HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD by J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne (2016)

“The best bits of you are -- have always been -- heroic in really quiet ways.”

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE

Disclaimer: This review is constructed upon my personal reaction to the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My defining feature has always been my love of Harry Potter. It’s my opening line at parties: “Hi, I’m Sarah, I love Harry Potter”. Harry Potter is my thing, my pride and joy, the book series I would take with me if I were stranded on a desert island; I feel like a sham when I can’t remember a piece of Harry Potter trivia, and honestly, the last time I couldn’t remember a piece of Harry Potter trivia was probably about ten years ago. (It was last week. I’ve been trying to block it out of my memory.) My brother and I have Harry Potter quote-offs on long car rides. The only jewellery I own (that I regularly wear) is Harry Potter-related. I own three copies of The Philosopher’s Stone, my 18th birthday present was this edition of the boxset, and I plan on walking down the aisle to Hedwig’s theme. Not to brag or anything, but I’m pretty sure there is not a single person who ever has or ever could love Harry Potter more than me. It’s a very illicit love story, to say the least. Naturally, when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was announced -- first as a stage play, then as a script book -- I was over the moon. I preordered the script book immediately, and when it finally arrived this morning (eleven days late, much to my disgust), I sat down and read this coveted continuation of my beloved Harry Potter world is one three-hour sitting (punctuated only by frantic, emotional Snapchats to my friend Kelsey, who probably laughed at me the entire time. God love her.). Only a week and a half after literally everyone else, I finally read The Cursed Child!

… and I didn’t like it that much?

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child reminded me of Go Set a Watchman. I defended the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird to my dying breath when I reviewed it last August, but in hindsight, what I really loved about it was the nostalgia it brought me and the themes it portrayed, not the actual storyline or content itself. The exact same applies to The Cursed Child. The play was definitely an…. emotional….. experience, and a big chunk of what I liked about it was getting to peek into the world I love so much from a new perspective, twenty-odd years since our last look into the Wizarding World. For me, a fundamentally nostalgic person, getting to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione as adults was especially moving. The themes of legacy and isolation and trying to find your own identity were also super interesting -- considering, ironically, the legacy The Cursed Child has to build on, I felt that the themes in the story established themselves really strongly. From the beginning, these things struck me about the play, and so I set off thinking I would be as fully impressed all the way through to the end.

But. But but but. While I genuinely did enjoy the reading experience, and while there were a lot of elements that I thought were incredibly well-done, I cannot honestly say that The Cursed Child is a faithful, or even a very good, continuation of the Harry Potter series. Now, I know it was written by a different person. I know all JK Rowling did was approve the script. That didn’t, however, stop me from going into the play hoping to find a perfectly executed sequel of the canonical world to which my entire life and soul are dedicated, and that didn’t stop me from being pretty disappointed -- and honestly, faintly offended -- when it wasn’t. In fact, in my head, the play has already almost completely alienated itself from the canon, which is kind of sad, because it is part of the canon, and I really want to naturally accept it into my perfect little Harry Potter world, but there was just so much going on that grated against what I know and love about the wizarding world. I read one review that called The Cursed Child “high-end fanfiction”, and at the time, I arrogantly brushed this off as complete rubbish, but I’ve since come to accept that epithet, because aside from the fact that “high-end fanfiction” is technically what The Cursed Child actually is, it’s also exactly what it felt like: high-end, not particularly faithful fanfiction written by someone who hadn’t read the books as many times as me. There were just so many tiny little errors that I picked up while reading, minor details that, to Jack Thorne, probably didn’t feel significant, and honestly really aren’t, but they just look so out of place against the backdrop of this familiar world. I also found a lot of the major plot points extremely far-fetched. Like, just completely and utterly ludicrous. There was one in particular that, after telling my mom about it, I just said, “No, it’s too stupid. I don’t buy it.” I couldn’t believe some of the things JK Rowling apparently approved. I’m not going to go into detail because I want to keep this spoiler-free, but Christine Riccio summed up pretty much all my thoughts on some of the ridiculous plot points in her book talk, if you want to get down and dirty with the details.

In the end, if I’m being completely honest, I did like The Cursed Child. It was fun and whimsical and often a little silly, but it was also really dark and spooky and heavy -- the sadder, more thematically gruesome parts of the book were definitely my favourites to read. Despite my mind telling me that it’s more of a 3-star book, I’m probably going to follow my heart and give it 4 stars, anyway, because my Harry Potter megafan heart just can’t stand to give it anything less. If there’s one thing I’ll give to The Cursed Child and Jack Thorne, it’s that the play feels very earnest. No matter how negligent to detail and faithfulness the play may feel to me, I do truly believe that Jack Thorne really and genuinely cared about creating this story and getting it (somewhat) right. Unlike Suicide Squad, which was already bad but felt even worse because I could tell how little Warner Brothers valued my attention (but that’s a rant for another time), The Cursed Child felt as if it cared about me, if that makes sense. It felt as if Jack Thorne knew that my attention is a valuable asset that he has to fight a million other things for, and this, at least, I admired about the play: it really was trying it’s best. Sometimes, however, trying your best is not enough.

