Well, Darn

Darn Piper, in fact.  Sorry about the mild, very mild joke on an unhappy day.  I'm contractually obligated as DeForest Arnold Piper's friend to make a bad joke today, and that was mine.

DeForest was Arnie to me and my crowd in the Flint area; he was Slyme the beggar when I met him back in the 1980s (there was a flying grovel involved; we got off to a perfectly good start that way, with me playing haughty straight man for the evening), member of House Mendicant; and he was Lord Arnwyn of Pearwyc (also Lady Arnwyn on occasion, because heralds kept assuming his name denoted a female).

He was a fencer, a past seneschal of the Barony of Cynnabar, and a man of unfailingly good humor in spite of some health problems that have now contributed to a far too early demise.  Others will tell of his penchant for bad jokes and whimsical sense of humor, but aside from encounters in the SCA, I saw a side of him that I suspect from comments on Facebook today not everyone saw, or saw as often as I did.  For a regrettably short time over a decade ago, while he lived in the Flint area, he and Lady Terryl MacAodhagain, Lord Skalla Geirmundr Ulfsson, Lord Breac MacFinnean and I met fairly frequently to discuss politics, philosophy and culture over drinks (and milder refreshments).  When that was no longer possible, we continued our conversation by email, a five member, or sometimes four, or for quite a long time three, member symposium.

Mostly we talked politics, but we ranged into popular fiction and culture, and wider issues of ideology and class.  At our maximum, we had two fairly doctrinaire liberals, two fairly conventional conservatives... and Arnie, somewhere in between.  When it came to arguing or debating, Arnie rarely picked fights with anyone but me.  He poked at the weaker logical links in my views, insisted that I give evidence when he didn't like my statements, and challenged me to explain why I thought various things.  If he was satisfied, he said so; if he continued to disagree, he said so; and if I had persuaded him, he acknowledged it.

You know how rare that last part is?  No one does that, or almost no one.  Our egos are too big to admit that anyone has changed our minds.  Most of us will keep up the argument just to play devil's advocate, even after we've been persuaded, and just to refrain from admitting we were wrong.  Arnie had an ego, but it was moderate and well-behaved.

All this is by way of saying that I found Arnie very bright and knowledgeable, a keen judge of people, someone who usually questioned received wisdom.  All highly admirable traits, that tended to make everyone around him better people.  Or so I found.

Today, as I read the news and followed links of interest on politics, economics and popular culture, I came across a number of items that might have interested Arnie, and reflexively began to copy the url to send to my correspondents, and then I had to stop and reconsider.  If it's something that would only interest Arnie, I don't need to send the link any longer, and I'm quite sorry about that.

Goodbye, Arnie.

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Ethan Gilsdorf

Lyons Press, 2009

In my occasional series of brief reviews of mainstream books which mention or discuss the SCA, I've got two more at the moment. Gilsdorf's examination of the modern world of fantasy escapism discusses his own experiences playing Dungeons and Dragons as a young man, and interviews many gamers and enthusiasts of Tolkien and the like. Chapter 10, "In the Beer Line with the King" discusses the author's encounter with the SCA.

Gilsdorf approaches a visit to Pennsic with appropriate enthusiasm... he sews his own tunic, is unhappy with the result and tries again, with still inadequate results. One likes his approach; he doesn't just borrow some nice garb, he gives the thing a serious try. Once at Pennsic, camping with "engineers and programmers", he describes the experience: "Conversation at the camp was sedate. These were no raucous brutes or lofty knights. Order was paramount. A strict spreadsheet and chore book dictated who did what, when. The night I assisted with the cooking, a flowchart determined how and when to allocate resources like fire and prep time."

That caused me some amusement... I always wanted to organize Pennsic camp like that, but the locals tend to resist order. I'd have run it like a military operation if anyone had let me. Oh well.

The author makes the same point as Benjamin Nugent (below): discussing the matter-of-fact and unapologetic knight he quotes at some length, he adds "He was a geek in jock's clothing."

Gilsdorf's take on the SCA is sympathetic and accurate. It makes for an enjoyable read... enough so that I'm going to buy my own copy of this one.

