Three things

[brainwane]

1) I live in New York City and I have a lot of flexibility with my time right now. If the *one* thing between you and planning to see Hamilton live is that you hate paying TicketMaster fees, I can go to the box office in person to buy advance tickets for you. (May rescind this offer if like dozens of people ask for it and are terrible at paying me back.)

2) Does anyone who loves Hamilton want to talk about it in comparison and in contrast with Drunk History and Hark! A Vagrant? The exuberance and sentimentality, the way we are completely fine with imposing our own anachronistic ethics, the reclaiming.

3) This Lin-Manuel Miranda interview made me cry, and I loved this one too.

Comments

[owlectomy]

2) is interesting! I think, especially going to high school in the US south, I spent a lot of time being told that the proper way to relate to history is to Not Impose Your Morals On Other Times, and it's really hard to find a way to relate to history in that context -- the easy alternative is just to erase your own subjectivity. And as a result, I had no idea it was even POSSIBLE for me to feel passion about American history. (I am originally Canadian, so I have a complicated relationship to US patriotism.)

I think what I needed, that Hamilton gives me, is permission to engage with what's going on on some OTHER level than either "the founding fathers are saints because AMERICA" or "the founding fathers are awful because SLAVERY" -- to have both things in there, but ultimately to make Hamilton and Washington and Jefferson and Burr into people with ordinary human problems.