First Draft

The first draft of my thesis is finished and has been sent off to my committee chair for her feedback. In the meantime, I've been working with the draft I have, formatting it to the university's standards. Who knew APA 5 was going to become valuable again? There will be edits to make before the final copy is ready for reading, I'm certain.

 It's coming down to the time when things are going to get serious with deadlines, oral defense, and graduation looming on the horizon. About time.

Nerd Heritage

In case any of my adoring fans (or professors who might be stalking me online to see how this project is progressing *waves hello*) were wondering, I'm into the intensive writing phase of this project now. Today's highlight is that I have successfully and cleverly used the phrase "nerd heritage" in a sociological paper, related to the expression of a connection to or identifying with various fandoms and minutia of popular culture (ex. Browncoats, Trekkies, Whovians). This is a proud day for geekdom, or at least a small moment of amusement for me. The thesis-ing process continues. I have set myself the deadline to have a first "real" draft in the hands of my advisor by the first of March (or there about). Right now there's only about 31 pages (mostly lit review)--not pretty ones either--excluding the four pages of bibliography (which probably need to be cleaned up too). But it's a work in progress; this is the final stretch and I can see where things are going.

Worst Apocalypse Ever

Considering that we've all seen several--dozens even--"end of the world/planet/civilization" scenarios in the movies/TV/literature/church all of our lives, I would have to agree with these fellows (these grumpy geezers are a hoot). But we wouldn't be encountering all these hypothetical ways life as we know it would all come crashing down if it weren't for some larger, for a "culture of doom" if you will.

Let's take this latest doomsday myth, for example. The real descendants of the ancient Maya were back in the old country yesterday celebrating the end of one cycle and the beginning of the new. It was, by all accounts (from Western news media, which is the best I could find on it, unfortunately), more like our New Years Eve celebrations, full of remembrance and hope at the same time. Meanwhile, back in the USA everyone is going on about the "Apocalypse" like the planet is going to explode. Even the intelligent people who know it's not true, because they have found no empirical evidence (that means science) to back it up, are still making jokes and posting memes on social media about the “world ending.” Because that’s the meaning our culture has attached the end of the Mayan calendar cycle, that the planet has to explode, get hit by a meteor, get taken over by some plague that turns all humans into flesh-eating zombies, or else Jesus swoops down on his angelic-white horse to call up all his followers (they know who they are, but somehow the rest of us are none the wiser despite hearing about this all our lives) so that the rest of us can happily slay one another out of despair for not having been caught up in the original “rapture.”

Exactly. Those are our myths; those are the stories we tell one another, our kids, our friends’ kids when their parents aren’t looking (so that the little’uns will freak out later when it’s bedtime and we can have a good laugh when the friends post on social media that their son or daughter wouldn’t sleep all night, thus neither did the parents, because they were convinced Jesus was going to send zombies to blow up the Earth or some such rot). You know how it goes. We hear stories about “primitive cultures” who had stories about the bunyip, or the sasquatch, or that gingers who died without being baptized would reanimate their corpses in order to drink the blood of their living tribesmen. And then we say something about how it was “just a story to scare their children in order to keep them from misbehaving.” Just like we tell children in our society that they better be nice instead of naughty so that Santa Clause will bring them toys and mittens instead of sticks and coal for [fill in name of winter festival of your choice here]. It lasts until somewhere between the age of 6 and 10 when they figure out it’s just the adults in their life, else why would Santa be “operating on a tight budget this year” or “leaving those gifts in the top of the hall closet for safe keeping.” (The really adventurous one may even sneak downstairs and catch Gramps red handed putting gifts under the tree, a little schnockered on the eggnog, like I did in the second grade.)

Myths are usually not “real,” but they have some kernel of “truth” in them. There is some kind of value (well-behaved, obedient children) or meaning (we’re all afraid to die!) embedded in the story, but the emotional triggers in the tale help it stick in our memory in a way that we internalize the values and meanings written between the lines.

Yes, okay, we all generally get that…after four years of college and a lot of late night reading or watching documentaries as a means to educate ourselves. And in that process we are also exposed to new myths, new memes and tropes and cultural patterns from popular media (meaning movies, TV, books, viral internet videos, and social media which is in its most basic sense the means by which the populace spreads information).

