Trendy - Hefty! - History

So, this is the awkward, revealing story of how I came to learn about the blockbuster musical Hamilton by Lin Manuel-Miranda.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I keep a list of inspirations. One of the latecomers to this list is Star Trek (the original series, if you please). It isn't that I didn't know that Trek existed, exactly. My stepdad was an avid watcher of Next Generation when I was growing up and when I discovered Star Wars I knew there was a rivalry between some fans of each franchise. Still, Trek remained a sort of nerd Rubicon that I refused to dip a toe into - let alone cross.

That all changed when my husband and I watched an episode of Game of Thrones that was so distressingly emotional (to this day I can't explain why; I'd read the books so I knew what would happen) that we got up off the couch and decided to leave the house. Thanks, George R.R. Martin! We drove to the theater with no idea of what was playing and ended up seeing Star Trek: Into Darkness. We hadn't even seen the original reboot. For whatever reason, Kirk and his intrepid crew got under my skin and we began to watch the original series and even read the novels. That Trek began the slash fan fiction tradition didn't hurt, either...

So from fan fiction I moved to fan vids (what a neat concept!) and happened to watch the following:

Being very much out of the cultural loop, I just knew that the singer's voice was beautiful. I didn't know where the song came from or that tickets were in such high demand. When I learned about Hamilton I was wowed (as so many were and are) that such fresh, modern rhythms could arise from a hefty tome of history - so I went out and got the book.

Chernow's work wasn't easy for me to read. Parts of it flew by and engaged me, while other chapters required dedication to work through, but I never lost sight of his affection for Hamilton and his passion for his subject, so he earns a salute for that, and for igniting my interest in the history of the Revolution.

Following Chernow, I turned to McCullough's 1776 - a work which seems to get a mention in every "essential" list dedicated to the Revolution. It was equally as informative as Hamilton but covered a much shorter time period and galloped past as only the best narrative history can do!

Considering the current high prices of Hamilton tickets, I, like Spock above will have to settle for "wait[ing] for it" in the shape of a DVD -- and filling the void with books!