… Is it bad that I have been vaguely wondering whether you had writing thoughts about Aaron Burr ever since “I AM THE ONE THING IN LIFE I CAN CONTROL”?
…the only bad thing about that, anon, is that I am becoming PREDICTABLE and therefore can no longer surprise my enemies, I guess.
the first time I heard that line I probably stopped dead on the footpath/in the middle of cooking/whatever I was doing, and probably said “YES” aloud. followed by learning very quickly the rhythm needed to bawl along to “I AM INIMITABLE, I AM AN ORIGINAL”.
by most theatrical tropes (including where in the musical it’s placed), ‘wait for it’ is THE VILLAIN MONOLOGUE. it’s scar, growling be prepared.
but my favourite thing is that it’s NOT a straightforward song, and its meaning changes in retrospect. sure, by the time you hit it, you’re so much on hamilton’s side that it comes off as burr being overly defensive of his sitting-on-his-hands attitude. so as an audience we’re a bit predisposed to be thinking: what DO you stall for, aaron? why aren’t YOU throwing yourself headlong at life? this is WHY nobody is inviting you into the room where it happens! get a grip, man! take a risk!
and–as someone who agonises over her lack of productivity, and for whom the line you mentioned smacked me firmly in the gut–I heard it as a PERSONAL REBUKE. stop waiting. start writing. like you’re running out of time.
(aaron burr is every child who grew up searching for a meaning to their loss, deciding that there HAD TO BE A MEANING, and that if they just learned the rules well enough–learned how not to be offensive, how to be SAFE–then life would finally give them what they wanted. if you are the only thing you can control, then your control has to be perfect. life is dangerous. don’t leap. watch. watch. watch some more.
hamilton is the child whose loss taught him to grab hold of everything, right now, RIGHT NOW, because at any moment it could be snatched away.)
but the whole point of the musical is that burr’s approach isn’t actually WRONG and neither is hamilton’s, but they are such opposites and so firm in their personalities that they can’t help but be bewildered by the other. and that inability to find common ground (I will never understand you) is what eventually turns into anger. the tragedy is that both of them are hamstrung by their failings.
& in the end we’re left with burr having FINALLY REALISED that the musical’s entire message is in direct opposition to his driving philosophy: you have no control.
history obliterates; it paints me with all my mistakes.
but when ‘wait for it’ hits, AT THAT POINT IN THE MUSICAL, we don’t know that. we just have aaron burr’s furious rebuttal: I’m not standing still; I am lying in wait. and he is speaking to us, the audience. he knows we’re not on his side. he knows he’s the villain in our history.
jkdfhdjkhash I guess you could say I have some feelings about aaron burr
I guess you could say that
