On creativity and credibility.

[gurdymonkey]

(Taken from my response to a can of worms opened on the Tousando.)

There is a magnet on my refrigerator. It says "Creativity takes courage." The quote is attributed to Henri Matisse.

There is a strip of paper from inside a fortune cookie taped next to it. It says "One dreamed of becoming somebody. Another remained awake and became."

Forty some years ago, so the story goes, Marion Zimmer Bradley needed a name to put on an application for a park permit. She pulled "The Society For Creative Anachronism" out of the nether end of her digestive tract the thin blue sky. We have been stuck with the consequences of that flip impulse ever since.

Would I have gotten involved enough to stick with the SCA in 1995 if it was still the SCA of 1969? I kind of doubt it. See, I got Beowulf as a bedtime story. I got Shakespeare when I was five. I was taught to recite Chaucer in Middle English while I was in grammar school. I got hooked on history, hardcore history, and art and literature and music before I even got into high school.

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/concerning_the_c_in_sca.html brings up many excellent points.

I don't have a problem with creativity. I frequently resort to it myself: I study examples of a period artifact or garment that I need or want. I determine the best way to construct it with the tools, materials, skills and budget available to me. Having a working knowledge of period Japanese textile decorative styles and motifs means that I can exercise my creativity in choosing colors and decoration of the final product and STILL have something that looks right. I write poetry using a form that was created for a language so structurally different from my own that you'd think it wouldn't work. It is what it is. It's what I have to work with.

What I have a problem with is "creativity." Laziness is not creativity. "My nylon folding chair has a Glastonbury Chair persona" doesn't wash, especially if you can't bother to toss a blanket over the eyesore in the first place.

Then there's the "Genius Idea." They are creativity of a sort, but they can be the wrong sort. Most of us are not McGyver, ok? (Well, Otagiri-dono is. Anyone who can turn tent stakes into armor and make it look right is a stuff-makin' genius of the highest order.) 
I've come up with my fair share of poorly thought out work-arounds to make things that ultimately were spectacular failures. Great if one can learn from them, not so good if one insists on following "genius idea" with "genius idea." Frequently the period solution is actually the best. If you go in thinking our forebears were blinkered idiots and your way is better just because you're all modern and edjumacated and have access to duct tape, what are you doing here anyway? Your paint still won't stick to blue HDPE and you will probably waste more time and money trying to make it do so than it would've cost you to get that black barrel instead.

Back to Matisse and last week's cookie fortune. I have a hell of a lot more respect for "I did it because I think it looks cool," or "I'm using this because it's what I have," than "I'm being creative!"
If you're going to talk the creativity talk, you'd better walk the walk. Do the research, learn the skills, study your failures and learn from them, be able to explain your choices and compromises without defensiveness.

Think about how familiar you are with members on this or any other Society forum/e-list you frequent. Once you've been around for a bit, you can generally identify who to trust for a reliable answer. Who has credibility? Who doesn't? The go-to guys and gals are not the ones flaunting the "C" word. They don't have to.

Lastly, we who pursue East Asian personae in the Society are a minority. When I moved to this kingdom, I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to wear Japanese court dress for my first Twelfth Night and was told, "Oh, Japanese is so fringie." I've spent the past several years proving it's not. It's been worth it.

The naysayers who don't believe we belong in the SCA are out there. I have found that the best defense is a good offense, namely, playing the game better than they do. I try to be the good foreign guest in my kingdom's court, courteous, curious, even shocked at their odd ways, but always remembering that I are representing His Exalted Majesty the Emperor and the Japanese of the Known World. I leave it to you to decide whether that counts as creativity.

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

I went and looked at the thread, but considering my horrid mood at the moment, decided that it would be wise to wait a bit before I added my own views.

But personally? My skin started crawling at the mention of "you more scholarly types." And my temper kinda went blazing from there. Hence my silence until a good night's sleep improves my outlook. Otherwise I'd have to get out the Smackity Fan (or borrow yours). And there would be DRAMA. I hate DRAMA.

I thought your response was kind and well-reasoned. There is plenty of room for creativity, but it isn't just something you pull out of your ass, you know? Yeah, a person may have to resort to modern methods due to finances or other practical reasons, but the point is that the original model needs to be historical.

Besides, learning historical methods of doing things helps us to understand and appreciate what it really meant to live during medieval times. You're quite right, our ancestors weren't idiots. They did the best they could with what they had on hand. If we take apart and examine how they did what they did (be it sewing a garment, writing a poem, fighting a battle), then I think it helps bring us closer to them. And by thus trying to understand them, we honor them.

Sorry, this got long. Still, will reply to Tousando thread when in a better mood. Maybe tomorrow.

PS: Heck, after hand-sewing garb and tablet-weaving trim, I have a new appreciation for my modern clothes and the work that must have gone into making them!

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

You know, just 'cause there's a pig in the ring doesn't mean you HAVE to wrassle it. You have enough on your plate at the moment without having to throw down against The Stupid (TM).

BTW, I take "scholarly type" as a compliment. Dad would be proud. ;-D

[baronalejandro.livejournal.com]

I think maybe you're a little wound up about this. Buddha say, "Expectation is the death of bliss!"

I thougth even uneven stitches were the death of bliss.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Nah, just responding to a finger that was pointed in a roundabout way at me.

What can I say, I like the bar high. ;-D

Re: I thougth even uneven stitches were the death of bliss.

[baronalejandro.livejournal.com]

A high bar is great. I'm a big believer in 'go big or go the ____ home'. But a lot of your posts are wound pretty tight about the Society's japanese community, or people's perception Society's jap community, or the Society Jap community's ability to screw things up. I do think you worry about other people too much.

[cayswann.livejournal.com]

Thank you, both for the link and for your insights. You just gave me the spring board I needed, for the half-dozen recent inquiries I've gotten for "so I want to do music / bardic / storytelling in the SCA, and I don't know where to start." This is perfectly the approach I needed, to be able to hone my answers.

[syele.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the Emperor has quite the lovely ambassador, and you do a wonderful job of representing His Imperial Highness. Creative should never just be the excuse for lazy, and as you are well aware, all are welcome in my barbarian hall. :)

[tatsushu.livejournal.com]

I've tried to respond to that thread several times. Each time, my reply just ends up getting deleted. I just don't think that I can express myself without getting high and mighty.

What you said, though, it was wonderful, and I wish I could have expressed it so well. If I can come up with something that I feel is worthy I might post it. Otherwise, I'm just going to try to not feed the Stupid.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I have to say I held off on my post, and then revised my reply a couple times, precisely because of who started the thread.