SC - OT Creativity Changes

[Varju at aol.com]

Mistress Elaina,  Duke Cariadoc and Wolfsmother have brought up some
interesting points that I'd like to share my take on.

I can honestly say that I don't believe that the SCA will never arrive at the
stage of a grad level medieval history class.  For one, a great deal of our
knowledge is hands on, which a history lecture will never be.  As Duke
Cariadoc pointed out, no one in the SCA researches period cooking to just
research it, you do it so that you can cook period foods. In the end I think
we should have a fusion that raises the level of our historical accuracy but
still is a hands on process.  I think we may slowly be working that way, which
I like.  By the same token, I don't want the SCA to become so rigid that a new
person doesn't feel weicome or someone like me, who still takes non-period
shortcuts,  can't fit in.  The best we can do is keep trying to educate and to
gently guide people towards what the SCA is about.

I also feel that Wolfsmother is right in saying that most of the members of
the SCA wouldn't do well in freshman medieval history class, but for a very
different reason.  I haven't yet, and it isn't because I lack a general
knowledge on our time period, but because I have a very specific knowledge
about that time period.  A history lecture never covers what I'm interested
in, and I think many others in the SCA are the same way. 

Overall I view it as a tightrope act.  We want to discourage the bunny fur
bikini crowd (or reform them) but I don't think any of us want to turn into
mundane history experts, who sometimes seem like they live in a vacuum, with
no real hands on knowledge of their topic.  Along the way we don't want to
lose the middle of the road people who know a bit about their chosen country
and time period, may wear the odd bit of cotton, and who are around for the
fun and to help out. 

Noemi
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