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Mar. 13th, 2016 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThanks entirely to rachelmanija (well, and tumblr, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom, Jr.; plenty of blame to go around) I just finished reading Volume 1 of The Private Journals of Aaron Burr.
Aaron Burr is, it turns out, a distressingly relatable historical figure. The journal is written while he's in Europe, after having a.) shot Alexander Hamilton b.) attempted to become Emperor of Mexico c.) been tried for treason and d.) been branded a Dangerous Person in just about every part of American and western Europe. Almost none of this is ever referenced in the journal, in which Burr -- fleeing from country to country throughout Europe -- spends most of his time losing his luggage, getting lost, oversleeping and missing appointments, accidentally staying up too late reading trashy literature instead of being productive, misspelling words in foreign languages, and trying (and failing) to stop drinking caffeine. Those of you who check out the Hamilton tags on Tumblr have probably already seen The Zit Saga, The Bedbug Saga, and The Time Burr Accidentally Set Himself On Fire, all of which is fairly representative #tormentsofaaronburr. At one point he is literally put in prison, and what does he worry about? "The only thing that disturbed me was some apprehension about my papers. They have got everything. No plots or treasons, to be sure, but, what is worse, all my ridiculous Journal" -- and, I mean, if I were Burr, and I had just recorded The Zit Saga, I wouldn't want the police getting their hands on it either! Possibly my favorite quote in the whole thing is when Aaron Burr, a 53-year-old former Vice President, after a day of getting lost and spending money stupidly, complains "I want a guardian more than at 15" -- i.e. "HELP, I NEED AN ADULT."
(As various people have noted, Historical Hot Mess Burr does not appear to have a LOT in common with Aaron "Talk Less, Smile More; I Am The One Thing In Life I Can Control" Burr from Hamilton. However, I have to admit, I get about 10x as much delight in Hamilton's Burr -- and I already got a LOT of delight in Hamilton's Burr -- when I imagine that the whole REASON he has adopted his policy of Constant Outer Smoothness is because on the inside he's constantly panicking over having accidentally left all his important documents for a meeting in his other coat.)
The journals are addressed to Burr's daughter Theodosia, and meant to be an amusing record for her of his adventures. Burr's editor does some scandalized pearl-clutching about this fact -- "it is simply inconceivable that a father who loved and respected a daughter as Burr loved and respected Theodosia could have written for her perusal many of the things contained in his journal!" says the introduction -- because Burr also uses the journals as a way of keeping track of the money he is spending unwisely on everything, including Amorous Adventures, of which there are MANY. Aaron Burr appears to be of the firm belief that if someone solicits you for sex, it's extremely rude to turn them down: "In the evening, to my great surprise, and uninvited, tapped gently at my door Tempe. You know I never disappoint people if I can help it and so T. was not dismissed; 4 rix dollars."
This is a fairly representative sample, except usually he writes about his Amorous Adventures in bad abbreviated French, which his poor editor then has to crankily decipher.rachelmanija has recorded the poor editor's process of losing his mind over Burr's terrible spelling, handwriting, and personal habits up here. It is HIGHLY WORTH A READ. Rachel is generally doing a bang-up job collecting all the funniest parts of the journal, so for more details please go over there.
That said, there are other parts when I find myself having some genuine human non-hilarity feelings about old Aaron Burr, mostly because, whatever else you can say about him as a person, the way he writes to his daughter in the journals is flat-out adorable and also deeply sad, because he misses her so much! Imaginary Theodosia is his conscience and his confidante, and he's clearly having a constant conversation with her in his head. The one thing he totes with him all over Europe is Theodosia's portrait; he buttonholes everybody he can find and makes them admire it, and gets incredibly cranky if they don't compliment it loudly enough. He's 100% one of those dads -- which is funny, but also incredibly sad when you know that Theodosia is actually going to die en route to see him before they ever meet again! "Passed an hour looking at your picture," Burr writes, at one point. "I was exceedingly struck and alarmed to see it pale and faded. Why was not this perceivable before? Perhaps may arise from being placed among his portraits, which are very high coloured. Yet the impression that it is faded is fixed on my mind, and has almost made me superstitious." GUYS, THIS IS NOT A LITERARY FORESHADOWING DEVICE. IT'S REAL PEOPLE AND I'M SAD. ;___;
rachelmanija (well, and tumblr, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom, Jr.; plenty of blame to go around) I just finished reading Volume 1 of The Private Journals of Aaron Burr. Aaron Burr is, it turns out, a distressingly relatable historical figure. The journal is written while he's in Europe, after having a.) shot Alexander Hamilton b.) attempted to become Emperor of Mexico c.) been tried for treason and d.) been branded a Dangerous Person in just about every part of American and western Europe. Almost none of this is ever referenced in the journal, in which Burr -- fleeing from country to country throughout Europe -- spends most of his time losing his luggage, getting lost, oversleeping and missing appointments, accidentally staying up too late reading trashy literature instead of being productive, misspelling words in foreign languages, and trying (and failing) to stop drinking caffeine. Those of you who check out the Hamilton tags on Tumblr have probably already seen The Zit Saga, The Bedbug Saga, and The Time Burr Accidentally Set Himself On Fire, all of which is fairly representative #tormentsofaaronburr. At one point he is literally put in prison, and what does he worry about? "The only thing that disturbed me was some apprehension about my papers. They have got everything. No plots or treasons, to be sure, but, what is worse, all my ridiculous Journal" -- and, I mean, if I were Burr, and I had just recorded The Zit Saga, I wouldn't want the police getting their hands on it either! Possibly my favorite quote in the whole thing is when Aaron Burr, a 53-year-old former Vice President, after a day of getting lost and spending money stupidly, complains "I want a guardian more than at 15" -- i.e. "HELP, I NEED AN ADULT."
