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| Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 04:02 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
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| Link | Buzzfeed.com: Lin-Manuel Miranda Responds to Criticism of 'Hamilton' After the Hashtag #CancelHamilton Spread on Twitter |
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| re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton | |
| Posted by: peter3053 05:44 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - WaymanWong 04:02 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
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| This is a very difficult path to go down. If Hamilton were canceled due to this, then "1776" would have to go even though it explicitly argues over the anti-slavery clause which was inserted then deleted from the Declaration, and exposes the hypocrisy in "Molasses to Rum". Simply because Jefferson were in the play would be enough, and the fact that Adams calls on the congress to pay honor to Dickinson when he leaves to join the army would be condemned. But if these go, so go most of Shakespeare for one reason or another, for his treatment of Jews, women, age, madness, Othello...so many things which could be cause of present-day anguish. But then a lot of Rodgers and Hammerstein would need to go, on other grounds - even though they were anti-racist, their use of racial types could be - and has been - condemned. The generosity of spirit and outreach of the past may always be condemned for not going far enough by modern standards - modern standards that are modern because they were built on the advances of the past and evolved them. What of theatre patronage and sponsorship of the past? How many plays and playwrights and musicians were supported in one way or another over the centuries by the profits of slavery? Theatre itself developed because ancient Athens could afford Dionysian festivals supported by the economic benefits of enslaving other Greeks. It can be argued that even the English language itself, the language of all our drama, would have to be canceled - as it inherits much of its vocabulary from Greek and Roman language, the language of empires which were built on slavery, and is the language of an enslaving empire itself. Further, English "colonized" other languages, accruing - stealing - words from many cultures which it dominated. But then, if English hadn't done it, someone else's language would have. And will; history has a long future ahead. What seems to be happening is that the modern culture, which for some decades now has blinded itself with cultural trivia, is reminding itself of the ever-present truth of "man - and woman's - inhumanity to man - and woman." I believe the Romanticist notion (begun in the 18th century) which believed that we are born "good", infected our culture far more than COVID 19 ever could, and so we - as a culture - went about ignoring the painfully obvious as much as possible. The belief in the perfectibility of humanity, if only we could be freed from the shackles of civilization's hierarchy, further made us want to emphasize the positive rather than the negative - "tomorrow we can be better", so we think. People like Sondheim saw through this, which is what makes "Merrily We Roll Along"'s structure so necessary to its point. It's why mercy and forgiveness are such important things to practice alongside protest and inspiration, because there's no simple way out, and I often wonder what horrible injustices we are doing right now that we don't understand, but which the future will condemn us for. I am reminded of Prospero's final words to the audience, which some see as Shakespeare's final dramatic request: "And my ending is despair Unless I be relieved by prayer, Which pierces so that it assaults Mercy itself and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free." And Beethoven at the end of Fidelio inspires how we must see all people, as members of one human family, one and one only: "No longer kneel as slaves before me - A brother has come to seek his brothers... To dispel the evil cloud of darkness...." |
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| re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 07:45 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - peter3053 05:44 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
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| WAIT! Dn’t cancel 1776. 1776 the musical profoundly grapples with the issue of slavery and leaves it as a blot on even the most high-minded of the show’s heros. Do we cancel everyone who, within their time and cultural context, committed with societal approbation that which is now considered a crime? I guess that’s the way it’s going. |
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| re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton | |
| Posted by: tatanaz 08:37 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - lordofspeech 07:45 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
