RE: Let the Horse Pull the Cart...

[Tom Rettie <tom@his.com>]

Poster: Tom Rettie <tom@his.com>

>So, if you can hold off the hands-on attempts at your subject matter until
>you check on the safety of what you're doing, or if you aren't interested in
>doing the medieval thing, just learning about it (as most of us are with
>many areas of medieval medicine) Henry's approach is tops, on aesthetic
>grounds alone.  But as someone who only manages to learn anything new by
>putting my hands on it, I understand why Anarra does it that way.

Good gentles,

I think, as with so many things in the SCA, it depends on exactly what art
or science you're engaging in.  A simple example is woodworking.  Many of
the surviving "how to" manuals from the 17th to the early 20th century
share a lot in common (I haven't found any predating the 17th century, yet)
-- how to chisel a mortise, how to sharpen a saw blade, how to set the iron
in a bench plane.  But you can watch Norm Abrams on New Yankee Workshop for
a month of Saturdays and you won't learn squat about any of these very
basic skills.  In fact, you'll probably pick up some bad habits as well,
like not drawboring your mortise and tennon joints (a practice useful in
hand work, but not commonly used in machine work).

There's nothing wrong with studying the modern, so long as you make the
effort to understand how and why it's different from the ancient.  Then you
can blithely tell that snooty Laurel (hey, many of my friends are snooty
Laurels -- I _like_ snooty Laurels) "well yes, I should have used an iron
twivil to dig that mortise, but all I had was a power drill and a paring
chisel, so I used that instead."  The way I like to play the game, it isn't
necessary to get everything exactly right, just to have an idea how you'd
make it right if you had unlimited resources and time.  Of course, your
mileage may vary.

With respects,

Findlaech mac Alasdair



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Tom Rettie                                         tom@his.com
Heather Bryden                                 bryden@hers.com
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