[Artemisia] We're the Society for Creative Anything

[Bruce Padget]

--- El Hermoso Dormiendo
<ElHermosoDormido+aerie at dogphilosophy.net> wrote:

[snippage of much cool stuff, for space...]

> (Not saying 
> this makes sense, just that I'm guessing that's the
> reason.)

Maryam and I were discussing this yesterday, and she
brought up this line of explanation (not
justification).  I use the term "perioid" for those
things that really aren't authentic, but have somehow
become broadly accepted as "right" for the SCA. 
(Someone will bring up the straw man of "period
police."  If "period police" are a Bad Thing, how can
one possibly justify "perioid police.")

YMMV (the best FLA spawned by the 'net, IMHO) -- but
Artemisia seems to have improved on this over the
years.  When I started, authenticity seemed to carry
almost no weight at all with the average Artemisian. 
This corner of the world is improving, and newer
players often lead the way in research.  I don't have
the data to assess other corners of the world, or the
whole.

I've noticed three broad categories of perioid things
in the SCA:

1.  "Weird is period" -- The idea is to live something
other than modern life.  So anything that's not
typical modern life is good enough.  (Examples -- the
dances "Korubushka" and "Scotland the Brave").  A
variant of this is "Non-European is period."  Several
times I've encountered documentation that claimed a
thing or practice is period, because it's
"traditional" in modern Asia, Africa, or the Mideast.

2.  "Old is period" -- Anything not obviously modern
is period.  I'm pretty sure I've never fallen prey to
this one, so I don't grok it.  I suspect it ties in to
the sorry state of history education in the US.

3.  "Cool is period" -- This is a particularly
dangerous one.  The SCA is a hobby that comtains many
other hobbies.  Since about 95% of my non-work
activities (and about 99% of my friends) belong in the
SCA, it can be wrenching to keep out the 5% of my
interests that don't belong.  I experienced this one
just yesterday -- recently bought the coolest game
I've seen in years.  I was sorely tempted to bring it
to our arms practice, even though the game was
invented about a year ago, and there was nothing like
it pre-1601.

Regards,
Niccolo
Abbastanza Buon Non E Abbastanza Buono
bapadget at yahoo.com