Italo Calvino’s “Nonexistent Knight” Essay

The central characters introduced in Italo Calvinos novella, The Nonexistent Knight, are curiously diverse, yet each readily identifiable as each are driven or defined by particular quirks. In Agilulf Emo Bertrandin of the Guildivern and of the Others of Corbentraz and Sura, Knight of Selimpia Citeriore and Fez we see order and willpower, in Raimbaut of Roussillon theres passion, in the periwinkle female knight Bradamante is desire and pride, in Torrismund a need to belong, and in Gurdiloo nothing, naught but empty thoughts being filled and then emptied on whim. I find, however, that our narrator (and proclaimed writer of this knightly tale), Sister Theodora, personifies a certain idea of her own, she is wishful thinking and the story she weaves (and claims to have been a part of) is wish fulfilment; I posit that this story of hers is all the end result of a restless imagination at work and she is not Bradamante, Bradamante is Sister Theodoras insert of herself into her story world. Our first order of business is clarifying just what I have in mind when mentioning a self-insert, or anything of the like. There is a trend among the more enthusiastic fans of various media (especially television, books, comics, and video games) to expand the world of whichever specific title about which they are so passionate, usually fleshing out such worlds through acts of writing their own spins on what happened before, during or after the existing story; this is generally dubbed fanfiction and this is where the term self-insert has been coined, though such a device is not exclusive to derivative works, nor is it as recent a phenomenon. Put simply, a self-insert is a character placed within the context of a story that is meant to represent the writer as he or she is or to represent the writer as he or she would like to see himself/herself, something akin to an author surrogate. As Ive written, this technique is hardly a new one, writers as far back as Dante Alighieri have been placing themselves into their stories, but the name for it in terms of wish fulfilment storytelling is rather new. That aside, from the start of the novella, there has been what I had initially thought to be intentional comedic discrepancies by a neutral third person perspective in the manner Charlemagnes military operated. Chapter one introduces the paladins of Charlemagne as the emperor himself reviews the  company in a lax fashion, chapter two sees the invisible knight, Agilulf, directs young Raimbaut to the Superintendency of Duels, Feuds, and Besmirched Honor (a comically bureaucratic system for conducting vengeance) when the boy asks how he should go about avenging his fallen father (14). Further on, when Torrismund announces that the young woman Agilulf had rescued from rape was not a virgin, a peculiar chivalric practice is addressed: to rescue a noble-birthed virgins chastity was immediate access to knighthood, but to rescue a noblewoman whose maidenhood was no longer in tact would only earn an inflated pay (78). Historically, the process of becoming a knight was a long one beginning quite early in youth and required a young man to undergo many stages in his training; he would begin as early as 6 years of age as a page (a waiter or personal servant of a noble) and learn basics in courtesy, polished manners, hunting, weapons, and much more. By fourteen at the earliest, the boy would then become a squire and would be taken under the guidance of (while serving) a knight, and once the squire had honed his skills and learned his lessons well, he would then be dubbed a knight (medieval-life.net). Once the erroneous explanation of knighting is given, however, we already know something integral to the story: in chapter four, the perspective shifts from third person to first as a narrator of sorts reveals herself as Sister Theodora, the writer of this tale, and from there the discrepancies begin to make sense; the tale is written by a cloistered nun, how is she to understand military procedure?Beyond just the absurdities behind some of the happenings in Charlemagnes assembly of paladins, the title character, Agilulf, is an oddity all his own. He is a knight who does not exist in any physical form but is a thought, or rather, he is thought itself and this disembodied voice and willpower occupy a pristine white suit of armor while in service for the emperor. While we cannot truly prove that a thought cannot be a living form of its own walking about the earth unseen, to portray such an idea as possible is quite a fantastical move and as such lends to the fairytale quality of this narrative. So we have in the character of Agilulf, a heavy element of fantasy, from his lack of physical existence to his perfection in all he does. Now we come to a definite head-turner in the tale, the proud and beautiful princess-turned-knight, Bradamante. Bradamantes case isnt one like that of Jeanne dArc where she is a woman secretly and merely playing the role of a man, Bradamante is very openly female and is pined after by the paladins of the order. Her sexual exploits are not secret, nor is her nearly impossible true desire in a man and shes a master in combat and weaponry; all around, Bradamante stands out blatantly as a woman during a medieval time. While orders of female knights were not entirely unheard of, such occurrences were rare. The Order of the Hatchet is the only female order about which a great deal of information is known, and of the few instances when women were permitted knighthood, this order was the only one whose women saw the combat privileges that male knights