Re: MR-Disc: Instant Correct Heraldry fo

[Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

Poster: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

  Instead of emphasizing the need for 'correct' heraldry for newbies, I'd 
  prefer to focus on getting them involved in heraldry at all.  Warn them 
  that, if they duplicate something registered to someone else, good manners 
  will require that they give it over as a gift, and then let them go to town. 

Well, I am well-known for being something of an heraldic heretic.  But...

There is more to heraldry than registering pictures and words.  I like to
make myself available for people, to assist them in all matters related to
heraldry.  I urge them to volunteer to do anything that we in the Society
call heraldic: that includes assisting with courts, presentations,
announcements, list field work, whatever.

I also urge people to display armory as soon as possible: but not to
necessarily fall totally in love with it.  To talk to heralds, and read, and
learn to create armory that is authentic, and which they can use and draw.
I find that (perhaps not at first) but over time, these people tend to go
for not just passable heraldry: but period heraldry.

It is a process that works: but it is a process that takes time, and gives
some people fits.  But I'd rather include people in as quickly as possible,
and then help them refine over time.

   They'll get off to a rocky start; just as first pieces of garb may be made 
  of doubleknit, and first attempts at names may be drawn from Darkover books 
  or Tolkien, first banners, etc. may have the "wrong" colors or be otherwise 
  less than optimal.  But we don't demand perfection-or-nothing in any other 
  field of endeavor; why in heraldry?  Why not allow a learning process that 
  rewards people as they go, instead of focusing so tightly on the "right" 
  outcome?

The registration process has some serious advantages, if you can get all the
information out of the heralds: you can learn a lot from reading the
commentary that is produced.

But... our current approach is quite black and white: either it registers,
or it doesn't.  If it registers easily, or if it fails to register at all,
almost no commentary is issued.

This is why I don't think the "Register Or Die" approach pays off as well as
it might.  It is quite educational for heralds: but less so for the
populace.  It's changed over time, and it may change more over time.  But
the current state of the art is very pass or fail.
  
  And sure, ready-made heraldry may be an acceptable option for some folks, 
  just as some folks will choose to buy their garb.  But even my six-year-old 
  had strong preferences for what banner would identify her, and I don't 
  expect many new SCA members would really be happy taking random armory, 
  however heraldically correct.

And they wouldn't have to.  In exchange for speed, you may lose flexibility.

I'll tell you one thing, though.  This summer, Lady Margaret Holmwood
decorated the heralds tent with placards of good armory, that were most
likely registerable.  And, judging from the reaction to many of the people
who helped paint them, about half of them could have been given away on the
spot to people who liked them.  Maybe even more.

That is, after all, how most people buy clothes and such in the modern world
today: we are used to adopting our best choice from the limited options
available. And custom work takes longer, and costs more.  (:-)

	Tibor
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