Reasonable Authenticity (was: Smoking and Law)

[James and/or Nancy Gilly <KatieMorag@worldnet.att.net>]

Poster: James and/or Nancy Gilly <KatieMorag@worldnet.att.net>

At 17:49 23-11-96 +0000, Kensei wrote:

> Possible solutions?  Why not buy contacts?  Why not obtain period-looking
> metal frames?  It's all a matter of selective spending and willingness to
> fully immerse into period, in my opinion.  And, before anyone takes umbrage
> with the foregoing, I'll note that I am a glasses wearer myself, but have
> invested in contacts.  Furthermore, I have a bad case of astigmatism and am
> very near-sighted, in case anyone should claim that contacts are unavailable
> for those reasons.  Regarding costs, if one can afford to make garb and
> armor, participate in events, and otherwise expend money on a regular basis
> with the SCA--frankly stated--they should be able to drop $50-$100 at the
> opthamologist's office.


Don't I wish!!!  I too am extrememly astigmatic and nearsighted, but I am
unable to wear hard or gas-permeable contacts.  The only ones that work cost
over $300 per pair.  Because I am currently unemployed outside the home
while raising my daughter, does this mean that I must not attend any SCA
events until such time as I can scrape this money together, along with
another $300 for a back up pair of contacts?  

I seem to recall that Corpora states that one of the rules for attending an
event is to make a reasonable attempt at pre-seventeenth-century garb.  I do
not think that most of the members of this organization would consider
glasses in combination with a good houppelande or T-tunic out of line with this.

 
> At the risk of being long-winded, the real issue at the center of the
> debates which have been going on the past few weeks is this:  a number of
> people are unwilling to give up their modern, personal conveniences for the
> sake of period authenticity and want everyone else to accept that.  I really
> don't believe those seeking authenticity should have to.  Wasn't the search
> for the medieval what SCA was founded on?  If cigarettes are not period,
> don't smoke them at events.  Buy or make a clay pipe and use loose tobacco.
> Get period glasses or wear contacts.  Put your Coke into a period container.
> And so on.


Likewise, as I am sure many people are also posting, my glasses are _not_
merely a "personal convenience".  I am legally blind without them, and if I
do not have them, I cannot even get to an event, never mind get around one
without assistance.  Do you have a good guide dog to lend?

If I sound a little hot under the collar, it's because I am.  This is the
Society for _Creative_Anachronism_ not the Society for Compulsive
Authenticity. We are _not_, to the best of my knowledge, attempting an exact
recreation of the middle ages.  My glasses are no more anachronistic when I
am wearing my Tudor or Italian Ren, then my garb is when I am standing next
to a 10th century Viking, or a 6th century Roman.  

The SCA was founded to search for the medieval ideals of coutesy, chivalry,
etc., not to exactly recreate how they lived and played.  We study that so
that we know more about them, and so that we can choose which aspects we
want to recreate, and how to avoid the more unpleasant ones.  

Philippa, who has decided to end this before she goes off onto a completely
unintelligible and incoherent rant.

-----------------------------
James and/or Nancy Gilly
katiemorag@worldnet.att.net

Reunite Gondwanaland!

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