(If you haven't already, you should read the previous post. Otherwise, this one will only make 67.2% sense. Also, the previous one is much funnier and will put you in a better mood to tolerate the slightly boring nature of this one. However, if the previous post doesn't sufficiently immunize you against the tedium of the following analysis, and as you're reading you start to feel like a blood vessel in your brain is about to pop, skip to the Conclusion section. )
Analysis
To start, some preliminary things can be said of medieval combat as encountered by Cockatoo last week in the park:
Most obviously,
1. It involved a great deal of human-on-human physical attacking. (Cockatoo hesitates to use the word "violence" since it usually implies malicious intent, which didn't seem to be present in any serious way.)
2. It was a game of some kind.
3. It was happening in real-time in an open, public space.
The fact that it looked like a lot of people attacking each other, something Cockatoo and probably most people normally see only in the media (TV, internet, cinema, theater), made her think of the fake violence one normally sees in the media.
The fact that it was a game - or rather a "sports game," since, according to the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society, it is a sport - involving people attacking each other, brought to mind a lot of contemporary sports games for Cockatoo: American football, Australian football, rugby, boxing, martial arts, wrestling, fencing, paintball, laser tag, etc.
The fact that it was people attacking each other in real time in an open, public space reminded Cockatoo of that time she saw her father chasing a tenant down the street with a machete (non-foam). In other words, it reminded Cockatoo of the fact that plenty of people are witness to real violence in everyday, real life.
Now, generally, sports games share certain characteristics:
* participants must follow strict rules or be disqualified
* the activity takes place under the supervision of some authority (referee)
* the game is exclusive, meaning spectators cannot freely join in the game
* the game is physically contained - as in physically isolated from spectators (usually by a fence, platform, or ring, or by specially designating the activity-space as off-limits to non-participants)
* participants have developed special skills in order to compete effectively in the game
* participants wear uniforms that diminish uniqueness of appearance (among participants)
* the goal of each participant is only to win, not to kill, either in pretense or reality
* pretense or fantasy are not officially recognized aspects of the game
Most scenes of violence depicted in the media (violence in movies and on TV, not on the news) also (generally) share certain characteristics:
* like sports games, they are also exclusive, since spectators cannot join in
* also like sports games, they are contained, or isolated in space (and usually time as well), from the spectator, since the scenes are "mediated" by the media
* the goal of the participants in the violence is to kill the other participants
* the violence does not look natural, like something one might encounter in everyday life, but like something extensively staged, choreographed, and rehearsed (okay, excepting Saving Private Ryan)
* the violence is known by the spectator to be all pretense
And scenes of real, everyday violence tend to have certain things in common, too:
* they are non-exclusive - you can join in if you want to, though Cockatoo recommends that you don't
* they are un-contained - you can move freely in and out of the space in which it is taking place
* the goal of the participants may or may not be to kill the other participant(s)
* the violence looks natural i.e. not highly skilled, staged, choreographed, or rehearsed
* the scenes are real, not pretend, but the reasons the participants have for engaging in the violence may be imaginary
Now, going back to thinking about medieval combat, we can look for what characteristics it shares with these different types of human-on-human attacking.
Like a typical sports-game,
* participants must follow strict rules or be disqualified
* the activity takes place under the supervision of some authority (referee)
Like violence in the media,
* the goal of the participants is to kill the other participants (though only in pretense)
* the violence does not look natural, like something one might encounter in everyday life (because people don't normally use foam weapons to attack each other in real life)
* the scenes are all pretense (in the sense that the participants don't really want to hurt each other)
And like real-life violence,
* the game is non-exclusive - you can join in if you want to
* it is un-contained - you can move freely in and out of the space in which it is taking place
* the violence does looks natural (in so far as no one seemed to be very skilled or practiced at what they were doing)
* the scenes are all real (in the sense that people really are wacking each other, not just pretending to)
Conclusion
Now Cockatoo sees what was so delightful about what was happening in the park that day: Medieval combat is a game full of contradictions. It's controlled, since there are rules and a referee, and at the same time, it's uncontrolled, since people can move in and out of the game and its space at will. Participants are supposed to pretend to kill each other, while in actuality being careful not to injure anyone. The attacks are fanciful - based on the use of obsolete, foam weapons and the traditions of a past era. But the perpetrators of these attacks are ordinary human beings, adults no less - who trip over themselves and widely miss their targets. And the whole thing is a fantasy, yet really happening right there in front of you, even beckoning you to join in.
Therein lies the delightful incongruity, Cockatoo thinks. Not in the individual contradictions, but just in the fact that it is full of contradictions ... and yet it is a game for adults, to be played in public (occasionally with foam rocks). That is not the typical nature of adult games.
Let's think of some games adults play: there's board games, sex games, sports-games, video games, drinking games, mind games, card games, gambling games, dominoes, other games based on peculiar 3D objects, word games, number games, etc. etc. etc.
These games are supposed to be fun, yes, but just as importantly, they're supposed to be controlled, predictable, and based in reality - and consistently so (see footnote). Mind games are the only exception; in Cockatoo's experience, mind games do not have to be based in reality, and in fact, are more fun when they're not. It may seem like sex games and gambling games should also be exceptions, since they involve a little more risk and fantasy. However, when you really think about it, the outcomes of these games are also pretty predictable - less money in your pocket, and fewer sexual fantasies to pass the time with. (Fantasies lose their allure once they're realized, sometimes while they're still in the process of being realized. Just a warning.) Moreover, when an adult game is fantasy-based like many sex games are (Cockatoo is assuming; she doesn't have much experience with the matter), the game takes place under even more strictly predictable and controlled conditions, one of the conditions usually being that it must be played far from the public eye.
So Medieval Combat isn't your typical adult game, and it's definitely not something Cockatoo expected to see a bunch of people engaging in while walking in the park that day. Not only does its essential inconsistency cause a sort of screeching-to-a-stop reaction when you see it (FUN!), the fact that it kind of resembles your everyday bar-room brawl creates that precarious excitement you feel when you're standing really close to someone who's in the process of getting their head bashed in. (SUPER-FUN!!!)
Cockatoo believes that as soon as people get over their dislike of wearing bad costumes in public and showing off their lack of eye-hand coordination, Medieval Combat will become the next big thing.
Cockatoo is presently polishing her foam shield. She will be ready.
Footnote: True, Cockatoo has not performed a detailed analysis of these different types of adult games, so she can't really prove that this what adult games are actually like. Such an analysis would require about 8 more tedious, list-filled posts. Not fun. And if her analysis only proved her to be wrong - an undeniable possibility - it would mean having to throw out her entire theory as to why medieval combat is so much fun to watch, as well as rewriting this entire blog post. Not to mention having to come up with a different theory (because this is a question that must, and will, be answered). And that would require a complete reorientation of her general world-view. Cockatoo isn't up for that today, so she's just going to assume that her claim about adult games, as well as her theory about the delightfulness of medieval combat, is true.
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