received. The Order of the Hatchet was formed in Catalonia by the count of Barcelona in recognition of the women who fought in defense of their town while under attack from the Moors. These women received other knightly privileges besides combat, they received tax exemption and also had precedence over men in public gatherings (hereldica.org), though nothing else was heard of this order beyond the original members, so presumably the order died with the original members. Regardless of this miniscule instance of female knights, this order was formed in the 1100s, while Bradamante would have been in the military sometime in between 768 and 814 AD, as this was the time of Charlemagnes rule over the Franks making her existence as a knight in real-world possibilities sketchy at best. It is through the character of Bradamante, however, that my assertion comes together; Sister Theodoras tale is just that, a mere tale and not factual recordings as she had seen it. By the time we have reached the novellas end at chapter twelve, a complicated journey has reached its end as each character (sans Bradamante and Raimbaut) finds their own resolution. Bradamante has captured the attention and heart of young Raimbaut, but does not return the sentiments, rather she travels the land over in a rather desperate attempt to locate the only man who has ever won her difficult-to-please heart, Agilulf. Bradamante disappears for year upon learning of Agilulfs collapse and finding Raimbaut in the vanished knights white armor, and Raimbaut pursues her but what has become of the female  knight? Sister Theodora employs a twist in her tale when she reveals herself to be none other than the proud Bradamante, hiding in the abbey for years in mourning for Agilulf and now desiring the love o f Raimbaut, who she frantically writes is waiting for her outside the convent. It is here that I feel Bradamantes role as Sister Theodoras self-insert comes into full play. Theodora says early in the novella that writing is her penance, now at the end she says this tale that has been her task to write was one she experienced for herself and that she still has had many other adventures for which punishment she was tasked to record. Im certain, however, that the writing punishment for Sister Theodora is along the lines of the philosophy that idle hands are the devils work. No doubt, she has a colourful imagination and is more than likely prone to daydream, and this coupled with the lack of proper military procedure and Theodoras claim as being the talented, fierce, beautiful, and loved princess-come-knight, Bradamante, leaves no doubt in my mind that the story of the Nonexistent Knight told from her narrative was pure fabrication on the good Sisters behalf. Works Cited Calvino, Italo. The Nonexistent Knight. Harcourt Brace. 1962†³Medieval Life.† 2000. 13 Nov. 2007.. Veld, Franà §oise. Women Knights. 21 Oct. 2005. 13 Nov. 2007.

Improved and reliable car technology Essay

This means it is much more appealing to travel, maybe to further places on the motorway network as it is so easy. This has an impact on travel and tourism as more people are willing to travel. Air Travel.   Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. Each worked separately and knew nothing of the other’s work. Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain’s jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle’s jet first flew in 1941.   The development of pressurised cabins meant that there was a supply of air which then they could fly higher and get out of the troposphere where all the weather conditions affected the flight. As without the pressurised cabin, flights couldn’t go above in to the stratosphere, into the thin air as there would be no air supply. This meant flights are more enjoyable and quicker, therefore more appealing to the public. Aircrafts can now reach heights of 30,000- 40,000 ft, whereas they could only reach heights of 15,000 ft. The Boeing 747, also popularly known as the jumbo jet, is the second largest passenger airliner after Airbus A380, but it remains the largest aircraft in commercial service. The 747 was born out of the explosion of the popularity of air travel in the 1960s. The enormous popularity of the Boeing 707 had revolutionised long distance travel in the world, and had began the concept of the global travel made possible by the jet revolution. The original design was a full length double decker. However, following issues with proposed evacuation routes, this idea was scrapped in favour of a wide-body design. Concorde 001 took off for the first test flight from Toulouse on March 2nd 1969 and the first supersonic flight followed on October 1st. As the flight program of the first development aircraft progressed as planned, 001 started off on a sales and demonstration tour beginning on September 4th 1971. Not until June 2nd 1972 did Concorde 002 follow suit with a sales tour of the Middle and Far East. Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to commemorate its opening. Technological features. Many technological features common in the early 21st century airliners were first used in Concorde For speed optimization, Concorde featured:   Double-delta shaped wings   Thrust-by-wire engines, ancestor of today’s FADEC controlled engines.   Droop nose section for good landing visibility For weight-saving and enhanced performance, Concorde featured:   Fully electrically controlled analogue fly-by-wire flight controls systems. I got this picture from: http://www. nationmaster. com/encyclopedia/Concorde * Computerised checking-in and baggage handling also makes going on holiday so much easier and more appealing for people to go on holiday. This therefore has an impact on travel and tourism as people are more willing and confident to go on holiday as everything is so much quicker and easier.   