[Sca-cooks] Japanese (was: What did they..)

[Laura C. Minnick]

All right, all right...

Since I inadvertently opened this can of worms with what was meant to be a
silly, teasing remark, I need to say this and then I will crawl back into
my bed and be miserable for awhile again.

I know damn well that other cultures had an influence on western Europe in
the Middle Ages. I have a degree in Medieval Studies and believe me, the
program is aware of these things :-)

I am however incredibly frustrated at being a stranger in my own land, so
to speak. Maybe it's just An Tir, but often times anymore, I can go to an
event and be hard pressed to see much that anyone would associate with the
Middle Ages or Europe! I hesitate to take a civilian friend, a parent of
one of the Girls, or a colleague from the university to an event, because
there is so little there that is representative of what I remember when I
first got in, and much less that what our own literature says we are about.
_I_, the high Gothic Norman, have become the odd one out.

I don't want to hear people saying that the Middle Ages in western Europe
is too boring. Why get into the SCA in the first place? And quite frankly,
if you think that Europe is too boring, you aren't really giving it a look!
I spent 6 years finding out that I knew jack about Medieval Europe. If I
could get funding, I would cheerfully go back and learn about ever so much
more that I don't know!

You can't swing a cat around here without hitting a Mongol, we recently had
persons in High Places excuse their behaviour by saying "It's my culture-
I'm a barbarian!" when what they were was rude and obnoxious and cruel. I
would dearly love to again meet a gentleman who was doing his damnedest to
emulate what we thought were Arthurian manners, I would love to have my
hand kissed in greeting instead of a meaty fist beating the chest and a
gutteral "I am Yarg of the Steppes, and this is my slave-girl, Igga." Right.

I'm digressing and I think I'm feverish again. I didn't mean to start this,
but this is how I feel. Skewer me if you will. But before you do, allow me
the pleasure of a weekend that could have been written by Cretien de Troyes...

'Lainie
unrepentantly Norman
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Sometimes Life makes drastic changes without our permission...