Macaroni and Poison

(This is a WIP! Let me know if you can fill in any of this missing info - will credit)

1. The Collapse of Nature

There are many references to “collapse of nature” by other people citing Haraway, but I haven’t landed on one that I think fits.

2. Transgressive Border Crossing

Transgressive border-crossing pollutes lineages—in a transgenic organism’s case, the lineage of nature itself—transforming nature into its binary opposite, culture. 

(from Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium. FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse™ by Donna Haraway)

3. The Stigmata of Progress

4. From Instinct to Rational Control

Culture accounted for actual observed predominance of male leaders. But the association of ‘leadership’ and biological dominance was considered natural. Yerkes *was liberal-to-moderate on the sex role controversies of the day and made clear his opinion that human females should have greater ‘opportunity’ than allowed by tradition. The issue here is not whether Yerkes or other spokespeople for comparative psychobiology were or were not liberals in their own time, but the logic of naturalization of the issues in terms of hierarchy from instincts to rational control, through personality and associated educational and medical therapies. 

(from “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

5. Human Raw Material

Engineering meant rational placement and modification of human raw material — in the common interest of organism, family, culture, society, and industry.

(from “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

6. The Scandal of Altruism

(from “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

7. The Antisocialism of Sex

Sex is an antisocial force in evolution.

(from Sociobiology: The New Synthesis by E.O. Wilson**; cited in “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” from Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

8. The Redesign of Natural Objects

Science has constructed nature as a category facilitating redesign of natural objects, including society.

(from “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

9. The Mitigation of Competition

What had to be managed were organic life, instinct, sex. At the top of the organism-pyramid was mind, permitting altruism to mitigate the excesses of competition.

(from “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

10. From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths

On a wider level, Yerkes* worked to establish the utility of primates for interpreting the place of human beings in scientifically managed corporate capitalism — called nature. His investigations in mental and sexual psychobiology included designing tests for all aspects of mental functions in organisms ranging from daphnia and dancing mice to psychopaths, soldiers, and corporate managers.

(from “The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind, and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women by Donna Haraway)

*Yerkes is a psychologist from the early 1900s known for his work on intelligence tests (and for his support of eugenics). 

Daughter - Still

Marchesa

“Congratulations” is a cut song from Hamilton about Angelica’s reaction to the Reynolds Pamphlet. I’d like to embed Renee Elise Goldberry singing it off-Broadway here, but the fact that it was so tricky to track down makes me suspect that I’d get in trouble with Lin’s lawyers, so I’ll just link the Genius lyrics page. (It’s out there if you look hard enough; if you can’t find it, I guess make friends with me.)

I believe this song is indispensable to Hamilton on a couple of levels and should not have been cut. It addresses two major issues I had with the musical before I learned about the song, and those issues did affect my initial enjoyment. I now have it in my Hamilton playlist at the appropriate point, and I consider it canon; I wish everyone else did, too. Here’s why.

I. “Congratulations” is necessary for Angelica’s character.

Early on in my Hamilton obsession, I only had one real complaint: Angelica never got to square off with Hamilton the way every other character on his level did. Sure, she said she did–so so so so this is what it’s like to match wits–but there was no actual wit-matching. There was no real interplay between the characters, and it has long been my firm opinion that the relationship between them could have been massively improved by even a couple of lines in the vein of “Aaron Burr, Sir” during “Satisfied”–perhaps instead of the pointless repetition of “there’s a million things I haven’t done but just you wait, just you wait.”

There are two styles of language in Hamilton: casual modern vernacular, and a modern-tinged facade of period-appropriate language generally used to denote formality. All the interactions between Hamilton and Angelica are of the latter category; it’s all “*gasp* you forget yourself” when they meet, and then there are the letters in “Take A Break.” She has a great rap in “Satisfied,” but that’s all introspection, not interaction. For her character to work, Angelica needs to take on Hamilton in the verse-spitting, syllable-hurling style that everyone else he debates gets to use. “Congratulations” fills that hole.

II. “Congratulations” is necessary to the plot of Hamilton.

Hamilton in its current incarnation doesn’t sufficiently address how fucking dumb it was for Hamilton to publish his affair. “The Reynolds Pamphlet” has a line about him ruining his own life, and “Burn” has a couple lines about the tradeoff he’s made, but both of them imply that he got something out of this. “He will do what it takes to survive” and “in clearing your name you have ruined our lives,” in particular, convey that he accomplished what he set out to do–sure, he fucked up his personal life, but he got something out of it professionally.

“Congratulations,” on the other hand, calls him out. Angelica tells him exactly how stupid he’s been: a damage-you-can-never-undo kind of stupid, an open-all-the-cages-in-the-zoo kind of stupid. That lends context to the wide-reaching social implications of the Reynolds Pamphlet, and strengthens one of the musical’s most prominent themes in the contrast between Hamilton and Burr by articulating the foolhardiness of Hamilton’s actions. 

III. “Congratulations” is less expendable than other songs that stayed in the score.

All three instances of “The Story of Tonight” (the first one when Hamilton meets his crew, the reprise after the wedding, and the background music during Laurens’ death scene) could have been cut. The second reprise of “You’ll Be Back” was not necessary. “It’s Quiet Uptown” is the Philip Hamilton equivalent of that cut song about Washington’s death–it’s redundant after the “Stay Alive” reprise. “Non-Stop” does not need to be six and a half minutes long. “Say No To This” is also longer than it needs to be.