(If you’re wondering where the ‘my attention is an invaluable asset’ spiel came from, it was inspired by this Bo Burnham skit. I know what you’re thinking: when does this bitch not quote Bo Burnham? To which my response is this: I’m predictable! Deal with it! At least I own that shit!)  

How do you write like you need it to survive?: A love letter to Lin-Manuel Miranda

"And when my prayers to God were met with indifference / I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance." -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hurricane

Disclaimer: This review is constructed upon my personal reaction to the musical. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I would also like to point out that this review is not historically informed. All opinions have been formed based on my interpretation of Miranda's Alexander Hamilton character. 

Unsurprisingly, the people to whom I most look up are writers. By extension, I love writing that is about writers. I love books about writers, movies about writers, TV shows about writers -- and, as of recently, musicals about writers. Because that's what Hamilton: An American Musical is all about: Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant, a Founding Father, and a political genius, but most importantly, a writer. When I first listened to Hamilton, I did it because I love history and I love musicals, yet it’s not this that now has me willing to commit unquestioned first-degree murder for Hamilton’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda: it’s the writing. Miranda’s lyrical genius, Hamilton’s legendary writing ability, the musical’s celebration of the power of words; I’m a sucker for it all.

Lin-Manuel Miranda became my favourite writer after his commencement speech at UPenn in May, in which he talks about stories and the choices we make while telling them. While I loved what he said, what really attracted me was the way in which he said it. Miranda has a stunning talent for choosing and putting words together “in a really specific order”, and Hamilton was a constant case of, “That’s such a great line -- I wish I’d been responsible for it”. You can tell how joyful Miranda is about writing, how eager he is to make wonderful things with words. How does he write like he’s running out of time? How does he write like he needs it to survive? How does he write every second he’s alive? His respect and care for the craft are truly something else.

What I find fascinating about Hamilton is that Miranda chose not to attack his Grammy, Tony Award, and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical as a simple showcase of historical events, but rather to present it as the story of a man who loved to write. Alexander Hamilton was a revolutionary in the obvious political sense, but he also revolutionised the way in which words could be used to make change. Even as a kid, Hamilton was using words to get places; Miranda explains, “after a hurricane destroys the island [Hamilton] was from, he wrote a poem about the wreckage; consequently, wealthy people on the island recognized how good the poem was and were like: let’s get this kid an education”. Writing became Hamilton’s weapon of choice, something the song Hurricane articulates best:

I wrote my way out of hell / I wrote my way to revolution / I was louder than the crack in the bell / I wrote Eliza love letters until she fell / I wrote about The Constitution and defended it well / And in the face of ignorance and resistance / I wrote financial systems into existence / And when my prayers to God were met with indifference / I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance…

I would give my right arm to have written that last couplet myself, but I digress. Hamilton emphasises Hamilton’s proficiency and prolificity, but it also pays homage to Hamilton’s depence on his abilities. Non-Stop chronicles Hamilton’s six-hour speech at the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the 51 essays he contributed to the Federalist Papers; The Reynolds Pamphlet cuts Hamilton’s 90-page-essay defending his extramarital affair with Maria Reynolds down to a two-minute trap song; Burn describes how Hamilton initially seduced his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton:

You and your words flooded my senses / Your sentences left me defenseless / You built me palaces out of paragraphs / You built cathedrals…

But it’s this lyric from Hurricane that embodies how desperately Hamilton clung to his ability to write:

I’ll write my way out / Overwhelm them with honesty / This is the eye of the hurricane, this is the only / Way I can protect my legacy…

Writing was the only way he could protect his legacy, but writing destroyed it, too -- “this is a guy who wrote his way out of his circumstances, wrote his way into power, and also wrote his way to ruin”. Hamilton published the Reynolds Pamphlet hoping it would save his political career, but in clearing his name, Hamilton also ruined his life.¹ His greatest skill ended up being his greatest weakness, captured in this parallel lyric from Burn:

You and your words, obsessed with your legacy / Your sentences border on senseless / And you are paranoid in every paragraph / How they perceive you…

Finally, writing wasn’t enough. Hamilton’s follies, the pamphlets he published hoping to protect his legacy, instead erased it from history, reducing him to nothing but the man on the ten-dollar bill.

Hamilton: An American Musical is about writing, but it’s mostly about words. When we analyse the foundations of American constitutionalism, we can see Hamilton’s lasting influence on contemporary politics, yet we rarely acknowledge it, because even though he wrote himself into power, he also wrote himself out of it; he unintentionally erased himself from the narrative. His success can be attributed to his penmanship, but his fall from grace, and even his death, are also direct consequences of it.² When he used words wisely, the heights he could reach were limitless, but when he was reckless, when he expected words to fix everything just because he wrote them, the mark he had made on the world stayed, but his name in the credits disappeared.

