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s2309I mention the lateness of the hour just in case I make a big bad boo boo, as a possible defense.
The fact that I've been Hamilton trash for over a month is relevant.
So I was recently going through the Genius annotations for Hamilton lyrics, which provide relevant historical facts, draw parallels with other songs in the musical, and just basically puts the musical in the context of both the period it's set in and the hip-hop/rap culture it draws so heavily from.
And I have to say, the last two songs in the musical have never hit me harder.
It's important to understand the significance of those lines that Eliza delivers at a fairly remarkable speed, understand that she didn't have to preserve Alexander's legacy. She could have washed herself of the stain of her adulterous, reckless, workaholic husband and focused on raising her children and socializing or whatever. But instead, despite all the pain Alexander caused her, she works tirelessly to tell his story.
[Eliza and Alexander are the Hamiltons in question in the musical Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was the first Treasury-Secretary of the US, under George Washington. It's a bio-musical. Told in hip-hop and rap. Yes.]
And somehow, even though the words are written to communicate that, examining them more closely, discovering extraneous facts, making connections between different parts of the musical, it just increases the emotional impact of an already emotional musical tenfold.
This entire experience is reminding me of reading Sense and Sensibility with my 12th grade lit class. Our teacher had us read the first six chapters, and all of us came to class either laughing at or frustrated by these three woemn who seemed completely occupied by the business of securing a husband for themselves. It took our teacher explaining that that was all a woman had to do then, that she didn't have any other socially acceptable options, and that these women were living fairly daring lives in their restrictive society in their own ways (Marianne approaches Willoughby and demands answers from him after he leaves their neighbourhood without explanation at a time when it seemed like he would propose, something not considered proper then; Elinor displays impeccable command of her emotions in the face of abominable humans like Lucy Steele, Fanny Dashwood and Mrs. Ferrars.
Without that context, I would have walked away hating that book. The context made all the difference between forgetting that book and holding it dear a year later.
My point (I think?) is that literature has a point. The context that the study of literature provides can make a not-negligible difference in your experience of a piece of literature.
I think this is basically me trying to justify picking lit instead of comp science as my major in college.
Um. I think I just called Hamilton literature. ....YES LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA SLAAAAAAY.
(that man is on track for an EGOT and let me tell you, he fucking deserves it.)
The fact that I've been Hamilton trash for over a month is relevant.
So I was recently going through the Genius annotations for Hamilton lyrics, which provide relevant historical facts, draw parallels with other songs in the musical, and just basically puts the musical in the context of both the period it's set in and the hip-hop/rap culture it draws so heavily from.
And I have to say, the last two songs in the musical have never hit me harder.
It's important to understand the significance of those lines that Eliza delivers at a fairly remarkable speed, understand that she didn't have to preserve Alexander's legacy. She could have washed herself of the stain of her adulterous, reckless, workaholic husband and focused on raising her children and socializing or whatever. But instead, despite all the pain Alexander caused her, she works tirelessly to tell his story.
[Eliza and Alexander are the Hamiltons in question in the musical Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was the first Treasury-Secretary of the US, under George Washington. It's a bio-musical. Told in hip-hop and rap. Yes.]
And somehow, even though the words are written to communicate that, examining them more closely, discovering extraneous facts, making connections between different parts of the musical, it just increases the emotional impact of an already emotional musical tenfold.
This entire experience is reminding me of reading Sense and Sensibility with my 12th grade lit class. Our teacher had us read the first six chapters, and all of us came to class either laughing at or frustrated by these three woemn who seemed completely occupied by the business of securing a husband for themselves. It took our teacher explaining that that was all a woman had to do then, that she didn't have any other socially acceptable options, and that these women were living fairly daring lives in their restrictive society in their own ways (Marianne approaches Willoughby and demands answers from him after he leaves their neighbourhood without explanation at a time when it seemed like he would propose, something not considered proper then; Elinor displays impeccable command of her emotions in the face of abominable humans like Lucy Steele, Fanny Dashwood and Mrs. Ferrars.
Without that context, I would have walked away hating that book. The context made all the difference between forgetting that book and holding it dear a year later.
My point (I think?) is that literature has a point. The context that the study of literature provides can make a not-negligible difference in your experience of a piece of literature.
I think this is basically me trying to justify picking lit instead of comp science as my major in college.
Um. I think I just called Hamilton literature. ....YES LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA SLAAAAAAY.
(that man is on track for an EGOT and let me tell you, he fucking deserves it.)
