Originally posted by Chris Baker
Simply put, there is just somthing about this weapon that touches up and fasinates us. Just look at the fact that we are around our computers talking about a weapon that has effectively lost its military use and is considered more a thing of beauty than a thing of war. Yet, here we all are, many of us devoting our lifes to the study of a weapon that is in many ways obsolete.


Personally, I have wondered often about this fascination with the sword too. Why not the spear? Or the jo? Or the manrikigusari? Or the European lances and the big-spiky-steel-ball-at-end-of-long-chain flails? While I can offer no plausible answers of my own, according to my old English teacher:

"Men are obsessed with swords because swords are LONG, made of HARD steel, and requires some MUSCLES to use. The ideal phallic symbol"




Anyone want to offer their non-Freudian explanations?

[Edited by Leo Chang on 01-12-2001 at 02:16 AM]