So I was thinking the other day. Hamilton is a popular musical, right? Like, ask anyone to list "popular" musicals, or ask someone who's not into theater to list some musicals, and Hamilton will honestly probably be the first or second one on there. Heck, just list popular stuff. It'll probably come up somewhere.
But like. The general population isn't into Hamilton. It seems like, to most people, it's popular in the sense that a lot of other people are really into it. And the general consensus is that it's, like, good. It got 16 Tony nominations, it's gotta be at least alright.
But like. Really, I'm curious. What does the general population know about Hamilton? From what I can tell, the only parts that people know are the first:
-9 words of the show
-4 lines of My Shot
-of King George III's songs
And that's about it. Like maybe a little more but. Like seriously. As someone who's into Hamilton I want to know what people who aren't into Hamilton think of it. Do they. Do they know who John Laurens is. I've never heard someone who's not extremely interested in Hamilton ever mention the show's John Laurens. Do they. Do they know that he exists? I asked my dad, who has seen the first act of Hamilton. And he doesn't remember Laurens. He remembers Mulligan and Lafayette, but. I. I could not get him to remember John Laurens. Is he like. Some sort of. Like, idk, a cryptid of some sort?? Is he only visible to those of us who actually got into Hamilton? Is there a perception filter on him otherwise? Does he not exist until you start being emotionally invested in Alexander Hamilton's interpersonal relationships? Is he. Is he really just that forgettable.
I don't. I just don't know. And I'm being consumed by this desire to know what people think. It feels so weird to me to not have Hamilton ruling your life, so the fact that people can just. Know what Hamilton is. But not know about like. Most of the stuff? That happens?? I just. Someone help me please.
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*adds the way tobias sings "for the minute, for the minute" in the second chorus of TFIAFL to my list of specific moments in songs that completely destroy me for reasons i can't fully articulate*
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Ink idea!!
so the song Drift Away? well what if that was like Ink and his creator, in the sense that Ink just sat their and waited for years in the same way spinel did for rose. like literally nothing changes about the outcome its just that instead of straight up abandoning him his creator just told him to 'stay' with the rest of the empty cast or did something of that equivalent and Ink was just standing there, probably for longer than before since he would hope that the creator would come and finish everything once they saw how great of a job he did or worse, be angry that he didn't follow his only command and then leave and Ink would stand there and think "is this how this works? am i doing it right??" as Ink watched his creator slowly drift away. again, absolutely nothing changes for the outcome and if it does then maybe Ink in this au is a little more inclined to not follow direct orders like that(because he cant stand to wait like that again even if he doesn't know why).
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transcribing a twt thread again (i apologise) but people often quote fujimoto's oneshot just listen to the song as proof that csm doesn't offer itself up to interpretation and exists to be absurd and zany and completely meaningless but i think that's a severe misreading of jlts's themes, and since a lot of similar threads crop up in fjmt's body of work, it's a take that obscures csm's own themes as well. because the song in just listen to the song is never devoid of meaning! it aches of human expression and this is also why it manages to resonate with so many people and take on a life of its own.
when i read jlts, i felt most strongly the thing it was trying to put into words was the tussle between the artist and their creation. barthes' death of the author, their creation forming interpretations in other's minds, being taken out of their hands, morphed, appropriated;
i don't think fjmt's commentary on this is normative in the slightest; he's rarely preachy. taking jlts as an indicator against fans engaging with a work seems fallacious when this is a statement you're deriving from the work too! to me, jlts is about human feeling when conveyed.
and this is a common line of thought in fjmt's work. i've earlier mentioned part one's metanarrative and makima's struggle mirroring an artist's. there is a bit of commentary here about symbolism and its connotation. fritters of symbols which add up to nothing.
this quote from sontang's "against interpretation" is one i often come back to. art's what is conveyed to us, the reader, what strains of meaning it carries with it:
and i think fjmt takes this thought further with the commercialisation of art. meaning as bestowed through the production process in goodbye eri, molded through capitalist forces in csm part 2.
the chainsaw man, falling out of denji's hands. the song, falling out of the mc's hands in his oneshot. this transition to fiction, art as a product residing in social consciousness is consistently something fjmt engages with and is interested by. boiling it down to the surface level discourse of "the curtains were fucking blue" is fairly reductive, because art exists and has always existed to narrativise, to be told and felt as an interplay between the author and their audience. and that exercise in itself forms meaning.
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