Strawman Police

[francis@insoft2.insoft.com]

>Dafydd ap Gwystl,
>Knight Grand Commander of the Strawman Police

[long, eloquent discussion of the problem of the mythical AP]

I learned something interesting recently.  I got a book on tournaments
for Christmas, and it mentions that the transition from military
practice to gala pageant occurred after certain people (don't remember
the names just now, but they said it was Eleanor of Aquitaine's crowd)
started writing romances about the tournaments of Camelot.  People
read these accounts, full of armor gleaming in the sun, knights
carrying their ladies' favors, and admiring ladies thronging the
stands, and decided that their tournaments should be like that.

So, in other words, if someone tells you that such-and-so isn't really
period, it's just from period fiction, then you can point out that
imitating period fiction is period, and slip away while they're trying
to figure out whether or not that makes sense.  :-)

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