January Meme: 2023 Edition

[selenak]

As always in recent years, I'll do this meme in January. I've always enjoyed doing it, and look forward to your prompts, old and new friends.


Pick a date below and give me a topic, and I'll ramble on. I'm good at talking. It can be anything from fandom-related (specific characters, actors, storylines, episodes, which actor should play which Ottonian or Salian Emperor, etc.) to life-related to favorite tea brands to whatever you want.

They will probably be brief, or not, depending on the subject. Also, I reserve the right to decline prompts that I don't feel equipped to meet.

Topics: you can get an idea from my tags/from the stuff I usually ramble about/from things you maybe wish I talked about more but don't. Also, please feel free to check out the2022 January meme, the 2021 January Meme, the January Meme: 2020 Edition, the 2019 one, the 2018 meme, the 2017 edition , and the 2016 January meme to see which topics I've written about in past years.

January 1: A fandom I first encountered in translation and how it varies from the original (lilacsigil)
January 2: How long dead historical figures (take your pick) would react to the rpf about them, especially the weirder stories ?(davetheanalyzer)
January 3:
January 4: I would like to hear what historical figure/event/era you would make a television show about had you the power lirazel
January 5: Personal attempt to reduce my climate impact; what more should my government do? watervole
January 6: My first Feuchtwanger novel and what I thought about it then (cahn)
January 7:
January 8: Nostalgia (ratcreature)
January 9:
January 10: My worst travel experiences (ffutures)
January 11:
January 12:
January 13: Favorite sundowner location (liraen)
January 14:
January 15: the most fun fannish thing I did in 2022 (trobadora)
January 16:
January 17: Having killed off Jadzia Dax, did TPTB need a replacement in s7 or could/should they have just used the rest of the cast more and saved some money? (lightofdaye)
January 18: Is there any historical event/anecdote/fact I consider actually funny? (avrelia)
January 19:
January 20:
January 21: What makes Friedrich II of Hohenstaufen my problematic fave? (mildred_of_midgard)
January 22:
January 23: Thoughts of Andor (scintilla10)
January 24:
January 25:
January 26: Favorite German song (yhlee)
January 27:
January 28: which three Star Trek characters should Voltaire meet? And which one would totally ignore him and go talk to Emilie instead? (felis)

January 29:
January 30: Differences between Ezri Dax and Elizabeth Lochley (lightofdaye)
January 31:

Comments

[trobadora]

January 15: What was the most fun fannish thing you did in 2022?

[yhlee]

January 26: Favorite German song?

[ffutures]

January 10th - your worst travel experiences.

[ratcreature]

January 8th: Are you nostalgic for anything? (fannish or otherwise)

[cahn]

How did you first read Feuchtwanger -- what was the first book you read by him, and what did you think of it at the time?

[lirazel]

I pick January 4th since it is my birthday! And I would like to hear what historical figure/event/era you would make a television show about had you the power.

[davetheanalyzer]

How long dead historical figures (take your pick) would react to the rpf and historical fiction about them, especially the weirder stories.

[lilacsigil]

A fandom you first encountered in translation and how it varied from the original! (Translation here being either a German canon you first encountered elsewhere or an English canon you first encountered in German, or any other languages!)

[avrelia]

January 18. Is there any historical event/anecdote/fact that you think is genuinely funny?

[liriaen]

Could I pick January 13? How about this: What's your favourite place in the world for a sundowner?

[selenak]

LOL, you can, but I had to google what a sundowner is right now, so - is a non-alcoholic version fine with you if I still have a favorite spot?

[liriaen]

Oh, absolutely! :D Just the kind of place where your soul comes to rest, where you can gaze at something while nipping/nibbling on something. :D

[mildred_of_midgard]

January 21: What makes Friedrich II Staufer your problematic fave?

A question I'm hoping you can answer for me today:

In diesem Zusammenhang ist es fast tragisch, dass sich die erste ganz entschiedene Aufwertung des Löwen unter fatalem Vorzeichen vollzog: Heinrich nun der brave Patriot, der wackere Ostlandfahrer, der urgermanische Führertyp und Heldenherzog — der Nationalsozialismus hatte sich den Löwenmythos einverleibt, und aus dem Welfen war ein PG im Geiste geworden, ein Vorkämpfer wahren Deutschtums gegen den slawischen Untermenschen, auf der Suche nach mehr deutschem Lebensraum.

What does "PG" stand for here? If I had to take a guess, it would be Parteigänger, but I really don't know, and google isn't helping.

[selenak]

Parteigenosse. (Of the NSDAP, which good old Henry the Lion really was not.)

[mildred_of_midgard]

Aha, thank you! And yes, indeed.

Also, I thought you would enjoy this bit, i.e. the author going, "But Henry the Lion is *my* problematic fave! Why can't more people share my tastes?"

Mit dem Dritten Reich endete auch wieder der Kult um Heinrich. Ein Mythos war verschlissen, sein Träger schien kompromittiert: besser also, ihn rasch zu vergessen und mit ihm auch die Gestalt, an der sich dieser Mythos emporgerankt hatte, also Heinrich den Löwen selbst, dieses historische Phänomen, das jetzt wieder alleiniges Objekt der Fachwissenschaft wurde.

Doch hört Friedrich der Große nicht auf, eine der faszinierendsten Gestalten der deutschen Geschichte zu sein, weil sein Porträt über Goebbels‘ Schreibtisch hing; das Nibelungenlied bleibt eine aufregend große Dichtung; und Heinrich der Löwe ist nicht auf einmal langweilig, weil sich ein Hitler oder Himmler für ihn interessierten.

[selenak]

Aw, we all know that feeling re: our faves. :) (I'm doubly amused that he sees Heinrich den Löwen as particularly hard done by due to having had the worst fanboys. I mean, if anything, Fritz is far more compromised - at least Goebbels didn't make any Henry the Lion movies to justify Stalingrad! And they didn't tell Hitler "Barbarossa has just died" when announcing Roosevelt's demise, did they...

[mildred_of_midgard]

Well, I agree, as far as that goes! But having a bit more context than you, I think what he's arguing is that Henry the Lion hasn't been as popular and written about since the Nazis ruined him, and the author's trying to change that. Whereas even if liking Fritz got a bit awkward, no one stopped writing about Fritz. (Or the Nibelungenlied.)

(How much Germans actually wrote about Henry the Lion between 1945 and 1977 and whether the author has a valid case, idk, but I can tell you I'd never heard of the Lion before salon.)

[scintilla10]

Jan 23: I'd be interested in some of your thoughts on Andor! Perhaps more about the show as a spy story? Or looking at some of the female characters.

[felis]

Continuing my SF/history crossover theme from last year: which three Star Trek characters should Voltaire meet? And which one would totally ignore him and go talk to Emilie instead? ;)

[lightofdaye]

Any day you like and remembering our conversion in the B5 rewatch about the difference between Lochley and Ezri.

Did DS9 really need to replace Jadzia in S7? (By which I mean not 'should they have given Terry Farrell what she want to stay' but 'Having killed off Jadzia did they need a replacement in s7 or could/should they have just used the rest of the cast more and saved some money?' )

[watervole]

Jan 5 - what do you do in your own life to reduce your climate impact, and what do you feel your government should do that it isn't already doing? (The EU is ahead of many countries on environmental issues, but cheats a bit in some areas like carbon credits)