Fw: Re: [Ansteorra] Authenticity

[iainmacc at juno.com]

On Wed, 17 Apr 2002 00:19:20 -0500 willow taylor <jonwillowpel at juno.com>
writes:
> Lord Iain
>
> It is hard to tell what people really mean when they call somebody
> a
> history maven. That is a really bad term in other kingdoms. It
> means
> people who don't have fun and cause trouble for everyone. The
> opposite
> are the fun mavens who are the people who come to event and are
> nice. In
> most kingdom it is a black /white thing. Ansteorra didn't follow

        Your Grace,

        We are both bards. Words are our weapons of choice. Surely we
have both noticed difficulty divining what people mean, as opposed to
what they say, even when using words much more objective in definition
than "Maven". Why should "maven" be any different?

> could watch a couple of swashbucklers insult each other. You
> weren't
> studying dull dead history you were living it. Now it seems people
> are
> getting into that black/white thing.  I didn't like the historical
> maven
> vs. the fun maven  when I went to other kingdoms and had to put up
> with
> it. I t makes me very upset when I see that kind of thinking in
> Ansteorra.

        As it does me, especially since I see it as a perceptual thing
only, having no connection to reality.
        A couple of years ago, I watched a man turning blocks of brass
into a sextant, using nothing but hand tools, and expressing frustration
that he would probably have to buy the lenses, rather than grind them
himself. I never saw the completion of that project, but I think I can
safely assume that anyone who puts that degree of effort, skill, and
patience into anything, and is not making big bucks for it, must be
enjoying himself.
        As for the other end of the spectrum, how many self-proclaimed
"stick-jocks" have we all known, who profess no interest in the SCA
whatsoever beyond fighting, yet will spend hundreds of dollars and months
of their time improving their armor so they will look better on the
field? Their old armor protects them just as well. In fact it protects
them better, because over the years it has "settled in" to their
particular shape and now moves with them, much like a comfortable old
shoe. So why are they replacing it? Because they are tired of duct-taping
themselves in, because there are places where the plastic is showing
through and it's hideous, because at the last Celtic Heritage Festival
there was a parade they decided they shouldn't be part of due to the look
of their armor.

        Truly, I believe that we are all "Authenticity Mavens", and all
"Fun Mavens" in our own way, and the difference between us is only one of
degree. I suspect that the core of the problem may lie in this: When it
is midafternoon at the Steppes Warlord list field, and you are surrounded
by literally hundreds of people, it is easy to forget that you are, in a
sense, absolutely alone. For of all those hundreds of people, all having
fun and living history, not one of them is playing exactly the same game
you are.

        Sometimes I wonder if it is significant that grey is my favorite
color...


      Yours in Service,


              Iain MacCrimmon