Lady Emma St. John RIP

Lady Emma St. John of Fearanne na Criche passed away on Saturday night, March 19. (This is from the FC mailing list.) I am very sorry to hear it, and condolences to her husband Lord Jon St. John. Emma was a kind lady and her generous travels to cook at events in the Flint area are fondly remembered. She will be missed.

American Nerd

American Nerd: The Story of My People

Benjamin Nugent

New York: Scribner, 2008

Nugent pens a highly readable and amusing tale of his youth and experiences among the nerds: Dungeons and Dragons players, computer gamers... and of course, members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, of whom the author says "...they're nerds who have banded together and found a way to make themselves non-nerds within a separate universe."

The book is quite literate and sophisticated. Nugent does not seem to have been a SCA member but merely to have been aware of the organization. He describes a visit to the Estrella War with evident enjoyment and fairness. "...they've found a way to solve the old problems that Muscular Christianity and the Victorian sports advocates with their physique buttons sought to address."

Time Machines

Time Machines: The World of Living History

Jay Anderson

Nashville, TN: The American Association for State and Local History, 1984

This now rather old volume has a chapter on the Society for Creative Anachronism, from p. 167-172. Anderson, a reenactor who has written at least two more books on living history, didn't seem as impressed with the SCA as he was with many of the more authenticity focused organizations he could observe. But he gives the SCA of a quarter-century ago a fair hearing.

The chapter is titled "Prince Valiants" and the author makes a rather good point when he says

The ladies and gentlemen of the SCA use anachronisms creatively to improve the quality of contemporary life. Their approach to the Middle Ages, the period of history from roughly the Fall of Rome to the seventeenth century, is straight out of Hal Foster's "Prince Valiant." And their premise is that a sojourn into this magical time will help the modern time traveler endure the altogether too obvious examples of strife and pestilence that characterize our modern world, the epoch of 1984.

For those who never read Prince Valiant, especially the great old stuff from the 30s and 40s when Hal Foster was in his prime (it's been reprinted in several formats), the strip was ostensibly set in King Arthur's time, and the author/artist took some care to depict aspects of the Middle Ages and historical events... but in a fun mishmash of twelfth century armor, Arthurian legend, late antiquity historical hijinks and various other anachronisms. The SCA does in fact come to mind to the modern day fan of Prince Valiant.

Anderson goes on to point out the distinction between other reenactor groups and the SCA: "While most other buff groups now make it relatively difficult to join their organizations - the American Mountain men require the pilgrim to do a year's probation, for example - the SCA offers all manner of assistance..."

Time Machine's take on the SCA is fairly brief and a bit superficial, but it lacks the inaccuracies one has often seen in materials written by non members. If one can find a copy, it's fun to see the old early 80s armor in photos... we really used to look like that.

I might mention here that the book also discusses living history museums, research projects and reenactor groups in entertaining detail.

More on "Suburban Knights"

This NPR slideshow and article describes the "Suburban Knights" book I briefly reviewed a few posts ago.

SCA Census

I think this is an interesting initiative by the SCA... emphasizing that opinions of past members (and I qualify despite my intermittent blog here) is desired finally caught my interest. I encourage others to fill out the survey... it was quick and painless.

The entire message is reproduced below, with permission, so this is a very long post:

There is a project that impacts future of the SCA in a very real way. It is the SCA Census 2010 project.

The SCA Census 2010 Committee was asked by the Board of Directors to develop a census-level survey to help the SCA to move forward into the next decade; to identify, address and work on current issues; to gain a deeper understanding into what makes the SCA what it is today; and to delve into the reasons for joining, remaining in, and leaving the SCA.

So far we have heard from over 10,000 past and present participants, a good first step. Of these 10,000, only 1000 are folks who no longer participate in the SCA. We need to hear from you all, especially the folks that no longer actively participate. We would ask each of you, if able, reach out to those past participants who left the SCA and ask their assistance by taking this survey.

The only way we can understand what is important is by hearing from you, so please take the time to complete the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/SCA2010Census or visitwww.sca.org.

