From: mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh Mittleman)
Subject: Pennsic Schtik (was Re: Grand Pennsic)
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 15:29:21 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Greetings from Arval!

Ellisif asked:

> I didn't go to opening ceremonies.  Is someone really calling this event
> "Grand Pennsic" now?  

No, that seems to be Bertram's invention, probably on the model of "Grand
Outlandish".  I agree with you, Ellisif, that it is a poor choice for two
reasons.  First, grammar: "Pennsic" is an adjective, not a noun, and "Grand
Pennsic" is thus an adjective phrase.  Grand Pennsic what?  It still
doesn't answer the question what is this thing?  Which leads to the second
objection: medieval model.  What are we trying to re-create?  For 20 years,
we called it a war, and our ceremonies were designed with that intent.  If
we are going to change the model for our ceremonies, we should pick another
model and the name of the event could reflect the change.

My own preference is also "Pennsic Fair," by analogy to the great Champagne
Fair.  As someone has already observed, "war" is not a good model of what
we do at Pennsic.  No one dies, no one wins anything real (land or booty),
most of the participants don't fight, and our ideals are friendship and
good fun.  There were no scholae or merchants at medieval battlefields.  A
much better model for what we do is a merchant fair, at which the hosting
nobility hold a tournament, the Tournament of Pennsic Fair.  I would point
out that almost every battle we hold at Pennsic is a very good recreation
of some form of medieval tournament combat, but a very poor recreation of
medieval warfare.

I also agree with those who pointed out that what we call the event is not
going to have any significant effect on how the fighters behave.  However,
names are important, and while a new name might not change the level of
courtesy on the field, it will eventually change the way people think about
the event.  It will certainly change the way we think about the ceremonies.
This year's opening ceremony was a serious kludge: They took the customary
ceremony, with its confrontation between kings, and tried to twist it into
something else.  That may have been necessary: Changing from war to
tournament in one step may have been more than people would like to see.
But the result was considerable confusion and, apparently, not a little
annoyance.  An important question, for me, is what ceremonies would be
appropriate to Pennsic Fair?  If we drop the old schtik, what do we replace
it with?  Alternatively, could we keep the old schtik as a sort of familiar
custom, but turn it into a pageant (Catrin, you listening?), so that it
would be more clearly a staged affair rather than a real confrontation?
The more I think about it, the more I like that idea: Call the War settled,
and establish a Fair to commemorate the lasting peace.  Use a pageant based
on the War ceremonies to recall ancient glories, without introducing new
rancor.  

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Arval Benicoeur                                       mittle@watson.ibm.com