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alexiessan · 4 years

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Never alone - Chapter Fifteen - Soulmate AU

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Paris, this far, was ok. It wasn’t the first time he went to Paris, but the other times were always for business, where he accompanied his father. He never got to really explore the city as he wanted.

Damian liked art and history in general, and Paris had a lot to offer in those areas. So, when he finally got there and didn’t have to attend meetings with his father, or even just wait for him somewhere, he scouted the city.

He visited museums, went to art galleries, went to see monuments and less known areas of the city.

At night, he would see Marinette.

Damian was happy that Dick was with him. If he were alone in the France Capital, he would have been bored very quickly.

The only downside was that he didn’t have all his pets with him. He was only allowed to take Alfred the cat with him, while Titus was to remain in Gotham.

He wouldn’t have minded taking Titus for a walk several times a day, honestly. he understood that living in an apartment rather than a manor provided less freedom for the dog, but the apartment — one on the very last story of an old Parisian building — was more of a penthouse than an apartment.

Titus would have had a lot of space there too.

He was happy that he at least got his cat with him, but he missed his dog every day.

Then, before he could blink, it was time for him to go back to school.

To Françoise-Dupont.

At first, he stayed in the shadows, observing the people that would be his future classmates.

He watched as Marinette hugged her friends, happy to be in the same class with them once again.

As he watched her, he wondered how it was possible to have so many friends around as his girlfriend did.

Then, he was in class, introducing himself to his new classmates. He could feel Marinette’s gaze on him as he spoke and watched as she turned around immediately after he stopped speaking, probably feeling that he wouldn’t add anything to his introduction.

He listened as the professor — Mr. Boulleau, was it? — asked his soulmate to show him around the school at lunch, since she was the previous class rep.

He listened as he talked about their last year of Lycée, what was expected of them, what they should expect. He talked about the curriculum and other things that Damian didn’t bother to listen to.

And then, finally, it was lunch. As everyone left, the youngest Wayne took his time to put his things away, until he was alone with Marinette.

“Hey, you’re Damian Wayne, right? Tim Drake’s younger brother?”

He nodded and she smiled at him. One of those smiles he loved so much.

“I knew it! I don’t know if you remember, but we met briefly a little more than a year ago.”

“I remember. You were my brother’s intern for the student’s career program. He talked a lot about you. Still does.”

He looked at her, noticing how she was observing him. He felt like she was looking right through his soul, and when she was done with her analysis, she smiled smugly at him.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she answered as if there wasn’t a long silence between his words and his answer. “He didn’t tell me that you would transfer here though. Had I known, I would have reached out to you sooner, so you could get settle better at school.”

He gave her a small smile then, and something in her eyes hardened.

“Thanks, but it’s ok, really.”

She raised an eyebrow and smirked at him.

“Should we go, then, Robin?”

He groaned then.

“Damn you, Marinette. I had a plan to reveal myself to you!”

She laughed and took his arm in hers.

“Too bad!”

She smiled at him, a soft smile that he could die for and kissed him.

“I’m glad I finally get to know all of you.”

She paused for a little while.

“Damian.”

It was as if she was testing the name on her tongue. She was so used to call him by his hero’s name, it probably was weird for her to call him anything else.

“Damian,” she said again, laughing.

This time, it was him that kissed her.

He wasn’t prepared for the feelings he would get from her saying his name.

As she took Damian for a tour around the school, Marinette was still processing.

Damian, Tim’s younger brother, was Robin, her soulmate and boyfriend.

She hadn’t connected the dots right away when he talked in class and she wanted to smack herself for not doing so. She had looked at him, took him in and didn’t observe him more once she recognized him as the Wayne Enterprises’ co-CEO’s youngest brother.

She had focused on that alone and only thought about calling Tim after that.

But when she got to be alone with him, something in the way she talked stroke her as familiar. And she couldn’t help but compare it to Robin, even if it wasn’t conscious. And then, it was his eyes. Not the color, as yes, it was the same as Robin’s, but she knew other people with this shade of green too. No, it was the depth of his eyes. How she could see an old and broken soul behind the jade. In the end, it was his smile that really sold him, and she couldn’t keep it to herself.

As she took his hand and show him the art room — she knew how much he liked to draw, so she knew he would spend a lot of time in this room — she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Something as small and normal as taking his hand in public made her so incredibly happy. She felt like they were a real couple now. Not that their relationship wasn’t real before, but there was something about making it public that made it more real than ever.

After the tour was over, they decided to have lunch at a little cozy restaurant near the school, where they could talk about other matters.

Like, now that she knew his identity, she could tell her parents and friends about finding her soulmate.

They needed a cover story, as she couldn’t tell them that they met more than a year ago. No, she would have to tell them that they looked at each other right in the eyes during lunch break. As they were already wearing their contacts, they could tell they took advantage of lunchtime to buy contacts, as they were more comfortable not showcasing their soul mark.

It wasn’t unusual for a pair of soulmates to hide their soul mark. It was considered private and very few people were comfortable showing it for anyone to see.

So, at least, they were good on that.

She would tell her parents tonight and told him she would try to convince them to meet him at a later date. Her parents, happy for their daughter, would insist on meeting him as soon as possible, but she knew Damian would be uncomfortable with that, so she reassured him and told her that she would make them promise to wait until he was ready to meet them.

She would tell her friends the next day, before school, or after, depending on how the day went. She apologized to him in advance, since he would probably get a lot of hovering from her friends. She stated that she was free to tell them to back off if he didn’t like it.

All in all, it was a very good first day of school.

At the end of the day, Marinette was feeling happier than ever before. Damian had kissed her goodbye, away from prying eyes, with a promise that he would take her to school in the morning, ignoring her when she told him that she literally lived across the school, and didn’t need to.

The fact that he wanted to warmed her heart.

At dinner, her parents noticed that she was smiling more than usual.

“How was your day sweetie?” asked her mother.

“It was very good! The class is pretty much the same as last year. I’m sitting next to Claude this year, though. Alya asked me if I were alright with her sitting next to Nino.”

Tom smiled at his daughter. “You’re a very good friend.”

“Nah, I’m just happy that she knows that she can just talk to me about these things. I hope it will be alright for those two… Anyway, Allan and Allegra are sitting in front of us, but I promise I won’t chat during classes!” She promised, laughing nervously.

“As long as you have good grades and you behave in class Marinette, we don’t mind you sitting near your friends in class.”

“Yeah, I know. Lila is back in my class though.”

“If she gives you any trouble this year, you tell us right away. We don’t want a repeat of what happened back in middle school.” scowled her mother.

“I don’t think she will be a problem,” admitted the young girl. “Everyone knows she’s lying, and Lila knows it too. Lying doesn’t benefit her anymore since no one would believe her, so she stopped with her nonsense. It will be alright.”

Her mother stroked her cheek affectionately and the Eurasian girl leaned into Sabine’s hand. “If you say so, sweetie.”

She smiled softly at her parents before her beaming smile came back on her smile.

“I didn’t tell you the best, though!”

“Oh, what is it?” laughed Tom, happy to see his daughter so excited.

“There is a new student in our class. He’s an exchanged student from America. From Gotham, more specifically. His name is Damian Wayne but he goes by Grayson as to not attract attention.”

Since Sabine and Tom his soulmate’s parents, Damian told her she could tell them his real identity. The fewer persons they lied to, the better. Especially since Marinette hated lying so much. First, she had to lie about being Ladybug, making excuses about her tardiness and absences, then, she had to lie about her soulmate, hiding his very existence, and now, she had to lie about the way they met.

The designer had hated Lila because she was a liar, but she felt like a hypocrite, herself being a liar.