The Survey will remain open until December 1st. Once the data collection is completed, the results of this survey will be made available on the SCA 2010 Census website. Be assured that the survey data collected or published will remain completely anonymous and will not be sold or shared beyond this survey's purpose. You will never be asked for information that will identify you.

If you would like to learn more about the SCA 2010 Census, if you have questions or ideas about the project, please contact the committee at scacensus2010@sca.org.

With your help we can create an SCA which will last another 4 decades.

Sincerely,

Erik Langhans, Director, SCA Inc.

(Sir Modius von Mergentheim, KSCA, OL, OP)

On Behalf of the SCA 2010 Census Committee

www.sca.org/scacensus2010

Breakdown by Kingdom

Approx. 10,000 completed surveys

363 Æthelmearc

Member Participants 269

Non Member Participants 40

Not Current Participants 54

823 Ansteorra

Member Participants 541

Non Member Participants 119

Not Current Participants 163

1079 An Tir

Member Participants 767

Non Member Participants 155

Not Current Participants 157

170 Artemisia

Member Participants 124

Non Member Participants 27

Not Current Participants 19

424 Atenveldt

Member Participants 304

Non Member Participants 46

Not Current Participants 74

824 Atlantia

Member Participants 581

Non Member Participants 99

Not Current Participants 144

597 Caid

Member Participants 432

Non Member Participants 76

Not Current Participants 89

444 Calontir

Member Participants 326

Non Member Participants 59

Not Current Participants 59

336 Drachenwald

Member Participants 241

Non Member Participants 57

Not Current Participants 38

284 Ealdormere

Member Participants 174

Non Member Participants 37

Not Current Participants 73

847 East

Member Participants 555

Non Member Participants 135

Not Current Participants 157

220 Gleann Abhann

Member Participants 171

Non Member Participants 25

Not Current Participants 24

555 Lochac

Member Participants 388

Non Member Participants 87

Not Current Participants 80

498 Meridies

Member Participants 345

Non Member Participants 80

Not Current Participants 73

839 Middle

Member Participants 589

Non Member Participants 101

Not Current Participants 149

493 Northshield

Member Participants 297

Non Member Participants 44

Not Current Participants 152

343 Outlands

Member Participants 244

Non Member Participants 54

Not Current Participants 45

344 Trimaris

Member Participants 251

Non Member Participants 43

Not Current Participants 50

496 West

Member Participants 343

Non Member Participants 85

Not Current Participants 68

Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas, CA 95036

You may also email comments@lists.sca.org.

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism , Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.

A Serious Look at the Hobby

Medieval Fantasy as Performance; The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle Ages by Michael A. Cramer

February 2010 from The Scarecrow Press

$39.95

As long as I've been engaged in hobbies or areas of historical interest, it has been my habit to at once seek out books and magazines (for a hobby where such things are available) to get acquainted with the culture and rules of the community I was joining, or considering joining. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but I long ago became aware that not everyone considers that step worthwhile. In the Society for Creative Anachronism, there used to be a strong tendency for the rules and customs of the hobby to be conveyed informally, through person to person contact. Possibly this has changed to some degree with the advent of the Internet, of course.

When I joined in 1982, I was, as far as I could tell, unusual in immediately seeking out every possible pamphlet and document about the SCA and the Middle Kingdom. There was a fair amount available, including the Folump Press publication A Brief History of the Middle Kingdom, (which was invaluable.) And yet often over the years, I was surprised at the short institutional memory of the organization. Even brief and accessible documents appeared invisible to many colleagues. This could be a particular problem during local political disputes, as members were quite capable of dismissing any suggestion of how things were done if these rules conflicted with more convenient assumptions cherry-picked from officer handbooks. (The publication of the excellent but regrettably flexible Seneschal's Handbook for the MidRealm in the mid 1990s was actually a catastrophe for my local branch... the locals all selected the lines from the book they preferred that affected the dispute at hand, and ignored lines that gave different perspectives. When there was no solution for this, the branch suffered a completely unnecessary migration of many of the members to an attempt at a rival branch that was impossible for them to organize as they had envisioned according to the real rules of the SCA... which they had never absorbed.)

