History Bites 2, SERF Facility
When the students walk into the SERF facility and take in the long, gleaming wooden bar with its brass foot rail and spittoons, they'll have no doubt as to where they are. If they're from Earth and the past century or so, that is.
Piano music jangles in the back ground as various miners, outlaws, gamblers, and saloon women gather round tables to drink, smoke and play Three Card Monte and Faro.
As the class gathers in the saloon they'll notice Professor Blenner leaning against the bar. He's wearing riding boots and a duster and looks... rather at home in that outfit, really. He watches his students file in and waits for them to assemble.
"The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a sordid little affair which took all of thirty seconds, start to end. It was fought over small town politics and business concerns, neither side being anything close to the righteous heroes or the dastardly villains which time and retelling have made them. Yet, this multiple murder, committed in the back of a dusty Arizona lot, has taken on legendary proportions. To this day, there are those who see the event as the quintessential Old West shoot out, the day's ultimate battle between good and evil.
History may seem fixed, ladies and gentlemen, written down as it is in books and in texts. But, it's actually malleable, open to scrutiny and interpretation. Take for example, The Charge of the Light Brigade. A wasteful, stupid fuck up, by anyone's standards. But, in the hands of Tennyson, it was reimagined as a tragic, courageous sacrifice.
History can be a powerful tool when accompanied by either the pen or the sword. How often have leaders, both royal and revolutionary, rallied their followers by invoking the name of a dead king or a martyr or a past battle?
And, as the O.K. Corral so aptly demonstrates, history has a way of taking ordinary men and women, who were doing nothing more then going about the ordinary events of their lives, and making legends of them. Sometimes, as with Robin Hood or Arthur Pendragon, this happens centuries after their deaths. And, other times, as is the case with the gunmen at the O.K. Corral, it happens when they are living.
Now, I'd like all of you consider this lecture and its implications. Do you have a favourite figure or event that is half history half legend? Do you know what is fact and what is not? Do you want to know? How can you tell if the answer is 'yes'? And, what makes a legend?
Oh, and of course, please do enjoy the saloon. Feel free to sample from the bar, but I warn you, 'Coffin Varnish' and 'Forty Rod' don't taste as good as they sound. You might enjoy the Cactus Wine or the Mule Skinner. If you opt for the house rotgut, be warned that it's often cut with turpentine, ammonia, gunpowder, or cayenne. Oh, and if you insist that your beer be served cold, be prepared to duck a punch."
[Open! Come in and play. I'll be afk for a bit this evening, but I'll pick up pings when I get back in.]
Piano music jangles in the back ground as various miners, outlaws, gamblers, and saloon women gather round tables to drink, smoke and play Three Card Monte and Faro.
As the class gathers in the saloon they'll notice Professor Blenner leaning against the bar. He's wearing riding boots and a duster and looks... rather at home in that outfit, really. He watches his students file in and waits for them to assemble.
"The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a sordid little affair which took all of thirty seconds, start to end. It was fought over small town politics and business concerns, neither side being anything close to the righteous heroes or the dastardly villains which time and retelling have made them. Yet, this multiple murder, committed in the back of a dusty Arizona lot, has taken on legendary proportions. To this day, there are those who see the event as the quintessential Old West shoot out, the day's ultimate battle between good and evil.
History may seem fixed, ladies and gentlemen, written down as it is in books and in texts. But, it's actually malleable, open to scrutiny and interpretation. Take for example, The Charge of the Light Brigade. A wasteful, stupid fuck up, by anyone's standards. But, in the hands of Tennyson, it was reimagined as a tragic, courageous sacrifice.
History can be a powerful tool when accompanied by either the pen or the sword. How often have leaders, both royal and revolutionary, rallied their followers by invoking the name of a dead king or a martyr or a past battle?
And, as the O.K. Corral so aptly demonstrates, history has a way of taking ordinary men and women, who were doing nothing more then going about the ordinary events of their lives, and making legends of them. Sometimes, as with Robin Hood or Arthur Pendragon, this happens centuries after their deaths. And, other times, as is the case with the gunmen at the O.K. Corral, it happens when they are living.
Now, I'd like all of you consider this lecture and its implications. Do you have a favourite figure or event that is half history half legend? Do you know what is fact and what is not? Do you want to know? How can you tell if the answer is 'yes'? And, what makes a legend?
Oh, and of course, please do enjoy the saloon. Feel free to sample from the bar, but I warn you, 'Coffin Varnish' and 'Forty Rod' don't taste as good as they sound. You might enjoy the Cactus Wine or the Mule Skinner. If you opt for the house rotgut, be warned that it's often cut with turpentine, ammonia, gunpowder, or cayenne. Oh, and if you insist that your beer be served cold, be prepared to duck a punch."
[Open! Come in and play. I'll be afk for a bit this evening, but I'll pick up pings when I get back in.]