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counting the servants
Mar. 23rd, 2015 11:49 pmI know just when the prince's story starts. On his seventh birthday.
The important thing is the hunt, but there's also the point that he's transitioning, entirely, from having female attendants in the nursery to all the servants in his household being male.
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The important thing is the hunt, but there's also the point that he's transitioning, entirely, from having female attendants in the nursery to all the servants in his household being male.
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So I have the prince, and he's going to disobey his father's commands about marriage. After four years, to be sure. And not without help.
It's the question of how formal the help is.
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It's the question of how formal the help is.
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pieces of the puzzle
Dec. 6th, 2014 10:48 pmOutlining a story is not quite like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, because the pieces can change shape. But not quite at will.
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flowers and princesses
Nov. 23rd, 2014 05:27 pmPrincesses do not learn to arrange their own hair, or someone else's, with flowers in it.
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conspicuous consumption
May. 20th, 2014 09:45 pmWas recently in an online discussion about conspicuous consumption. Triggered by a comment about a movie princess done up in such finery that she couldn't do anything.
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social status anxiety
Dec. 9th, 2013 08:43 pmSo I have my heroine off packing her luggage, at first. Once she got past what she wanted to keep secret, she called in the maids for the rest.
Man, she has a lot more anxiety about her sudden promotion than I had realized. Even when she was packing herself, without any company, it came out this draft.
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Man, she has a lot more anxiety about her sudden promotion than I had realized. Even when she was packing herself, without any company, it came out this draft.
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servitude, and oaths
Oct. 6th, 2012 10:38 pmServants have long been a pervasive part of life. Even among prosperous farmers, the children of less prosperous farmers could be hired. Often girls looking to earn their dowries. Higher up there were a lot more. A lot more if you went up high enough. Dukes even would have swarms of hundreds in the Middle Ages. Somewhat helped by the way that many of them would be the children of other nobles, and entitled to their own servants. (And it was not unknown for one of those servant to have one of his own.)
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story-eating world-building
Sep. 29th, 2012 01:37 pmBy which I do not mean that world-building, too, can be a form of vacuuming the cat --- which I kinda take for granted.
No, what I mean is when a writer goes to tell a story, often retelling a story, in, say, a SF future. The problem is that the social hierarchy required is not -- futuristic. Indeed, it's rather more often seen in the past than in the present. Or perhaps it requires that there be servants.
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No, what I mean is when a writer goes to tell a story, often retelling a story, in, say, a SF future. The problem is that the social hierarchy required is not -- futuristic. Indeed, it's rather more often seen in the past than in the present. Or perhaps it requires that there be servants.
( Read more... )
tidbits cross time
Aug. 16th, 2012 10:07 pmIn Rennaissance Florence, a bride from a rich family was paraded down the streets to her new home, riding a white horse, showing all her finery -- feasible because as a not-yet-married woman, she did not have to wear the all enveloping mantle.
In colonial America, when searching for good farmland, one criterion was that land were the rainbows ended was good.
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In colonial America, when searching for good farmland, one criterion was that land were the rainbows ended was good.
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Top Drawer
Feb. 14th, 2012 08:22 pmTop Drawer: American High Society From the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties by Mary Cable.
Being a time of turbulence and change, stretching from when the "bouncers" were becoming rich at too quick a rate for them to be absorbed into Society to when the Great Depression meant not all were a number no longer rich but the rest toned down the ostentation.
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Being a time of turbulence and change, stretching from when the "bouncers" were becoming rich at too quick a rate for them to be absorbed into Society to when the Great Depression meant not all were a number no longer rich but the rest toned down the ostentation.
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Servants, servants, servants. . . there were a lot of them, historically, and they would logically clutter up the scene in many situations for many characters, particularly in eras when a certain social position is necessary to effect many things necessary for many plots.
Or, of course, the characters can be servants themselves.
Or, of course, the characters can be servants themselves.
