[MR] Authenticity is Good, no Joke

[Vernon Willet]

Good morning, All, from Werhener in Caer Mear,

Once again, it is time to jump into the fray and adopt the unpoular stance.

I have read, with interest, the lengthy discussion about the role
authenticity should play and, I must say, I do delight in the interplay of
rapier-like wit.

Authenticity is good..  Authentic kit is good.  It is my understanding that
the Chivalry have discussed this matter at length and are on-board for the
upcoming rule change.  They, I presume, will be abandoning all of their
inauthentic kit in favor of pieces which can be documented to the period in
which their persona is placed, as an example to us all.  That is also good.
If we are headed in the direction of authenticity, are we going to disallow
stainless steel plate?  Or shall we mandate that persons must actually fight
in the armor on which our acknowledgement standards are purportedly based?
(My, that would put the cat in amongst the pigeons, wouldn't it.) Are we
going to disallow shield baskets and sword baskets?  If such thing existed
at all, they were very uncommon in period.  I have not seen any on the web
sites I frequent.  Are we going to allow an ax or a great sword to chop away
a shield and expose the soft underbelly of the shield-person beneath?  Shall
we allow combat to be fought as combat was fought, with grappling and butt
strokes included?  It would surely be a different game if it were authentic.
With regard to coleman chairs, they are no less period, for the mass of the
populous, than the finest curial chair.  Most people did not have chairs at
all and would certainly NEVER take them outside to lounge about at a
tournament.  Perhaps coleman makes benches.

Perhaps we should increase authenticity elsewhere in the organization as
well.  Are we going to ban conversations about Windows (except of course in
the context of openings in a wall) and other aspects of mundane technology?
Shall we insist the Autocrats and event staff communicate by runners and
leave their walkie-talkies at home?  Perhaps our cooks should eschew the
modern stoves and cook over fires.  Are we going to actually make an effort
to have and USE our purported personas?  How many of you know who was Pope
in your time period?  How many know what the currrency of your perosna's
home country was?  How many smoke cigarettes at events?  How many have
hand-sewn seams?  My first garb had hand-sewn seams only because I did not
own a sewing machine.  None of mine has since.

The SCA is not a living history group.  It cannot be when persona from 1000
years' span all interact together.  I joined the SCA to learn more about
medieval history and culture and to get an opportunity to play the role of a
nobleman of the middle ages.  I accomplished the first goal, the second
continues to elude me; it is a moving target.  I have heard some speak of
events of "enchanted ground" in which each person stays in persona for the
duration of the event.  It sounds grand, but it too, is elusive and seems to
exist, with unicorns, in a nebulous realm just out of reach.

I do not hold myself up as a paragon.  I am as guilty of persona lapses and
coleman chairs as any.  But wouldn't it be lovely to come to an SCA event
where you did not see a gaggle of folks sitting in coleman chairs, drinking
beer from a can, smoking cigarettes and talking about XBOX or such like?  I
have gone on too long, as usual, but my point is that we are perched on the
edge of a slippery slope and, should we go over the edge, it will be a very
different SCA which goes on into the 21st century.  And that may not be such
a bad thing.

Barkeep, a round for these good, patient people and give my complements to
the wench in the corner.

I have the honor to be, by Their Majesties Grace,
Werhener von Ingolstadt, Baron of the Court of Atlantia.