18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 38

[cahn]

Gonna go ahead and make this post even though Yuletide is coming...

But in the meantime, there has been some fic in the fandom posted!

Holding His Space (2503 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Characters: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Protectiveness, Domestic, Character Study
Summary:

Five times Fredersdorf has to stay behind - and one time Friedrich doesn't leave.

Using People (3392 words) by prinzsorgenfrei
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Hans Hermann von Katte
Additional Tags: Fluff, Idiots in Love, reading plays aloud while gazing into each others eyes
Summary:

Friedrich had started to talk to him because he had thought of him as a bit of a ditz.
And now here he was. Here he was months later, bundled up in this very same man’s blankets with a cup of hot coffee in front of him, its scent mixing with that of Katte’s French perfume.
_
Fluffy One Shot about one traitorous Crown Prince and the sycophant he accidentally fell for.

Comments

Re: Replies From the last post

[cahn]

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised that we're kind of intimidating

Yeah, I must admit that if I'd stumbled upon something like this in someone else's DW, I would have been intimidated! I do hope that my ability to forget everything and constantly ask elementary questions helps, but I think even I have managed to pick up enough that I might be intimidating to 2019!me :P

No, we do not have a single source like the letters that we're relying on, and to me, that's the point: I consider this historical research first, fandom second.

Yeah, I thought that in particular was a weird take. I do appreciate the idea that one might want to know a single primary or secondary document one could read and write a fic about (you know that I am most successful in writing historical fic when I can do that!), but (I say, after the last several years) it seems that specifically restricting to a particular one document is more of a literary way of looking at the world, not a historical way. (Also, if one doesn't specify a document, it means I can choose what single document to use, lol! Ahem Ziebura :D )

(I do have reason to believe that the take in that thread is not necessarily the take of broader fandom, or even broader fandom-wanking.)

Re: Replies From the last post

[mildred_of_midgard]

I think even I have managed to pick up enough that I might be intimidating to 2019!me :P

I've seen you go "even I know why that's wrong" at things historians have written! :D You've come a long way, definitely.

But I remember you and I talking a while back about how surprised we've been in our lives to discover that being quiet and intense is intimidating to people we don't even interact with!

it seems that specifically restricting to a particular one document is more of a literary way of looking at the world

Back in my days as an active Tolkien scholar, I encountered the idea of restricting your analysis of a text to the text itself, and it just reinforces the idea that I must not be a literary person, because that seems so incredibly perverse. Like, if you know something, why would you pretend you didn't know it? And with Tolkien specifically, where would you even draw the line? If I'm writing literary criticism of LOTR, do I have to pretend I haven't read The Hobbit? Or the Silmarillion? Or the History of Middle-earth? Or his letters? Or his nonfiction publications? Or biographies of him? Or other Tolkien scholarship?

I wrote many rants (unpublished, although some of those thoughts ended up in a polemic I did publish), and it never made any sense to me. Doing historical research that way makes even less sense.

I do appreciate the idea that one might want to know a single primary or secondary document one could read and write a fic about

Right, yes, I think that's perfectly fine! I would be willing to entertain that for a Yuletide nomination (although it wouldn't be my favorite). The idea that that's how we're proceeding in *salon*, though, is weird, and especially after you had actually specifically written, "And also most history I know of is trying to take multiple documents and synthesize them into something we call 'what we think happened'."

(I do have reason to believe that the take in that thread is not necessarily the take of broader fandom, or even broader fandom-wanking.)

Interesting. You mean the take on tying RPF nominations to a single source? Or on doing historical research that way, or what?

Re: Replies From the last post

[cahn]

You mean the take on tying RPF nominations to a single source? Or on doing historical research that way, or what?

Both!