Bagging on the Renaissance Faire...... for fun

[It]

Does it seem a bit odd when there's a huge Renaissance Faire that comes to town, for one reason or another, the odd ball fencers in the club get all gitty and anxious. They always want to try and get a group of fencers from the club to get all dressed up and pretend to be knights, or some kind of Musketeer, or some strange made-up character. And for some strange reason or another they start to speak in wierd wanna be English accents. ( yeah people in the States do this )Dosen't that just annoy or scare the living Doo Doo out of you?

[Katman]

I like the smiley illustration to go with your post. Very clever.

[Catlady]

Not really. I guess I'm one of them to an extent. I'm interested in history and participating the "fake" middle ages. I say fake because if I really did live in the middle ages my life as a woman, would be pretty grim. Considering my attitude, I would have likely been hanged as a witch by now. Then of course, I might not have even made it to adult hood. If I had, I would be married by now--maybe even to someone I actually loved, but maybe not--and have several kids, if I hadn't died in childbirth already. Even noble's lives--especially noblewomen's lives-- weren't that great. However, the middle ages SCA style (the fake middle ages), were everyone is a lord or lady, and women even get to play in the sword fights, then when they're done playing everyone goes back to their modern life with "real" doctors, anitbiotics, women's rights, and flush toilets, sounds sort of interesting.

Mostly though, I'm more of a fantasy person than a middle ages person and I usually take out those urges by writing stories not acting them out, except maybe on halloween.

I will agree the fake English accents are terrible, especially the "Shakespearean accent". No one talked like that even when Shakespeare was alive . Of course, I prefer to believe, despite being born and raised in the US that my variety of British accent are all real

Just one more tip, from a Shakespeare fan and an English major, Shakespeare wrote in what is essentially modern English--if you want to distinguish it since it's not precisely what either we or the Brits speak now, you could do what I do and call it Elizabethan English-- not Old English--which is so different from what we speak now that you actually have to learn it as a foreign language (and I want to BTW). This will prevent you from getting odd looks--that could often melt steel--from liguistic nerds like me.

[Inquartata]

But how do you KNOW that no one spoke Shakespearean English in his day? Were you there?

Anyway, no, ithe dress-up-and-play-act-swashbuckler thing doesn't disturb me, any more than it disturbs me that people reenact Civil War battles, or dress as Klingons and Vorlons and go to sci fi conventions, or, as they seem to do in Germany, have events where they play cowboys and Indians. Or that in Japan they dress up like extras from "Happy Days".

Most wondrous diverse is the silliness of human beings...but vive le difference!

[Jupiter]

I had a friend who did that for serious. She had a name for her participation in the events. To a degree I find them insteresting, it's part of history, They keep shakespear alive. But, I don't have time to participate in sca events. Many of my friends used to do clowning, juggling, and sew their own costumes for the festivals as they arise. One girl studied theater and another did a partial PhD in old english. I did a special course in Shakespear and also studied a bit of Chaucer, but never to the degree that others have done. I have a feeling that Chaucer will eventually become extinct.

I recently completed a Pastel of an SCA scene, with a Punch and Judy in there, but again, it's very time consuming to do it just right. To fence non-sca is time consuming enough for me.

[Catlady]

Originally posted by Inquartata
But how do you KNOW that no one spoke Shakespearean English in his day? Were you there?

[/i]!

I realize you were probably--I hope--being tongue in cheek here, but I didn't say no one spoke Shakespearean English in his day. I said that no one spoke with the affected, pseudo-'English accent that some bad actors insist on doing when they do Shakespeare. Though the language Shakespeare wrote was probably a bit more flowery than the average "groundling" at least would have spoken, but that's true of the language many modern writers use today too.

Okay, enough lecture.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Originally posted by Jupiter
I have a feeling that Chaucer will eventually become extinct.

Is Chaucer in ill health? I just saw him the other day on TV, in some movie with Heath Ledger. He looked pretty healthy.

It'd be a bummer if he was dead.

[D'Artagnan1673]

I bothered to read THE Knight's Tale, and the movie has nothing to do with the Chaucer tale. Really, it is quite a sad movie.

I do not get into the whole Renassaince/SCA thing. At least my Ren. Fair is quite vulgar; too much for me. Seeing older women in chain-mail bathing suits is not my idea of fun.

I live in a fantasy land, but not that fantasy land.

[jeff]

Fake English accent works for Madonna, right? Maybe they're just imitating her. Be much more interesting if they imitated other parts of her act at the Faire.

Inq: Do the Japanes really dress up like extras from "Happy Days"? My goodness.

Great joke re: Chaucer, thanks Capt!

[It]

Originally posted by jeff


Inq: Do the Japanes really dress up like extras from "Happy Days"? My goodness.

It's sorta more of a dress like your in the 50's thing. They have some kind of street party. It's in the summer. Like a way cheesed out Ren. faire. Girls poodle skirts, guys in leather with really grossed out side burns, and major gel n' grease in thier hair. Trying to be all Americana. <----- NOT!

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by Capt. Slo-mo
Is Chaucer in ill health?

