[Ravensfort] Being period AND having fun

[HerrDetlef at aol.com]

What's with this either/or mentality?  I had always thought that the  idea 
behind the SCA (since the days of the "Last Tournament" in Mistress Diana  
Listmaker's backyard) was to have fun by researching the Middle Ages and  
recreating a pre-modern European society.  By the time I had started  playing, there 
was already a widening gulf between what were then termed  "fun-mavens" and 
"authenicity-mavens".  The accompanying illustration to  the article in which I 
first saw that distinction showed a tavern wench and a  woman dressed up like 
Mary Tudor with a Laurel medallion around her neck.   What....peers can't have 
fun?  Newcomers can't strive for  authenticity?  
 
How about a both/and approach to all this?  Authenticity can be  fun.  I 
agree with Lord Devin on that front...there are other ways to have  fun.  Nobody 
is holding a gun to anybody's head and saying they MUST play  SCA.  If 
authenticity isn't your cup of tea, there's no shame in shopping  for another flavor.  
 
There are limits to authenticity.  The Inquisition is period, and yet  nobody 
advocates burning heretics at the stake.  The Plague is period, and  yet 
nobody advocates letting flea-infested rats run loose in anyone's  home.  And 
unlike certain Civil War groups, we are not about re-enacting  history.  At the 
same time, there are limits to having fun.  Country  and western dancing is fun, 
but don't hold your breath waiting to see me show up  at an event site with 
my straw had and ropers.  Watching the Science  Fiction network is fun, but you 
will never see me at an event recreating scenes  from "The Matrix" or "V For 
Vendetta".  (A version of this is a guilty  pleasure of mine.  Anybody who 
doesn't know how much I LOVE "The Lion in  Winter" hasn't been playing very long. 
 I have that play/movie committed to  memory, and I do believe there's a line 
there for almost every situation under  the sun, but I cringe when I catch 
myself quoting lines at an SCA event.   While the characters in the play/movie 
are period, the script itself is  not.)  There's a balance, and the SCA is a 
place where researching medieval  culture and having fun intersect.  This is 
going to sound harsh, but if  those two things are mutually exclusive, it's quite 
possible that the  SCA is not for you.
 
The SCA has NEVER been a re-enactment group.  We strive for the best  that 
the medieval period has to offer, to create a new society with a medieval  
character.  Still, there is no reason to think that researching and  recreating the 
Middle Ages and having fun are mutually exclusive.  The  reason there is an 
SCA is because thousand of people have believed that  researching and 
recreating the Middle Ages IS fun.



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