ANST - Dennis O'Connor

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

Dennis:
> Daniel de Lincoln:
> >[Hossein writing about some nastiness being period]
> >I think the standard SCA counter-examples are that plagues and
> >Jew-burning are period too.  
> Poor example. Mundane law won't let you do those anyway.

What I was getting at was the standard text that a lot of people use:
"We re-create the good parts of the Middle Ages, but leave out things
like ...", and the two I gave are the two I've heard the most.  BTW, I
DON'T want to discuss the merits and flaws in this formula.

But if you don't like my example, just go with "There are plenty of
things that are period that I do not want in the SCA".

> > I'd rather have "a distillation of renaissance courtier ideals" in
> > SCA.
> Renaissance courtiers ... the toadies that hung around courts ?
> Weren't their ideals sloth, self-promotion, brown-nosing,
> vicious rumor-mongering, and in general, skill at nasty politics ?

To judge by Castiglione, not at all -- quite the opposite.

Courtier ideals are to courtier behavior as
knightly ideals are to knightly behavior, or as
religious ideals are to religious behavior
(the "you can be a sinner and a Christian too").

I suppose I'd better try to defuse things: there's ideals as
"standards of behavior" versus ideals as "worthy precepts enunciated
by good people".  I'm using it in the latter version; I suspect you're
using the former (where it is more valid to deduce them by
observation).

> I'd rather hang out with country knights and direct but
> abrasive guildsmen and farmers, myself.  At least
> with them I don't have to watch my back.

*snort*  Read up on the history of Stephen versus Matilda in England,
or the Wars of the Roses, and I suspect a chunk of Welsh history too
(going by "Welsh History 101B").

Daniel de Lincoln, 12th century person, who knows DAMNED WELL that you
watch your back around a court, whether it's Henry II or VIII.
-- 
Tim McDaniel.   Reply to tmcd at crl.com
tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is not a valid address.
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