Ren Faire
We went to the Ren Faire yesterday and it was actually a lot more fun than I expected, again. I figured enormous women in chain mail bikinis would be accosting us in Monty Python voices, but the faire folk were classier than that (the visitors, not quite as much). We tried on corsets, gawked at shiny weapons, and caught Death talking on a cell phone.
Click here for photos.
posted by Leah @ 11:25 AM
3 Comments:
It always seemed so utterly ridiculous to me that Medieval/Renaissance Fair(e)s are so incredibly... fantasy-novel-ish. I mean, there's not even the slightest effort to achieve even remote historical authenticity, it's just an excuse to throw a bunch of things you read about in the D&D player's guide in to a big grassy field and charge people 'Ye Olde Five Dollars' to see.
It's supposed to be the Middle Ages! Bubonic Plague, the Wars of Religion, the Hundred Year's War, pre-literate society, feudalism, that kind of thing. At the very least, there weren't any freaking satyrs running around Europe then.
Not that I have a problem with the actual event, it's just that it's completely and utterly falsely advertised. It should be called something like, "Annual LARPers Paradise" or "The Actually Nothing Like the Middle Ages, But Fun Anyway Faire" or "That Outdoor Gathering Where We Append E's to Every Word and Act Like We Are in Toril."
When you put it that way, I just long to see the 20th century fair they'll have in five hundred years.
Spiderman would be flying around the grounds, that's for sure. Maybe a quidditch match, or a Star Wars reenactment.
The collective imagination is as much a part of our culture as reality.
Going by your description, the 20th-century fair you long for is already here.
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