[Ansteorra] The period threads...

[Marc Carlson]

This whole thread on being period…

I’ve been reading through the past few days, trying vainly to catch up, but 
I have some comments from all over.

lizdenpeters at juno.com wrote
>things.  I wear cotton garb (I have been told many times that cotton is not 
>a
>period material.) and will continue to do so….

Whoever told you that either was mistake, or was misheard.  Cotton is 
totally period.  It was extremely rare and pretty pricey in Europe for most 
of the period (and actually stayed that way until the Industrial 
Revolution).  The term “fustion”, in English, referring to a cotton/flax 
(i.e. linen) blend, dates well into the 12th century.  The linen, it is my 
opinion, was used to stretch the amount of cotton.  Raw, unspun cotton was 
also shipped into Europe in increasing amounts, and even grown in southern 
Europe by the 14th century.  So, uncommon and rare? - yes.  Expensive? - 
yes.  Not Period? - no.  Should you use it? – not my problem.  I can give 
you a lot of reasons, many of which have been presented on this list, for 
why someone might not want to use it in favor of the (now) more expensive 
linens and wools, but I am unlikely to be wearing what you will be making.so 
do your own thing.

I should mention that cotton has one spectacular side benefit – things you 
make in it don’t last as long as things made from wool and cotton, so your 
embarrassing earlier projects rarely hang around for a long time.

“Wool is hot in the summer”

Guess what?  So is cotton.  So is standing around naked.  Summer in 
Ansteorra is Hot.  Always has been, probably always will be.  And yes, I 
wear layers of wool and linen in the summer.

“Cell phones and Walkie talkies”

I don’t much like them OUTside the SCA, so they are no bigger a distraction 
for me INside than are the myriad other things that people 
do/wear/say/smoke/drink/and so on.  That’s my problem, not yours.  If you 
all don’t want them, either change the rules and get some serious standards 
of dress and behavior; or just don’t use yours, and try to discourage your 
friends.  Maybe eventually people will realize that they are being rude.

"john fry" jefisme03 at gmail.com wrote in [Ansteorra] period on a budget
>ok I've been reading along with your period not period posts, and now I 
>want
>to know how do you go period on a budget. I'm a current student with 
>limited
>amounts of money to spend on garb, but I still want to go to an event or 
>two
>when I have a chance, without being slapped around by the period nazis.

It depends on what you want to do and what you mean by “go period”.  If you 
want to present a vaguely periodoid appearance, then do that and don’t sweat 
it.  If you’d like to aim towards being more accurate the SCA offers an 
unparalleled opportunity to start small, and do the best you can NOW, and 
use that as a foundation for later development.  A little bit every so often 
isn’t that hard.  No one should be telling you that you have to have it all 
right now.

There have been a lot of suggestions in these threads, and I’m not sure what 
I can add to them.  Aside from learn what is correct for your period, 
whatever that is (even if your period is early 21st century SCA).  From 
there you can build.

First, it might be helpful to not immediately assume that someone who seems 
to be critical of your efforts is being an “authenticity nazi”.  Most people 
are just bad at expressing themselves.  Sure there’s great mythology about 
them, but if you are attributing to malice what can be simply explained by 
stupidity or incompetence of expression, that may be a bigger problem.

Certainly some people are just rude cretins trying to score points off you.

Two stories – one took place at my first event.  I got chewed out by the 
then Crown for being incorrectly dressed (and I’ve been in the military, I 
know what getting my ass really chewed is like – this was a terrific job).  
Was he right to do so?  I don’t think so (first of all, my outfit wasn’t 
actually wrong.), but then again, since he was the King, I get to hold him 
up as a shining example from then on …

Second story – several years later, I was approached by a Local Pelican who 
was trying to tell me that what I was wearing was surprisingly inaccurate, 
and that my black kilt was just dead wrong.  I had to explain that I knew 
that already, and was wearing for a reason.  I wasn’t offended, mostly 
because I knew this particular gentleman didn’t actually mean to come across 
as pompously as he did.  He just wasn’t very good at orally expressing 
himself to other people.  Had I not known him prior to this incident, I 
might have misread the situation.

Marc/Diarmaid