Sophisticated air traffic control makes going on a plane even safer as technological developments have vastly improved. This therefore gives people more confidence in flying and therefore more people do. I got this table from: http://www. air-quality-management. co. uk   This table shows how the quantity of people using air travel has increased since 1970. It has predicted the amount of passengers from 2010 to 2030. It also shows an increase. This is because it is becoming more popular to fly and as it is more comfortable, entertainment on the flight and it’s much quicker which makes it so much more appealing to fly. * The growth of regional airports has also increased due to the amount of people wanting to travel abroad. Airports have many facilities which make it easier for the public. There are monorails and coaches to the airport from the car parks that make it so much more accessible to get the airport. This is why the travel and tourism industry is increasing as everything including the facilities and ability to travel is much more efficient and easier. Conclusion. The impact air travel has had on the travel and tourism industry is significant. This is because since the 2nd world war planes have become bigger as so they can hold more people making flights cheaper. This means more people can afford to go on holiday to far destinations and also have the better quality journey. Therefore air travel has affected travel and tourism greatly. Sea Travel. * Sea travel has changed since the 2nd world war from the main form of global passenger transport to shorter-journey car ferries and cruises. This is because people use to go on a ferry to America because flying was very uncomfortable as technology was only developing. But when the jet engine and pressurised cabin were developed the need to go on the ferry was decreased as people could fly over instead, taking less time. This meant the ferry was not needed and so it became a cruise instead of like a `bus service`. * Ferries have become more popular due to the capacity of people they can get on them. This means that prices are reduced so it is more affordable for more people. Also as car ownership has increased the need for ferries which can hold cars is more important. The ferries such as the sea France Rodin and the Brittany ferries are good examples in which can take vehicles and loads to destinations. Each route has been specifically designed to save drivers large amounts of time and mileage, making us the logical choice of the professional. I got this picture and map from: http://www. brittanyferriesfreight. co. uk/ These are the offers Brittany Ferries include: Direct and cost-effective routes   More mileage-saving departure ports and destinations   A personal service offering individually tailored solutions. From abnormal loads to small vans Top quality food and on-board facilities This map shows where the ferry travels to. The wide choice of sailings enables people to choose the port most convenient for them, keeping driving to a minimum. The arrival ports also offer easy access to the major road networks in France and Spain, making driving on the continent easier. Ro-Ro ferries are the idea in which you take your vehicle onto the ferry and then when you get to the destination you can just `roll off`. This made it much easier and convenient as it’s a simple concept to use. Sir Christopher Cockerell was the inventor of the hovercraft in 1956. The hovercraft could carry twice as many passengers and vehicles, but this meant it was slower. The hover craft was replaced by the invention of the sea-cats. The sea cat would as it gets faster lift making the journey quicker. Compared to conventional ferries, the sea cat fleet of smaller, faster vessels results in fast loading and unloading – coupled with the fact that all of the cross-Channel services are run from dedicated ports, makes travelling on the sea cat fast and hassle free experience. I got this picture from Google search on images under `sea cats`.   An issue which meant Health and Safety issues were considered was the landmark disaster of the Herald of free Enterprise. It capsized in the approaches to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge en route to Dover in England at 7. 05pm local time on March 6, 1987. At least 150 passengers and 38 members of the crew lost their lives, most inside the ship, from hypothermia, in the frigid water. The bow doors had been left open after departure and water flooded the car decks. The tragedy led to new safety regulations in the British ferry Industry. Conclusion. Sea travel has dramatically improved over the years since the 2nd world war where both the journey and safety wasn’t good enough. Now ferries are very much more appealing to the public and offer a wide range of services. This means the public can Computerised Booking Systems. Before there was a computerised booking system, travel agents used to work with wall charts. On these charts they had lists of available different resorts and airlines. People had to write out tickets which weren’t very efficient. Today travel agents have a 1/4 of a million pounds worth of computer systems which they can use the website to gather useful information, quickly and efficiently. The technology also means travel agents such as Sunvil can make databases of their customer’s history in holidays. Another recent technology that has helped to increase the efficiency of booking a holiday is a global distribution system. This consists of a speedy dedicated-line access, a huge database of details including accommodation, travel, hotels and car hire. It is also global. This means the sales process is easier and more efficient. Global distribution Systems include: Worldspan. Worldspan provides worldwide electronic distribution of travel information, Internet products and connectivity, and e-commerce capabilities for travel agencies, travel service providers, and corporations.   