Just when it looked like things couldn't get more stupid, they have. Apparently someone has opened up a theme park devoted to re-creating the world from Charles Dickens' novels- without all the nasty bits such as poverty, disease, starvation, etc. So we get the sanitized version..."for the children". For more, click HERE.
Makes almost want to throw up. Over the years, I've been an active participant in various first-person living history receations and such (Rennaissance Faire was my first) and there's always been a tension between portraying everything "warts and all" and watering down the approach. Some things you can't re-create due to legal, health, or other considerations and perhaps this is for the best (wading through raw sewage is NOT my idea of recreating history), BUT we've always been aware of what really was, as best as we could.
One of the reasons I eventually walked away from doing Rennaissance Faire (besides having to deal with a boatload of unstable personalities and just plain assholes), was that there was the constant pressure to "Disneyfy" (is that even a word?) everything and basically dumb it down for family consumption. Granted, some of the participants used to be a bit over-the-top with the sexual innuendos and pushing the earthy peasant thing more than it should have (to be expected since Rennaissance Faire got its start during the 1960s as a hippy-dippy event).
I believe that attempts to sanitze the past are ultimately harmful, especially when the sanitizing is done to avoid "offending" someone or otherwise pandering to "political correctedness" (a somewhat overworked term but I'll use it anyway, so too bad!). History- it is what it is and all the wishful thinking on the planet cannot change what has been. Perhaps the interpretations may change but it's always dangerous to look at the past through out 21st Century sensibilities.
Makes almost want to throw up. Over the years, I've been an active participant in various first-person living history receations and such (Rennaissance Faire was my first) and there's always been a tension between portraying everything "warts and all" and watering down the approach. Some things you can't re-create due to legal, health, or other considerations and perhaps this is for the best (wading through raw sewage is NOT my idea of recreating history), BUT we've always been aware of what really was, as best as we could.
One of the reasons I eventually walked away from doing Rennaissance Faire (besides having to deal with a boatload of unstable personalities and just plain assholes), was that there was the constant pressure to "Disneyfy" (is that even a word?) everything and basically dumb it down for family consumption. Granted, some of the participants used to be a bit over-the-top with the sexual innuendos and pushing the earthy peasant thing more than it should have (to be expected since Rennaissance Faire got its start during the 1960s as a hippy-dippy event).
I believe that attempts to sanitze the past are ultimately harmful, especially when the sanitizing is done to avoid "offending" someone or otherwise pandering to "political correctedness" (a somewhat overworked term but I'll use it anyway, so too bad!). History- it is what it is and all the wishful thinking on the planet cannot change what has been. Perhaps the interpretations may change but it's always dangerous to look at the past through out 21st Century sensibilities.
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