Re: Reasonable Authenticity (was: Smoking and Law)

[Kensei <kensei@concentric.net>]

Poster: Kensei <kensei@concentric.net>

At 04:20 PM 11/24/96 +0000, you wrote:
>
>Poster: James and/or Nancy Gilly <KatieMorag@worldnet.att.net>
>
>I don't recall saying that we were going to recreate anything we wanted, and
>anyway hobbits, and "the mish-mash of monsters found in any D&D-affiliated
>publication" are hardly medieval recreation by anyone's standards.  I WAS
>saying that we choose not to recreate the more unpleasant aspects, which
>include blindness, deafness, lameness, asthma, etc.  If the baseline for the
>society is a "completely period external appearance" then I know very few
>members of this organization, and that includes those of very long standing,
>who match your ideals.  The society of its nature cannot have a completely
>period external appearance because of the range of times covered.

One can exhibit a period appearance for their time frame, can't they?


>(snip).....and whose members can afford to
>spend four figures on their garb and accoutrements at one go.  I have spend
>serious money on my garb, but it has been piecemeal over 8 years, and at no
>point have I ever spent at one go on SCA garb, equipments, whatnot, what I
>have to spend on just the new lenses for my metal framed glasses.  You seem
>to expect me to be willing to spend on my contacts more than I spend in a
>year on other SCA expenses other than event fees. 

I don't believe that a pair of unobtrusive glasses or contacts will run four
figures.  I do believe, however, that if I am going to study and recreate
the medieval period, I can adopt an overall period look.


>We are (I thought) a study and re-enactment group.  When I have seen and
>heard us described, I have always heard "study" come first.  We do the
>re-enactment to show off what we have studied.  One of the things we are
>supposed to be studying and trying to emulate is "courtesy" (a more
>victorian than medieval ideal to be quite honest - the founders of the SCA
>came at the middle ages from a very victorian gothic background, as do most
>of us, and no matter how much we study them, I think that this will always
>affect us).  One important aspect of courtesy is to overlook others faults
>when they are trying, and that is what most of us with glasses, plastic or
>metal, are doing.  I believe that Duke Cariodoc, one of our members who is
>most associated with authenticity, and who himself will not wear his
>glasses, because his persona would not have had them, would simply treat my
>glasses, or anyone else's, as simply some odd local custom of the strange
>land which he is currently visiting.  I simply ask that you extend me and me
>fellow imperfect recreators the same courtesy.  

This is an insulting and condescending paragraph, to say the least.  I'm
engaged in a debate on an issue, not a witch-hunt.  I have not singled you
out for personal criticism; I have just posed some questions and stated my
position on the intersection of the modern and medieval worlds.  Further, I
never said my way was the perfect one--just one that seemed the most
logical, in my view.  As this is a public mailing list, everyone has been
free to comment or weigh in with differing thoughts.  Given the foregoing,
cast the proverbial beam out of your own eye before you call anyone
"discourteous".

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