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cahnBackground: The kids' school has a topic for "Unit" every trimester that a lot of their work (reading, writing, some math) revolves around. These topics range from time/geographic periods ('Colonial America') to geography ('Asia') to science ('Space') to social science ('Business and Economics'). (I have some issues with this way of doing things, but that's a whole separate post.) Anyway, for Reasons, they have had to come up with a new topic this year, and E's 7/8 class is doing "World Fairs" as their new topic.
Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*
Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*
Re: Historians and their No-Homo'ing: the Stuart Version
Date: 2024-01-08 11:59 am (UTC)Re: Historians and their No-Homo'ing: the Stuart Version
Date: 2024-01-08 04:06 pm (UTC)I mean, there are monarchs where you really can make a case for "we just don't know", or "it's all slander by their enemies - James' granddaughter Anne comes to mind, because part of the claims about her having sex with her female faves comes from a vengeful Sarah Churchill commissioning a poem accusing Anne of this with Sarah's successor as Anne's favourite, Abigail Masham. But with James, we have the freaking letters to his favourites, private letters, not something written for publication and with an eye to later chroniclers.
Re: Historians and their No-Homo'ing: the Stuart Version
Date: 2024-01-08 04:35 pm (UTC)From a letter to Buckingham when Buckingham and Charles were on their months long trip to Spain:
‘…I desire only to live in this world for your sake, and that I had rather live banished in any part of the earth with you than live a sorrowful widow’s life without you. And so God bless you, my sweet child and wife, and grant that ye may ever be a comfort to your dear dad and husband.’
And when years earlier people (having realised they got out of the frying pan (Somerset) into the fire (Buckingham) in terms of powerful favourites) complained, he stated to his nobility:
‘I, James, am neither a god nor an angel, but a man like any other. Therefore, I act like a man and confess to loving those dear to me more than other men. You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here, assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had John, and I have George.’
Re: Historians and their No-Homo'ing: the Stuart Version
Date: 2024-01-12 01:10 am (UTC)(I mean, to be fair, some of those verses about the disciple Jesus loved reclining on his breast and so on, I don't blame him! Although to me it reads more one-way pining/RPF, especially combined with my favorite part of the Gospel of John, the bit where the disciple Jesus loved totally beat Peter to the tomb, but who's keeping score? :D )