Re: in character

[clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@ripco.com (Craig Levin)

Over the years that I've been in the SCA, my concept of a
persona, and being in persona, have changed. Right now, my
persona is almost as much a way of making all of my various
researches make a coherent whole as much as a person I pretend to
be. I've been interested in chivalrous literature and the Iberian
Peninsula for many years, so creating a persona who would also
have those interests was sensible. It lets me use my learning in a
way that most mediaevalists don't get the chance to experience.
I'm not sure how I can express it when it all works-I think
Lewis' "feeling of Northerness" is the closest I've ever seen
described in writing. It just blows me away. 

The moments don't come as often as I would like them to. On the
other hand, they are the more precious because they are rare-
sooner or later, all excesses are cloying, despite Mae West's
adage of "too much of a great thing is wonderful."

Also, there are parts of Pedro's life and personality that I
really don't think I would ever want to either experience or
bring forward in a "persona-only zone." I don't want to know what
it was like to have had mumps or measles or malaria or lockjaw
and only have the comforts of herbal medicine. I _like_
vaccinations and penicillin! I'm fairly certain that Pedro's
views on people not of his class, faith, or skin color would be
tolerant only in contrast to those of, say, Pat Buchanan. Yet,
all personas are going to have problems of that sort-our American
(or at least post-Enlightenment Western) upbringings are going to
crash headlong into our personas' pre-Enlightenment Old World
upbringings. Lately, some research I've done has hinted to me
that most Mediterranean upper class households could have had
slaves in them from the early days forward to when slavery was
abolished. I'm not entirely sure how I can come to grips with that.

-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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