cahn

You're viewing

cahn's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

And including Emperor Joseph II!

from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:

Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.

(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

cahn

I am really trying to restrain myself here from going WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE PLEASE GIVE ME ALL THE JUICY GOSSIP. I can wait!

Leopold on the other hand...I'm estranged from my entire family (an option because of none of us being heads of state), and we've established that I use my blog to bitch about my unfavorite coworkers*. His dogged negativity could be a plus for yours truly! :P

See, the difference between you and Leopold is that I don't think of your blog posts about your coworkers as unrelenting negativity. As far as I can tell, there might be isolated incidents, but generally speaking you're pretty okay with your coworkers except for That One Incompetent Guy, and then the other guy who said super weird things about you, but even there I feel like you said something like "look, I know he has a lot of problems, but WTF."

Now, if That One Incompetent Guy had been emperor and not really able to be dislodged by anything but death, I guess I could imagine you writing pretty unrelenting negative blog posts about it. So okay, I guess I can see Leopold's point if he truly thought he'd be far more competent than Joseph. But I do think his portrayal of Joseph, at least in these excerpts, seems to me to be vicious in a way that "Incompetent Guy was incompetent again today!" isn't.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

You're forgetting Idiot Ex-Boss (whom I still have to talk to, unfortunately). :P

From:

cahn

Ah, but when you talk about Idiot Ex-Boss you also talk about Current At-Least-More-Competent Boss that you have warmer feelings toward, so my overall impression is still not of someone who just says negative things :) But yeah, if Idiot Ex-Boss was still your boss and also your sister, point taken :P (Though Joseph is a far cry from your sister :P )

From:

mildred_of_midgard

you also talk about Current At-Least-More-Competent Boss that you have warmer feelings toward

Me, reading this: I do now!

But yeah, if Idiot Ex-Boss was still your boss

Yes, see, exactly! :P

But no, I get that I say more positive things about other people than we see in the Leopold sources, but also I'm aware that the 21st century is a pretty good place for me to live in. And I know what I was like when I was trapped with my family, and thus what I would be like if circumstances hadn't allowed me to develop some of the emotional maturity that, say, Fritz never got.

(Though Joseph is a far cry from your sister :P )

She is in a class of her own, it's true. :)

From:

selenak

I also suspect Mildred would not comment about Incompetent Guy's sex life or his friendships...

From:

mildred_of_midgard

*cough*

Well, not his¹, but I can't say I'm innocent of complaining about my one sister's a) getting pregnant at 16, 18, 19, and 21 and neglecting the kids that resulted (and telling the first one he didn't have a daddy like his siblings, meaning she either had no idea who it was or it was someone she couldn't admit to²), b) getting her second husband to drive her to meet-ups with "friends" that turned out to be dates with the other guy she was seeing, c) general tendency to behave toward her boyfriends and husbands like a black widow who sucks them dry and then moves on.

There is lots of soap opera potential there! I probably even vented about this back in LJ days when she and I were still in contact. :P In this AU in which she is empress and I am Duke of Tuscany, you are going *hear* about it in my secret memoranda. Is all I'm saying.

I feel like we're doing this thing again where

selenak goes, "But why would dysfunctional historical family X do Y?" and I go, "It makes perfect sense to me!" :D

1. I will complain about Incompetent Guy's trying to talk coworkers out of getting vaccinated, though!

2. Have as much sex as you want, but don't make innocent small children bear the consequences. There are ways to tell kids they have a different father without causing them emotional distress; my mother managed it when I was three.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Speaking of prostitutes and my secret memoranda on work and on my sister :P, after I wrote the above, I remembered two posts that may be of interest to

cahn. (Anyone is welcome to read and/or comment, but Cahn's the one who's exhibited a great eagerness over the years to swap family and work WTFery stories with me. :D)

Post the first, in which my sister claims 3 times in very implausible circumstances to have been mistaken for a prostitute.

Post the second, in which a coworker at the worst company I ever worked for claims much more plausibly to have been mistaken for a prostitute at work. In a way that was one drop in the bucket of why I started looking for a new job immediately, but now that I'm safely away, makes for a collection of *hilarious* jaw-dropping stories. (Exactly like my sister, who is a collection of jaw-dropping stories, mostly hilarious but sometimes infuriating because of the innocent children.)

Cahn, remember how you said my parents remind you of FW in that you keep forgetting just how bad it was until you get a reminder that no, it really was that bad? My sister is orders of magnitude more awful-cum-bizarre (they were a mixed bag who did many good things for which I remain grateful; her...not so much), and the only reason you aren't constantly being reminded of that is that it's been so long since she was a part of my life that my rants have moved on. But ask me sometime. :P I also took notes on that one workplace, because I knew the list of bizarreness was so long the memories would fade over time, and I knew I would want to tell the story again someday.

Me: *is clearly not as high-minded as Selena*

(Tonight's salon (or salon and gossip) comments brought to you by 5 hours of sleep = 3 pages of German. I was planning to do the Duke of Parma write-up, but ended up helping move furniture instead. One day!)