1636: The Saxon Uprising — Snippet 53
Noelle Stull tried to ignore the sound of the cannonade. The house she’d rented was large, well-built, and located toward the center of the city. The odds that a cannon ball fired from one of the besiegers’ guns would strike her down at her writing desk were very slight. She’d faced much greater risks any number of times in the past. Although she’d been classified as a statistician, her real duties for the State of Thuringia-Franconia’s innocuously-named Department of Economic Resources had been those of an undercover operative. An investigator, officially, although given the murky realities of power in which she’d moved, she’d been as much a spy as a detective. At one time or another she’d been shot at, imprisoned, shackled, bombed — usually by someone seeking to do her personal harm.
Compared to that, the chance that a haphazardly aimed cannon ball fired from a great distance would come anywhere close to her was not even worth worrying about. Yet, somehow, it was the very random, impersonal vagaries involved that made her nervous.
She tried to concentrate on the letter she was writing to Janos Drugeth. That wasn’t helped any by her knowledge that sending the letter off would be almost as much a matter of chance and happenstance as the trajectory of the cannonballs coming over the walls. Normal postal service was erratic, to say the least.
Amazingly, though, it still existed. The couriers who worked for the Thurn and Taxis service were like rats and cockroaches. Impossible to eradicate and able to squeeze through the tiniest cracks.
But not even such couriers could deliver a letter to an unknown address. Noelle had no idea where Janos was at present, just as she was quite sure he had no idea she was in Dresden. She hadn’t gotten a letter from him in months. With another man, she might have worried that he’d lost interest and simply stopped writing her. But with Janos, somehow, she wasn’t. That spoke well for their possible future, of course.
If they had one. A muted crash had come from not too far away. A cannon ball had caved in a wall somewhere.
****
“See?” said Denise triumphantly. She pointed to the spot across the square where a Swedish cannonball had punched a large hole in the upper floor of a building. “Give it a few weeks and there’ll be a plenty big enough runway.”
Next to her, Minnie nodded. “Just have to shovel up the wreckage. Some of it’ll make good gravel, too.”
Eddie examined the scene of their optimism. The siege would have to last for several years before the Swedish army’s gunfire removed enough of the buildings fronting the square and lining the main boulevard leading from it to allow for an airplane runway that wasn’t just an elaborate form of suicide.
He did not bother to point that out, however. Denise’s response was a foregone conclusion.
So? A few years are nothing, in a siege! Those Trojan guys lasted… what? Twenty years? They’d still be holding out, too, if the stupid jerks hadn’t fallen for that old wooden shoe trick.
****
Ernst Wettin turned away from the window. When all was said and done, and unless you happened to have exceptionally bad fortune and fall victim to a stray cannon ball, watching a siege was about as boring as watching ants at work. Not at the very end, of course, if the defense gave way. Then tedium would turn to terror. But until then…
He sat back down at his writing desk. Ernst was the sort of man who believed firmly that all situations provided their own advantages. Since he retained the formal trappings of authority here in Saxony but had had the real power stripped away from him by Richter, he no longer had any tasks to perform that required more than a modicum of attention, for not more than two hours a day. Yet he still had all his comforts and facilities available.
Ernst Wettin came from a very prominent noble family and was himself a very capable official and administrator. Inevitably, therefore, since he’d reached his majority, he’d had very little time to himself.
Now, he did. At last, he had the opportunity he needed to concentrate on what he believed to be his true calling. The development of a systematic and reasoned program of educational reform for the whole of the Germanies.
A faint crash came from the distance. Presumably, a lucky cannon ball had done some significant damage. But the sound barely registered on his consciousness.
What to call the essay? Tentatively, he penned a title.
A Treatise on the Subject of the Education of the German Peoples
There was a knock at the entrance to his suite. “Come in!” he said loudly. He’d sent his servants off in order to have some quiet and the door was a room and a half away.
The title was… suitable, he supposed.
A few seconds later, at a slight coughing noise, he swiveled in his chair. To his surprise, he saw that Gretchen Richter was standing right behind him. He’d been so engrossed he hadn’t heard her approach.
