[MR] a little history on the terms we use

[Michelle L. McDaniel]

Hey all!

Hope all is well with you and yours!

Hey all!

The recent discussions on terminology and the point of the SCA have had me
thinking about the origins of this group. I've read quite a lot of the
histories on Stefan's Florilegium over the past few weeks.

I think we may be at turning point in the SCA (or perhaps just here in
Atlantia; as I don't play much out of Kingdom, I don't want to make
assumptions that a phenomenon is Society wide when it may be localized to
Atlantia). Perhaps more of the people finding their ways to the SCA are
coming from someplace other than Greater Fandom. 

Many of the founding members of the SCA were active in their local Science
Fiction Fandom Community. Many are famous science fiction/fantasy writers
(Diane Paxton, Katherine Kurtz, and Marion Zimmer Bradley). 

My first exposure to the SCA was reading about in the "About the
Author" paragraph in the back of the "Deryni Rising" by Katherine
Kurtz. I was 14 and thought the group was so cool that I went to my public
library and got the address for the corporate office out of the big book of
organizations, associations, etc. and sent off for info. 

My next few interactions over the next eight years were also at events
related to Fandom. (Prince George and Harrisonburg, Virginia were Scadian
vacuums to a person who didn't have a car. The nearest groups were roughly
an hour away, which was too far for me to participate in. This was also in
the days before widespread use of the internet and e-mail so getting in
contact with people meant calling people you'd never met and begging for
rides etc. not something I really wanted to do.) Friends in the Science
Fiction Fantasy club that had actually gotten to go to events. I bought
"How to Cook Forsoothly" at Balticon from Poison Pen Press. When I
finally found the SCA in the area where I lived and could participate, it
was through the role playing gaming club at the University where my husband
went for grad school. My first official activity as a Scadian was a demo at
a gaming convention.

A lot of the terms we've been discussing come more from the fantasy
aspect of the society. Back in the beginning, college students who didn't
know a whole lot about what they were doing made, up names, with no thought
for their authenticity or that they would last for over 30 years. Now
we're discussing the merits of those terms, which were often chosen for
their whimsical value. (Whimsy is a good thing; the world needs more of it!)
The terms were chosen to help create a sense of other worldliness, to help
those attending feel as though they were stepping outside of modern life.
Using Troll for "reservations clerk", dragon for car, and farspeaker for
telephone definitely do that, whether or not they are period. 

Personally, about the only Scadianism that I use regularly is Troll as it
is a Society wide standard. Should it change? Should we change our
vocabulary? If enough people want it to, it will, whether or not I want it
to. I don't mind Troll and actively dislike the others I mentioned because
they sound silly. The "o-crat" issue is one of those things that we have
to work hard to stamp out because, unfortunately it seems to be human nature
to coin phrases like this, just see all the "gate" scandals like
Billygate, Irangate, etc. (The Watergate is an apartment/office building on
the bank of the Potomac River in Washington, DC, not a bad name for a
building at water's edge. The rest are just ridiculous names to fit some
made up pattern and to try to relate the scandals in severity to the
Watergate break-ins.)

Anyway, I think that some terms like troll shouldn't be changed out of
respect for the traditions of the greater society but others like dragon
should as there are already appropriate words available. 

Knowing the reasons/stories behind the terms makes it easier to determine
if a change needs to be made.

Take care!

**aelfwynn of whitby**