SC - Re: Roundels

[RuddR@aol.com]

At 1:24 PM -0400 6/16/00, Elaine Koogler wrote:

>I've seen this often enough that I caution new folks who are about 
>to go to their
>first event about it, tell them to tell the offending individual 
>that "....their
>telling you that your garb is not period is not period!"

But telling them that telling you that your garb is not period is not 
period is also not period.

The appropriate thing to tell new people, at least ones who like the 
idea of being in period and in persona, is that someone telling them 
that their garb is not period is not period, hence they, in order to 
be period, should ignore it. If they wish, they can ignore it with a 
puzzled expression, as if they had just been told that their garb was 
gnklflx.

You might also tell them that people who make a point of using 
claimed expertise in order to put down other people are quite likely 
to be unreliable as sources of information.

To make my point in different words ...  . Your advice is to make a 
dishonest argument in order to put down people who deserve being put 
down. It is a dishonest argument because it implies that being in 
persona is just as important a part of playing SCA as wearing period 
clothing--and although I believe that, you don't, since if you did 
you wouldn't be proposing a put down that can only be made by 
breaking persona yourself.

Your real objection is not that the offending individual is imposing 
standards of authenticity on others that he doesn't meet himself--you 
would, after all, be just as annoyed at him if he waited until the 
event was over and then made the rude comment, when doing so didn't 
break persona. Your real objection is that he is being rude.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/