“Oh, Tim’s brother, right?”

“Yeah!”

Her parents knew that she kept contact with Tim, he helped her a lot with her project and was just a good friend in general, even if he was six years older than her. Her parents even talked to him a little when she was on a video call with him.

“And, uh… At lunch, I had to show him around the school, and I looked at him right in the eyes for the first time. You know, I’ve told you when we met that he wouldn’t meet my eyes?” Her parents nodded. “And, yeah, this time he did and… Well…” She bit her bottom lip nervously. “His left eye and my left eye changed colors… He’s my soulmate, Maman, Papa.”

She heard her parents gasp as she took her contact off, showing them her green left eye.

She could see her mother’s eyes filled with tears while her father was already crying.

“Oh, Marinette, sweetie.” They hugged her so tight that the black-haired girl had trouble breathing, but she didn’t say a word. “We’re so happy for you! Your soulmate!” They released her. “Oh, tell us! Is it a platonic or romantic bond?”

“Romantic,” breathed the girl with two eye colors.

“Your one true love,” breathed Sabine, kissing her daughter’s cheek. “I’m so happy for you sweetie.”

“We need to meet him!” stated Tom. “We’ll invite him to dinner, and I’ll make his favorite meal, you need to ask him what he likes, Marinette! And I’ll make this new recipe I’m working on for dessert and-”

“Papa,” the baker’s daughter softly interrupted. “We should wait a little before we invite him, alright?”

The man calmed down. “Yes, of course, we’ll meet him when he’s ready.”

The fashion designer hugged the both of them, thankful for her parents.

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rosalind-of-arden · 5 years

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Smoke and Iron Reread chapters 16-19

Now we’re onto more Khalila chapters, and that means it’s time to see what Santi is up to.

This Dario letter, omg. @thegreatlibraryfangirl, I will very much enjoy your analysis of this one when your Kink and Bone read gets this far.

Timeline: we are in a hotel in Cadiz now. Time since Khalila and friends took over the ship? Who knows? The storm is still going, so probably not more than a day or two?

Santi does not write letters to the families of people he kills, but he does approve of Khalila doing it. “It’s a good habit, remembering that every life we take breaks dozens more. It keeps us from killing when there are other options.” Here’s more of Santi’s ethics vs. the Library’s. Note that “when there are other options”, though. That’s how Santi has managed a 20+ year career working for an organization with values that don’t line up with his own. He can tell himself there was no other option. How much has that worn on him, over the years?

Protective Dad Santi is ready for a fight with whoever has come to meet them.

“The deep purple hid all sins.” Khalila is talking about her dress hiding ink stains, but one of us needs to find a way to use this line in something more sexily sinful.

The king of Spain wears “gold shoes with significant heels.” Yes! We have canon heels for men! Shiny canon heels for men!

“For the American colonies to break with tradition meant something dire had changed.” So even with their high population of Burners, America apparently isn’t usually interested in picking fights with the Library. Sounds like there’s been a mutual cease-fire in effect, which the Library just broke in truly horrific fashion with Philadelphia.

Khalila is considering global implications of so many countries withdrawing from the treaty, but Santi is more goal-oriented. He’ll be impressed when the list of rebels includes someone with more strategic value for invading Alexandria and rescuing Wolfe.

Clever of the king to try and put Santi in the position of leading his army into Alexandria. It would get him all Santi’s inside knowledge, plus symbolic value. Santi, of course, recognizes this right away.

Santi doesn’t dwell on it, but it’s got to hurt to be in a position of even having to consider leading foreign troops to fight people who are like family to him in his own home. It was hard enough for him in Rome, where at least the scope of the conflict was limited and he wasn’t looking at potential mass casualties among civilians he knows or collateral damage to places he’s attached to. Here, they’re talking about using Santi’s knowledge of Alexandria to destroy things he values and worked most of his life to protect.

The king of Spain knows that Santi wants to rescue Wolfe. So either Dario told his cousin about Wolfe and Santi’s relationship, the king has been digging up all the information he can about the people he’ll be working with, or it’s very, very common knowledge that Wolfe and Santi are a couple.

Santi is not impressed with the king trying to play the Wolfe card. No change in expression, and he doesn’t engage at all on the topic, but we get this line: “We need a better plan than an attack they can anticipate without getting out of their chairs.” Ouch. Burn.

Santi uses the compliment-criticism-compliment strategy: Oh, yes, your navies are very nice. Your strategies are shit. But I’m sure your very nice navies would still be important in a better plan.

The king and Santi are pretty evenly matched here. Good verbal sparring. But then Santi forces a confrontation. He asks for sensitive information, the king responds with what amounts to a very polite arrest. Santi, of course, immediately calls this out. He needs to know where he stands.

Khalila and Dario are both so adorably nervous when Santi suggests that he might not want to go with the king.

Santi recognizes the political mess they’ve gotten themselves into the middle of - something else I don’t think Jess and Dario quite anticipated in their scheming. Santi probably has plenty of experience dealing with politics and war from all those war zones. He would prefer to delegate. Let the politicians play politics and the soldiers go fight. Notice that he doesn’t say where Thomas should go: is he leaving Thomas that choice, or hoping Thomas can stay out of all of it?

People Santi will listen to: Khalila, Glain, Wolfe. That might be the complete list.

Add the king of Spain to the list of people who think Wolfe is the leadership of the rebellion.

Khalila thinks Santi never considered Wolfe’s potential as a leader. Really? I get the impression that Wolfe was aiming for at least the Artifex’s position, if not the Archivist’s, before Rome. No, what Santi is considering here are the potential effects of leadership on Wolfe’s mental health and whether Wolfe can handle the politics without getting fed up and snarking at the wrong person.

Santi says Wolfe is capable but wouldn’t want the job, and I’m not sure whether that’s an accurate assessment or a polite lie to cover for Santi trying to avoid putting Wolfe in a position that Santi thinks wouldn’t be good for him.

Scholar Murasaki! I like her a lot. The badass grandmother type has always appealed to me. Also, Murasaki Shikibu reference.

Spain is “a deeply cosmopolitan country” with significant Islamic influences.

The Curia censored Murasaki Hiroko’s poetry 500 years ago because she wrote poems for her lover, who was “another married woman.” Was the problem that they were both married to other people, or was it that they were both women? Or both? Either way, evidence of past repressive attitudes in the Library.

The Wolfe pack had limited time to go through the Black Archives when they were packing for their escape. They considered poetry worth spending at least some of that time on. Nice to see the humanities being valued.

Murasaki remembers the Library’s conquest of France. Definitely sounds like we’ve either shifted the timing of the French Revolution or added a second one.

How much of this debate between Khalila and Murasaki represents genuine objections on Murasaki’s part, and how much was a show for the benefit of the assassin in the crowd? Maybe a show for the other Library staff present, too? There’s a pretty dramatic shift in the views she expresses once the assassin is dead and the crowd dispersed. Same goes for Fergus.

Here’s some evidence that Wolfe used to have friends, at least on a professional level. His isolation at the beginning of the series was due to politics, at least in part: Murasaki has thought the Library might come after her ever since Wolfe’s arrest.

The leadership at the Serapeum has the power to lock down the Translation Chamber and the Codexes there. They must have an Obscurist present, since Khalila’s group translates to Alexandria from here. Interesting that Codexes can be locked down at a local level.

I totally want to see Wolfe, Santi, Murasaki, and Fergus go out for coffee or dinner or something together. They seems like they’d be an interesting group of friends.