“Ah! I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I’m not planning to stay long. I just wanted to see if there was anything you needed.”
He smiled crookedly. “I don’t suppose you’d accept an answer of ‘my power returned.'”
She smiled, just as crookedly. “No. Well… not now, at any rate. In the future… we’ll see what happens.”
She leaned over to look at the line he’d just written. “I take it this is that major treatise you’ve been talking about wanting to write?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head. “The title is awful. I’d call it A Summon to Duty. Or if that’s not militant enough for you, Educational Reform: A Call to Arms.”
****
The next few minutes passed pleasantly enough, as they always did in Richter’s company. Say what else you would about the young woman, she was invariably gracious in her blunt sort of way.
After she left, Ernst went back to examining the title. Finally, he crumpled the initial sheet and took out another. Again with a crooked smile on his face, he began to write.
Educational Reform: A Summon to Duty
That was an interesting aside. Not a ton of action, but interesting tidbits and perspectives. I know that not everyone will agree with me, but I just wanted to say that I liked this little interlude.
Viva Gretchen! But when will we find out what, if anything, those in Dresden are doing about the siege?
At least, thankfully, Ernst didn’t title his treatise “Educational Reform: No Child Left Behind”. :-)
Baner is bombarding the city. Presumably to try to terrify the inhabitants. Fat chance, with Gretchen in charge. Does this mean he hasn’t the siege artillery to breach the walls? Ot have we just not heard about it yet? My guess is that he hasn’t the guns, and is so contemptuous of the “rabble” holding the city that he thinks bombardment will work. The most worried character in this snippet is Eddie, and he’s worried more about trying to take off than the bombardment/
In this period, taking a city requires one of the following methods: 1) escalade,- sending in your troops against the walls with ladders and hoping the get over them. This is super risky and super expensive, and only works if the place is held by a few people. 2) bombardment, probably only works if the population and garrison are at odds. 3) Buying the place,- not going to work here unless the Polish spy can open a gate some night. Not likely either. 4) The Vauban method, breaching the walls with heavy artillery and digging approaches, then storming the breaches.
5) As a last resort, sitting in your lines and waiting for the city to starve or have an epidemic.
Summons, please, not Summon.
Traditionally, method 5 was a race between the defenders starving and the besiegers dying of disease, especially dysentery. But with chloram, that’s not so likely any more.
#4 In that case Baner is blued and tatooed because none of those options are going to work for him here. Funny how Baner can outnumber the enemy by 2:1 and still be in a completely disadvantagous tactical position, but he’s managed it somehow.
Whoa! Just like Becky Stearns’ “The Road Forward: A Call to Action” aka the former “An Examination of the Current Political Situation in the Germanies and Europe” (according to Eastern Front snippet 3).
@3 Viva Robert H. Woodman!
@5 A summons is the means to summon someone. So the title is correct enough.
@8 So is Eric implying that Mike Stearns and Gretchen Richter think alike? Or are they just good editors and know what sells?
@10:
Or maybe Gretchen aleady knows the title rebecca is planning to use and was playing on that.
I can just see Ernst Wettin’s face if hie treaty is seen as an adjunct to Becky’s book…..
@10: A summons is a noun, while summon is a verb. “A summon” is just bad grammar.
Of course, it hardly matters that much, but Ernst is educated enough to know the difference.
Even if the statistics are againt you being hit by a canon ball I would worry more about the fire hazard. Even now a lot of German towns have these old half-timbered buildings. I’ve been told that wood burns quite nicely, and no-one has been building fire engines (even hand-pumped ones) as far as I know. The manually operated Jan van der Heyden design (1672) with the leather fire-hose are of course quite buildable with the craftsmanship of a generation earlier, but I doubt his Brandspuit-boeck will have been available in Grantville at the time of the Ring of Fire. When they are manually transported and operated the pumps will need to be quite near the fire, so you need a lot of them.
@4 The garrison can always expell those members of the civillian population that disagree with them or that are considered useless for the defence of the city. It would save food as well. Remember Alesia.
@13 Well there were fire-engines before 1672, but they were heavy, inefficient and expensive. Van der Heyden built them in a ‘factory’ that existed until the 19th century.