200 years after his death, Hamilton has finally reemerged into the cultural spotlight; because of Lin-Manuel Miranda, we have entered a long-overdue Alexander Hamilton renaissance. To a backdrop of contemporary music, Miranda has done exactly what Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton worked tirelessly to do for the rest of her life after her husband’s death: eloquently, exquisitely, inarguably, Lin has written Alexander Hamilton back into the narrative. In showcasing the mark Hamilton made on the world, Lin has left a mark on the world himself, and that is why Lin-Manuel Miranda is my favourite writer; that is why I can’t get all my favourite Hamilton songs out of my head. When we write, we have the power to change the world. I’m so glad Lin is out there, using words to make his mark just like Alex did.

WORKS CITED

ARTICLES/WEBPAGES

• “A letter from Alexander Hamilton Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams ESQ.” Conservapedia: The Trustworthy Encyclopedia. 12 July 2016. Web. 30 July 2016.
• Federici, Michael. "The Legacy of Alexander Hamilton." The Imaginative Conservative. N.p., 12 July 2012. Web. 30 July 2016.
• "“Jefferson Is in Every View Less Dangerous than Burr”: Hamilton on the Election of 1800." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2016.
• Miranda, Lin-Manuel. "Lin-Manuel Miranda -- Hurricane Lyrics." Genius. N.p., 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 26 July 2016. Quote cited is from an annotation Miranda added to the lyric sheet.
• Prokop, Andrew. "The Reynolds Pamphlet, Explained: Why Alexander Hamilton Printed His Sex Scandal's Details." Vox. N.p., 28 Dec. 2015. Web. 30 July 2016.
• "The Life and Legacy of Alexander Hamilton." The Life and Legacy of Alexander Hamilton. Social Studies for Kids, n.d. Web. 30 July 2016.
• Sumarsono, Jacklyn. "The Legacy of Alexander Hamilton." Prezi. Prezi, 10 June 2016. Web. 30 July 2016.

SONGS

• Miranda, Lin-Manuel, Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Hurricane. Original Broadway Cast of Album. Alex Lacamoire, 2015. MP3.
• Miranda, Lin-Manuel., Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos, Christopher Jackson, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Alex Lacamoire, 2015. MP3.
• Odom, Leslie, Jr., Lin-Manuel Miranda, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson, and Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Non-Stop. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Alex Lacamoire, 2015. MP3.
• Odom, Leslie, Jr., Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. A Winter’s Ball. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Alex Lacamoire, 2015.
• Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Alex Lacamoire, 2015. MP3.
• Soo, Phillipa. Burn. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton. Alex Lacamoire, 2015. MP3.

WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES

• "Alexander Hamilton." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 1 August 2016. Web. 2 August 2016.
• “Constitutional Convention (United States).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 July 2016. Web. 30 July 2016.
• “Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 29 July 2016. Web. 30 July 2016.
• “The Federalist Papers.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 25 July 2016. Web. 30 July 2016.
• “Hamilton-Reynolds sex scandal.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 28 July 2016. Web. 30 July 2016.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

• Deena Wawer. “The Making of the Hamilton Cast Album.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 3 June 2016. Web. 23 July 2016.
• Totally Emma Watson. “Emma Watson interviews Lin-Manuel Miranda for HeForShe Arts Week.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 17 March 2016. Web. 23 July 2016.
• University of Pennsylvania. “Penn's 2016 Commencement Ceremony- Commencement Speaker Lin-Manuel Miranda.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 16 May 2016. Web. 22 July 2016.

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1 There is actually a slight chronological error in Hamilton; the document that really ruined Hamilton’s reputation was the Adams Pamphlet, in which Hamilton committed what is widely regarded by historians as political suicide by publicly criticising President John Adams, “the only other significant member” of the Federalist Party. Hamilton published the Adams Pamphlet after the Reynolds Pamphlet, but Miranda exercised his artistic license to flip the chronology. ^↩
2 Historically, in the presidential election of 1804, Hamilton had to chose between Thomas Jefferson, a direct rival whose principles directly opposed his own, and Aaron Burr, an estranged friend, but a man with, seemingly, no principles at all. In the end, Hamilton wrote a series of letters in which he endorsed Jefferson, enraging Burr. The final straw was Hamilton’s crusade against Burr’s campaign for governor of New York, as he claimed Burr to be unworthy of the position. Incensed, Burr challenged Hamilton to the duel that would end the latter’s life. Miranda chose to leave the spat over the governor position out of Hamilton, and have Burr challenge Hamilton to the duel after the snub in the 1801 election. ^↩