Worldspan system provides approximately 16,000 travel agencies with travel data and booking capabilities for hundreds of the world’s leading travel service suppliers. Worldspan employ 2,500 people which show that the market is massive. It proves how big travel and tourism has become and how it is increasing. Amadeus. Amadeus offers a service in which the public can suit their holidays to themselves. This means information comes from all over the world to give the costumers the best chance of getting the holiday they want. The electronic information on Amadeus contains flight details, accommodation and dates in which are available. There are many online travel agents, these include: Expedia. Expedia is a virtual online travel agent which means you can book everything from you flight to hotel. Their aim is to replace high street travel agents.   Expedia also works with a GDS to get the results they want for their costumers. This has a booming impact on travel and tourism as it is so much easier to book a holiday as everything can be catered for, for your own personal needs. Sunvil Holidays.   Sunvil online offers a different service to Expedia as you can’t book online whereas they offer a variety of holidays around the world. You can either book by phone or request to order a brochure. Sunvil have been operating holidays since 1970. They also offer unique tailor made travel options. This is what makes it ideal and appealing to potential costumers. Another technological development is e-ticketing. Here is the booth in which you enter your details into when you come to the airport. This means you don’t need a paper ticket which gives you less things to worry about and loose. Once you have booked with the airline, you can check yourself in. this saves on time and is much more efficient. This relates to the ever growing industry of travel and tourism as everything is becoming easier and quicker to do. Making going away much more appealing to the public. (I got this picture form Google search on images. ) Conclusion. Computerised booking systems make it much easier for tourists going on holiday as it creates less hassle. This makes it much more engaging for the public. The technological development therefore relates to the increase of travel and tourism as going on holiday is so much more efficient to the technology. 3. Product Development and Innovation. Holiday camps. In the 1950`s Butlins was very popular and was the main idea for a family holiday. I got this leaflet from:http://www. butlinsmemories. com/6/id77. htm This is the leaflet from the 1950`s which states that this was the `real ` holiday that everyone wanted. This was the case then, when the concept of holidays was restricted to only the UK. Nine UK camps were built. They can be divided into three distinct eras: The pre-war camps of Skegness (1936) & Clacton (1938), the wartime camps of Filey, Pwllheli and Ayr and the post-war camps of Mosney (1948), Bognor (1960), Minehead (1962) and Barry (1966). There were already quite a few holiday camps in existence but Billy Butiln took the concept to a whole new level by making them far bigger and by offering a previously unheard of range of entertainment and activities. The Butlin camps were really in a league of their own and were far larger than anything seen before or since. In the drab post-war years of mainland Britain the camps promised and delivered a world far removed from anything most people had experienced before. The brightly coloured buildings with exotic names, the seemingly endless list of entertainment and activities, the wonderful flower gardens, and all available for the equivalent of a weeks pay. Now Butlins has now become less popular as more people want to go abroad on long haul holidays as flights and accommodation is so cheap. Although, Butlins is trying to re-launch itself. It offers a range of cheap holiday with savings that will hopefully bring people back to enjoy the Butlin experience. As you can see from the screen print, the prices are low and are appealing to families to single adults looking for a good night entertainment also. I got this screen picture from: http://www. butlinsonline. co. uk/   Whereas Butlins was aimed at the working class, the new genre of holiday camps are aimed at the middle class. These camps include Centre Parcs and Oasis.   These camps offers accommodation suitable to the size of your family. The chalets are set into woodland making it very private. The main centre building offers everything from restaurants and bars to swimming pools all under one roof. Everything is very much more sophisticated than Butlins and is suited to families rather than single people. The family is a main target for travel and tourism and so centre parcs is making the most of the money that families have by accommodating for them. I got this screen print from: http://www. centerparcs. co. uk/   This screen print gives information on the resort and sells their concept well. Package holidays. * Package holidays developed in the 1960`s when jet travel was in force and people had more holiday time due to the holiday pay act by the government.