I also remember at least one “modern” steam operated fire-engine in Mageburg that was used near the begining of the Baltic War (in order to try to contain an Industrial Accident). Not sure if Dresden has any, but they clearly do exist in this alternate time line.
with a crooked smile on his face, he began to write
two options – either eric is playing a little linguistic joke – atreatise on education indeed, with a little tweak to the literate – or – he felt he need to liven up a side note to the main story to keep the snippetholics living through the long weekend waiting for the next?
Maybe it just shows what Amideutch is like in not being very precise since it is a bastard language composed by two and hasn’t been refined yet. It was Gretchen that said “Summon” initially. Wettin just used her words, unless he was writing in German, not Amideutch. Which comes first, the nouns or the verbs in a new language? The linguist’s problem. It would also be interesting how Germans say it and how 17th. cent. English say it. I don’t know of either languages morays concerning Summon and Summons. If anyone does, please let me know.
@13 Gretchen would loose all credibility and this war if she used the the Alesia Tactic. The COC is all about the people against corrupt and evil nobility if she pushed the population of Dresden outside the walls to starve between the lines she would be no better then the forces she opposes.
Another thought on Baner’s cannonade. In the 19th century the limber and caisson together held 3 ammunition chests. I can’t find figures for the kinds of guns Baner has, which we don’t know anyway. The chest held 28 rounds for a Napoleon 12 pdr during the Civil War. Presumably more for Baner’s field guns and less for siege guns, if he has any. The limber is old, but caissons seem to be a 18th-19th century invention, The Swedish army could have introduced them by now if they heard about it.
The point of all this is that Baner is going to use up all the ammunition he brought with him pretty quickly. He has nothing which looks like a supply service to me,- impractical from Berlin and every other direction (except maybe Leipzig) is held by unfriends. Is he planning an escalade when he runs out, or does he expect to be reinforced?
According to the OED summon is both a noun and a verb, and it means the same as summons. Here’s the section that seems most likely to fit the current snippet:
summon, v.
Pronunciation: /ˈsʌmən/
Forms: α. ME somoune, ME somony, ME–15 somon(e, ME somoun, sommone, sowmoun, sowmown, (ME … (Show More)
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman, Old French sumun-, somun-, somon-, present stem of somondre, … (Show More)
5.
Thesaurus »
a. To call upon (a person) to do something.
c1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 462 Èœif crist haue sumnyd hem for to come not to hym.
?a1400 Morte Arth. 1212 He somond than the schippemene‥To schake furthe with the schyre mene to schifte the gudez.
a1500 (1450) Merlin (1899) xv. 249 This squyer hadde ofte Carados somoned to be a knyght.
c1540 Destr. Troy 1702 He somond all þe Cite‥To a counsell to come for a cause hegh.
1593 Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. Diiij, Cole-black clouds‥Do summon vs to part.
1671 Milton Paradise Regain’d ii. 143, I summon all‥to be in readiness‥to assist.
1781 W. Cowper Expostulation 179 That moving signal summoning‥Their host to move.
1825 Scott Betrothed ii, in Tales Crusaders I. 24 He called‥on a young‥bard,‥and summoned him to sing something which might command the applause of his sovereign.
1859 Tennyson Guinevere 566 They summon me their King to lead mine hosts.
There have been several stories in the GG and others (Dreeson Incident screams to mind) having to do with more modern firefighting methods/equipment/training being spread around the USE. Not sure if the knowledge was spread to Saxony but I’d expect Gretchen & Co. to have gotten as much as possible to Dresden as part of their prep.
A funny news story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-france-language-20110204,0,27695.story
People, Summon instead of Summons will be corrected in the final edited version.
It should be Summons but Eric hadn’t corrected it before he created the snippets.
@22 – robert
That was too funny to read at work (coworkers think you’re crazy if you start snickering for no apparent reason), but I did anyway! :-)
# 22 I thought French culture was being wrecked by McDonald’s. Did somebody call that off?
They do have a point. The time a French child spends learning English, is time an English speaking child can spend studying math and science. Does this make a difference when France competes against America’s K-12 school system? No.