Ephemera is Santi, so let’s just group that in here. Has Santi had his journal on him this whole time? Or did he pick it up after returning to Alexandria? Is it still being monitored? There’s nothing of strategic value in here that would compromise his plans to the Library. Worry about Chris, anger with the Brightwells, but no specifics about plans or locations. This particular journal must go back at least three years since Santi is looking back at things he wrote before Rome.

Just so much love here: “every page is full of Christopher. The things he does that annoy me, or amuse me, or delight me. The joy of sitting together in the quiet between missions, when we still had those to look forward to together.” Right, ok, stab in the heart at the end there. Ouch. Santi is still hurting from all they’ve already lost, so much that he can’t even reflect on happier memories without his thoughts turning darker.

“He has always been a sharp ball of thorns, and difficult to hold on to, but that has never stopped me from loving him.” This line just needs to be here. We all agree, Santi.

“Difficult to hold on to” is interesting. Just a reflection on Wolfe’s prickly personality and possible fears of commitment? Sign of non-monogamy between these two in the past?

“In the silence where he should be, I hear nothing.” Another line that just needs to be here. Heartbreaking.

Santi does not handle inactivity well. He’s waiting to be able to do something, and all he can think of is how Wolfe is being hurt.

Here’s Santi’s loyalty stated very clearly. He cares about Wolfe over everything else. Very specifically, he wants Wolfe to be “alive, and safe, and sane.” That list of priorities has driven some of the conflict between him and Wolfe; Wolfe values a lot of things over his own safety, while Santi values Wolfe’s safety over just about anything else.

The journal ends with Santi struggling to stay optimistic. He considers what he will do if Wolfe is broken again. He tries to assure himself that Wolfe “must come out” of the prison. He tries to comfort himself with thoughts of revenge. But the last line considers the possibility of Wolfe’s death, and he can’t write any more after that.

#The Great Library #smoke and iron reread #smoke and iron spoilers

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ciceroprofacto · 7 years

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The Break-up Period

January 1780- September 1780

I’m working on my personal analysis between Hamilton’s letters to Betsey in 1780 and his letters to John, trying to get an idea of how these relationships were very different. For now, I’m focusing on summarizing their letters. I’ll eventually make separate posts to discuss the timeline of events surrounding them, then some further discussion of context. Of course, the first qualifying feature of comparison is that- Hamilton couldn’t openly say anything that might incriminate himself or Laurens in case their letters were intercepted. He could say pretty much anything he wanted to about his feelings for Betsey. So, while John’s letters need to be read for implications, we should expect Betsey’s letters to be straightforward. To judge how credible Hamilton is as he writes, a major consideration is his differing levels of respect for the mental and professional capacity of his correspondent based around his preexisting prejudices. Given his period-typical views of the female mind, we should assume he won’t expect John to be as impressed with excessive romanticism as he’ll think it’s charming to Betsey. We should assume that he knows John will be focused on military affairs and that he wouldn’t expect Betsey to have as much knowledge or interest in those matters as someone who’s living through them.

I call 1780 the ‘break-up period’ because it begins with what I speculate was a ball that John encouraged Alex to go to, continues with Alex being denied leave to follow John south where the action of the war was shifting, a letter expressing one of the darkest moods he had entered which alludes to leaving America or dying, Alex soon thereafter becoming romantically involved with Betsey and lavishing her with the same language that he used when courting Kitty Livingston, a markedly long silence in his letters with John, failed attempts to visit John in Philadelphia, a possible rekindling of John’s friendship with Francis Kinloch, and a series of idyllic and florid letters from Hamilton to Betsey becoming gradually more genuine, and culminating in their marriage.

Academics have always thrown his relationship with Betsey into question, and I’m hesitant to accept Alexander as a fully credible writer when his letters between different correspondents around the same time period have very different tones. It’s a mark that he was human with a range of emotions, and was effected by day-to-day events that are difficult to place together for a full picture of a person or a relationship.

But, by overall impressions- I have a running theory that the winter of 1780 saw some sort of emotional distancing on John’s part that led Alex to finding love elsewhere. I believe that distancing included encouragement for Alex to find a wife, and whatever it was, it was definitive enough for Alex to treat it as at least a temporary end to their romantic relationship but not an end to their friendship. Yes, that implies Eliza was, at least at first, a rebound, and not Alexander cheating on John as we’ve all liked to say. As the distance with John grew, his feelings for her are tempered (i.e. he calms his forced infatuation and recognizes her genuine value to him). In the start, he had symptoms of infatuation with her, and may have, out of loneliness and desperation, emphasized those feelings to impress her. Even after their relationship was true, I don’t believe he ever told her the uglier things about himself.

Chronologically:

Hamilton to Laurens 8 January 1780 Morristown, New Jersey. The first part of the letter written previous December in response to Laurens’ letter of the 18th while he was en route to Headquarters- then “was called off. Some ruffian hand has treated it in the manner you see”. He is grateful for John recommending him to be secretary to the minister in France, but “your partiality may have led you to overrate my qualifications that very partiality must endear you to me”. He agrees with John’s assessment that he deserves the post more than others but was unlikely to get it because he lacks the connections . He found and completed the letter in 1780 to say that he asked for leave to follow John south. Takes a very depressive tone “I am chagrined and unhappy but I submit. In short Laurens I am disgusted with every thing in this world but yourself and very few more honest fellows and I have no other wish than as soon as possible to make a brilliant exit. ’Tis a weakness; but I feel I am not fit for this terrestreal Country.” Founders online says he ‘incorrectly dated’ the letter, but he simply never changed the date when he sent it after Laurens had departed.

Hamilton to Kitty and Elizabeth January Morristown, New Jersey. Hamilton arranges for Tilghman to join him and Kitty Livingston and Elizabeth to drive the carriage since he’s not a good driver.

Laurens to Hamilton 24 February John wrote two missing letters to Alex, the last dated 24 February. Alex mentions his ‘expectations’, so he likely gave an update about his proposal for the Black Battalion as well as information about the defense of Charles Town against Clinton.

Hamilton to Schuyler 17 March Amboy, New Jersey. Elizabeth is going on a trip into Philadelphia and Alex considers it a ‘tax on his love’ but wants her to see the city, “let me entreat you to endeavour not to stay there longer than the amusements of the place interest you, in complaisance to friends; for you must always remember your best friend is where I am”. He says they toast her and her sisters at their table- he normally toasts Peggy. He’s engaged in a prisoner exchange and doesn’t like the British officers he’s working with- he can’t keep up in drinking wine. He received a letter from Betsey with lots of sweet nothings and heard from Meade that she got his with basically the same. In his letters during the early months with her, he has a similar tone as those letters he wrote to Kitty Livinston in 1777. Very florid language- to the point of exaggeration for the sake of poeticism. It’s not necessarily true that the ball in January of this year was the first time he’d met her, only that these are the first letters they shared after opening their correspondence. It’s likely he’d known her for a few months at least and had only just gotten permission to open a correspondence with her (think the Patriot). The very point of such correspondences in courting was to flex rhetorical muscles and be florid and romantic with each other, so his wild love declarations should be viewed in that context.

Hamilton to Laurens 30 March Morristown, New Jersey, Alex anticipates that CharlesTown will be vulnerable from sea. A further embarkation is en route from New York under Lord Rawdon with the Queens Rangers under Simcoe. He has advocated for sending reinforcements south, but the army overall is too weak to concentrate their force or transport part of it south.