In 1982, I would have been overjoyed to have had access to something like Medieval Fantasy as Performance. The book is not a guide to the SCA, or a history of it, I hasten to add. Cramer, a longtime prominent member in the West Kingdom, is also a theatre professional and approaches his topic from the perspective of how members perform the recreation of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He is clear in his description of how the organization depicts the historical period as it pleases rather than as it was.

The utility of the book for me is Cramer's careful and knowledgeable look under the hood, explaining the motivations and interpersonal mechanisms behind the SCA's culture. He explains the origins of the organization, and describes how it gradually evolved the forms of performance it follows today, including court ceremonial, tournament combat and especially what he terms the Summer King and Winter King games. This is quite a lot of fun; I particularly enjoyed his placing the SCA's activities in a larger scholarly context.

I would unreservedly recommend the book. Both new members curious about the organization and old timers who care to reflect on it would enjoy and appreciate it.

Picture Book

Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages

E. F. Kitchen

July 2010 from powerHouse Books

$35.00

This is a book of full-page photographs in black and white of SCA members posing in their armor (or one page, in garb). The photos are accompanied by text with quotes from many of the recreationists depicted. There is a photo leading off the book of Sir Ranthulfr Asparlundr of the MidRealm (he also gets a photo in Medieval Fantasy as Performance). The book closes with our Baroness Dulcinea Maria Magdalena von Muhlberg y Aguilar. Most of the pictures are of fairly prominent members, many from the western kingdoms, it appears.

The book itself is handsomely mounted and well bound. It's a pleasure to handle and examine, although it is a little light on content, and I'm not sure that all of the members depicted are necessarily coming off as well as they might hope. The black and white works better in some photos than others... one misses the bright colors of heraldry and some of the scenes seem bleak or melodramatic. Some are great photos, to be sure: Duke John Fitzgerald de Clare on p. 39, Sir Gaston Bonneville de la Croix at p. 47 and Sir Tristan Pfalzgraf von Eisig at p. 53 all look particularly sharp.

The black and white photos seem like an odd choice to me. It gives the book an old-fashioned air, to be sure, but an air of the 19th or early 20th century. Color would have been better for the Middle Ages... they didn't have photography anyway. But perhaps others would disagree. Certainly it's all interesting to look at. It also seems to me that the similarity of the poses fails to capture all the possibilities. There are no group scenes, no indoor depictions. Each photo has one subject, usually dramatically posed with a sword or other weapon (Duke John has an attendant with his banner, one of the reasons his image seems more interesting.) This makes the images seem more stiff... they aren't naturalistically depicted. The kind of photos taken for, for example, Embleton and Howe's Medieval Soldier, are a good deal more pleasing and even inspiring.

I'm guessing that the imagery will please and intrigue some other readers. The fact that it doesn't do much for me is perhaps a personal matter.

My principal objection to the text is the author's interest in one of the major motivations for people joining the SCA. Master Waldryk the Firedryk is quoted on p. 12:

"I killed Frank Renn 12 years ago. I didn't like Frank Renn. I killed him and I made Waldryk." The speaker notes his inability to find fulfillment in other ways, name-checking Christianity with disfavor (a frequent and highly ironic motivation for wanting to emulate medieval European figures, I always thought), and concludes that his identity as Master Waldryk is the person he wants to be.

I have never met Master Waldryk and am not knocking him. When I say this, I'm using him as a stand-in for a view of the world that I'm usually sorry to hear about in the SCA. It makes me uncomfortable and puzzles me. And maybe that's my problem, not his, or that of others for whom his comments might seem resonant.

But I just never got this business of using the SCA as an escape from modern society for more than an entertaining weekend. I suppose that's because I'm happy enough with who I am in the 21st century world. I find fulfillment in my profession and other hobbies and interests. My real identity is that person. Balian de Brionne is what, then? A mask, a pose, a role to play? A whimsy on the weekend? Well, not exactly. It is a powerful thing to choose a new identity for yourself, a new name and a new set of allegiances. One can be a new person. There is a great appeal in that. But it has always seemed to me like a momentary escape into another identity, not one that is actually preferable.

Candidly, Suburban Knights is a little pricey for what it is... I'm not even sure SCA members are the target audience. I bought it suspecting from the description it would disappoint; but it is my custom to buy books about the SCA. It's not like there are many, after all. So I recommend it mildly. It's amusing and has some interesting commentary by members of the organization.