@25, America’s ruling class generally doesn’t really value mass education and never really has. The late great George Carlin definitely had a point when he said (I’m paraphrasing here) that said ruling class wants people who are smart enough to do the work, and dumb enough to passively accept steadily worsening conditions of employment. Hence the twisted brilliance of standardized testing as the sole metric of performance: it looks like you’re Doing Something about the quality of education, while in reality stripping said schooling of all useful content by pressuring schools to teach only the rote memorization needed to pass the tests (we’re starting to see the products of No Child Left Behind on campus, and they are not pretty. And these are the kids who did well under that regime and had the gumption to get into college).
@23 – You have greater faith in modern copyediting than I do.
Cka2nd, it was mentioned on Baen’s Bar (1632Tech conference) that the error had been spotted before Eric created the snippets.
Edited, sorry my mistake, I meant to say that the error had been spotted *after* Eric created the snippets.
If Ernst Wettin is really serious about educational reform for Germany, he ought to seek out and solicit assistance from John Comenius, who is alive and well at this time (mentioned in at least one of the Gazettes, IIRC), and who is considered “The Father of Modern Education”.
@20: Good call! His name-making book, “The Gate of Languages Unlocked” was written in 1631. OTR places him in Leszno, where he had been driven to by the counter-reformation in 1627. That’s western Poland. H’m… can someone see where that is on a map relative to the swedish forces?
I wonder if there was a Montessori school in Grantville… that would make a good education reform basis.
@25
Perhaps “Battlehymn of a Tiger Mom” would be a good book to have, if it had existed back when Grantville transposed.
@25
“can” Well, yes, but they actually have to do it. Also, they have to be separated from imbeciles, excuse me, ‘parental units’, who do the kids homework for them. The widespread European philosophy that children spend much of their evening after homework is done playing strategic games, e.g., Settlers of Catan, with their parents, as opposed to watching the boob tube, also advances the children. (The incidental result of that philosophy is that the US market for such games is a tiny fraction of the market for such games in Europe (For the cited title *in the Netherlands*.). Also, the cultural attitude towards intellect and hard work is a bit different.
@33, Oh, believe me, I know all about anti-intellectualism in America (I live in Oklahoma, which is pretty much the belly of that particular beast despite the profusion of colleges and universities around here–we have people here choosing which school to attend based on college football loyalties. I wish I was making that up).
@34 – morgulknight
Anti-intellectualism in America (I come from the Deep South of the USA, though I now hail from Ohio, so I am very familiar with it) is driven mainly by a distrust of authority and to a large degree by the perception that intellectuals are anti-religious. I know that people pick out colleges based on football loyalties, but if the college is seriously committed to education, that’s not necesarily a fatal flaw, and it’s no worse than people picking out colleges based on financial aid, proximity to parents or other family memmbers, and so forth, and IMO, it is usually better to go to college and get some education than to not attend college at all.
If we could make intellectual pursuits as exciting as sports, we could probably defeat anti-intellectualism. Just imagine forensic debate as a full-contact sport complete with cute cheerleaders in short skirts and halter tops! :-)
@17 Of course Wettin is writing in German. He wants to reform the educational system in Germany, so he has to convince other Germans. Who all (if they can read) can understand written German (praise be to Luther’s translation of the Bible), not a half-formed bastard language that keeps popping up in the books, but that cannot have replaced the mother tongue (yes, in German ‘Muttersprache’) of anyone. It has not been around long enough.
IMHO Amideutsch will be around for a generation or so, until the new concepts and loan-wordt have had time to filter into mainstream German, and then disappear. Then (Germans being Germans) there will be a chance for language purists to complain about the loan-words and start making up new German words for them.
If Wettin is an intelectual German, writing for all of Europe, he probably will use Latin. As did Comenius.
Are there any references in the books available in Grantville at the time of the RoF to Alexander von Humboldt’s reforms of the Prussian educational system (part of the Stein-Hardenbergsche make-over of Prussia after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon at Jena and Auerstadt)? They might be more to the taste of a German nobleman than all those over-egalitarian American notions.