So then why this pervasive notion that the world was going to end on the winter solstice in the year 2012? No, not because it was the end of the grand cycle on the Mayan calendar. When our calendar runs out we simply flip the page or hang a new one in the kitchen. We don’t assume the planet will explode because the cycle ends and we, literally and figuratively, turn another page. It's no more of a zombie apocalypse than waking up the next day with a raging hangover after drinking too much and kissing someone completely inappropriate before passing out at 3 a.m. and waking up at noon. What’s so mythic about that outside the stories people will tell later about the “epic” party? Nothing, aside from us, as a society, even choosing to mark time in years and planetary orbits at all because our brains like patterns and we’re smart enough to notice things like seasons and the fact that about once a cycle it snows on us in many parts of the world. I can see where back in the day before gas furnaces and twinkly electric lights that whole winter thing could be frightening—the possibility of starvation and hypothermia always is. But that, as they say, is not really the end of the world, even if several individuals are no longer in it.

With a lot of time on my hands (and a small bit of mental fatigue flavored avoidance that is keeping me from writing on my thesis in the past little bit), I have thought about what it is that made everyone freak out, to some degree or another, about this impending world-ending, society-leveling doom.

Why did we all buy into this 2012 hype? Because Jesus told us to! (Before you get offended, read on, please.) No matter what religious tradition—or not—one considers themselves to be affiliated with, everyone in the Western world, and most of the rest of it as well, has heard variations on the same apocalyptic stories from one or more of the prevailing world-spanning mainstream religions of Middle Eastern origin. That’s a short, politically correct way of saying you’ve all heard the Christian stories of how the world is supposed to end and most people end up in eternal torment—meaning it won’t be fun. We live in a culture with a long-standing tradition of anticipating an “apocalypse.” Under every good thing is the realization that this too shall eventually end. No mater how badass your civilization, it has to end sometime. Just ask the Romans. Oh wait, you can’t because about 1,500 years ago, give or take a couple decades, their whole business went down the flusher too. And what took its place? Religion. The Christian religion, which in most parts of Europe (admit it, that is the basis of our cultural heritage here in America) was the social glue holding things together, often the only thing preventing (or causing, lest we forget he Inquisition and Crusades) mass chaos and panic. Popular (meaning of the general people) myths were something everyone shared knowledge of, and thus usually internalized the values and meanings thereof, to one degree or another. Let's face it, it's a good way good to communicate with others because they too know what you're talking about. Things like “be good or you’ll go to hell,” or “be good or the bogie man will eat you,” or perhaps “be good or Santa will leave a lump of coal in your stocking.” (And we all hate rocks in our socks.)

Sound familiar? Our civilization has grown up on tales of world-ending doom. “Jesus is coming back any day, so don’t screw up.” Whether or not someone believes that to be literal truth is not at issue here. But the idea that we, as a society, as a people with a long cultural heritage spanning hundreds of years, have this tradition that one day some cataclysmic event is going to end it all, is something we have been collectively cultivating for a long, long time. Is it any wonder that when capitalist profiteering and high-tech visual media is thrown into the mix, everything we see and hear is full of this same theme when a few people latch onto an old (and, as usual, misunderstood) bit of lore from a culture that seems foreign enough from our own to be scary, everyone takes our cultural tradition of the ever-imminent “apocalypse” and runs to the extreme with it? Remember all the hype over Y2K? Exactly like that.

And what does this have to do with “pirates and princesses” or the Renaissance? Almost nothing. Except that it was since the European Renaissance that science has presumably taken over from myth (we can lump religion, folklore, and magic together for our purposes here) as the pervasive mode of thinking and examining the world in our society. Yet, some 500 years later, here we are, happily freaking out, wondering if perhaps—despite all evidence to the contrary—a meteor might not strike the planet yesterday (12.21.12), unleashing an alien virus that turns everyone into zombies, ending civilization as we know it and causing mass chaos and panic. And of course, since you're reading this, that did not happen. 

Happy Holidays! And may every apocalypse you experience be just as lame. Cheers! 

Other Somewhat Related Things

The thesis project is still in the transcription and analysis phase. Besides teaching, the thing that has taken most of my attention these past several days has been the task of submitting applications for various and sundry PhD programs so that I may continue my education next year. Deadlines, especially those for funding and assistantships/fellowships are fast approaching. And I set myself the goal of getting things taken care of by the first of December so that I do not encounter the same problem I did when applying for Master's programs--that of running out of money for application fees until after initial deadlines. What a mess and bunch of unneeded stress that was!

So this is me checking in, just in case anyone is keeping tabs on the blog. The exciting part of this project (at least for readers) is over, for a while anyway.

The End of One Phase and the Beginning of Another

This year's renaissance festival season here in this part of the Midwest has come to a close, and along with it the data collection portion of my thesis project. I have had an incredible amount of fun and learned a great deal--about my research subjects, myself as a researcher, and how this whole process works. I have collected a notebook and a half full of field notes and many, many hours of recorded interviews. The photographs alone could be used for more than one entirely separate content analysis project as well.

