[Sca-cooks] Overdocumentation

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 02:49 PM 11/19/2004, you wrote:
>>The proper way to handle out of period conversation IMO, is not to 
>>panomine, but to say, The seers tell me or I had a dream that in the 21st 
>>century they will have this, do this or whatever.  Making a bit of joke 
>>of the thing...  Not to be deliberately dense or hard to deal with.  I 
>>rarely serve obviously out of period or really Americana foods for SCA 
>>stuff, even just to family at war.  When I do there are always comments 
>>of:  "I just found this wonderful root from the new worlde.  It is called 
>>a potato."  Every one giggles, and gets the joke...
>
>Now let me disagree from the other side. Making a joke out of persona, in 
>any of the versions you describe, simply makes it harder to make persona 
>work when you do want it to.

In similar vein, I have found it much more disrupting to draw attention to 
the OOP thing/conversation by giving it a silly 'periodish' name, or making 
up some 'explanation' for it. Calling a camera a 'soul-stealer', or 
remarking to someone dressed in a earlier period as yourself that they 
might be your ancestor- it's jarring. Or suggesting that something is 'from 
the future'- if someone on the street showed you something that you were 
not familiar with, do you think it is from another time? Another place, 
maybe, but not another time.

>The best solution to the problem, in my view, is to explicitly drop out of 
>persona in order to have the conversation. If possible, I prefer to take 
>advantage of some symbolic dividing line--move to the edge of the feast 
>hall, or move outside the boundary of our encampment. If I am teaching a 
>class on in persona story telling and want to start in persona as a 
>sample, I can put my glasses on, or take my turban off, to mark the switch 
>from being Cariadoc to being David.

I agree. Might be as simple as being discreet, dropping your voice, ducking 
behind a curtain. Being quite and matter-of-fact draws less attention to 
the non-periodness of whatever the article or activity is.

I taught at an Ithra session (An Tir university) last Saturday, the 4-hour 
gargantuan Survey of the Middle Ages class (1000 years of history in 4 
hours? Nope- I didn't get all the way through). Because Elaine is a French 
noblewoman in 1404, she would not have been in a University class, much 
less taught one, I brought out the handy stand-by- Father Abelard. One of 
the students, at the end of the class, asked "What is your persona?" Not 
something I could actually answer in persona, could I? So I basically had 
to drop out and explain why Abelard teaches classes and not Elaine. This is 
a way of dealing with that issue that I am comfortable with. It might be a 
little extreme to some- most people don't bother rationalizing their 
persona for the purpose of teaching.

Funny note though- the first time Father Abelard taught an Ithra class, I 
gave a 15 minute break (it was another 4 hour class- we needed it), and 
went off to use the facilities. Found myself stopped in front of two doors, 
momentarily flummoxed- I might 'be' Abelard for the day but the persona 
only goes so far, you know? So I used the womens'. On my way out I passed a 
local fellow who also has a clerical persona, as he was on his way into the 
gents'. He raised his eyebrows at me, and said "Father! I'm shocked!" to 
which I had to reply "Aquinas says that it is no sin to act with reason and 
use things in the manner to which they are best suited. I assure you, I did 
not misuse that room, so how could it be sinful?" He laughed, and said "Ah, 
never try to argue with a Dominican!" and we both went our way.

Sometimes a little education can be a good thing. :-)

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be 
governed by men worse than themselves. -- Plato