@18 Ronzo, go back to comment 4 by Dave O. He makes a general comment about sieges and how to end them one-oh-one, as practiced in the 17th century. I add a nuance to one of the options, referring to a state of conflict between the garrisson and the populace, and I do not imply that Gretchen will stoop so low. At this moment the ‘convalescing’ troops, the CoC, and the population are all pulling in the same direction. To avoid being robbed/raped/murdered by a bunch of cold, hungry and probably unpaid soldiers who probaly are up to no good and definitely bring down the quality of the neigbourhood not to mention the price of local real estate.
@30 – Raymond Sudduth
Leszno, Poland is about 80 KM SSW of Poznan and about 190 KM due East of Zielona Gora, Poland. That’s somewhat close to the Swedish forces, but it’s not within Swedish control AFAIK.
@35–Mr. Woodman: The distrust of authority bit is the part I can never quite wrap my head around: “This person spent x number of years studying this topic, therefore this person’s opinion on said topic is less credible than uninformed gut reactions.” I guess you could say I’m not a fan of “truthiness.”
@36–Mr. Meijer: What makes you think Wettin’s particularly interested in the rest of Europe? If his focus is on Germany, it would seem to me that he’d be more inclined to use the vernacular language, for the very reason you cited. Especially since he’s smart enough to realize the CoCs (or at the very least their ideas) aren’t going away any time soon no matter what his brother does, so wouldn’t it be to his advantage to get their help with this project where they have influence. Ernst Wettin does not strike me as the type who particularly cares who implements his reforms, as long as they get done.
@38 – morgulknight
Distrust of authority comes from a form of egalitarianism that holds that all people’s opinions are equally valued. When opinions conflict, though, then “my opinion” is correct because it is mine. Related to that is the distrust of authority that comes from Protestant Evangelical Fundamentalists. In their case, the Bible is the sole, ultimate authority. All other authority is legitimate only to the extent that it doesn’t contradict the Protestant Evangelical Fundamentalist view of the Bible (which usually involves reading the Bible literally in English, ignoring the vagaries and complexities of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ancient Greek). Any authority that conflicts with that religious viewpoint is invalid. It doesn’t make sense, and it is amazing to me that it has held up so well for so long in this country, but there it is.
I’ve spent decades studying science, yet in my own family, if I discuss a point of science that contradicts the received religious point of view I’m either politely ignored or I’m in for an extended debate. I’ve had one family member tell me repeatedly either (a) that the facts I present are wrong or (b) that I am clearly misinterpreting the facts, because what I present contradicts what is written in “The Word.”
I can understand how difficult it is for you to wrap your head around that concept. But it is a very real concept with very real (and rather negative) implications for the future of the USA. I’ve been told by coworkers from the Middle East that the religious distrust of authority in this country is echoed in the Muslim world by Muslim fundamentalists who see any authority that contradicts the Q’uran (Islam’s ultimate authority) as being illegitimate and in need of replacement.
Liturgical fundamentalism is not unique to America. It is a planetary disease, whereby people susceptible to it filter their perceptions of reality through some sacred text that they see as reliable and immutable. It was present in Germany in the 1630s and is doubtless a problem in some areas of the country for the COCs. Calvinists of that era appear to be particularly susceptible to it (they were the main source of the situation taking root in America), but there are a lot of notable exceptions there too.
Modern women who join restrictive faiths, e.g. Hassidic or Amish, report liking the certainty and simplicity of their new lives.
Modern life is confusing and difficult and complicated. Many are overwhelmed with future shock. The temptation to embrace something simple and certain is strong.
Fundamentalism as we know it is a modern movement. It only came into being in the late nineteenth century. A time that was also rife with change and challenge. Fundamentalism depends on modern communication, while being a reaction to the breakneck changes of the modern world. Not just technological changes but changes in world view.
Consider Maclitock!, a John Wayne comedy/western made in 1963. The farmer’s courtship of the Maclintock’s daughter turns when he spanks her. Maclintock’s feud with his wife is settled when he spanks her. In the ‘60s that was good fun. Today there would be a lynch mob at the opening. Such reversals are happening across the sociological spectrum. Easily within living memory. The temptation to embrace something simple and certain is strong.
