I feel like Scout and Jem at the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, arguing over how and when everything really began. I suppose the argument could be made that this began early in high school, when all of a sudden going to America was a huge deal and everyone wanted to be American, and just…it was the craze. I, of course, saw the madness and decided I wanted nothing to do with it, and it must have been around the time I fell in love with Orlando Bloom, and so it wasn’t long before I became an Anglophile (see here). As I grew older, I also firmly decided that if everyone was going to exalt America so much, I would do the opposite and so I became a snob and scorned everything American—including the literature and history. I couldn’t care less. In my opinion, it was not worth reading about. (I'm cringing as I type this.)
So I spent all my years disdaining America, and then my father married an American and suddenly I had American family and it seemed more plausible that I would study there than in London. Which is what happened. And I was fine and loved it. Still firmly believed American literature and history was tosh, mind you. I took a few American lit classes because they were required, but mostly studied British literature and history.
Then in Fall 2015 I had to take an Intro to Literary Studies class, taught by one of my favourite professors, where our main text was Moby Dick. I barely made it through that book, though I absolutely loved the plot.
Way back in January, I began a book called In the Heart of the Sea, which was about the whaleship Essex that Herman Melville had based his novel on. It took me almost all month to get through the first couple of chapters. I was ready to give up and just return the book to my friend, when the ship left Nantucket and the action picked up. And it only got better. I finished the book in less than a week. It also left me desperate to learn more about whaling and the Essex and Nantucket, and since I couldn’t possibly afford to actually go to Nantucket, I did the next best thing—found a book about the history of the island. By the time I finished that, I’d realised that my education had a rather large number of gaping holes in it. I needed to read American Literature.
Around the time I was feverishly reading ItHotS, the Grammy Awards happened. The winner of one of the awards was the Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Grammys also streamed the live performance of the opening number, “Alexander Hamilton”, and it was exceptional. I enjoyed every moment of it, and then never really thought about it again. After I finished the book on Nantucket, I fell ill and missed a week of college. Over this week, once I’d gotten over my “dying” phase, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about how much I’d liked the opening number of Hamilton and how everyone had told me the entire soundtrack was absolutely phenomenal and I should listen to it. So once I was better, I downloaded and listened to it.
That was maybe two and a half weeks ago. I haven’t been able to listen to anything else ever since. If you haven't heard it, please do. It is life-giving and life-changing.
Aside from being truly and absolutely phenomenal, the Hamilton soundtrack also filled me with this unquenchable thirst for knowledge of American history. I barely knew anything. An elementary-school child would probably definitely know more than me. To be fair, we never studied much American history in school, but I never sought it out on my own either. Listening to this musical has made me realise that this period is actually super-fascinating, and I want to know more.
So, the combined effect of In the Heart of the Sea and Hamilton was that I now cursed myself for not taking more AmLit and American History classes while I could. I graduate in May, and even though I’m doing grad school, it’s for Publishing—there won’t be any more lit or history classes. But thirst needs to be quenched, and so I came up with my own solution: independent self-study. I asked a friend who knew a fair bit about the Revolution for book recommendations to get me started, and I set up a meeting with my AmLit professor to ask her about literature. I basically want to read it all.
However, I draw the line at the turn of the century. The Pilgrims, Settlers, Colonies, Revolution, Slavery, Civil War—that’s where I stop. After the Civil War, I lose interest. Everything starts moving towards modern times, and I really don’t want to read about that. I end with the 19th century. That's quite a lot to get through anyway.
So now, in addition to my regular class readings, I also have my self-assigned readings on American history and from AmLit. It’s going to take me a while to get through these books, because I have school to contend with on the side. But it’s going to happen. And to make sure it does, I’m going to chronicle it here. As I finish a book, I will write a post reviewing what I read. This way I read and write! Oh, joy!
High-school me would be horrified at this change of heart, but oh! I have so much I want to tell that me. I missed out on so much learning, thanks to my stubbornness. I have no one else to blame here, but myself. Nathaniel Philbrick, Lin-Manuel Miranda—thank you.
This is my American Experiment.
So I spent all my years disdaining America, and then my father married an American and suddenly I had American family and it seemed more plausible that I would study there than in London. Which is what happened. And I was fine and loved it. Still firmly believed American literature and history was tosh, mind you. I took a few American lit classes because they were required, but mostly studied British literature and history.
Then in Fall 2015 I had to take an Intro to Literary Studies class, taught by one of my favourite professors, where our main text was Moby Dick. I barely made it through that book, though I absolutely loved the plot.
Way back in January, I began a book called In the Heart of the Sea, which was about the whaleship Essex that Herman Melville had based his novel on. It took me almost all month to get through the first couple of chapters. I was ready to give up and just return the book to my friend, when the ship left Nantucket and the action picked up. And it only got better. I finished the book in less than a week. It also left me desperate to learn more about whaling and the Essex and Nantucket, and since I couldn’t possibly afford to actually go to Nantucket, I did the next best thing—found a book about the history of the island. By the time I finished that, I’d realised that my education had a rather large number of gaping holes in it. I needed to read American Literature.
Around the time I was feverishly reading ItHotS, the Grammy Awards happened. The winner of one of the awards was the Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Grammys also streamed the live performance of the opening number, “Alexander Hamilton”, and it was exceptional. I enjoyed every moment of it, and then never really thought about it again. After I finished the book on Nantucket, I fell ill and missed a week of college. Over this week, once I’d gotten over my “dying” phase, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about how much I’d liked the opening number of Hamilton and how everyone had told me the entire soundtrack was absolutely phenomenal and I should listen to it. So once I was better, I downloaded and listened to it.
That was maybe two and a half weeks ago. I haven’t been able to listen to anything else ever since. If you haven't heard it, please do. It is life-giving and life-changing.
Aside from being truly and absolutely phenomenal, the Hamilton soundtrack also filled me with this unquenchable thirst for knowledge of American history. I barely knew anything. An elementary-school child would probably definitely know more than me. To be fair, we never studied much American history in school, but I never sought it out on my own either. Listening to this musical has made me realise that this period is actually super-fascinating, and I want to know more.
So, the combined effect of In the Heart of the Sea and Hamilton was that I now cursed myself for not taking more AmLit and American History classes while I could. I graduate in May, and even though I’m doing grad school, it’s for Publishing—there won’t be any more lit or history classes. But thirst needs to be quenched, and so I came up with my own solution: independent self-study. I asked a friend who knew a fair bit about the Revolution for book recommendations to get me started, and I set up a meeting with my AmLit professor to ask her about literature. I basically want to read it all.
However, I draw the line at the turn of the century. The Pilgrims, Settlers, Colonies, Revolution, Slavery, Civil War—that’s where I stop. After the Civil War, I lose interest. Everything starts moving towards modern times, and I really don’t want to read about that. I end with the 19th century. That's quite a lot to get through anyway.
So now, in addition to my regular class readings, I also have my self-assigned readings on American history and from AmLit. It’s going to take me a while to get through these books, because I have school to contend with on the side. But it’s going to happen. And to make sure it does, I’m going to chronicle it here. As I finish a book, I will write a post reviewing what I read. This way I read and write! Oh, joy!
High-school me would be horrified at this change of heart, but oh! I have so much I want to tell that me. I missed out on so much learning, thanks to my stubbornness. I have no one else to blame here, but myself. Nathaniel Philbrick, Lin-Manuel Miranda—thank you.
This is my American Experiment.
(Oh, the irony that this is the post after my declaration of love for England...)
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