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John Clement, not being knightly.... again.

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Thorsteinn:
Swordfighting: Not What You Think It Is by John Clement
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What a horrible article.

How many times in the last decade and a half has he been challenged to prove his mettle and answer for his words only to have him be off with some piss poor excuse?

Can anyone remember the last time he fought a resisting opponent not of his tradition at something resembling full speed & power?

Sir Edward:
Something that will make you even more irritated is that when he says "pretentious historical role-playing societies", or something like that, he's usually referring to the SCA. Otherwise his article starts off telling the truth, just with that sort of snide implication that he always carries, of him being right, and the rest of the world automatically being wrong, by virtue of the fact that they're not him.

As you correctly point out, he's isolated himself from the rest of the WMA/HEMA community, and vanishes when anyone challenges him to back up or prove his points. The problem with this, is that when he's right, it's still hard to take him seriously. I feel that he expects his name and number of years invested in the subject to be enough to maintain his academic integrity, but it's this sort of isolationism, single-minded interpretation, and use of derogatory attitudes to put everyone else down in nearly everything he writes that really damage his credibility. So he only comes off as credible to those outside the community and don't know any better.

This article is written in his typical way. Instead of taking the opportunity to truly teach you something, instead it seems to carry the goal of being self-aggrandizing, and diminishing to everyone else. I mean really, what was the point of completely digressing into this:


--- Quote ---Despite the many people now claiming to be studying the historical teachings on Medieval and Renaissance swordsmanship, in their practices the majority invariably don't employ the correct postures, don't use the proper movements, don't apply the central tenets, and instead typically reduce it all down to adolescent sword-tagging games.
--- End quote ---

Really? The whole community is doing "adolescent sword-tagging"?

Realistically, I know he's very skilled and athletic, and would probably mop the floor with me in a fight. But that doesn't mean that they way the rest of the community (a community he used to be involved in and has now vanished from) is reconstructing things wrongly. Quite the opposite, I think, since I've seen over just the last 5 years all sorts of really wonderful things get discovered and interpreted better. Things which he's made statements about in other articles, and the rest of the community has had some VERY good rebuttals for.

Some of his students will defend him and argue endlessly on the forum. And frequently when they're trying to pick apart some other group's interpretation, they'll look at photos and videos of a beginner student as their example, or something that doesn't even relate to the point they're making. That part I find sickening.

Despite his skills and knowledge, I have a hard time reading his articles without getting really, really mad, just because of the attitude. He thinks he's the only authority, and he's not. No humility whatsoever.

He makes valid points about TV, movies, and stage shows (ignoring the fact that they're meant to be entertaining, not educational). But it's really disingenuous to lump the rest of HEMA, WMA, and SCA into that.

/rant.

Sir Brian:
Crap, Sir Edward ninja'd me again and pretty much covered what I was going to write and lots more, but I'll post anyways since I went to all that trouble to dust off my Thesaurus.  ;)

I thought the article started off well enough but then the author's narcissism inevitably took over and rapidly descended into a maelstrom of utter rubbish mixed with equal parts of self glorification and petty condescension to any potential difference of opinion. All in all it is sad that someone who has invested so much time and effort lacks the basic social skills and honor to convey his knowledge to others without such a horrendously bitter aftertaste.

Sir William:
I just read that article...when he gets to describing his background and history, it almost read like- "oh, look at me, I'm teh awesome" - although I'll admit to being somewhat biased since I've heard his name before, but nothing good in association with it, beyond the years he's studied the craft.  His arrogance offends me.

I will admit, however- he makes some very salient points...none of us live in a world where you could be put to the sword at a moment's notice, we don't fear for our lives in that manner.  Nuclear holocaust, foreign invasion (which is currently happening now even if no one's noticed, but that's for another topic), auto accident, terminal disease- yes.  By the sword?  Very unlikely.  So it takes away the need to know aspect and becomes a pursuit of personal desire...I'm inclined to agree with him that the lack of life or death means most of us won't be as good as our forebears, if only because it isn't required knowledge in order to help stay alive.  With that said, there are always instances and flashes of greatness that occur despite the odds or the current climate.

If living (and dying) by the sword were to ever be realized due to some malfunction of technology and weapons (say gunpowder no longer worked, I know someone somewhere's wrote a book delineating such a scenario) then I believe we'd see some truly remarkable swordsmen come about, and it might not be from where you'd think...but until that happens, all of us who strive to recreate what is essentially a dead art are simply students of the sword, as the masters died hundreds of years ago and left behind NO HOW-TO VIDEOS.

Sir Rodney:
Same old, same old.  Some people will never change.  :(

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