Fundamentalism is a modern cure for modern ills. It obviates the need for choice amid chaos. It simplifies complex life. All this gain is accompanied with certainty of God’s favor, because you are in while the sinners are out. It does a great job of providing simple and certain.
For many, the considerable costs of such a choice are well spent.
People, discussion of Modern politics and religion don’t belong here.
However, I do want to point out two things.
First, modern Fundamentalism was a reaction to a movement in Christianity that doubted that the Bible was the Word of God. This movement considered the Bible to be just a human written document combining history, mythology, and “good thoughts”.
Second, as has been brought up in decisions in 1632Tech (on Baen’s Bar), the churches in the 1632 time frame would be considered “Fundamentalist” by modern standards.
Mea culpa.
No problem Cobbler, you made good points and you didn’t start the “off-topic” discussion. [Smile]
What they really need to be looking at is some treatise on education in colonial Africa or Asia. The biggest issue is not going to be the structure of the education but how to deal with the knowledge disparity between the downtime people and uptime science. The question of teaching quantum physics to a bushman.
@45 More likely, teaching materials science to a blacksmith. Or Newtonian mathematics (calculus) to a military engineer or math professor. Galileo hasn’t even got past the moons of Jupiter.
What Wettin has in mind, I bet, is the three R’s, history and civics.
46: Hopefully with a big emphasis on Civics and why government matters. The involvement of people in their government does far more to keep it honost than standing around after the failure and laying blame/assigning responsibility. I wonder if the “final” parliment building will have a transparent dome with viewing area like the West German one has.
@42 – Drak
Mea culpa as well.
@45 (Matthew), @46 (robert), @47 (Stanley Leghorn) —
All good points, but what Wettin’s treatise needs to do is three things:
1. Show the need for reform of education in the Germanies;
2. Create a vision that even ordinary folks can comprehend of what reformed education will look like in the Germanies (in fact, it would help if Wettin could present a vision for a unified USE instead of a vision for “the Germanies”); and
3. Create a plan not only to reform education in the near term but also to evolve (or better yet, revolutionize) education so that it rather quickly grows into the level of education needed to sustain uptime science and technology.
The first part is needed, because not everyone in the USE (and I suspect this is particularly true among the German nobility) believes that education for every person is necessary. It is necessary, though, because without a generally literate, thinking public, technological advancement is not sustainable.
The second part is needed because without a forcefully articulated, overarching vision, there is really nothing behind which a majority of the populace can unify.
The third part is needed because without a plan that encompasses both the near-term and the long-term developments of education, it is possible that education will get lost. This is especially likely if there is no plan and the original visionary (Ernst Wettin in this case) dies. He needs to lay out a path that others can follow and a clear goal to which they can attain so that even if he dies or is otherwise disabled, his vision can continue to inspire and unite the majority of USE citizens and his goal remains visible and attainable.
I’m sure Eric has already thought this through to some extent. I sure hope so anyway.
Some of the concepts the downtimers need to learn will be exceedingly difficult to teach because they are difficult to teach even to moderns. Many physics students today founder on quantum mechanical principles such as uncertainty, observer effect, and entanglement. In my own field, chemistry, principles such as standardized nomenclature, molecular orbital theory, bonding energies, bonding angles, and reaction mechanisms have sunk many an aspiring chemist. Advanced modern mathematics will also be very difficult to teach to downtimers. And yet, downtimers need to learn all of those principles, master them quickly, and impart them to the next generation of students before their knowledge base of Americans starts to die off in droves.
This is where Ernst Wettin needs to have clear vision, effective planning, and powerful leadership. I’ll be very interested to see how Eric plays it out.
I may be wrong, but does Grantville have anyone familiar with advanced physics, physical chemistry, or (e.g., Lie Group theory or hypergeometric functions)? Wettin might better focus on what needs to be done for 1-12 including if he has heard about it the German intensive craft training for the non-college-bound, and then separately propose a series of Technische Hochschule as research universities.
On the bright side, he does not have to worry about people claiming that universities should teach literary analysis.
George @ 49:
On the bright side, he does not have to worry about people claiming that universities should teach literary analysis.
I suspect that all the courses on scriptural analysis will more than fill that void.