Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 30
Sep. 8th, 2021 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnIn 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
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
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-24 04:30 pm (UTC)Yeah, that was my impression from the last two years of you guys too. I mean, I'm totally happy to believe that FS's mom was Not Happy about the whole deal! I certainly wouldn't be either if it were my territory and son and so on! I'm... rather less willing to believe it's some sort of lifelong emasculation thing.
I've seen this quote a dozen times, but I've never drawn the conclusion that he thought they were poisonous.
Huh, okay. When I went to look it up, Wiki said something about death cap mushrooms, wouldn't be the first time or the last Wiki is wrong. Obviously I should have actually looked up what Voltaire said in the Memoirs instead of trusting Wiki *facepalm*
It's also wrong.
Oh, well, I knew that. (Because the Potsdam Giants are hands-down the most hilarious thing about FW to me. Do I remember political details, no. Do I remember FW's giant collection and the way all of Europe made fun of him for it? Yes.) I figured it was a combo of Goldstone conflating the Potsdam Giants, and the height requirement, and that she'd elucidate in coming pages -- oh, yeah, huh, she does the same conflation in the next chapter, doesn't she. Which is weird, because she then quotes Wilhelmine talking about the Potsdam Giants as a "regiment," which is pretty clearly not an army!
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-24 04:44 pm (UTC)I mean, today is my day of 100% trusting Wikipedia, so it could be. I was going from memory here.
ETA: To clarify, Voltaire said nothing about poison or death caps. Voltaire said, "died...of an indigestion, occasioned by eating champignons, which brought on an apoplexy," and the famous quote part is "and this plate of champignons changed the destiny of Europe." If historians have since decided, based on non-Voltairean evidence, that they were likely death caps or other poisonous mushrooms, then that could very well be. But it's not what Voltaire says. (I've now double checked the French too.)
Which is weird, because she then quotes Wilhelmine talking about the Potsdam Giants as a "regiment," which is pretty clearly not an army!
Right? A regiment is not an army!
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-24 05:33 pm (UTC)Exactly! Nobody was happy about losing their territory, even if they got something in exchange. But the lifelong emascuation thing is a bit much, if you get to BE EMPEROR in exchange.
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-24 07:43 pm (UTC)This whole thing reminds me of how both The Crown and Victoria (about guess whom) have their respective Prince Consorts go through gigantic crisis of masculinity as the result of having married queens, with, as far as I'm aware of, little historical basis. It's more like a lot of current day folk think this is how a man socialized in Olde Times ought to have reacted. Now maybe FS inwardly was seething in masculine angst and just had a good poker face, it's possible, we don't know. But one thing his contemporaries found so baffling about him and MT as a couple was that he gave every indication of being fine with her as the boss.
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-24 07:45 pm (UTC)Mildred is waiting for this, Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha.
:D
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-25 08:44 am (UTC)HA. Nightmare!
(This also reminded me that the issue came up in his correspondence with AW (1748), and I'm afraid that AW was just as baffled and biased: "there's nothing sadder for a man than being the servant of his wife. I'd prefer the most modest private life to all the crowns in the world, if such were the conditions attached to them. [...] I do not envy the Emperor his position".)
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-25 07:19 pm (UTC)Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-26 05:01 am (UTC)Now while I don't doubt FS, growing up in the era, must have had times where the whole gender reverse status was troubling him both early and later in life - a saint, he was not -, by and large it looks to me as if the men of Europe were busy angsting on his behalf while he was enjoying his life and his unusual marriage.
Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3
Date: 2021-09-24 05:45 pm (UTC)Oh, well, I knew that. (Because the Potsdam Giants are hands-down the most hilarious thing about FW to me. Do I remember political details, no. Do I remember FW's giant collection and the way all of Europe made fun of him for it? Yes.)
Hahaha, you are *awesome*. I am delighted every time I see you knowing stuff you learned in salon. :D
I figured it was a combo of Goldstone conflating the Potsdam Giants, and the height requirement, and that she'd elucidate in coming pages
I figured, at this point in the book, that she was wrong and would go on being wrong, and lo.