(As various people have noted, Historical Hot Mess Burr does not appear to have a LOT in common with Aaron "Talk Less, Smile More; I Am The One Thing In Life I Can Control" Burr from Hamilton. However, I have to admit, I get about 10x as much delight in Hamilton's Burr -- and I already got a LOT of delight in Hamilton's Burr -- when I imagine that the whole REASON he has adopted his policy of Constant Outer Smoothness is because on the inside he's constantly panicking over having accidentally left all his important documents for a meeting in his other coat.)
The journals are addressed to Burr's daughter Theodosia, and meant to be an amusing record for her of his adventures. Burr's editor does some scandalized pearl-clutching about this fact -- "it is simply inconceivable that a father who loved and respected a daughter as Burr loved and respected Theodosia could have written for her perusal many of the things contained in his journal!" says the introduction -- because Burr also uses the journals as a way of keeping track of the money he is spending unwisely on everything, including Amorous Adventures, of which there are MANY. Aaron Burr appears to be of the firm belief that if someone solicits you for sex, it's extremely rude to turn them down: "In the evening, to my great surprise, and uninvited, tapped gently at my door Tempe. You know I never disappoint people if I can help it and so T. was not dismissed; 4 rix dollars."
This is a fairly representative sample, except usually he writes about his Amorous Adventures in bad abbreviated French, which his poor editor then has to crankily decipher.
rachelmanija has recorded the poor editor's process of losing his mind over Burr's terrible spelling, handwriting, and personal habits up here. It is HIGHLY WORTH A READ. Rachel is generally doing a bang-up job collecting all the funniest parts of the journal, so for more details please go over there.That said, there are other parts when I find myself having some genuine human non-hilarity feelings about old Aaron Burr, mostly because, whatever else you can say about him as a person, the way he writes to his daughter in the journals is flat-out adorable and also deeply sad, because he misses her so much! Imaginary Theodosia is his conscience and his confidante, and he's clearly having a constant conversation with her in his head. The one thing he totes with him all over Europe is Theodosia's portrait; he buttonholes everybody he can find and makes them admire it, and gets incredibly cranky if they don't compliment it loudly enough. He's 100% one of those dads -- which is funny, but also incredibly sad when you know that Theodosia is actually going to die en route to see him before they ever meet again! "Passed an hour looking at your picture," Burr writes, at one point. "I was exceedingly struck and alarmed to see it pale and faded. Why was not this perceivable before? Perhaps may arise from being placed among his portraits, which are very high coloured. Yet the impression that it is faded is fixed on my mind, and has almost made me superstitious." GUYS, THIS IS NOT A LITERARY FORESHADOWING DEVICE. IT'S REAL PEOPLE AND I'M SAD. ;___;
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Date: 2016-03-14 05:28 am (UTC)My favorite line is still the one about the proboscis, but I agree that one is pretty great. Also difficult to disagree with.
Imaginary Theodosia is his conscience and his confidante, and he's clearly having a constant conversation with her in his head.
And a real conversation in letters, which is part of what makes the ending of this story devastating to me. "I am sorry Jeremy Bentham likes cats. I hate them; but henceforth I shall treat them with infinite deference, and, whenever a cat crosses my way, make her obeisance as one of the family of his chosen favourites. You must not talk to Mr. Bentham when writing in cipher. It causes you to make errors. You know I love to convict you of an error, as some philosopher seek for spots in the sun." It's not a one-sided attachment.
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Date: 2016-03-14 06:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 04:23 pm (UTC)(-- and, like, Burr, this is your own fault for hopping around Europe like a hyperactive bunny rabbit, you don't live in the era of email, NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO FIND YOU, seriously, what do you expect --)
-- but the fact of that barrier makes the teasing pretend-conversations he has with her in his journal even more heartbreaking. Like, I just imagine 'Somewhere Out There' from An American Tail playing on loop over half the entries, a song which I could not listen to as a child because it made me too sad!
(Also, as a sidenote: it's kind of hilarious to me that Burr acts almost exactly the same way about Jeremy Bentham's books as he does about Theodosia's portrait. 'Visited [x], asked them about JB, they said they'd never heard of him, HMPH! HOW DARE.')
