cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

You're viewing

cahn's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

Last post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

luzula

That's very evocative, thanks!

To go with that, have my favorite modern interpretation of Bellman's 'Fredmans epistel 72'. It's about the worship of, not Venus, but Freja. : )

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Thank you, that's beautiful!

Also, gotta love "veneer of French culture" and "coarse grain of the native timber" when Selena has just recently told us what the actual French were up to during the golden age of Louis XIV, like...setting off rockets in women's vaginas! D:

From:

luzula

Yes, very true! *winces*

From:

mildred_of_midgard

The French have *really* good PR!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Btw, I've read further in the book, and it's still all bribery, all the time. I exaggerate only a little.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Ha! It's hard to say anything that Voltaire hasn't already said on the subject. Just read this in the Struensee bio:

"Our people are cruel. There are perhaps seven or eight hundred people in France of well-educated society, the flower of the nation, by whom foreigners are deceived. And so one judges the nation by these and is completely misled. Our ancient priests and officials, however, are just like the human-sacrificing druids of antiquity. The customs have not changed."

(Not that educated people themselves aren't likely to commit atrocities, see also Fritz and his war crimes, but the point about France's good PR stands.)

Edited Date: 2023-03-26 08:00 pm (UTC)