Once a million years ago my father and I traveled to see a collection of arms and armour that was a traveling exhibition (I think). That sort of thing was right up our alleys. This was perhaps the late Sixties or maybe the early Seventies. I clearly remember standing* in front of a very large, black suit of armour and imagining what it would be like to face that... monster... in combat to the death. It brought it home to me how frightning things like swords, armour, pikes, halberds, maces, etc. must've been, and how brave, foolhardy, and drunk I personally would have to be to fight in any manner from joust to battle. Soldiers were commonly drunk, I think, at such times (if they could be), and who could blame them? not I, that's for damned sure.

In my life I've had lots of pursuits like fencing that are activities linking back to the past. I have always linked backwards in a strong way - that is, always felt extremely close to the past in part because I grew up with horses in a family whose love for books rarely seemed to rise into the Twentieth Century. Well I remember cutting pages on more than one occasion. I have this strange feeling of being a Time Traveller now as I bet hardly anyone (anyone not doing it as part of a specialised hobby or business, anyway) even knows what that is, let alone did it in order to be able to read a book. Perhaps it's likethis for everyone past a particular age.

Anyway, I would've taken up archery had I not become ill. I have always loved archery from afar, although I was somewhat put of by a friend-of-a-friend putting out his eye (string slipped from the groove and the arrow bounced back into his face I think**). Things I always particularly loved: fencing, horses, 18c clothing, archery, building things, beekeeping, flying, jousting tents, the sea - have been in part transfered over to Second Life. Those things were first part of meatspace but now are virtual. But - what if one never had a meatspace aspect at all? What if there was no "aha" moment in from of a scary suit of armour?

That seems like it would drain meaning, empathy, and consciousness out of things. Maybe not - I'm just thinking. Maybe it's possible to have that "aha" moment in Virtual Reality - would seem hard in a place where being shot is a bother and death is a quick teleport home, though. I've noticed that some things I felt keenly, for good or ill, when I arrived, are blunted through virtual association.

*It was, after you went in the main doors, up a flight of stairs and to the right, on the righthand side of a doorway leading into another gallery.
**Don't tell me that can't happen or not in that way - I wasn't there and my recollection is 40 years old.

Labels: Cogitation