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Aug. 23rd, 2004 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnedaxCatching up on the olympics, thanks to TiVo, has made me realize how many strong parallels they have with Pennsic. From the athletic core which revives ancient tradition (with champions contesting points ranging from archery to fencing) to the strong cultural representations of diverse homelands, there's a big cognitive similarity. When landscape-transforming temporary construction, ingrained rivalries, and a healthy dose of pomp and circumstance are taken into account, I begin to seriously wonder whether the two events serve similar psychological purposes.
This nicely dovetails into two longstanding discussions that came up again at war: first, is there any significant difference between Pennsic and a large sci-fi convention, and second, is the role of martial activity within the SCA truly a critical element, or merely a historical quirk?
Specifically, if fighting, as the Olympic tradition seems to, serves a higher purpose than being yet another fun thing that people do, it represents a qualitative difference between the SCA and other things that the counterculture does... And if it's just a diversion for a bunch of stick-jocks, then what is Pennsic but a themed con?
Thoughts?
This nicely dovetails into two longstanding discussions that came up again at war: first, is there any significant difference between Pennsic and a large sci-fi convention, and second, is the role of martial activity within the SCA truly a critical element, or merely a historical quirk?
Specifically, if fighting, as the Olympic tradition seems to, serves a higher purpose than being yet another fun thing that people do, it represents a qualitative difference between the SCA and other things that the counterculture does... And if it's just a diversion for a bunch of stick-jocks, then what is Pennsic but a themed con?
Thoughts?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 10:58 pm (UTC)No -- but about 75% of the attendees wouldn't go. Essentially all of Carolingia goes to Birka each year, and the *vast* majority are going for the shopping and court. The fighting is essentially a niche activity there. (Unlike Pennsic, where the fighting has a significant spectator component.) Birka without fighting would still be Birka, and would probably still be the largest event in the East.
The scaling point is valid, and I don't deny that fighting occupies a special place in the Society. But I do think that place is sometimes a bit overstated, and this is one of those cases. The desire to have grand gatherings is strong, and I think the Society would have them with or without fighting. The efficient-seed nature of fighting tends to often make it central to such gatherings (and *may* make them somewhat larger), but I don't think it's a necessary cause...