SC - No Period Feasts Allowed?

[Glenda Robinson]

Mordonna22 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> I'm with Ras on this one.
> I can enjoy looking at all the period garments I like, but if I want to
> experience one for myself, that involves wearing it.  If I want to do that, I
> have to pay, either by buying it from a vendor, or making it myself.
> I can watch all the fighting I want, but if I want to experience it myself, I
> must pay, by learning the skills involved, and obtaining at least minimal
> armor.
> I can admire all the period armor I want, but if I want to own it, I must
> either purchase it with money, or build it myself.
> I can watch all the feasters, or I can pay, either by purchasing from a
> vendor, or learning to make it myself.
> What's different?

I still say artisan works are a poor analogy for the art of cookery, and
that performance arts are a better analogy. Artisan works are more
permanent and less temporal. You can make a gown, and it will be still
around next year. You can wear it several times. You cannot pull out
last winter's feast from the closet and serve it to a friend who
couldn't make it any more than you could the same for a bardic poem told
last weekend at the war. You can reproduce it, do your own version of
it, but you can't save that very same experience.

I can appreciate a fine gown just by looking at it. I don't have to pay
anything for that, it's very public. True, I have to invest money if I
want one myself, but I don't want one of all the beautiful cloths out
there, and frankly, farthingales don't do a thing for me. :). And I get
far more enjoyment looking at a gown or an illumination, or watching a
fighter, that I would just _looking_ at food. The way most feasts are
set up, you have to have paid to get into the hall, so the option of
free smells and sights is limited. And while the look of food
contributes to it's overal experience, it's the _eating_ of it that is
it's primary purpose. 

Come to think of it, when I pay a feast fee, I'm not paying for the
cookery art of the Steward. I'm paying for the raw materials, the raw
ingredients. The skill of the steward is not part of that fee. In this
one way, it can be compared to an artisan's craft. I could just as well
pay for a scribe to illuminate a scroll, paying only for the cost of the
materials. The difference is the item is temporal, and increased in
scale by 50 to 200 times. Unfortunately, the skill of the Steward and
the cost of the raw materials are fairly well linked. 

> Does any local group provide funds for making garb for newcomers, perhaps?
> Does any local group provide funds for making minimal armor or weaponry for
> their fighters?

To be run like a feast, it would sound like "We holding an event. You'll
each need to give us your $X so we can make each of you matching Tudor
(or Scythian or Rus) clothing. If you haven't paid the fee, you don't
get the clothing, and the clothing is the point of the event." (and you
only get to keep the memories of the clothing...okay, maybe we just rent
the clothing to you...)

> Well, yes, if you get down to the lowest levels.  House Warrior Haven works
> together on getting a new fighter in armor.  We don't provide everything, but
> if someone needs a gorget, say, and can't afford the raw materials, we see
> that she gets a gorget, AND learns how to make one.  Second hand armor is
> passed down freely.  Garb is passed down.  If a newbie does not have garb, he
> is given second hand garb, or it's made for him as a gift, and we teach him
> how to make his own.  Household funds quite often go for the raw materials of
> quite a few things that are later sold or given away.  We often use Household
> funds for the purchase of raw materials for gifts to Royalty.  Household
> funds are used to purchase raw material for anything used for the House as a
> whole, too, such as the Encampment walls we are building for future Wars.

Okay, but but can you do the same thing with meals? "This cuskynole was
first made by Ulf in AS XXXII, who after making a new one,  later loaned
it to Edouard until he made his own. It took him two tries to get it
right. Edouard lost it at Pennsic later that year, and by the time it
made it's way back via some old housemembers who now live in the East,
Edouard had been stationed in Drachenwald, so we gave it to Avelina, who
had it for at least two years, but never used it, at which point we
persuaded her to give it to Ian, who immediately broke it. He went ahead
and made a new one for himself while fixing it, so you can use it until
you make your own"....:)

Seumas