From: vader@meryl.csd.uu.se ("]ke Eldberg")
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Whew! Somethin's 'appenin'!
Date: 7 Jan 93 21:07:34 GMT
Organization: The Internet

Greetings from William de Corbie!

Since I joined the SCA, I have seen any number of attempts to define
what it is all about. Here are a number of examples, all of which have
appeared on the Rialto at one time or another:

-It's an educational society for learning about pre-1600 western culture.
-It's an educational society for having fun while pretending to study
  pre-1600 western culture.
-It's a living history group that re-creates (the upper class part of) the
  Middle Ages and Renaissance.
-It's a group that re-creates the Middle Ages as they should have been.
-It's not the real middle ages at all, but rather an Arthurian romance.
-It's a Victorian rendering of an Arthurian romance.
-It's a fantasy group, only without elves, hobbits & such.
-It's a dating group for martial artists.
-It's an endless attempt to repeat a student's party that happened in 1966.
-It's a wonderful escape from the dreary 20th century to the Age
  of Chivalry.
-It's the endless quest for The Dream.

...and so on.

There is a built-in conflict here, which many Rialtans have tried to
understand, solve, define away or else manage somehow to live with.
It is usually called "authenticity vs fun" -- but, more accurately,
it has also been called "authenticity vs fantasy".

Those who favor authenticity will usually say that:
-Doing things in an authentic way is (more) fun (than doing it other ways).
-Authenticity in garb & equipment enhances the atmosphere at our events.
-Without firm roots in history, we are nothing but a bunch of weirdos
  in funny clothes.

Those who oppose authenticity will usually say that:
-Doing things the authentic way is too difficult for most people.
-Authentic garb & equipment is too expensive for many people.
-The important thing is that everybody can play.
-There are lots of things that are not documentably period, but which
  are perceived as "medieval" by most people; these should have a place
  in the SCA because they enhance the atmosphere.
-The important thing is the Dream, and the Dream is a medieval fantasy.

...and so on.

Up until now, almost all these discussions have centered around what
each individual member should or should not do, wear or display at
events. Occasionally discussions have been about whether some minimum
equipment standard should be regulated in law (the dreaded Authenticity
Police alternative) or left up to the ability and interest of the
individual member (the liberal version).

Very little has been said about the forum in which all of these things
happen -- until these last few months, when a few people have actually
dared to speak the Forbidden Thoughts, "maybe we should do something
about the organizational structure..." Duke Cariadoc's proposal about
duchies and counties was perhaps the first. Then came Sir Kevin Mac
Kinnon's restructuring scheme. Many others have pulled their twig
to the anthill.

I wonder if you gentles are aware of what has happened in this forum
over the last 8 months or so: we are now discussing ideas which would
have caused major resentment among many Rialtans only a short time ago.
Take for instance Tadhg's recent words:

>A cultural mishmash that would never have appeared at any time or place in
>period is not "research and re-creation in the field of pre-17th-century
>Western culture", nor does it "create an environment which evokes the
>atmosphere of the Middle Ages and Renaissance".

>It does, of course, create an environment which evoke the atmosphere of a
>fantasy novel that might be *loosely based* on the Middle Ages and
>Renaissance, or a similar movie, but that's not what it SAYS -- nor, I
>maintain, what it MEANS.

Whew! Something must have happened here. Are we prepared to actually
consider the possibility that the SCA as such might need an upgrade?
Or am I walking with my head in a cloud of glogg foam? :-)

William
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca