[Ansteorra] the Attack of the "Authenticity Police"

[Chris Zakes]

At 11:59 PM 7/12/2005, you wrote:
>"The time has come", the walrus said, "to speak of
>many things, of accuracy and authenticity, of misery
>and plague."
>   Ok, everybody out of the pool! This has degenerated
>down to an argument over what who thought the Dream
>was in the beggining.
>   Was it intended to be critically acurate in
>depicting life in medieval times? If so, where did the
>line ,"life in the middle ages, as it should have
>been"
>come from, can you tell me that?

Aren't you perhaps over-reacting just a tiny bit?

I've yet to see anyone posting that everyone *must* be more historically 
accurate. At most some people have said that *they* are trying to be more 
historically accurate, or that they like historically accurate terms for 
historical things better than cutesy made-up ones.


>   Ok, let's take your notion and apply it fully.
>NO electricity

<shrug> I've been to plenty of events without electricity. Frankly, I liked 
it better when our halls were lit by candles rather than lightbulbs, but I 
can't even remember the last time I was at an indoor event where all we 
used was candles.

>NO running water
>NO indoor plumbing

I've been to plenty of sites that didn't have those, either. Yet somehow we 
survived.

>NO way to make ice to preserve food

*Making* ice on-site is pretty unlikely. Bringing ice, in a covered ice 
chest or a disguised one (http://kelly.dwarfworks.com/sca/cooler.php  for 
example) doesn't bother me.

>NO propane gas appliences

<shrug> So you bring food that doesn't need to be cooked. Bread, cheese, 
sausage, etc. or you build a wood fire and cook your food there.

>NO coffee OR tea

Now there you've got me. I *am* rather fond of my iced tea... but I 
survived for several years in the SCA without it. And if it's kept in that 
covered ice chest, it's not that big a deal.

>NO concept of sanitation

Excuse me? I"ve *seen* the garderobes in a number of period castles. Don't 
tell me that folks in period had no concept of santiation.


>   Are y'all starting to see where this is going?
>Obviously, we made some allowances for modern comfort
>along the way. So now we are going to get into a
>dither over WORDS? Over whether or not some
>hypothetical Mundane might be offended? Let me say
>this now, any Mundane that comes to an event, and is
>offended by the use of the word "TROLL" came to the
>event LOOKING for an excuse to be offended!

Um... where has anyone said that using the word "troll" might offend some 
hypothetical mundane? People said it was a silly thing to call the person 
at the gate--which is true, it's an obvious pun on "stop, pay toll", but 
that joke stopped being funny fifteen or twenty years ago.


>   I am not going to go out of my way to insult or
>offend anyone, but I'm not going to break my back
>trying NOT to offend them either. I WILL behave
>chivalrously towards all, and treat no one better or
>worse than anyone else, until and unless an individual
>goes out of their way to offend me.
>
>   You see, the "authenticity police" don't care about
>authenticity, that is just an excuse to get you to do
>things their way.  The issue is CONTROL, they are
>control freeks!  This whole HOORAH is an excuse to
>make others bend to their will.

As I said earlier, aren't you over-reacting just a bit? I've yet to see 
anyone trying to control other people, particularly in this discussion.

         -Tivar Moondragon