So she went along and went along and went along, till she came to the end of the wood, and saw a fine castle. So there she hid her fine dresses, and went up to the castle gates, and asked for work. The lady of the castle saw her, and told her, ‘I’m sorry I have no better place, but if you like you may be our scullion.’ So down she went into the kitchen, and they called her Catskin, because of her dress. But the cook was very cruel to her and led her a sad life.( Read more... )
Victorian Age Science In Steampunk
Jan. 18th, 2012 01:16 amDiscussions of how Victorian and steampunk differ. The women who wear corsets on the outside are like the engines showing all the cogs and gears that a Victorian would have covered with a mahogany case. (My own two cents on this was that this was the era of the coal-tar dyes, and so of the brief flare of brilliant color in fashion -- followed by a reaction as color became cheap in both senses, and we, living in the time of reaction still, have steampunk in brown and sepia and gray.)
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A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food
Nov. 22nd, 2011 07:51 pmA Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food: Processing and Consumption by Ann Hagen
Intensive treatment of the subject. With discussions of how we can piece it together. Everything from the recipes given in leechdoms to archaeological evidence, like the sieved spoon buried with ladies, probably used when they were serving the wine or mead at the great feasts, to the fact that "lady" means "bread-kneeder" so probably women made bread.
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Intensive treatment of the subject. With discussions of how we can piece it together. Everything from the recipes given in leechdoms to archaeological evidence, like the sieved spoon buried with ladies, probably used when they were serving the wine or mead at the great feasts, to the fact that "lady" means "bread-kneeder" so probably women made bread.
( Read more... )
tidbits cross time
Nov. 11th, 2011 07:33 pmDuring the American Revolution, one Hessian prisoner of war found being marched through Philadelphia more painful than most: his aunt recognized him and berated him for coming to attack his own relatives.
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Good Wives
Oct. 31st, 2011 09:47 pmGood Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750 by Laurel Thacher Ulrich
The title being a pun, as "Goodwife" was a title of address for a woman of ordinary status. Though it covers women of higher rank and their roles, too.
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The title being a pun, as "Goodwife" was a title of address for a woman of ordinary status. Though it covers women of higher rank and their roles, too.
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To Marry An English Lord
Oct. 25th, 2011 07:11 pmTo Marry An English Lord: Or, How Anglomania Really Got Started by Gail McColl and Carol McD. Wallace
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No man is a hero
Jun. 25th, 2009 09:32 pmNo man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is not a hero, but because the valet is a valet.
Carlyle
Carlyle
Country House Life
Oct. 5th, 2008 12:50 pmLife in the English Country House by Mark Girouard
Life in the French Country House also by Mark Girouard
Both books start out with the medieval houses and households of lords and kings and lesser gentlemen and trace the history up to modern times. Which means, naturally, that they also trace the fortunes and practices of the nobility who lived in them. Not the same information for both. For instance, he talks about how one was supposed to become a marquis or duke, or baron, or count: You had your land declared a marquisate, a dukedom, a barony, a county. In theory, you sold the land, you lost the title. In practice, you could give yourself the title and no one cared because it had no legal significance. He doesn't talk about how English nobles got their titles.
Better to read English Country House first. The other contrasts French practice with English more often so it helps to know the English first.
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Life in the French Country House also by Mark Girouard
Both books start out with the medieval houses and households of lords and kings and lesser gentlemen and trace the history up to modern times. Which means, naturally, that they also trace the fortunes and practices of the nobility who lived in them. Not the same information for both. For instance, he talks about how one was supposed to become a marquis or duke, or baron, or count: You had your land declared a marquisate, a dukedom, a barony, a county. In theory, you sold the land, you lost the title. In practice, you could give yourself the title and no one cared because it had no legal significance. He doesn't talk about how English nobles got their titles.
Better to read English Country House first. The other contrasts French practice with English more often so it helps to know the English first.
( Read more... )