Now comes the long tedious winter of transcription, analysis, and writing. It is my intention to have a completed draft of this paper by March, if not sooner. My biggest problem now is to make myself sit down and continue to work on this project instead of staring another. However, once older weather sets in that may not be as much of a temptation. I may be happy to be able to sit at home and write instead of braving the elements!

I got a lot of encouragement from my professors, my friends, and even those rennies with whom I spoke about my project. And it seemed like so many conversations produced new ideas for potential future studies that I could write about this for years to come. I certainly feel like I have enough data to sift through for a while...

I'm sad to see this part of things end, but excited to finally see the finished product (and get my degree!) when this is completed. There will be updates posted to this blog still as things happen, or as fun insights might emerge from the data that seem appropriate to share. So don't lose the link.

Birthday Loot and the End of Data Collection

First, I can announce that he data collection portion of my thesis project is officially concluded. Not that I ever really stop gathering information, but I'm done in the strictest sense. I have hours and hours of recorded interviews to transcribe, and about a book and a half of various field notes and personal musings about the project to go through. And the lit review is sort of almost to a rough draft. So that's another step along the path...

Also, it was my birthday last week. And rennies have a tradition of pinning money--as a birthday gift--on the clothing of the birthday person. My observation over the years is that this cash is then often spent on alcohol, but that is a generalization and by no means expected.

I got a lot of "Happy Birthday"s from random people who recognized the money pinned to my shirt as a renfaire birthday tradition. The guys I was there with, who are relatively new to faire (or at least not truly immersed in the subculture) asked about both the money and how people it was my birthday. To which I gave the same explanation. So this is me with birthday loot pinned to my blouse. I didn't go very far in funding my research, but it was enough to pay for my lunch.

Making the Rounds

This is my sixth season attending renaissance festivals, my fourth consecutive at this particular faire, and I have watched a pattern emerge in the way people greet one another. Rennies hug. But it's more than that, there is a kind of almost ritual involved in the hugging.

When a person or the small group they traveled to faire with first arrives on site, after the typical dash to the privies (that means the restroom for those unfamiliar with medieval lingo), there begins an almost systematic lap of the faire site so that one can greet--and hug--each and every person they know who is either working there or is visiting for the day. In cases where the individual in question knows a great many people at the faire this can actually take a couple of hours.

Rennies hug, as I've stated before. But it's not only those who are close friends as happens in the rest of the world. If someone has met you before they will hug you upon greeting them, more so if they find you remotely attractive, funny, or otherwise in any way pleasant. Sometimes they might even hug one another upon first meeting, for many of the same reasons, or as a means of flirting or to try to build a friendship. Flirting is a huge part of social interaction at the renfaire, but that is for another post.

And something else interesting about the hug-greetings is that many rennies don't even have to remember your name to feel that hugging is appropriate. There is a man who works at one of the shops with a young lady whom I know rather well. He has greeted me with hugs several times and I cannot for the life of me remember his name, nor he mine I'm sure. But he always comments on my red hair and how much he adores redheads.

Sidenote: Rennies also adore redheads. And I have noticed a markedly higher proportion of gingers to other hair colours at faire over the years, compared to the general American population even.

Back to hugs. After the initial rounds of greetings and hugs, one is then free to go about their day of seeing shows, shopping, and general play among the people who are there for the same purpose. Often one goes back to spend some time with close friends, although if those friends happen to be working at one of the shops or booths the interaction is sometimes intermittent while the shopkeeper assists customers. I have seen (and been part of) multiple interactions in which the shopkeeper's visiting friend helps them make a sale.

And it is also interesting to note that because so many rennies work at any given faire, the visits during which playtron friends, or sometimes even others who are working at a faire they live local to and are driving there for the day or weekend only, quite often friend pairs or small groups may have only one or very few lengthy conversations or meaningful interactions during a given faire season. But still they hug one another like family each time they meet.

This process of making the rounds to say good-bye to friends and acquaintances is customarily done at the end of the day or whenever one is planning on leaving. This can be shortened to simply stopping in, hugging, and giving a quick "gotta go" before sprinting off to the next person to say good-bye to. And the list of people to hug on the way out may also be kept to only those close friends, or sometimes only those one must pass on the way to the gate to leave. However, if it is a person's last day at that faire for that season--hugs all around! Everyone that person knows must be visited. Again, this can take up to a couple of hours depending on how many people one knows.

In this kind of fantasy environment where the senses and emotions are both beset with highly charged input, friendships can feel as if they happen quickly, and social bonds form at a pace not usually seen in mundane life, perhaps because of the fleeting nature of the social context and the short length of a given faire season (usually only 4-8 weekends a year depending on the festival). While neither this nor the flirting that is such a significant part of social interaction at renaissance festivals are the topic of my thesis, they are still incredibly interesting and will probably be the subject of some future paper.