Hamilton to Laurens 30 June Rampo, New Jersey, John had written to tell Alex that he was in Philadelphia on parole restricted to Pennsylvania. Between March and June, he hadn’t been able to write to him as frequently, but Hamilton had argued to exchange him but feels like his entreating was “byassed by my partiality for you”. He’s growing increasingly frustrated with the army’s inability to pin down the enemy in New Jersey and New York and with the states’ continued refusal to supply the army and their need for foreign support to pick up the slack. He tells John he’s anticipating an engagement, “I am on the point of becoming a benedict? I confess my sins. I am guilty. Next fall completes my doom.” He has an interesting use of the word liberty, which he will later use in a letter to John to describe setting up two men in camp, he says “I give up my liberty to Miss Schuyler”. He gives a temperate description of Elizabeth “a good hearted girl who I am sure will never play the termagant; though not a genius she has good sense enough to be agreeable, and though not a beauty, she has fine black eyes—is rather handsome and has every other requisite of the exterior to make a lover happy. And believe me, I am lover in earnest, though I do not speak of the perfections of my Mistress in the enthusiasm of Chivalry.” His use of the word mistress to describe Elizabeth implies maybe he still had feelings of stubborn commitment to John which he wants John to acknowledge. It’s debatable whether Hamilton tempered his description of Elizabeth so John wouldn't feel abandoned in the dark place he was already in (I doubt this interpretation because of the emphasis Alex already placed on describing himself as her lover) or whether he’d exaggerated his feelings with Eliza in the way of being romantic. Both of these interpretations are possible and may have occurred simultaneously as a part of what was really happening with his feelings.

Hamilton to Schuyler June- October Founders doesn’t date this letter, but in it Hamilton refers to his father as ‘our father’ and is therefore likely engaged when he wrote it. I would at least place it after the Laurens letter of June 30th and that mentions he’s ‘on the point’ of becoming a benedict- therefore not yet one in reality. He mentions that he wrote to his father to tell him he was getting married to Elizabeth Schuyler and implore him to come to America after the war ended. He mentions that ‘a gentleman going to the island where his father is will in a few days afford me a safe opportunity to write again’. Figuring out who in Washington’s clout during those months was a trusted friend of Hamilton and making a trip to St. Kitts might give a better clue towards a more exact date- but I haven’t found such a character yet.

Hamilton to Schuyler 2-4 July From Preakness, New Jersey, Hamilton sends a poem that miscarried the last time he tried to send it. Elizabeth had written a poem of her own and he received it. He wants to hear when she arrives safe in Albany. Hamilton’s effusions of love are becoming more genuine and less florid and overly-poetic. “I love you more and more every hour.” He lists the traits of her mind and sentiments, goodness, tenderness, beauty, good sense, innocent simplicity and frankness which “place you in my estimation above all the rest of your sex.” He retains a high opinion of her by separating her as a special woman among other women, and because she possesses the traits that he wants including beauty, affectionate behavior, and innocence. He reminds her that he charged her to ‘cultivate her gifts’ and read in all her leisure time. “You excel most of your sex in all the amiable qualities; endeavour to excel them equally in the splendid ones.” As in future letters, Hamilton encourages Elizabeth to be well-written and informed. He mentions that he is trying to finagle Washington into letting him leave to see Laurens in Philadelphia and plans to have portraits done while he’s there since she requested one.

Hamilton to Schuyler 6 July From Bergen, New Jersey, Hamilton writes to soothe worries Elizabeth must have expressed about his safety. He tells her to look forward to their reunion and focus on that. He talks about her frequently with Meade and says she’s always on his mind, but this is also during the week that Washington’s staff was preparing for the arrival of the French fleet at Newport Rhode Island and Washington was drawing up a plan for the joint attack on New York City. In that week, Hamilton had, at the very least, taken the notes for a proposed conference in Connecticut, written to General Wayne to secure a position for a personal friend, and had some part in helping Washington develop that plan. His request to go see Laurens had presumably been denied, and he likely daydreamed about Elizabeth to relieve the stress and loneliness. She had been writing to him more frequently than John during this period. He updates her that her father who was sick in the previous letter is better now.

Hamilton to Laurens 19 July Hamilton had written a letter in mid-july to commission a hat and Laurens would respond to the task with care while he was on parole in Philadelphia. If Hamilton made the request to go see John in person, this letter confirms that it was denied because he would not have have made the request if he had been allowed leave to go to Philadelphia. If letters exist between Laurens and Hamilton between Laurens’s businesslike response on July 30th and his letter on September 8th about anything other than the hat and military orders, they’re gone now.

Hamilton to Schuyler 20 July from Preakness, New Jersey, Hamilton complains that Elizabeth hasn’t written to him and he’s afraid she fell ill. He subtly guilt trips her throughout it while berating himself for feeling like she’s neglecting him. He complains that he’s immersed in business and finds time to write to her anyway because he’s always thinking of her (pounding that into her head is a theme in his letters). He says he’s not complaining then says he’s tormented by the possibility she’s fallen out of love with him. He gives two sentences of military updates: the French fleet and army arrived at New Port and they’re expecting another division. He would’ve been heavily involved in Washington’s plans and interactions with them. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he became upset when Elizabeth seemed to be ignoring him after he had been taking solace in her letters during a time that she gave him more attention that John and his request to visit John had been denied.

Hamilton to Schuyler 31 July from Robinson’s Farm, New York. Alex redacts all his complaints about her neglect and his guilt-tripping and his self-pity because she sent him three letters to reassure him she loves him.

Hamilton to Schuyler August from Teaneck New Jersey, Alex is awaiting a letter from Elizabeth though he’s written to her twice and proposes they start numbering their letters to keep track of who’s writing more. He tells her that Meade is asking his wife if she minds if he leaves the war and if she doesn’t, he plans to retire after this campaign. Alex tells Elizabeth to dissuade him from it if he ever starts talking like that, but he would conform to her wishes whatever she wanted, so she has to decide whether to be a Roman or American wife. He likens Elizabeth to Portia. In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar which both Alexander and Elizabeth would’ve been familiar with, Portia was the wife of Brutus and she demanded an active role in his politics because she was nobility and therefore better than the average, frivolous and uneducated woman. Considering how much of the flirtation that Alexander uses with Elizabeth includes calling her superior to other girls, she was likely responsive to those compliments. He expects the war will end that winter because England is in a bad situation to keep going with the war. He starts a teasing metaphor about America as a flirting girl eloping in contempt of her mother’s authority and expects that Eliza will defend her ‘giddy’ actions, but he will “one day cure you of these refractory notions about the right of resistance, (of which I foresee you will be apt to make a very dangerous application), and teach you the great advantage and absolute necessity of implicit obedience.” He then takes on a very serious tone, revealing his own fears that she hasn’t thought this through entirely and once they’re living in poverty will no longer want to be with him. He imagines that she has girlish and frivolous imaginings of what it will be like to live humbly with him, but he’s afraid she won’t love that reality. He tells her he couldn’t forbear it if she left him, and warns her not to make romantic visions of a simple life, taking on a practical but condescending tone as if she hasn’t considered these things.

Hamilton to Schuyler 8 August Dobbs Ferry, New York, Alex writes just to tell Elizabeth that she’s ‘bewitched’ him because she’s made him “disrelish every thing that used to please me”. He says he’s trying to detach himself because “I love you more than I ought”. He says a new mistress is the suggested cure but he’s not convinced it’s effective and he’s afraid it would only make him love her more. He chides her again for not writing enough “though I am immersed in public business and you have nothing to do but to think of me.” There’s a somewhat teasing and sarcastic tone, but he also seems genuinely frustrated that she’s always on his mind and treats his thoughts of her as a distraction.

