[Ansteorra] High Personna

[mikea]

On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 01:02:28PM -0600, Jay Rudin wrote:
> Troy Bertram wrote:
> 
> >I agree with you 100%.  I try to act in a way that my 12th century persona
> > would.  My problem is that I am too much of a mushmouth to articulate the
> > way a 12th century persona would.  Something I need to work on... :)
> 
> Then be a 12th century mushmouth.  You can't have a persona who is more 
> articulate than you are, any more than you can have a persona of a person 
> who fights better than you or be a shoemaker if you don't make shoes.  It 
> is *not true* that all of our forebears were fancy talkers.

Robin's right: there were all types among our ancestors, just as there
are now among us. My ancestors appear all to have been small, fine-
boned, wiry, dark-headed, and brown-eyed. I'd be out of place as a big
blond Teutonic bruiser heavy fighter, but I fit right in as a musician
at the court of Mary Queen of Scots. Good thing I _like_ (well, that's
a very pale description of my feelings) music and can do it passably.
Each of us has to choose within the limitations imposed by life and
circumstance.

You could be a 12th century mushmouth who's working on the impediment
according to a plan set out by your teachers' after they studied the
classics. To do this, walk around with some (small, clean) pebbles
in your mouth, working on speaking clearly despite them -- like
Demosthenes, who became a most famous orator and statesman despite his
early speech impediment.

You don't _have_ to be (only) the above person, or have that as any 
part of your persona, but it's one possibility. It's up to you to look
for others. Good hunting!

-- 
Mike Andrews        /   Michael Fenwick    Barony of Namron, Ansteorra
mikea at mikea.ath.cx  /   Amateur Extra radio operator W5EGO
Tired old music Laurel; Chirurgeon; SCAdian since AS XI