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: Empress Ch 7-9

[mildred_of_midgard]

I noticed this in the first two Silesian wars already, but when she names battles - which she rarely does, and with the exception of Mollwitz only when the Austrians win -, she uses the current day Polish or Russian names. This is understandable if she wants her new readers to know where these events took place and able to look it up, but a headache for those of us who are used to the German names in all the other books read on this.

(Not a complaint on my part, a "fair enough" statement.)

I've noticed more modern authors trying to use the current day names as a political correctness move or at least apologizing if they don't and explicitly saying that this is for familiarity, not a political endorsement. Turns out some people are still have ~feelings~ about German history in that region. ;)

Having done the video map in which I looked up the modern names for all the 18th century names of everywhere Fritz ever went, I actually know them! But the older names are more familiar and it's definitely a thing where I have to stop and think, "Right, [Czech place name] = [German place name]."

And she could very much say no him.

I got the impression from SR that her default was "I do what I want" and his default was, "I won't die on this hill." (Goldstone says he didn't want to do politics and administration; SR says that's slander and he was just more conflict-averse than MT.)

As in, rejecting any suggestion to make up with Fritz for real in the lead up to this war, for example. It's Goldstone trying to keep MT from looking bad again. This is frustrating - MT is no less interesting because she makes mistakes! Fritz made plenty of mistakes in this same war, too!

Right! This history reads a lot like a novel: "This is what I want my readers to feel about the protagonists, so I will tell it this way," as opposed to "This is what happened, history is complex, people are complex, deal with it."

er husband now with her son by basically presenting it as her making Joseph co-regent out of the goodness of her heart and because she wants him to learn the business. Again, this is not how any of this worked.

ZOMG.

where I'll give Goldstone credit is her explaining the strong dislike young future Marie Antoinette and Maria Carolina had for their older sister as a tittle tattle by saying it was probably the inevitable result of Mimi wanting to be a responsible older sister and being resented as an authority person close to Mom. I could see that happening.

Speaking as someone who was the bossy oldest of 5, I can also see this happening. ;)

ETA: No, and neither did I, despite having three Joseph-heavy books - a biography I didn't rec because I couldn't, the Five Princesses book and "Der Kaiser reist incognito".

This is why we need to get our hands on Beales! I can access volume 1 on archive.org, but I don't know if you can in Germany, or if you prefer to use up one or two of your Stabi slots to have a more reader-friendly copy. It'll be a while before I get to it, because Great Northern War, and also Great German Language, which I'm still fighting the good fight with. I know you're also busy and with a long list (don't forget Kloosterhuis's tall guys! Every time I try to buy that book online, there's only one copy and it's like $125. Beales is much more likely to happen.)

Son of ETA: What's the one you can't rec, so I can avoid it?

Re: Empress Ch 7-9

[cahn]

Right! This history reads a lot like a novel: "This is what I want my readers to feel about the protagonists, so I will tell it this way," as opposed to "This is what happened, history is complex, people are complex, deal with it."

And the antagonists are so one-dimensional, which is also something I hate in novels :P