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| Cancel culture can get out of hand. But as many people regularly demonstrate, freaking out over cancel culture—and making slippery slope arguments—can also get out of hand. First, it’s important to remember that calls to “cancel” don’t always mean the same thing, and they certainly don’t always mean the same thing to everyone involved in these conversations. What started as an online/social call to damage and even end the careers of people in the public eye who had done or said truly egregious things, has now morphed into a way of expressing concern, outrage, and a personal desire to not support certain people or things. In other words, it’s often simply a way of calling attention to something that people find problematic. It doesn’t take much looking into the posts and tweets that refer to cancelling Hamilton to see that for many, if not most, they don’t actually want Hamilton the musical to cease to exist. They instead use the term to raise awareness about what many people perceive to be problematic about Hamilton. And, for what it’s worth, LMM has insisted that many of their concerns are valid. I’m not saying that there aren’t some people who don’t literally want Hamilton to end. But calls to “cancel” are very often much less literal. Second, even if people wanted to actually cancel Hamilton, that doesn’t mean those same people would necessarily want to cancel other plays or works from the past they find problematic. Some people just want context. Despite similar freaking out about supposed cancel culture and Gone With the Wind, the film still is available. HBO Max simply pulled it for a few weeks to add some historical context at the start in order to show how Gone With the Wind was itself literally a piece of propaganda designed to rewrite the history of the south. And that fact should be remembered as we watch it in order to ensure that history doesn’t continue to be misunderstood. Similarly, people who want confederate statues removed don’t want us to rewrite history and pretend the confederacy didn’t exist. They just don’t think it should be celebrated, which statues clearly do. And, again, most of these statues were expressly designed to celebrate a rewritten history, just like Gone with the Wind. Getting back to theater, few people are going to want Merchant of Venice “cancelled” or erased. But they also wouldn’t want it taught or presented at its face value: as a play that shows how evil Jews are (yes I realize that is a bit reductive to say the least). Instead, people want Merchant to be properly contextualized for what it is: a play that engages in anti Semitism and was originally produced in a deeply anti Semitic culture. I think one of the things that does make Hamilton difficult is that while it is about history, it isn’t really a historical piece. It was written now. And it was written and has been oft touted as engaging in an innovative and important way with issues of race today. So it does feel like it should have done better in regards to thinking about these “characters” and slavery. And, at the end of the day, I think that’s what most posts about cancelling Hamilton are saying: we wish it did more—and let’s maybe not get too effusive in our praise of the piece as revelatory from the perspective of race and ethnicity. Instead, let’s be educated and aware of what it rewrites. Hamilton will be fine. 1776 will be fine. Shakespeare will be Fine. Cancel doesn’t always literally mean cancel. “Everyone needs to calm down” goes both ways. |
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| re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:35 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - tatanaz 08:37 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
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| ***First, it’s important to remember that calls to “cancel” don’t always mean the same thing, and they certainly don’t always mean the same thing to everyone involved in these conversations. What started as an online/social call to damage and even end the careers of people in the public eye who had done or said truly egregious things, has now morphed into a way of expressing concern, outrage, and a personal desire to not support certain people or things. In other words, it’s often simply a way of calling attention to something that people find problematic.*** If that's "simply" what it is -- and calling attention to something that people find problematic is of course valid -- then the word "cancel" SHOULD NOT be used with hashtag or in any other context, even though that's the buzzword of the moment. To misuse the word when "cancellation" is not the intent is EXTREMELY dangerous, in my opinion. |
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| re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton | |
| Last Edit: Singapore/Fling 08:08 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 08:03 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - lordofspeech 07:45 pm EDT 07/07/20 | |
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| "I guess that’s the way it’s going." Except it's not, at least so far. The story is that over the weekend, some people on Twitter criticized "Hamilton" for the way it erases the fact that many of the historical figures owned and/or traded in slaves, and then some other people on Twitter who are somewhat famous acknowledged the problems but defended the show, and then LMM responded graciously about the limitations of art to speak to the complexity of society, and meanwhile the film of the show is available on Disney+ where it is presumably being watched and rewatched by all of the fans who love it. So "Hamilton" is not cancelled, and I doubt it's in danger of being cancelled. But as sometimes happens with the media, a story is titled in a way that makes it clickbait and ruffles the feathers of everyone who is already inclined to believe the absolute worst of the social justice movement. Tellingly, while the headline refers to "the spread of" the hashtag, the article itself doesn't mention it, and the Twitter comments that are seen don't use it. |
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