an overly enthusiastic fangirl

2/6 BOOK SERIES AS VOTED BY OUR FOLLOWERS — The Raven Cycle

Hamilton is fanfic, which means its function is partly to argue with its canon, not to simply celebrate it

Miranda’s musical is fanfiction — that is, it’s literally a creative text written by a fan that reinterprets or expands upon a previously existing source material, or canon. More specifically, Hamilton is a fanfic of Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, and more generally of US history itself. Here are a few structural elements that Miranda uses in order to create the uniqueness of Hamilton that are crucial, common elements of much contemporary fanfic:

Alternate Universe (AU) — a type of fanfic that changes something crucial about the original story or source material

Racebending — the act of changing a character's race or ethnicity to make the character part of an underrepresented cultural community, in turn creating a role for an actor from that community

The Modern AU — an AU that removes characters and/or plots from their original context in the past and brings them into the present

The Political AU — an AU that puts the original characters and/or plots into a different or new political context

The Crossover — a fanfic that combines elements of two or more fandoms

In many ways, Hamilton is an extremely typical fanfic. It’s simultaneously an alternate version of American history and a modern political AU in which none of the Founding Fathers are white and everything happens in a blurred temporality that could be modern-day America.

This is one reason why the question of historical authenticity is a derailment of the argument Hamilton is making. The musical isn’t about what Hamilton, the historical figure, was or was not; any critique that views it from this angle is missing the entire point.

Hamilton the musical has as much to do with Hamilton the dead white Founding Father as Hamilton the dead white Founding Father has to do with Eminem and Sweeney Todd — the two characters on which Miranda explicitly bases his version of Hamilton. Here's a Tumblr post celebrating the musical theater characters and hip-hop legends that Miranda combined in order to create the characters from Hamilton, according to Miranda's descriptions of them in his now-famous original casting notices:

In fandom terms, these amalgams are known as a "crossover," the union of unlikely story elements or character traits that work surprisingly well together. Hamilton is also a racebent text, meaning it takes preexisting characters — real people, in this case — and swaps either their racial identities or their ethnic backgrounds so they can be played by people of color.

Racebending is a concept that has existed in fandom since long before Hamilton, in both a pejorative sense, as when roles are whitewashed, and a positive sense, as when they’re reclaimed for marginalized identities. Racebending most often occurs in fanart, as fandom’s most immediately visual medium, but it’s often found in fanfic too. It’s usually an intentionally political statement, but just as often it becomes political without meaning to be.

In Hamilton’s case, the intent is overtly political. The musical announces its aim to destroy: "I’m passionately smashing every expectation / every action’s an act of creation." In other words, like all good fanfic, Hamilton is confident that far from being illegal plagiarism, a charge constantly leveled at its amateur fellows, it’s quite the opposite: It knows it's not a tawdry, derivative copy, but rather a transformative work.

In many ways, Hamilton is an extremely typical fanfic

Like countless fanfic writers before him, Miranda clearly loves his canon, but he expresses that love by tearing the canon to pieces. Like countless fanfic writers before him, he remains as close to the letter of authenticity as possible while also completely deconstructing the worldview he’s been given. Miranda uses his text to not only have fun with and celebrate US history but to critique everything about that history — something his perspective as the son of American immigrants writing about another American immigrant puts him in a unique position to do.

Draco & Hermione get paired up for Potions

Chains by Aneiria

Written for the Dramione Height Difference Mini Fest

‘Draco,’ Hermione crooned, making her voice sound as soothing as possible.

She reached up to wrap her hands in his soft blond hair, tugging firmly to try and force him to look down at her. His hands were holding her tight around her waist, almost meeting around her middle, but he looked over her head to where the Ministry official was now lying sprawled on his back.

‘Look at me, Draco,’ she tried again, tugging his hair harder.

Finally he tore his eyes away and looked down at her, still breathing heavily. Hermione gasped when she saw the usual silver of his irises had brightened to an ethereal blue, his pupils narrowed into elongated slits.

‘Oh, Draco…’ she breathed, concern building in her as she reached up to stroke his cheek. Draco purred and rubbed his face against her palm. ‘We need to get you home.’

Offense x Defense Fighting with the Light side

“ I want no ordinary lover. I want a fucking storm. I want sleepless nights and endless conversations at 4am. I want passion, I want madness. I want someone who’s able to make my whole body shiver from a distance and also pull me close to make sense of all my bones. ” (x)

Draco & Hermione

As usual, I post every 2 decades… my one true pairing since childhood, never gets old :B