SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #2090

[Elaine Koogler]

> You might want to remember that in the early days of the SCA, there was
> *carpet* armor, and *freon* helms!
> 
> By no stretch of the imagination would I find these to be period.  But -
> from the accounts that I have had from a participant from AS10  (who resided
> in Berkeley) they were interested in recreating, not dissuading people.
> They taught without being overbearing...and even enjoyed the amusing side
> trip into the bizzare at times.  It is amazing what you can do with non
> period items when you have nothing period to work with.
> 
> The most important feeling I came away with from my conversations with this
> Mistress was that the locals in Cali practiced 'suspension of disbelief'.
> This allowed them to enjoy their events even though they didn't have perfect
> recreations of period items.  A little 'imagination' goes a long way.  So
> does tolerance.
Oh, I am tolerant! 
One should help poor recreation in those who know no better, and in 
beginners. But those who are able to do better, and know how to do 
better, but choose not to do better? shoudl I say "wahtever floats your 
boat, dude"? or should I say " you can do better, why dont you?" ?

The point, my dear is that we were TRYING way back then.
Don't forget that we _started_ with broomsticks and old fencing masks.
Carpet armor and Freon tanks were an _advancement_ on the 
original process.
Each generation in the SCA has refined and inproved our recreation.
(I remember well those Freon Tank days, BTW...)
We are not in the Freon tank days anymore.
We can, and this has been proven time and time again, be "fun" and _still_ have 
good recreation, and that we can be as accurate as possible and still not be 
dissuadingly stuffy.

Back then the SCA had precious little to work with.
I'll put it to you to ask your Mistress this question.
If she had had the resources, in terms of widely available research, 
artisans, smiths and other crafts people, Sites, patterns, improved 
campsites, Pavillians, and the World wide web and the Internet for 
disseminating and gathering information, would the SCA have 
_STILL_ been what it was then? 

I think that she would not honestly be able to say that it would.
It was what it was because it was small, it's resources poor, populace few and 
widely scattered, with much less mundane regard, than is the case today.
To use that time as a model is not appropriate. 
The Conditions that made the SCA "make do" with freon tanks (and before 
that coach Headlamps, and Fencing masks) SIMPLY DO NOT EXIST TODAY.

The resources for better recreation certainly exist. NOT to use them because 
they didnt have them in the past is like choosing to walk around naked, 
because people started out wearing nothing.

Come on now, which of you joined the SCA because it had an "atmosphere"
 that evoked the romance of the Middle ages?  I did.

Does does a 14th century Saracen dish on the table add to that atmosphere? 
I think so.
Does  a 20th century American dish on the table add to that atmosphere? 
I think not.

Even if it _is_ "creative".

There are a lot of people who do not try to achieve any authenticity 
at all, and excuse their intrepretation of the SCA as a private fantasy 
realme with this old and hackneyed plaint: "but it is the Society for 
_Creative_ Anachronism, not the Society for Cumpulsive Authenticity!!"

Some of them say that if you cannot grow your own sheep, spin your 
own wool, weave your own cloth, etc, you might as well wear that 
electric pink camoflage houpellande.  

That as the noble Cariadoc is fond of pointing out is "letting the best 
be the enemy of the good"

I consider it a kind of intellectual laziness.

At some point you have to decide:
Is the SCA going to move forward toward better recreation, as it has 
done steadily for 34 years, or go backwards because authenticity is 
a little more work?

Is the "dream" the "Dream" because every body "paharrties" or because 
we try to carve out a little magic from time, using that 'suspension of disbelief', 
here at the dawn of the 21st century.
Without the struggle for better and more authenticity, the SCA would have 
been just another F&SF con. Whether you like it or not.
And it could well have gone that way. 
Consider the number of "Tolkein tourneys" and "Elves vs Dwarves" events 
the SCA had in the first ten years.
the reason that the SCA is not a F&SF con is that at some point the 
collective wisdom of the SCA decided that it was important to emphasize things 
not as "they might have been if" but things as "they were were, or would have 
been" ( would have been if they had to deal with 20th century hygeine, tort and 
insurance laws, criminal laws, etc.etc.etc. )

Brandu