SC - primary sources

[Decker, Terry D.]

Just got around to reading backlogged messages.

Ref CA 13
I was visiting Paula Horvath, aka Nige of the Cleftlands, the editor
for that one when it came out.  Don't get your chemise in a bunch over
the "firing", it only lasted 2 days and was more a wrist slap than
anything else.  Courageous and unbiased not the way I would describe
the editors/authors of this pamphlet.  They knew it would cause furor
and actively enjoyed finding something they knew would irritate the
powers that be.  It was a bit more of the sniggering behind the barn
than the Patrick Henry "Give me Liberty or give me death" thing.  If
that's what gave them jollies (and it did) then they couldn't complain
when they got the reaction they expected-touch a hot stove-get burned;
wake a Viet Nam vet with a yell of "incoming", wake up with your head
tucked in between your knees.

The real complaints were not that it was not "fit" for the adult
members of the SCA to see, but that it was mailed out to all
subscribers, some of whom were children (my 14 and 11 year old pages
for example) some of whose parents were not members, and didn't know
what to expect.  Nor were the bathing pictures the problem.  At least
one of the pictures was explicit enough (woman with her leg being held
in the air while guy attempts to insert large penis into her) to fall
under the "providing sexually explicit material to minors" problem.

When I returned to Germany after camping with Nige at Pennsic and
going to the Pennsic BoD meeting to support her, the father of my 14
year old page gave the CA to me and asked me to keep it for his son
until later.  He had his degree in Medieval Studies and knew the
sources peripherally from that, but he did not care to have it in his
home at that time.  He also did not subscribe to Playboy or OUI for
much the same reasons.  His kid, his call.  I managed to snag the
whole thing before my 11 year old page's mother saw it.  She would
have gone completely balistic and I would have lost a good friend (the
kid, not the mom).  Again, he was her child to bring up, and she had a
right to censor his reading material at that point in his life.  "Unto
everything there is a season".

If you still want a copy of CA 13 you might contact Nige of the
Cleftlands or William Widefarer in the East Kingdom (they live outside
of Philadelphia and should be on the Pelican list.  I'm sure she still
has a copy or copies.

> <<This picture, or another like it, ....<snip>....I have seen
several
>similar ones, both painting and woodcuts. Bathing seemed often to be
a
>communal activity.  >>



>Correct. It was not until this century that communal bathing became
>inexplicably associated with 'wrongness'. For what it's worth 'The
Medieval
>Underworld,' by Andrew Mc Call (Barnes and Noble. 1979 (1993). ISBN
>0-88029-714-X) has a similar bathing scene attributed to a 'stewe'
(licensed
>house of prostitution). the unique thing abbot it is that it shows
food and
>drink being served to the patron and her client. The serving of food
and
>drink was illegal in houses of prostitution from at least the time of
Henry
>the VIII which causes me to wonder if the shock value of the picture
is not
>so much the naked revelers but rather their flaunting of the law by
feasting
>and fu...... well you know what I mean.
>
><<As to actually doing a hot tub feast, I think not.>>
>
>Mores the pity. I have made several private inquiries over the past
several
>days and at least 11 people would be willing to attend such a feast.
If I
>ever pull it off, I'll let you know the details.
>
> <<Elaina >>
>
>Yours in Service to the Dream,
>
>Ras
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