{"id":129661,"date":"2015-10-28T07:35:40","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T07:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/10\/28\/is-it-bad-that-i-have-been-vaguely-wondering\/"},"modified":"2015-10-28T07:35:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T07:35:40","slug":"is-it-bad-that-i-have-been-vaguely-wondering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/10\/28\/is-it-bad-that-i-have-been-vaguely-wondering\/","title":{"rendered":"… Is it bad that I have been vaguely wondering whether you had writing thoughts about Aaron Burr ever since “I AM THE ONE THING IN LIFE I CAN CONTROL”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

fahye<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026the only bad thing about that, anon, is that I am becoming PREDICTABLE and therefore can no longer surprise my enemies, I guess.<\/p>\n

the first time I heard that line I probably stopped dead on the footpath\/in the middle of cooking\/whatever I was doing, and probably said \u201cYES\u201d aloud. followed by learning very quickly the rhythm needed to bawl along to \u201cI AM INIMITABLE, I AM AN ORIGINAL\u201d.<\/p>\n

by most theatrical tropes (including where in the musical it\u2019s placed), \u2018wait for it\u2019 is THE VILLAIN MONOLOGUE. it\u2019s scar, growling be prepared<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

but my favourite thing is that it\u2019s NOT a straightforward song, and its meaning changes in retrospect. sure, by the time you hit it, you\u2019re so much on hamilton\u2019s side that it comes off as burr being overly defensive of his sitting-on-his-hands attitude. so as an audience we\u2019re a bit predisposed to be thinking: what DO you stall for, aaron? why aren\u2019t YOU throwing yourself headlong at life? this is WHY nobody is inviting you into the room where it happens! get a grip, man! take a risk!<\/p>\n

and\u2013as someone who agonises over her lack of productivity, and for whom the line you mentioned smacked me firmly in the gut\u2013I heard it as a PERSONAL REBUKE. stop waiting. start writing. like you\u2019re running out of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(aaron burr is every child who grew up searching for a meaning to their loss, deciding that there HAD TO BE A MEANING, and that if they just learned the rules well enough\u2013learned how not to be offensive, how to be SAFE\u2013then life would finally give them what they wanted. if you are the only thing you can control, then your control has to be perfect. life is dangerous. don\u2019t leap. watch. watch. watch some more.<\/p>\n

hamilton is the child whose loss taught him to grab hold of everything, right now, RIGHT NOW, because at any moment it could be snatched away.)<\/p>\n

but the whole point of the musical is that burr\u2019s approach isn\u2019t actually WRONG and neither is hamilton\u2019s, but they are such opposites and so firm in their personalities that they can\u2019t help but be bewildered by the other. and that inability to find common ground (I will never understand you<\/i>) is what eventually turns into anger. the tragedy is that both of them are hamstrung by their failings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

& in the end we\u2019re left with burr having FINALLY REALISED that the musical\u2019s entire message is in direct opposition to his driving philosophy: you have no control.<\/i><\/p>\n

history obliterates; it paints me with all my mistakes.<\/i><\/p>\n

but when \u2018wait for it\u2019 hits, AT THAT POINT IN THE MUSICAL, we don\u2019t know that. we just have aaron burr\u2019s furious rebuttal:\u00a0I\u2019m not standing still; I am lying in wait.<\/i>\u00a0and he is speaking to us, the audience. he knows we\u2019re not on his side. he knows he\u2019s the villain in our history<\/i>.<\/p>\n

jkdfhdjkhash I guess you could say I have some feelings about aaron burr<\/p>\n

I guess you could say that<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

fahye: \u2026the only bad thing about that, anon, is that I am becoming PREDICTABLE and therefore can no longer surprise my enemies, I guess. the first time I heard that line I probably stopped dead on the footpath\/in the middle of cooking\/whatever I was doing, and probably said \u201cYES\u201d aloud. followed by learning very quickly … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “… Is it bad that I have been vaguely wondering whether you had writing thoughts about Aaron Burr ever since “I AM THE ONE THING IN LIFE I CAN CONTROL”?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3456,6126,15204,1364,9135,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}