[Sca-cooks] Out of the food topic altogether rant Authenticitypolice

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> But mostly, I wonder why it seems to be ok in the SCA for people to go a-ranting about "authenticity police" and treat authenticists as stuffy snobs and mean lowlifes (as if we arent entitled to feelings on the subject). 
> Why is it ok to spend hours and days working up complex jokes and even events based on arrant fantasy and purest hollywood tripe, but it is wrong for someone to ask where whence a recipe, technique, or ingredient was derived or the rationale in using it? 
> (Because I am pretty sure that's all that your "laughable" incident was. )
> 
> Why is it morally OK to laugh and sneer at someone trying to get their stuff correct in regard to temporality and locality (I have seen a lot of such sneering), and at the same time it is morally reprehensible to point out to someone that something they are doing may not be connected to historical factuality.

*Puts on her Aunt Bunny Hat*

Brandu. Take a deep breath. We were those people once, too, remember?

To be honest, I think it's a deadly cycle.  People get upset at what
they see as criticism, and then they rant at 'the other side'. Which 
encourages other people to rant and also to be sensitive, even when no 
offense is meant. I mean, I *know* Farrel didn't set out to offend me 
with the Friesian T-Tunic Trim (Wiley Coyote, I think)-- it happened 
long before I was in the SCA. But when I heard about it I was 
retroactively offended. Silly. Then I get offended when people complain 
about non-period tents, because I camp in one. Again, silly. Humans can 
be very, very silly some times. All of us.

Basically, what it comes down to is one of the really useful Silverwing 
Laws:

"Authenticity is like a two-lane highway. If someone is going slower
than you, they're a slug. If they are going faster than you, they're a
maniac!" Thaddeus the Brown, via Avery from the Middle Kingdom

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"Information wants to be a Socialist... not a Communist or a 
Republican." - Karen Schneider