Hamilton to Schuyler 31 August Teaneck, New Jersey, Elizabeth had written by her father to say she was expecting him to visit her before the end of the campaign and she’ll think he’s being unkind if he doesn’t come. He says he would gain more by going than she would and he has “greater interest in the visit than you can have”. But, he can’t leave the army during the campaign ‘with decency or honor’. It would make him a hypocrite because “No person has been more severe than I have been in condemning other officers for deviating from it,” and he still agrees with those maxims. The army is in suspense but he says ‘nothing new since my last’.

Hamilton to Schuyler 3 September from Liberty Pole, New Jersey, Philip Schuyler was with Washington’s staff and had planed to leave in the morning but a storm is shaking the house. Meade and the Marquis are propping up the house while Hamilton writes to Elizabeth. He replies to a song she wrote for him by critiquing the sentiments of it then saying “it is a presumptuous diffidence of your heart to propose the examination I did. But be assured My angel it is not a diffidence of my Betsey’s heart, but of a female heart, that dictated the questions.” and she either agrees with his sentiment against women so long as he excuses her from that list- or she tolerates that he does so. Her poem, in the way he describes it, sounds generally negative towards the female sex. Hamilton says, “We (men) are full of vices. They (women) are full of weaknesses; though I will not agree with the poet that they are, “Matter too soft, a lasting mark to bear. And best distinguished by black brown or fair.” (I’m guessing this has to do with hair color), Nor will I join in the exclamation of Adam against the Creators having formed woman, “a fair defect of nature.” Yet I have reason to think that these portraits are applicable to too many of the sex; and though I am satisfied, whenever I trust my senses and my judgment that you are one of the exceptions…” Hamilton then assures her that however he thinks of women- he thinks worse of men and she shouldn’t jump to defend female kind. He mentions that a dutch girl of fifteen has come to camp and she’s too innocent to realize when men are trying to take advantage of her- he says that Betsey “will say is a very favorable character”, but he finds her soulless. He then complains that he tells Elizabeth about all the women he meets but she doesn’t tell him about the ‘pretty fellows’ she sees and he suspects she’d “pretend there is none of them engages the least of your attention”. He says when Peggy comes home, he’ll get her to tell him about the boys Elizabeth flirts with. He closes by hinting that the Marquis de Fleury is interested in Peggy

Hamilton to Schuyler 6 September Bergen County, New Jersey, Hamilton complains that he hasn’t gotten a letter from her. He reports General Gates’s loss at Camden in South Carolina wherein Gates ran away from the fight. “He has confirmed in this instance the opinion I always had of him” essentially that he’s a coward. He believes that North Carolina and Virginia won’t fall to the British and whatever misfortunes they’ve suffered in the southern campaign will help them to change the system of how they’re fighting in the south (he’s been pushing Washington to place Greene in command). After two paragraphs of current affairs, he asks her to pardon him for talking politics instead of his feelings for her. Romanticism is, after all, the purpose of their correspondence, and he seems to assume those subjects might bore her. He says “If America were lost we should be happy in some other clime more favourable to human rights. What think you of Geneva as a retreat? ’Tis a charming place; where nature and society are in their greatest perfection. I was once determined to let my existence and American liberty end together. My Betsey has given me a motive to outlive my pride, I had almost said my honor; but America must not be witness to my disgrace.” These lines are interesting because they reference the letter that Alexander had written to John, expressing his desire to leave the terrestrial country. It confirms that Alex was considering letting his existence end. It implies that Alexander had heard about Geneva, probably from John. It also implies that Alexander acknowledges that he was in a dark place when he met her and he allowed himself to use her as a means of finding comfort from that.

Laurens to Hamilton 8 September Laurens wrote something that Hamilton responded to. Letter is missing.

Hamilton to Laurens 12 September from New Bridge, New Jersey, Hamilton acknowledges that they’ve neglected their correspondence, but he complains that he’s written more than John has. He tells John that his suggestion for a trade for him and General Portail had been pushed to a general exchange and he doesn’t know when that will take place. He councils John to defer his plan to the “Next Campaign”, alluding that he’s either given up on John’s ideas for a black battalion or he’s given up on the idea of the war ending that winter- probably the latter. He predicts that, if the army in the south is able to act offensively, it will happen in favorable terms- he’s not wrong because in March the following year, Greene will have taken command and turned the army to face Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse. Hamilton is angry with John for having “taken the liberty to introduce two men in camp, and there’s an implication of those men being together intimately and Hamilton’s tone is teasingly offended with John for “taking such a liberty with me”, and says they’ll be grateful that he and John made their stay in Camp agreeable. My interpretation ties back to Alexander’s letter in which he admits that he gives up his liberty Miss Schuyler. If I follow the assumption that John encouraged Alex to find a wife, and that encouragement was the formal ‘end’ of their own intimacies together, John mentioning an instance wherein he’s setting up other men to have that liberty in camp, Alex is upset with him for giving other people what John’s sacrificed between them. He encourages John to play the philosopher by improving his mind while he’s a captive. He’s glad to hear that John’s exploring the caverns in the blue mountains in quest of knowledge. Hamilton writes that he had discussed the situation in the campaign and John had agreed with his assessment. Alex reports that the army is desperately undersupplied yet again and on the brink of revolt again. When he’s tried to appease people, he’s only made himself hated. He fears the army’s at risk of losing it’s virtue. He says “I am an unlucky honest man that speak my sentiments to all and with emphasis. I say this to you because you know it and will not charge me with vanity.” He also says, “I hate Congress—I hate the army—I hate the world—I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves; I could almost except you and Meade.” He closes “My ravings are for your own bosom”

Hamilton to Laurens 16 September Bergen County, New Jersey, Hamilton was helping Washington prepare to meet with Comte de Rochambeau, Chevalier de Ternay, and other French officers to discuss the combined strategy for the French and American forces, still hoping to make an attack for New York. He says “For your own sake,for my sake, for the public sake” he hopes Laurens will be exchanged soon so he can join them if they do carry an attack. He cautions John against taking suicidal action if he’s not exchanged in time- perhaps believing that, if they do make an attack, it will be a decisive one for New York and upon hearing that he missed the last major battle of the war, John would fall into a depressive mood. He tells John to write to him despite the fact that he has nothing of military importance to talk about. Similar to when he had told Elizabeth that her happiness is his own, he tells John that hearing about his “interests, pains, pleasures, sympathies,” he’d be flattering his own egotism. Then he says, in spite of his affection for Elizabeth, he still deeply cares about John. “your impatience to have me married is misplaced; a strange cure by the way, as if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than I am now.” This line has several interpretations and they all might be partially true. It confirms that John became impatient for Alex to get married. Possibly after having to hear the way Alex talked about Eliza- either through letters from Alex that no longer exist in records or through mutual friends like Meade who might’ve complained about his gushing about her, he resigned himself to knowing that Alex did have feelings for her and hoped that matrimony would cure his poeticism about it- especially given the way Alex had spoken about matrimony in previous letters as ‘the greatest plague of all’. It’s also very possible that John’s initial encouragement for Alex to meet a girl and take a ‘mistress’ in the previous winter had been referred to as a ‘cure’ to their own devotion to each other. In either case- and if both are occurring simultaneously (which is what I suspect), Alex goes on that he will “restore the empire of Hymen and that Cupid is to be his prime Minister”. Because Hymen was the god of marriage and Cupid was the god of amorous love and sex, this line may imply that Hamilton had been refraining from sex while courting Elizabeth (which is very possible given her parentage, but with him calling himself a 'lover in earnest' when talking to John, unless he'd been making innuendo for John's sake, they'd probably done something before their marriage bed), but it may also make reference to his views of marriage as an institution in his own mind between his previous feelings about it and what he knows about John’s marriage. He goes on to invite John to transgress his parole, both a legal implication and a suggestive one, emphasized when he invites John to Albany to witness the final consummation. But, he warns John that his mistress loves him as a l’americaine not a la françoise, meaning that she wouldn’t be welcoming to him sexually.