Chaucer? I don't even KNOW 'er!

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Several years ago I shot a story with this collector who found 40s-50's vintage Levi's blue jeans clothing...the kind with the red stitching and the silver buttons...and resold them for thousands of dollars EACH to people in Japan...small kids sizes were the most valuable.

Go figure. Of course, this was before the giant real estate crash in Japan...so maybe the craze has abated a bit.

[Jupiter]

After living with people who all had english accents I found myself saying things there way for a while until it gradually fades away. It shows you have empathy for people.

I've never called anyone or anything cheesy in my life though, it's not part of my vocabulary, but I do know someone who often feels that people pick on him, and he becomes a little defense. If you feel I've called you cheesy, then I'm reallly sorry.

Yes, they wore poodle skirts in Japan, after the war. Mishima's life story was shot in Japan, and there was a rather surrealistic scene of Mishima as a youth visiting his mother as she worked in a coffee shop. She had a permanent wave and wore western style clothing. It upset him very much and he became a super-nationalistic martial artist who started to train his own army and who eventually committed hari-kiri, as his youthful good looks faded, and as he realized that Japan was not going to follow him. My other favorite author of Japan, is Dansai, Blue Bamboo.

[CarlKnoch]

It never bothers me much when people get all cheesey over a ren faire. I like going to them well enough and hiring the insulter to follow people around, and eat the food, and watch the action in the tourneys. To me it's like going to a circus.

I even went to a few SCA "rapier" practices in the last year or so. I found that they don't have very good form, they don't fence "period" as they call it very well. They fence a hybrid of classical and modern sport that is too slow to be sport, but too much sport to be real classical. They told me that I fence too linear. (Considering the imaginary line between the fencers is always straight, I would think that's the only way to fence.) I continued to turn in place when they circled and didn't bother taking side steps to be a circler myself. They thought that was a bad idea, and bad form. They also thought that I needed to cut back on the speed. Just because I could hit someone and retreat before their counter attack landed doesn't mean it would have been done in this "period" they are talking about. I agree on that, because if I were fighting with a real weapon I would use things like sand in the face, kick to the groin, anything to facilitate an easy win when my life is on the line!

So the strange ones in the club who like that kind of stuff aren't a problem.

[It]

Originally posted by Jupiter


I've never called anyone or anything cheesy in my life though, it's not part of my vocabulary,


If you feel I've called you cheesy, then I'm reallly sorry.

.

Personally I like cheese! Don't get me wrong , but to use the term Cheese, Chessed, Cheesey is like adding cheese to my salad. Or putting extra cheese on my Double Double while I Monsterize it! To give it the little extra UMPH! Or to use it as something meant to be funny. Not made fun of. If you feel I offended you I won't say sorry for that . But I will tell you to excuse me for being a bit blunt. That's the way I am.


Oh..... ( to keep the thread going ) I like Ren Faires just to see some of the CHEESEY poeple covered in leather on a really hot day. Or to see SOME of the women, for some strange reason or another thinking that's how women dressed, dress up like Xena or some kind of half dressed amazon tribal princess or some women dressing in MAJOR boobish "Hey look at us!" outfits. It me want to cry at times.

[It]

Originally posted by It
It me want to cry at times.

It makes me want to cry at times. I meant to say. I was thinking way to much.

[Inquartata]

Well, yeah, the SCA is pretty much at the lower end of the historical sword arts scale. The degree of realism and conformity to historicasl methods varies wildly from one SCA group to the next, though---some boast members who've published translations and interpretations of old manuals from the original Renaissance Italian, for instance.

The SCA is the most catholic of the historical groups, so you have "authenticity nazis" coexisting uneasily with "fun mavens"...and everyone in between. You just have to find the right subset of Scadians...

[Moonitic]

Well, everyone has their opinions...& they're as diverse as people's individual interests.

That said, here's my opinion: At least they aren't hurting anyone when they dress up & go to Festival. It's a nice escape from the everyday. We (fencing club) worked out there right after the terrorist attack. It was great to get away from "real life" for a while & just live a fairy tale. Sometimes people need that. Some people read, some belt out some tunes. Some do yoga.

Oh yeah, I've just signed on to a ship in the Privateer's Guild as the "Mistress of the Quill." So if you're in Michigan in August or September & you go to the MI Ren Fest, you may just see me. I'm certainly not embarrassed to share what I do for fun.

[It]

Originally posted by Moonitic




Oh yeah, I've just signed on to a ship in the Privateer's Guild as the "Mistress of the Quill." So if you're in Michigan in August or September & you go to the MI Ren Fest, you may just see me. I'm certainly not embarrassed to share what I do for fun.

Hey are ya gonna be costume that's well........... ( if ya read my thread before this one ya know what I mean )


Forgive me, I'm a male, and I'm just being a dirty one right now! I've just gone down the evolution track


Before swords, sticks, and clubs

[Moonitic]

lol...it means I'm the ship's scribe. Pirates weren't known for their writing ability, ya know! Someone's gotta write down the ramblings of these scurvy seadogs.

But I will have on my bodice & bloomers.