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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1QixmSl:
Here’s a thing I am really curious about:
Non-Americans who are into Hamilton.
Like, what’s that like? What’s so interesting about it?
I’m not gatekeeping or like, discouraging anyone– I just want to know!
My parents actually met because of the American Revolution’s bicentennial celebrations; they were re-enactors in 1976. Dad was a Dep’t of Historic Preservation of NY State employee, and mom was the curator of the Rensselaer Co. Historical Society. This is local history, for us; the Schuyler Mansion where Alexander and Eliza were married is less than ten miles from where I was born. My father personally idolized George Washington and I grew up hearing stories about him, like how in the middle of the war his officers came to him and said “let’s just crown you king” and he refused because that wasn’t the point. And how everyone said he had to be President for life and he refused because that wasn’t the point. I grew up believing that’s what leadership was about, an eschewing of individualism for principles. (And I’m super bummed the Battles of Saratoga didn’t make it into the play at all, because you can see my house from there, basically, and I grew up visiting that battlefield site like three or four times a summer; in short, for anyone who didn’t know, the Americans beat the British soundly for the first time there in 1777, and that was why when Lafayette asked for more guns and ships, the French said yes, because there was concrete evidence the Americans could actually win.)
But like. They don’t really teach American history abroad, I’ve found. Only our movies get exported. So like. I see some of y’all I know aren’t from here, excited about Hamilton– which is awesome, because it is so good– but what is your context? What does it mean to you? It’s not like Americans all know either but we at least have folklore-ish rote learning from elementary school classrooms, and the basic assumptions we all know (starving at Valley Forge, Paul Revere’s midnight ride, that kind of shit). What possible meaning does it have for you, absent those contexts? Are you more interested in it through the lens of the hip-hop retelling, or is it fresh, or is it confusing, or– what could it all possibly mean, without that context?
Can you even begin to relate it to the circus of our Presidential election, wherein we are debating whether the democratic process is more than a farce? Can you imagine how painful it is when you grew up with George Washington as your hero, to watch blustering oligarchs debate whether all men really are created equal?
Here’s a thing I am really curious about:
Non-Americans who are into Hamilton.
Like, what’s that like? What’s so interesting about it?
I’m not gatekeeping or like, discouraging anyone– I just want to know!
My parents actually met because of the American Revolution’s bicentennial celebrations; they were re-enactors in 1976. Dad was a Dep’t of Historic Preservation of NY State employee, and mom was the curator of the Rensselaer Co. Historical Society. This is local history, for us; the Schuyler Mansion where Alexander and Eliza were married is less than ten miles from where I was born. My father personally idolized George Washington and I grew up hearing stories about him, like how in the middle of the war his officers came to him and said “let’s just crown you king” and he refused because that wasn’t the point. And how everyone said he had to be President for life and he refused because that wasn’t the point. I grew up believing that’s what leadership was about, an eschewing of individualism for principles. (And I’m super bummed the Battles of Saratoga didn’t make it into the play at all, because you can see my house from there, basically, and I grew up visiting that battlefield site like three or four times a summer; in short, for anyone who didn’t know, the Americans beat the British soundly for the first time there in 1777, and that was why when Lafayette asked for more guns and ships, the French said yes, because there was concrete evidence the Americans could actually win.)
But like. They don’t really teach American history abroad, I’ve found. Only our movies get exported. So like. I see some of y’all I know aren’t from here, excited about Hamilton– which is awesome, because it is so good– but what is your context? What does it mean to you? It’s not like Americans all know either but we at least have folklore-ish rote learning from elementary school classrooms, and the basic assumptions we all know (starving at Valley Forge, Paul Revere’s midnight ride, that kind of shit). What possible meaning does it have for you, absent those contexts? Are you more interested in it through the lens of the hip-hop retelling, or is it fresh, or is it confusing, or– what could it all possibly mean, without that context?
Can you even begin to relate it to the circus of our Presidential election, wherein we are debating whether the democratic process is more than a farce? Can you imagine how painful it is when you grew up with George Washington as your hero, to watch blustering oligarchs debate whether all men really are created equal?