The September 16th letter to John is where I mark the end of “The Break-up Period” because of the implied expectation that Alex seems to have that they will return to an intimate relationship as soon as they’re reunited despite his upcoming marriage.

Without a response from John to that letter, it’s hard to know how the invitation to transgress his boundaries was received, but if John’s initial concern about seeing Alex married was the sake of appearances, by this point it was well established that Alex was in love with Elizabeth and whatever suspicions he might have attracted as an adamant bachelor who expressed strong affections for Laurens would’ve been dispelled. Because Alexander was getting married, it would have made their own relationship safe again.

Shortly after this letter follows the treason of Arnold and the capture of Andre at West Point. Alexander breaks the pattern of writing more frequently to Eliza and writes several long, descriptive pamphlets to send to Laurens (making a copy for Eliza) about Andre and the whole affair.

In October, the gushiness of Alex’s letters is reinvigorated as his wedding approaches, and this period also coincides with the time that Alexander might have finally gotten his wish to visit Laurens in Philadelphia since they both had portraits done around the same time period. His tone is as though he’s nearly overwhelmed with how much love he has in his life during that month.

#to be continued #in the 'after breakup period'#long post #amrev history #speculation #I still wanna analyze the separate relationships up to Yorktown

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newyorktheater · 4 years

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In the history of Broadway, twenty-six plays have had runs of more than 1,000 consecutive performances, none before 1918, and none after 1986. Jordan Schildcrout looks at 15 of them in “In the Long Run” (Routledge, 224 pages), a satisfying read that tells us the plots, the behind-the-scenes stories, and the larger cultural meaning of these once wildly popular comedies. (Almost all of them were comedies.)

Some of these plays are still frequently produced, and/or were made into classic films (whose fidelity to the original script varies widely.) But a sizable percentage of these plays remain familiar now only to theater aficionados, and even then mostly just for their titles: Abie’s Irish Rose, Tobacco Road, The Voice of the Turtle. Their chapters are the most engaging chapters in the book.

While a half dozen of the longest-running plays won The Tony Award for Best Play, and two won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a surprising number were critically panned. “People laugh at this every night,” critic Robert Benchley said about “Abie’s Irish Rose,” “which explains why a democracy can never be a success.” Dorothy Parker was kinder to “Lightnin’,” the first play to reach 1,000 performances. The play “kept my mind off the war and my bills,” she wrote in 1918.

Whether or not these plays pleased the critics, they drew in the public at large. To run for 1,000 performance, a play has to attract an audience made up of more than just regular theatergoers. This helps drive home one of the author’s main insights: These plays tapped into their cultural moment. By analyzing the appeal of the most popular plays in each decade, Schildcrout, a professor of theater at the State University of New York at Purchase, tells us something about the public’s mood in each era.

“Abie’s Irish Rose,” for example, was a sentimental comedy in the 1920s about a Jewish boy who marries an Irish-Catholic girl, much to the consternation of their comically bigoted fathers. Schildcrout writes: “The white nationalist and anti-immigrant forces that intensified in this decade often employed stereotypes to demean those they believed did not belong in America; nevertheless, some audiences clearly enjoyed the affirmation that came from seeing their cultures represented, even in stereotypical ways, on the Broadway stage.” In this way, the play reflects the author’s big tent theory of popular playwriting – that they are so open to interpretation that theatergoers of opposite world views can both see them as simpatico: “Does the play rely on cartoonish and possibly offensive stereotypes, or does it contain a sincere plea for ethnic and religious tolerance? The answer, of course, is “yes.” It does both. This ideological ambiguity initially may have allowed the play to appeal to a wide audience…”

“Life With Father,” which did please the critics and the public alike — and remains the longest-running straight play in Broadway history — was a comedy set in the 19th century about demanding if loving Father who insists on the supremacy of his authority in his family, but whose wife and children always wind up getting their way. Schildcrout writes: “The individual’s relationship to authority was a vital subject when Life with Father was first produced. In September 1939, two months before the play opened, Hitler invaded Poland, and the United Kingdom, France, and other allied nations soon declared war on Germany. More than a few critics couldn’t help but see the play in relation to the rise of fascism.”

His analysis is less persuasive when discussing the popularity of two plays from the 1960’s, Jean Kerr’s “Mary, Mary,” and Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park.” He labels both “conservative and trivial,” which he argues was a factor in their appeal, offering audiences an escape from the turbulent decade. But both plays were launched in the decidedly less turbulent first half of the decade.

P = Pulitzer Prize for Drama, T = Tony nominated, T* = Tony winner

His attempts to tie these plays’ popularity to their historical moment may not always feel spot-on — if it were easy to figure out why a show was a hit, wouldn’t there be more of them? But each chapter illuminates these plays in a myriad of other ways.

Some of these are just delectable tidbits. Marian Seldes appeared in the entire 1,793-performance run of “Deathtrap,” yet in that time also continued teaching at Juilliard, finished a memoir, and wrote a novel. How did she do all that? Her character is killed off in Act !, and she had time to kill (so to speak) until the curtain call. (This also gave her plenty of opportunities to second-act the other shows on Broadway.)

Some chapters demonstrate the breadth of theatrical knowledge and analytic power of the author, who also has worked as a dramaturg. In discussing Albert Innaurato’s “Gemini,” a play about an Italian-American working class senior at Harvard who is attracted to both his upper-class Radcliffe girlfriend and her brother, Schildcrout writes at one point: “Gemini rewrites the 19th-century melodrama of the ‘tragic mulatto,’ a character presumed to be doomed because, being part white and part black in a racist society, such a person could never ‘belong’ or reconcile their mixed heritage. But Gemini is satisfied to carry on with its unresolved dualities of ethnicity, class, and sexuality…. Francis learns that he can be, as it were, ambidextrous. He can have both his Italian-American working-class heritage and an Ivy League education, and he can hold his love for Judith in one hand and his desire for Randy in the other. “

The author offers an especially rich paragraph in his discussion of “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” a second play by Neil Simon, the only playwright to have had three Broadway plays that lasted more than 1,000 performances (and 26 plays on Broadway in total!) Some critics scoffed at Simon’s oft-expressed admiration for such great playwright as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill (James Wolcott: “Neil Simon’s long day’s journey into night begins and ends at brunch.”) The author responds: “Brighton Beach Memoirs is more productively compared with other popular Broadway plays…”– and then does so with half a dozen examples of the longest-running plays (like Life With Father, Brighton Beach Memoirs is “loosely autobiographical coming-of-age story rendered in the comforting glow of nostalgia” etc”) — a riff that feels like a reward for our having just read about all these plays in the book. It is also fitting: “Brighton Beach Memoirs closed on May 11, 1986, and it is, as of this writing, the last Broadway play to run over 1,000 performances.”

In the last two decades, the top 10 list of longest-running Broadway shows is entirely comprised of musicals (which, you might have noticed, are not included in “In The Long Run.”) Almost 100 musicals have had runs of at least 1,000 performances on Broadway.

“So what happened to the long-running hit play?” The author devotes the last chapter to that question — ten pages of reasons, which include higher costs and ticket prices, an increase in tourists who don’t speak English, the rise of Off-Broadway and regional theaters, the fact that the shows by the four non-profit Broadway houses generally have fixed runs, a falling-off of arts education, etc. — and to the hope that such a play might someday return: prime candidate “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Jordan Schildcrout obviously wrote that chapter at a time when Broadway was still open for business. For those of us reading his book during this peculiar time of extended intermission, “In The Long Run” offers us a chance to feel as one with the Broadway theatergoers of the last century, and enjoy what they enjoyed.

