[Artemisia] From the Known World Handbook

[Duke Alan]

Greetings All,

I hope the start of summer finds you all in good stead, and looking forward to upcoming fun!  Below is something that I have always particularly liked from the Known World Handbook.  For those who don't know what that is, you should find out.  Great publication, especially for new people.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have over the years.

YIS,   Alan


 
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Playing
at Who We Really Are

Again and again, from newcomers and even from old timers
caught in touchy situations, I've heard the same clement: "I thought the
SCA was supposed to be fun".  The
SCA is fun.  It's a special kind of fun
that is found in very few places in our modern culture.  It encourages us to play at who we really
are.

The SCA recreates the Middle Ages "as they should
have been."  In the SCA therefore,
we try to recreate ourselves as we should have been, in a fantasy world where
nobility, honor, and courtesy are the ideals of everyone.  We speak to each other in the language of
high fantasy, a language spoken in story by heroes larger than life.

We're not really heroes. 
To heroes, only nobility, courage, honor, courtesy and the other
dramatic virtues matter.  Heroes endure
hunger, pain, loneliness, even ridicule with fortitude as long as they know
they are living up to their ideals. 
Every day in what we call the mundane world we compromise, tell white
lies, and avoid rocking the boat.  We're
not really heroes are we?

Could we be heroes if we dared to try?  The SCA lets us play at being our best
selves, the selves we could be in a perfect, fantasy world, perhaps the selves
we really are and never dreamed to show. 
In the SCA we're supposed to act nobly, and to act nobly, and to say
we're acting nobly.  In the real world I felt
uncomfortable saying that I did something because it was the right thing to
do.  I'd certainly never say I did it
because it was a noble thing to do.

SCA members don't like to use the phrase the "real
world".  The SCA is the real
world.  The other place where we have to
live between events is only the mundane world, the ever day, dull world where
nothing we do means anything, where they don't let us be heroes, where we can't
be the people we really are. 

But the SCA is play. 
In the real world, and it is the real world, you can really die.  When you get fired, you lose money.  When you take risks, you really get
hurt.  In the SCA there are risks, of
course, but the risks aren't quite so dangerous.

So in the SCA we play at who we really are.  But sometimes I think we take ourselves too
seriously to play at who we really are. 
There are two mistakes we make. 
Either we forget it is play, or we forget it is real.

New members need to know and old members sometimes forget
that the SCA is a special kind of fun that we are playing with thoughts,
feelings, and ideals that are real and important.  Sometimes new members once shouted
"blood, blood, we want blood" at a tourney.  Of course, sometimes we jumped all over
them.  And they didn't understand.  We're just having fun, aren't we?  I told them later that the person who
criticized them had seen the same fighter break his arm at two different
tourneys.  We don’t want blood.  Blood is too real to be fun.  We aren't joking or pretending when we talk
of nobility, honor and courtesy.  And  the nobility, honor and courtesy are real, as
anyone who has ever cleaned the hall until 3 a.m. after an event, for the honor
of the SCA, can tell you.

Later on, we begin to forget that it is play.  Just because we're trying to play at being
superhuman, we start expecting each other to be superhuman.  We say a king is dishonorable when he may be
only young and lacking the judgment. 
Someone told me once that if, as an autocrat, I loan money to get an
event going, I shouldn't feel bad or angry if I don't get the money back.  Maybe heroes don't mind losing money, but I
do mind.  I'm only human.

Playing at who we really are is risky.  It causes problems and
misunderstandings.   While we're playing,
the SCA can4 suddenly get too real and surprise us.  Hurt, we say, "I though the SCA was
supposed to be fun".  

Nevertheless, this opportunity to try out the heroic mold
is a privilege I will fight to preserve. 
When we play at having real virtues we really are led to develop
them.  Sometimes we will find we take
ourselves too seriously- but let's play at who we really are anyway.

by Alura the Twin, from The Known World Handbook, 3rd
version

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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