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Date: 2016-03-14 05:25 pm (UTC)I don't know if their full/surviving correspondence was ever collected, but according to Wikipedia their letters over her lifetime numbered in the "thousands." There were some included in the edition of the journals I read. I don't know what the editor's criteria for selection were, but the impression they leave of Theodosia is interesting enough to make me want her diaries—very intelligent, chronically ill, devoted to her father, and dealing with some incredible shit on both of their behalfs. There are fewer biographies of her than I would have expected and the major recent one looks a bit . . . sensationalistic.
Going by her own admission and some of her replies, however, Bixby is totally talking through his hat when he thinks she wouldn't have been delighted to hear about her father's exciting adventures setting himself on fire and being barged in on in Sweden, the Country Where People Do Not Knock.
Like, I just imagine 'Somewhere Out There' from An American Tail playing on loop over half the entries, a song which I could not listen to as a child because it made me too sad!
Well, that's today's depressing mental vid taken of.
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Date: 2016-03-14 04:29 pm (UTC)That's a pretty amazing thing for a young woman to write to her father. And she was what, 25 or so?
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Date: 2016-03-14 04:58 pm (UTC)It's the first quarter of 1809, so, yeah, she is. She is in the midst of dealing with medical issues (not to mention early nineteenth-century medical treatment—Theodosia is quite correct that being prescribed mercury does her no favors and quite sensibly stops taking it) and trying to secure money for her father from a third party who makes promises and keeps not paying out. In the meantime he is trying to send her a bust of his best pal Jeremy Bentham and it does not arrive, no doubt having suffered some hilarious catastrophe in transit that we don't know about because Burr wasn't on hand to record it, so every few letters she checks in about it: "The bust of Mr. Bentham and the map of London have not been received. The loss of the former would really afflict me, and I still hope that it is not lost. With what pride would I receive the image of your kind friend! . . . The bust of Mr. Bentham does not come, and I begin to fear that it is lost. My veneration for him is enthusiastic. As he is fond of plants, perhaps a few seeds of benne and okro may be acceptable to him . . . If the bust should be lost, will it be in your power to get me another? . . . Jeremy Bentham's bust is certainly lost. I could almost cry about it." DAMMIT HISTORY JUST LET HER HAVE THE BUST ALL RIGHT?
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Date: 2016-03-14 05:09 pm (UTC)IT'S THE RESURRECTION OF JEREMY BENTHAM'S HEAD
(this is referring to a wild night of comments on
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Date: 2016-03-14 05:46 pm (UTC)It is the fate of Jeremy Bentham's head to keep going missing, even when it's only a portrait copy made in the original's lifetime!
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Date: 2016-03-14 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 07:10 am (UTC)AUGH.
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Date: 2016-03-14 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-03-14 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-14 04:27 pm (UTC)(Even his editor, annoyed as he is, has definite Aaron Burr feels; in a footnote about 2/3 of the way in about one of the Aaron Burr conspirators, he can't help going into a long digression about how THAT guy just sat and WHINED the rest of his life, UNLIKE AARON BURR, who could take knocks to the face and just KEEP RIGHT ON GOING.)
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Date: 2016-03-14 04:40 pm (UTC)NO! I did not know that!
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Date: 2016-03-14 08:37 pm (UTC)No uh. god. Burr. I do totally, unreasonably love getting to have both musical Burr and the Burr of the diaries in mind; there's something... it's definitely amazing to picture Leslie Odom Jr's beautifully glazed shell popping open to emit a swarm of executive dysfunctions, one, and two, I like having Hamilton's pretty self-serious and heartfelt Burr as an rebuttal to all the charming stupidity he fronts with in his own writing. It goes well with the conversation about oh, well, you know, Jefferson was actually very shy and awkward, so why do we have him grandstanding in purple velvet on-stage? Because he lived his nightmarish self-confidence in other ways! And same with Burr and literally shooting a man in a fit of insecurity, I guess. Although the journal does raise the important question of whether he might not have tripped.
I can't believe his foreshadowing. I'm disgusted. My advice for dead people is to have fewer emotions and concerns all of the time.
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Date: 2016-03-14 10:02 pm (UTC)HIS FORESHADOWING IS THE WORST. "He has put in both glasses and mended the hinge of the case, which was not broken by accident but actually worn out. Everything wears out; you will wear out. No, alas! you perish joyless in those infernal swamps. I wear out slowly. Really slowly, as you see." GOD. BURR. STOP.
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Date: 2016-03-14 08:49 pm (UTC)Still, if I hadn't read this book, I would not have learned about the foolhardy attempt by American general Benedict Arnold (about two years before his betrayal) to invade and conquer Quebec. Which was the subject of a paper in college that got an A.
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Date: 2016-03-14 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 02:52 am (UTC)I don't think I could read these diaries knowing about Theodosia's death. It's just, god. I do not need to have those Feels. The musical does it bad enough to me with Dear Theodosia.
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Date: 2016-03-17 01:54 am (UTC)I'm not gonna lie, man, it is ROUGH. Dad feelings up the wazoo. :(