New Books on the SCA

Books about the Society for Creative Anachronism... not self-published items for internal use, but regular published books sold on Amazon.com... are pretty rare. The only one I know of is The Knights Next Door, by Patrick O'Donnell. The SCA is discussed in a number of books about historical recreation groups and the like, but I don't know of any others that take the organization as a primary focus. There are several books by SCA members, such as Professor Steven Muhlberger's books on chivalric topics and Brian Price's opus on reproducing 14th century armor... but these are books which simply happen to be of intense interest to members of the organization, not books about it.

This, however, two new books have been published: Medieval Fantasy as Performance by Michael A. Cramer, and Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages by E. F. Kitchen. I will review both in subsequent posts. I heartily recommend the former; the latter is harmless fun.

I should note that it is possible I've missed something. I've been on an almost complete hiatus from participation in the SCA for quite some time now, essentially since late 2007, and while I haven't entirely lost interest, I don't feel like I have the sense of knowing what goes on and what everyone is talking about.

Question

So, what does the SCA in Genesee County or the mid-Michigan area require to grow and prosper? I've been wondering about that for a while, and wondering what I might do to add some value in this regard.

If anyone's still reading this sadly neglected blog, and has a notion, they might choose to comment, or to email me. And I'll note any decisions I make along those lines.

Val Day

I'm once again teaching a Saturday morning class - I occasionally get roped into this particular class in the winter term. So no SCA events for me unless there's one close enough to permit a late arrival. Kalamazoo and the Valentine's Day Massacre from the distant side of Northwoods in Flint is too far.

Melisande and Bronwen left for the event at the same time I did for work; I found the roads rather bad, worse than I had expected. They got to Lansing before giving up and coming back. Skalla-Geirmundr and his family were also going, but I haven't heard how they fared.

Blacksmithing

Popular Mechanics has an article up on how to set up your own forge. The idea never really interested me, but I saw this through the kind offices of Instapundit, a blogger on politics and various other topics who says he and his friends made Roman lorica segmentata in high school. Was Professor Reynolds a SCA member at some point, or just a kindred spirit?

Medieval Flask

The very interesting blog A Commonplace Book recently pointed to this wonderful item at Billy and Charlies: a medieval flask. Can't tell you how long I've been waiting for a good reproduction of this item. I have a handsome modern flask from Royal Holland Pewter that is functionally the same, but I will have to order this soon.

New Website Design for the SCA

The SCA, Inc. website, which, to put it mildly, has always been a very bare bones sort of site, fairly informative but quite plain, has been redesigned. It's still rather spare, but it's distinctly an upgrade.

Another SCA Podcast

Right here. The Lion's Road podcast. Via the always interesting SCA Today website.

MidRealm Humor

Unlike most April 1 posts, this one is actually quite funny on several levels.

Camera Lucida

An interesting SCA site which had hitherto escaped my notice is Camera Lucida.

Thinkwell is Back

In the early 1990s, one of the more interesting and thought-provoking projects in the SCA was Thinkwell, a newsletter featuring commentary by SCA members on the organization and how to recreate the Middle Ages. It was put together by Sandra Dodd, AElflaed of Duckford, a long-standing peer and former president of the SCA, Inc.

My wife subscribed and we both enjoyed reading it at the time, and were sorry when it stopped publication. Now it's back in an online format with a blog and some of the old issues archived. I recommend it.

Update: I forgot to mention... in fact, I had altogether forgotten until I posted this... that I met Mistress AElflaed in 1990 at a SCA Board of Directors meeting in Cynnabar. I asked her a rather silly question during an intermission, and she gave me a very polite answer.

SCA Cocktails

Well, one SCA cocktail, at least. That would be an interesting set of recipes to collect, though. I might have to invent one! I was looking for the recipe of a cocktail my handy references didn't have, and came across this on the front page at DrinksMixer.com: Conn's Fruity Beverage, which is said to be popular at SCA events in the south. Ok, I'm not going to pretend that it sounds good to me at all, but perhaps it will interest some.