Re: [EK] Operation Renaissance Persona

[David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>]

Poster: David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>



On Tue, 16 Dec 1997, BLorenz753 (Judith?) wrote:

> <<Careful.  One person'a magic is not another person's magic.  If the SCA 
>  became a place where one had to be "in persona" _all the time_, I would 
>  leave after almost 22 years of great enjoyment.>>
> 
> I agree; everyone's idea of "magic" is different.  However, after talking with
> many SCA old-timers such as yourself, I have come to the conclusion that
> despite the fact that everyone's opinion of "magic" varies, many agree that
> the SCA is not what it used to be, and that it has become more of a place to
> get filthy-stinking drunk than to re-create the Middle Ages.

Whoa!  Waitaminute!  I hate to ruin the chance to establish myself as an
old-timer, here, but that just isn't the case!

The SCA started as a party in costume.  Nothing more.

I would agree completely -- the SCA is not what it used to be.  In most
ways, it is BETTER.  Our best armourers make more medieval armour.  Our
best artisans make better clothing.  In almost every direction you look,
you find that bascinets have largely replaced spun-top helmets just as
spun-top helmets replaced freon-tanks, and freon-tanks were once the
pinnacle of the armourer's art.

Those who look back to a golden age of the SCA when people didn't get
drunk and party, and when more people tried harder to re-create the real
Middle Ages are frankly deluding themselves.  People are generally doing
better now in every aspect of re-creation than they were a decade ago.  A
decade ago I saw _more_ drunks at events than I do now.  And I saw less
period pavilions, less fine armour, less wonderful garb.  At the time, it
was great -- I was more impressed then, because I didn't know as much.
But the standard of quality is far higher now than it ever was then, for
any `then' you choose.

I've been in the SCA for more than 16 years now, and I've gone to more
than 300 events. I started fighting in plastic body armour and carpet leg
armour.  The stuff I wore then would be laughed at now. 

Sure, we could all do better at keeping modern topics from our speech.
But the idea that the SCA has fallen from a golden past where we were all
much better at medieval re-enactment is totally wrong.  We're better now
than ever we were before.  We can be better still, and I applaud your
efforts in that direction, but we are rising, not falling.

Dafydd ap Gwystl,
once a stickjock in carpet leg armour, but I got better.


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