In The Long Run Book Review. 15 Longest Running Broadway Plays In the history of Broadway, twenty-six plays have had runs of more than 1,000 consecutive performances, none before 1918, and none after 1986.

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wellesleyunderground · 5 years

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Patriot Act reviewed by Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi) & Asha Sundararaman ‘04 (@mixedtck)

This review first appeared on Lakshmi and Asha’s weekly newsletter - sign up here to get these gems delivered straight to your inbox!

The second we saw the first previews for Hasan Minhaj's new Netflix show "Patriot Act" we knew that this would be a very Indian American (and Muslim American show).

The first extensive preview for it absolutely blew up Twitter and Facebook because it featured Hasan and Queer Eye star Tan France as they talked about clothes, being immigrant kids and (of course) how they handle people who bungle their names. As the name suggests, Patriot Act also does not shy away about what it is like being a young Muslim American in today's United States.

As big fans of Minhaj's work on the Daily Show and his one man special ‘Homecoming King,’ we were eager to see what he'd do with a show that was completely his own.

(Editor’s note: We also wanted to say that we’re thinking of all of our readers in Calfornia who are affected by the recent fires. For those looking for how they can help, we suggest heading here and here.)

Lakshmi: I've watched that little preview with Tan at least ten times. I still love it EVERY TIME I queue it up.

Asha: You know, I haven't actually watched the preview. It made the rounds on my Facebook feed but I never clicked on it.

Lakshmi: I can see that. As soon as I saw people oohing and ahhing over it I was skeptical because my heart is sometimes made of stone when it comes to these things. But OMG it's so good! They managed to turn it into something really endearing. (Readers can see for themselves how endearing it is by heading here!)

There were a bunch of little interesting bits in that segment with Hasan and Tan. I liked how Tan basically says he changed his name because no one could handle Tanvir (Plus, he is married to a dude named France, which is where his surname comes from. His name at birth was Tanvir Safdar.) But it made me really want a show where we just see Tan and Hasan go shopping all day. it would be a great buddy comedy.

Asha: It would be! OK, I’m watching it now. I like the quote about looking like he's a Rajneeshee.

Lakshmi: I loved how easily Tan cut the hoodie to make a perfect crop top. That's skill!

Asha: I know! I was impressed.

Lakshmi: There really was so much to love. For example, Hasan says he only styles his hair with tel (coconut oil) and prayer. I think the reason the South Asian corners of the internet in particular loved this trailer was because there was absolutely no pandering. It was just two South Asian Muslim dudes being South Asian Muslim dudes. While there were little explanatory asides (they did explain what tel was), it did feel as if we got a little peek into what they are like away from the cameras and the white gaze. To manage to do that with cameras everywhere during what is clearly a promo video is an art.

Asha: Haha, agreed.

Lakshmi: And it was a perfect lead in to the actual show because Hasan felt as if he was talking directly to a South Asian and/or Muslim audience at times,but in a way that also felt inclusive?

It's hard to explain, but there were a bunch of little things that he never did on the ‘Daily Show’ and that would be really hard to do on network tv.

Asha: What jumped out at you in that way?

Lakshmi: For example, there was a whole discussion about the lota (which is a cup in the bathroom used for personal washing). I thought that whole bit was a bit much to be honest, but you don’t see that kind of thing on other shows!

More extensively, it happened when when he talked directly to Asian Americans during the Affirmative Action episode (Which is episode two). You don't see anyone ever talking directly to Asian Americans, especially in comedy.

Asha: It's true. It did feel like he was speaking to a brown audience directly without worrying about whether white people would understand. I admit, i'd never heard the word lota before. I knew what he was talking about, but i didn't know there was a word for it!

Lakshmi: And! I feel like (this isn't the case with Hasan ever that I’ve seen) but a lot of South Asian comedians are pretty anti black in their acts

Asha: Yes, that’s also true.

Lakshmi: so to have a comedian actually call out anti black racism is quietly a big deal

And of course this isn’t limited to comedy. No one talks about anti blackness in the community in general. It's swept under the rug A LOT (not by your two correspondents, dear readers- — we yell at people!)... but that's why we aren't particularly popular at parties.

Asha: HA.

Lakshmi: But really, it’s true.

Asha: The whole segment he did calling out terrible Indian-Americans definitely felt like an in thing. Because as people who are underrepresented, we bristle when the terrible people in our communities are called out.

Lakshmi: it's our own version of 'a shanda fur di goyim."

Asha: the only thing i'd wished in that segment was that he'd specified American-born vs naturalized. I don't know why, but i feel like someone like Dinesh D'Souza needs to be called out for their shit in a different way than Bobby Jindal.

Lakshmi: Oh really? I feel like Bobby Jindal is actually worse. First he actually had power. And secondly, he's from here and is a trained scientist and doctor.

Asha: i definitely think it's worse when they're born in the States

Lakshmi: Yes. His state is extremely vulnerable to poverty and global warming and he doesn't care.

But anyway, I liked the Amazon episode of Patriot Act especially watching it now in light of today’s news about the new Amazon HQ2 or whatever they are calling it in Long Island City.

Asha: Oh yeah, that one was really good! I learned a lot about Amazon's reach. I had no idea they did web services!

Lakshmi: I only knew that because I've worked with sites that work use Amazon web services extensively.

Asha: also, what Amazon did should be illegal. He talked about how they purposefully losing money so they could benefit later.

Lakshmi: And also imagine being the richest person on earth, but not letting your employees go to the bathroom. he isn't letting them take care of the most basic of human needs!

Asha: i assume Jeff Bezos is a sociopath and possibly a grifter. He's gamed the system in a similar way to Trump in terms of being able to lose a lot of money without it affecting your bottom line.

Lakshmi: And if you look up workplace injuries that regularly occur in Amazon warehouses, it's all horrific. There's no reason for all of this suffering.

Asha: None at all. And i've heard those that work on the corporate side of Amazon don’t have it much better (although at least they can go to the bathroom). i'm definitely not renewing my Prime account

and I make a concerted effort to shop other places.

Lakshmi: Yeah, I think I am going to completely change my consumer relationship with Amazon moving forward. Did you watch the latest ‘Patriot Act’ episode, which is about oil?

Asha: I did! It especially relevant to me, since i'm an oil brat.

Lakshmi: I didn't know that there has been an ongoing oil spill for almost a decade!

Asha: I didn't either.

Lakshmi: Also I appreciate that Hasan could do that episode because he doesn't have to worry about advertisers. No one on Network television could tweet this, for example:

Now is the time to talk about America's obsession with oil and the impact it will have on future generations. This is a problem with a deadline we have to address.

Asha: Yep.

Lakshmi: Also (and this isn't particularly a secret because people like Chris Hayes have tweeted it) but discussions about global warming don't get ratings. People literally turn off the TV when it's discussed so it is also bold to devote an episode to it.

Asha: In some ways you can take more risks with a show on Netflix. I think people are more invested.

Lakshmi: Yes and it's a given that your audience will be much smaller. but hopefully they will also be more devoted.

Asha: Right.

Lakshmi: That's the one thing I'm worried about though in terms of this show. weekly news/comedy shows haven't been doing well on Netflix. Chelsea Handler’s show was cancelled after a year. Michelle Wolf only lasted a season. So I'm worried about this show just because the track record is not there.

Asha: well, this one seems be more in the style of a one-man show.

