From: tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Flippant Random Thoughts
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 02:42:56 GMT

Lothar is bored. Here are his two pfennigs worth on a number of Rialto
threads...

Pennsic War vs. Pennsic Faire

Pennsic is not a war, it is not a Faire, it is not a tourney, it is a
state of mind. QED.

Authenticity in all its forms

I believe that gradually, people gravitate towards some form of
authenticity. The die-hard obvious fantasy maven tends to settle down or
go away, the longer they are in the society. My experience has been that
after a dozen years or so Maeven O' Fun changes her name to Laurel
Seamchecker. A lot of people drop out and go away too, which is sad. Or,
they mellow out, collect a bit of less obviously fantastic garb, and
blend in. This has nothing to do with chronological age, it has to do
with the number of years one spends in the SCA.
	
For all the shrill paranoia about "authenticity nazis", I have met noone
who matches the rude, brazen stereotype of the person who comes up to a
neo at his first event and says "Don't you know that sneakers and
polyester T-Tunics aren't period?!! You really should at least try for
something better." I have noticed that the people who come closest to
this stereotype, tend to be unhappy people in other ways, and are never,
never peers. People who get mistaken for "authenticity nazis" aren't
"authenticity nazis" they're a) stressed-out, b) burnt-out, c)
psychologically unhappy in some other way d) all or some of the above,
and they never make a regular sport of being rude to strangers.

Given that there is no "boogy-man" equivalent of the "fantasy nazi", it
would seem, since cultures create demons to give shape to their own
fears, that the "authenticity nazi", represents the SCA-wide fear of
"overdoing it". By this I mean, people fear that somehow too much
realism in reproducing an artifact will take the fun out of producing
the artifact. The authenticity nazi also might symbolize a pervasive
fear that no matter how hard we try we can never be "authentic enough"
and that someone will criticize us for some lapse. (With that thought,
Dr. von Katzenellenbogen will stroke his goatee, take a puff on his
cigar and go back to analyzing the crisis between the Id and the
Superego :):)).

The fact is, that since anything we can't absolutely document as reality
is quite possibly fantasy, we can never total purge the fantasy element
from our recreations. Why try? As long as it isn't obtrusive it won't
upset most people.
	For those people who do know better, and do get upset, you have
several choices a) put up with it, b) leave, c) go out and convert the
heathen. I prefer c. You are doing something positive. You look better
if you do something positive than sulking. And, you might win people
over to your way of thinking.

The Geography of Kingdom Boundries

I have been amazed at how SCA boundry lines accurately reflect the
cultural divisions within the U.S.
	On no map except a map of SCA kingdoms will you see the split
between No. Cal. and So. Cal., the split between Texas and the rest of
the South and Southwest, and the split between the Western regions of
the big Northeast States of Pennsylvania and New York. The split between
Calontir and the Mid-Realm roughly paralells the line in the Nine
Nations of North America between the Grain Belt (called the Granary in
that book) and the Rust Belt. Meridies picks up most of the deep South,
which is very different from the "Old South" represented by Atlantia.
	I believe that the reason that cultural splits aren't more
obvious is because the Middle Kingdom refuses to fragment into new
kingdoms in spite of its huge size (in people, rather than area). Except
for Eoldermere, the Middle Kingdom looks to Chicago/Tre-Girt Sea as its
focus. Also, the way the SCA population and the Interstate are laid out,
there is no real, focused group in any one state, and the only way
you'll have new kingdoms in the Middle Kingdom is along state lines.
	Kentucky could concievably split from the M.K. to form a Kingdom
with Tennessee, but the low population and road layout argue against it
for a long time to come. There is something of a cultural divide between
Southern Indiana/S. Illinois/Kentucky vs. N. Indiana/N. Illinois, but
due to the road layout and the lack of SCA population in the southern
regions, there will be no "Kingdom of the Ohio River"

Well, that was fun. Lothar is no longer bored. He is amused and will go
home now.:)

Lothar \|/
        0
 
Ahlso, each state in the Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky
group tends to focus on its largest city, partially due to population of
the local
 This historical focus keeps North Shield (Minnesota and
Wisconsin) looking South when they could be a Kingdom on their own, and
keeps Indiana/Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio from all being independent.
Also, lack of population