The word of the day for April 19, 2008 is "reenactor" — noun — : a person who participates in reenactments of historical events.
As you can see, I went to the Great Plains Renaissance Festival today. Lloyd didn't want to go—he has never been interested in that sort of thing. So I left Bubbles home, too. Just as well because the dog is not well trained, might as well say not trained. Nothing worse for shopping than having to deal with a dog or a toddler.
As I left I took a photo of a Viking ship sailing across the pond toward the festival site. I'm not certain where Vikings come into it. I'll admit that there were Norsemen, Native Americans and Australian aborigines living at the time of the European renaissance. However, the Americans, Australians and Vikings didn't participate in the intellectual and cultural flowering. OK, pirates were for the most part, a bunch of scummy cutthroats; Scots who wore kilts before the 1850s did so only because they hadn't the wherewithal to go breeched and shod; and Ghengis Khan died 250 years before Columbus set off for India and ended up in the Bahamas. Nonetheless they show up at our Renaissance Faires and Fests, and they buy Norman chainmail, digeridoos, rubber duckies made in China, and Navaho beaded work. And we all have a good time in spite of it.
Our quote for the day is from Antonin Artaud (1896–1948), French theater producer, actor, theorist. repr. in Selected Writings, pt. 10, ed. Susan Sontag (1976). General Security: The Liquidation of Opium (1925):
Hell is of this world and there are men who are unhappy
escapees from hell, escapees destined ETERNALLY
to reenact their escape.
;^) Jan
3 comments:
Great entry, I too love going to see reenactments ,went to one about the Battle of Hastings 1066..a few years ago loved it ,...love Jan xx
As you might have seen in my latest Blog I was at the American Museum on Friday and there they regularily have great big reenactments...In fact there are quite a lot of reenactors about here all getting dressed up in authentic dress and "living the life" albeit for a weekend at a time...even wee children are dragooned into taking part...I find it really strange that folks would dress up like that but they seem to enjoy it "" Love Sybil xx
You & your new gryphon look great! The Fest had a great day weather-wise Saturday, didn't they? Sunday was pretty windy, but still pleasant.
Historically speaking, I guess if things existed during the Renaissance, people don't care where they were located! :-)
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