Lakshmi: But also, it’s hard to find! Yype Hasan Minhaj into netflix and Patriot act is the SECOND result, after ‘Homecoming King.’ Never underestimate people's laziness… if they can’t find it right away, they might not watch!

Asha: Haha. I think number five in the article you linked above is key. If it's on the homepage, then it will get more traction.

Lakshmi: Yeah, but I don't think it's been on the homepage when I have logged on?

Asha: I think it was in my case, but i had to scroll. But it might also be because i'd watched it before.

Lakshmi: This point from that Netflix analysis article was also key:

"But even though I was clearly interested in these shows, Netflix rarely if ever recommended them to me. This meant that the weeks when I forgot to check out the latest episode of the shows I was clearly interested in, Netflix never reminded me."

Because people need reminders. with regular TV you have the luxury of it always being there, so the extra step of logging on is a deterent to success for many.

Asha: Yep, especially when there's so much info out there, there's no thought involved. That extra step makes it so hard.

Lakshmi: That's also why I wonder if Hasan will get guests in the future. It's easier to hype something up if there is another person doing it as well.

Asha: True.

Lakshmi: Also, I know this is new to him and that they've already done a twitter video making fun of it but Hasan's pretty jumpy in these early episodes. He talks fast and waves his hands around. Sometimes it’s a lot.

Asha: It's true. It was hard to binge watch because of it (and people are going to be binging).

Lakshmi: I'm hoping that as the season continues he'll start growing into the role and start going a little slower. Because sometimes there are a LOT of in jokes. Anyone who has seen ‘Homecoming King’ knows that he loves basketball and 90s hip hop. He definitely peppers references to both of those things here. But he talks SO FAST that even when I kind of know what he's talking about it's hard to follow on occasion.

Asha: Fair and not everyone is going to process information as fast as he talks!

Lakshmi: Right, and I say this as a fast talker!

Asha: It's A LOT of info packed into less than 30 min.I appreciate how detailed it is.

Lakshmi: I generally have liked the show a lot, but there is definitely a lot of nervous energy. Also, he tried a jacket on in his preview with Tan but he hasn't worn a jacket yet on the show. Hahaha. Do you have a final thought?

Asha: It'll be interesting to see where this show goes.

Lakshmi: Yeah! I've liked it a lot. So I want to see how it (and Hasan) grow in the future.

Asha: And my final, final thought is that "he's so right about toilet paper!"

#wu review #hasan minhaj #patriot act #netflix

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ronquinney · 7 years

Photo

Input/Output Analysis Robert Filliou 1973 Materials: b/w photo, canvas Collection: Robert Filliou Estate, Paris (c)image: M HKA, Courtesy Robert Filliou Estate, Paris. Excerpt of the conversation between Robert Filliou (RF) and Irmeline Lebeer (IL), Flayosc, France, August 1976.

IL: You were speaking about Input–Output Analysis. You have made other works with ‘Analysis’, right?

RF: With ’Analysis’, I’ve made… I’d like to do that again; it’s a little bit like That Spiritual Need. But I can’t find photos here… I asked the people around Dick Higgins – including himself, and also myself, of course – to photographically define the relationship each one has with the other person. For example: in a photo, I show the relationship I have with you. And then you’re asked to show the relationship you have with me in a photo. First, on a panel, there’s for example Irmeline, and the names of all the persons to whom you show your relationship through a photo. And so it continues. There are seven panels like that and you put all the pictures together. If you read horizontally, you see the relationship of Irmeline with Robert, Paul, Pierre, etc. from her point of view. But when you look vertically, you see her relationship with the people, but from their point of view. I call that Input –Output Analysis. This work still belongs to me. It consists of seven panels, way too large. Maybe I shouldn’t have glued the photos on the wood. I had it at ADA. The wooden panels are 1.50 × 1.50 metres. This is the relation between me and with Marika. And she, from her point of view, puts a different photo. Anne Braso, a photographer, took the pictures, except for the ones of her. They all have this size. I have the intention to do this again. It filled the whole summer there in Vermont. That gave given us an incredible complex of activities. We’re very often naked in these photos, because we went swimming in a lake near Higgins’s house. It was the easiest moment for everyone to be together after work and take photos. There are many photos of us naked. And because of that, the contrast is less marked in the relations. My relationship of me with you and of you with me would already be different if we’re both naked by a lake. Those who weren’t used to performances thought about it for weeks. They said: ‘I’m not ready yet to take a photo.’ Especially before getting somewhere, right? It’s not easy and it’s also a dangerous game. This happened in a group that was about to disintegrate. Sexual partnerships were about to change. Higgins was going to close Something Else Press. It’s curious, that when I look back now, knowing what happened, I understand why this or that gesture was made to illustrate this or that relation. People who live together but turn their backs on each other, for example. That was revealing. At first I had foreseen working with all the people there who were into art. In the end there were seven of us, because some didn’t want to do it. Higgins’s secretary, for example, first said yes but then she didn’t want to do it. There are fantastic things. Dick Higgins and Perry shouting at each other’s faces. Or Marika and me smoking. Emmett Williams’s son, Eugene, kicking my ass. That’s a very beautiful contrast, because is this photo I’m about to hug Eugene, saying ‘My son and my brother’, and he just kicks my ass. That’s very beautiful. And when you know the sexual relationships between those people, then you’ll understand the reasons for a certain rivalry. I’m very happy with this work. Practically no one knows it. Only those who saw it at ADA. I need to have it. It’s at Di Maggio’s but it’s mine. When we went [to Milan] the last time, I couldn’t take it in our car.

IL: The photos are from America?

RF: Yes, this was part of Research on the Eternal Network. In that project, I had Telepathic Music. It’s the Network in general. I proposed to replace the concept of avant-garde by that of the Eternal Network. I presented Input–Output Analysis, the thing from Vermont. I put together all the copies of File Magazine, the magazine published by General Idea in Toronto. I called that Research on the Dynamics of the Eternal Network. I offered 100 subscriptions to those who wanted File Magazine. That way, all interested people gave their name and address. I put the names on a piece of paper, Marcelle drew by chance to decide the winners and I paid for 101 subscriptions. They wrote to me that they never had so many subscriptions. The most subscriptions they had were in Germany but they weren’t all Germans, even if most were. Among the Germans, not all were Berliners. Since it was a group exhibition, many people came to see it. I remember Lourdes Castro was among the names drawn. There were Japanese, Americans.

IL: Why Input–Output? Is it an economics term?

RF: It’s an extremely well known analysis due to Leontieff. It’s very complicated mathematics: the relation between what you put in it and what you take out. It’s what you use in computers. ‘Input’ is what you put in. ‘Output’ is what you take out. I’d need a doctoral student in mathematics to understand it exactly. I called it that, because I liked the phrase: everyone puts something in, and see here what comes out. What comes out is the large panel with all the pictures. While no one thinks he’s contributing to something, he’s part of all that comes out of it.

IL: I though you meant what happens in every human relation, that what you put in is what you take out…

RF: Yes: on the big panel it’s a visual thing. You have all the relations together, although everyone only contributed one thing, they are all part of the total output. When you look at it, it’s moving. It means it’s dynamic. As a performance, it was fantastic. They all said they’d spent a fantastic summer. Instead of simply going for a swim in the lake, they had something to do every day, to think about. Sometimes we took photos that didn’t work. We remade them, discussed them. We had to develop them. Look, this comes from Anne, the photographer: Robert and Anne in the dark. We let people guess. That was very enriching but diffiicult to do. What if I decided to do it here in Flayosc, suddenly? It’s very difficult to do. I’ve thought of other things for it… But I have time. It’s not urgent.

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