) Anyway, yeah, let's do the MT book together :D Is it out for you too, selenak? I'll get to Winter Queen eventually... :) I'll probably start it tomorrow. I do read nonfiction a lot slower than either of you guys, though :P

Stollberg-Rillinger date is now pushed back to 2022! (Though after reading another MT biography and with all the things on my reading list right now...)

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'll probably start it tomorrow. I do read nonfiction a lot slower than either of you guys, though :P

Yeah, I was thinking of that. Since I've got several other books I'm working on, most of which are 800 pages and one of which is 800 pages and in German, how about this: you tell me where you get to on any given day, and I'll read up to that point? We can take this one slow, I don't mind.

Stollberg-Rillinger date is now pushed back to 2022!

I saw! I'll see how I feel after finishing Montefiore and a couple shorter books. The problem with SR wasn't her prose, it was the dryness of some of the content. When I was engaged, I was reading easily ("easily"), but there were so many long patches that needed to be skimmed and I just can't skim. I'll pick her back up as soon as I'm capable of skimming.

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[selenak]

The Goldstone MT & daughters book is available on kindle to me as well, so I can join you in your readings. Since I have a gazillion other things to do as well, I will take this slower as per usual, and so it should work out nicely. :)

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[mildred_of_midgard]

Aww, man, if I'd known a readalong was possible for Winter Queen...I would have bumped it up in priority

Aww, if I'd known it would influence you! I just knew that when I suggested you start reading it, you said you had to finish Faust first, and I was like, "Self, just because you're excited about a book doesn't mean everyone else needs to drop what they're doing."

This is mature me. Younger me was "AbsoLUTely everyone needs to drop what they're doing when I'm excited about a book." :P

Re: FW awfulness reminder, and books

[mildred_of_midgard]

Sorry I am slacking on yelling, but here is some yelling! How are you ever going to write your papers if you slack off on German??

Excellent point! Yell at me some more after I've gotten more sleep than I got last night. (How am I supposed to keep from slacking off on German if people are slacking off on yelling at me? ;))