18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 34

[cahn]

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)

Comments

Tropes

[mildred_of_midgard]

Sorry in advance for the poor spelling and syntax of this, I'm dictating it.

I meant to ask you what program you're using! I was looking for a dictation program a couple years ago, when my chronic pain was really acting up, and I couldn't find anything that met my standards. (Unfortunately, you have to understand that 1) I type 100-110 wpm, 2) my day job is writing code, which means lots of special characters and macros, and every character has to be perfect, so my standards were super high. Anything much less than that was not even worth bothering.)

I am a sucker for love across enemy lines (see: Flight of the Heron)

Ha! I was thinking of you and Flight of the Heron. :D

I remember when I saw a review of it (maybe by rachelmanija?) that said a major appeal was love across enemy lines, and that was when I first realized that that trope existed, and also knew immediately that I was super not into it, alas. I think the only times I've gone for ships across enemy lines, it's been in spite of rather than because of.

sometimes I think enemies to lovers should be separated out into two different tropes

Oh, I agree completely! I see those as completely different tropes. (Sara Douglass, for instance, does enemies to lovers in a way that works for me, as long as I switch my brain off and don't think too critically about it. :P)

also angsty conflicts between love and duty, etc.

See, my loyalty kink means I want love and duty totally aligned, or at least, compatible. I.e., "Maybe duty means we're separated more than our love would like, but being on the same side means we each at least know the other is out there being committed to the same goal of crushing our enemies, and we take comfort in that," like GUH, that is my favorite.

I have wide ranging tastes.

Oh, agreed! I think for every generalization I make about my tastes, there are exceptions. Sometimes a really good author can make me love something I normally wouldn't like. (Or sometimes an author with the right strong points can make me switch off my brain enough to ignore the weak points, *cough* my love-hate with Sara Douglass.)

I find that I actually am into the military history stuff at least somewhat For its own sake.

YES! (I'm all alone in this fandom.) Welcome!

I'm not sure exactly why I find it compelling, but it's not because I want to crush my enemies. : P

Lol, yeah, no, that's just me. :P I remembered shortly after writing that comment that I've spent the last 10 or so years lovingly world-building a universe in which it's ethical!! to challenge everyone you meet to a fight to the death! and invade and conquer anyone you like! And then I collect all my favorite historical and fictional characters and put them in that universe and let them have at each other. :D

Re: Tropes

[cahn]

I remembered shortly after writing that comment that I've spent the last 10 or so years lovingly world-building a universe in which it's ethical!! to challenge everyone you meet to a fight to the death! and invade and conquer anyone you like! And then I collect all my favorite historical and fictional characters and put them in that universe and let them have at each other. :D

I was going to say I wasn't so into the military history stuff, but well actually this I would be into! Someone I met in opera fandom on tumblr used to have a Hunger Games simulator she'd put opera characters in, which was extremely amusing to me.

Re: Tropes

[mildred_of_midgard]

Hee! I was thinking when I wrote this that the worst part of being in Hunger Games fandom was having to root *against* the obviously evil Hunger Games instead of being like, "Wow, this is cool, give me more." :PP

Someone I met in opera fandom on tumblr used to have a Hunger Games simulator she'd put opera characters in, which was extremely amusing to me.

That's awesome. :D