#01.17.2016

[multsicorn]

So at some point I was talking to myself about how I don't like HS AUs.  Of course you know what this resulted in:

America Academy.  Is a school full of underprivileged kids.  Except: John Laurens' dad sends him there to make some sort of point.  TJ (he insists on going by TJ) thinks it's idealistic to be among the lower orders, and persuaded not only his parents to send him there, but also his best friend from middle school to come over with him.  That's Madison, who enrolled because he thinks it could be interesting.  He's doing a research project, actually.

Together with Alex Hamilton, who's furious when he finds out.  He'd thought they were collecting data for reform together… well, they are, but…!  He'd thought Madison was there for the same reason he was, because it was the best place he could go.  Enrolling somewhere to 'study' it is sick.

Hercules Mulligan is Alex's best friend after Madison's not.  (This is the real world.  He goes by last name.)  He has to admit he does think the spy idea is pretty dope, though.  He could probably infiltrate the upper class girls' school nearby -

Alex points out that it's cheating, the Schuyler sisters who come by from it every so often to 'help' would be happy to help him; Mulligan shrugs and says that taking advantage of your resources is how real spycraft works.

Washington works at the school.  Lafayette is his not-quite-son (not related, but his family's in France, and he stays at Washington's house) who is around a lot with no actual role.

Anyway.  Lol "I hate HS AUs" was not supposed to make me try to figure one out.

[multsicorn]

also i just had the stupidest King George = evil leader of evil show choir made of zombies/robots/etc. controlled by his force of will alone vs. the EVERYONE CAN BE THEMSELVES SHow CHOIR OF ~FREEDOM~ idea pop into my head

[multsicorn]

Random thoughts re: Modern AUs.  (Or the 'complete' vs 'coin flip' type of AU overall, possibly.)

I've had a general bias against them for as long as I've seen them around.  Keep the setting! I say - or, at least, keep as close to it as you can!  But the more favorite fics I amass that are 'total AU' types, the more I come back to that thinking to try to figure out.  What makes some 'modern AUs' work for me when most don't - because it's not just 'written well'…

I think, re: Hamilton anyway, I'm actually fine with an AU that's mostly about the characters' personal and romantic lives.  I don't need any more of a plot - it can be nice, if it's done well, but it can be a liability too.  But what I do need is the sense that whatever they're working on, however backgrounded or foregrounded it is, is something important.  Which is to say - they can be working in politics, as lawyers or similar, in journalism… they can be students!  (Many of them were, for a time; the girls weren't allowed to be….)  They can be, idk, baristas!  Sure.  But these are 'the hungriest brothers' (and sisters) - that fact is essential to who they are (well, to me) - and if they're not working on something important, cause they're not in a position to, then they're working on trying to get into that position.  ('They' is maybe 'Ham' most of all, but I think it applies significantly to almost everyone.)

In other words: the internal politics of clubs, schools, or workplaces are not a convincing emotional substitute for 'the actual government of a country.'  (Is injustice in, say, a school administration sometimes bigger than an internal issue?  Yep.  And if it is, if these kids are on the case, they're gonna take it as big as they can.)

[multsicorn]

random thoughts on james madison

(still Ham-centric. but more political than not, for once!)

Founding Brothers!  What do I take away.

Madison was Jefferson's hype man, but he was so much more.  I have no quarrel with how he's represented in Hamilton - that's the most significant role he played from a Hamilton-centric view of history - or, Hamilton's-life-centric, I should say.  And even there, the change from coauthor of the Federalist Papers to Number Two of the Democratic Republican party clearly is a thing happens, we just don't see when and how.

So one of the things I learned from this book is that Madison split from Hamilton not over federal assumption of state debts, but over the discrimination issue.  And honestly, I see where he's coming from there.  Like, Hamilton's right on a practical level, paying off our debts as written is absolutely required if we want the rest of the world to see and treat us as a real country.  And also on a practical level, differentiating between speculating and any more legitimate transfer of debts held is simply impossible.  But on a moral level….

My sentiments are with Madison, outraged that people who bought IOUs from Revolutionary veterans for pennies on the dollar are getting rich, while the soldiers never really get paid for their service.  Now I give Hamilton personally back a lot of sympathy here, because he fought in the war - without pay! - while Madison DID NOT, much as he's claiming to speak on behalf of the soldiers after the fact.  But then again… I thing this is the sort of issue where even though I agree with Hamilton's decision, if I had been there, my feelings would depend just as much on how he framed it.  If he agreed that paying back speculators was a deeply regrettable and unfair but necessary thing - I would keep my respect for him, even if I fought back.  (And we have to remember, when we talk about anti-government sentiment in the 1790s, these people just fought a revolution! - what makes one government different from the next? - that's a question they're still working on).  But if Hamilton didn't sufficiently admit the cost of not discriminating between these debts… I could see how that could end a working friendship.  Thus making the party gap to come much easier.

(And another thing about Madison?  He was a theoretician at heart.  Of course I can see that first hand from his Federalist Papers.  And I can also see how that would bring him closer to Jefferson - that was something they had in common, in addition to coming from Virginia (and that planter aristocrat class) - and something that they didn't share with the most famous Virginian, Washington.)

[r-e-d-says]

Jan. 17/2016 - 2

I - "I'm allergies and a heart of gold!" R - "Now that's what you put on tindr"

[ploofypuff-blog]

Me: we go together so good.

Mac: like eggs with more eggs

[r-e-d-says]

Jan. 17/2016

*on being friends with The Rock* Me - "Yeah, well, his friends call him Dwayne..." R - "Well, I call him D-Money... But he's asked me stop... Repeatedly."