cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47

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We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

The book is also enjoyable for showing her own fannish reactions--from what I remember, she became a physician partly because she wanted to solve this mystery!

Wow! I can see why, it seems fascinating.

Compared to capable polar explorers like Amundsen and Nansen

Unfortunately, none of this sounds much worse than Amundsen discovering he needs a plane to take him over the North Pole NOW, before anyone else beats him there. All his attention to detail goes out the window and he's like, "Plane experts? We don't need no stinkin' plane experts!" The whole expedition was so mismanaged it's a miracle he survived it, and not a surprise he didn't survive a subsequent attempt to fly over the Arctic in a plane (admittedly, search-and-rescue missions are by their nature rushed, but nothing about his previous cavalier attitude toward planes is inconsistent with him finally dying in a plane).

It's a bit like Fritz and the War of the Bavarian Succession: times move on, old man does not live up to previous standard. :P

Also, this conversation is reminding me of the 17th century Swedish Vasa ship, which sank after sailing just 1300 meters and is now in a museum that was built just to house this ship (I assume you've been there?). I learned about it at *work*, of all places, because it was used in a conference talk, I think, illustrating the dangers of poor engineering design and how if you're a software developer, you really need to learn the lessons that that failure has to teach.

From:

luzula

Well, this shows my own spotty knowledge, since I've only read two of Amundsen's own books (the Northwest Passage one, and the South Pole one)!

It's a bit like Fritz and the War of the Bavarian Succession: times move on, old man does not live up to previous standard. :P
Heh, seems like it.

I have been to the Vasa museum, yes, but it was before my current fannish period, or I would no doubt have paid much more attention! Perhaps I'll visit it again some time. I did visit the Götheborg III this summer, though.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Well, this shows my own spotty knowledge, since I've only read two of Amundsen's own books (the Northwest Passage one, and the South Pole one)!

Yeah, those were much greater accomplishments on his part, but you still have to watch out, because he's a great spin doctor and skips right over his most major mistakes, at least on the South Pole expedition (I know less about the Northwest Passage one).

From:

luzula

Good to know, if I ever venture into reading about polar exploration again!

(By the way, it's obvious that there is somewhere a polar exploration fandom which has pet names for pairings, and who fill each other's requests for Yuletide etc. It's kind of weird to see those fics from outside, because they've obviously developed a lot of fanon around it.)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, interesting. I see these fics come up in Yuletide and occasionally browse one of them, but due to my difficulty reading fiction (see also Too Like the Lightning), I haven't really read them, so I didn't realize they had a fandom with lots of fanon. Good for them!

From:

aella_irene

I have very fond memories of the Vasa Museum, particularly the moment when the tour guide attempted to argue that it sank due to the maths not being invented yet. (It was in fact due to a combination of several people dying, and the King knowing what he wanted, despite minor details of it being possible.)