| 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 | |
|
|
|
| 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...." |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - WaymanWong 04:02 pm EDT 07/07/20 |
| Next: | re: Lin-Manuel Miranda reacts to critics and calls to #CancelHamilton - lordofspeech 07:45 pm EDT 07/07/20 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.013062 seconds.