Evaluate strategies which may be used by businesses Essay

Evaluate strategies which may be used by businesses and governments to improve the competitiveness of a country’s goods and services. Competitiveness is the ability of a firm or a nation to offer goods and services that meet the quality standards of the local people and world markets at prices that are competitive and provide adequate returns on the resources employed or consumed in producing them. Governments have an important role for improving the competitiveness of their country’s goods and services. Governments are able to change regulations and taxes according to what they believe about their country’s state of economy. For example, a government may decide to decrease the corporation tax in order to improve the competitiveness of a country’s goods and services. A decrease in the corporation tax will encourage new firms to set up and existing firms to invest. Corporation tax is a levy placed on the profit of a firm with different rates used for different levels or profits. They are taxes against profits earned by businesses during a given taxable period. If there is a decrease in the corporation tax, it means that firms will have an increased retained profit since less money goes to the government revenue. This will allow firms to use this money to improve competitiveness. More spending on investment will be possible which will increase productivity. If the firms invest on capital goods such as machinery that will benefit the firm by producing at lower cost, then the firm might able to set lower prices in order to improve price-competitiveness. For example the UK government reduced the headline corporation tax rate from 30% to 28% in 2007 Budget. Reducing corporation tax increased the retained profits for UK firms that can plough back into investment projects. This should help to boost the UK capital stock. It should also help the UK to keep attracting foreign direct investment which improves the competitiveness furthermore since British firms may gain from the advanced technology and innovation of foreign multinationals. (Technology transfer) However, if the government decreases corporation tax, there might be some firms that decide to save the retained profits instead of spending on investment. This might be because there is a period of recession and firms might find it risky to invest. In addition many firms have chosen not to reinvest as they have been more concerned with making short term profits rather than investing in the future. If firms choose to save rather than invest their retained profits, a decrease in the corporation tax wouldn’t improve competitiveness. Another measure to improve competitiveness is to increase government spending on education and training. If the government can improve the quality of teaching in schools and universities and encourage more people to go to university, then this should lead to increase in productivity of the workforce in the future. Greater productivity will lead to greater efficiency in firms which will in turn lead to lower average costs of production. This may improve the price competitiveness of UK goods and services. In addition it would improve the non price competitiveness since a more educated workforce is likely to be able to be more creative and innovative. Greater innovation should lead to better quality products and the creation of patents, copyrights, brands etc. However, increased spending on education and training by the government does not always lead to increased global competitiveness. It will depend greatly on exactly how the money is spent. For example expenditure for improving school buildings or Ofsted inspections may not necessarily improve the effectiveness of the teachers and the quality of education. On the other hand spending on training teachers and advancing their professional development, might be a more effective means of improving educational standards in the future and increasing productivity. However even in this case the effects are not likely materialise until the longer term. Another way in which the government can improve the non price competitiveness and price competitiveness in international markets is to encourage innovation and research. Tax allowances have been made available to businesses spending on innovation and research. However, there has also been a variety of programmes which enable some businesses to gain grants for research and development R & D and to set up knowledge transfer networks and universities. Such measures are likely to be more successful than tax cats since firms are given incentives to research and development through receiving tax concessions and from making connection to universities where they have the opportunity to learn about the latest scientific and technological advancements. On the other hand businesses, are able to introduce a variety of measures to improve the competitiveness of the goods and services. These include increasing the level of investment on new technology, on staff training, on ICT, etc . One way by which businesses might improve the competitiveness of their goods or services is by increasing the spending on R & D. By increasing the spending on R & D, businesses will most probably benefit from product and process innovation. If a business manages to create a unique and different product than the rest products in the market, it would be able to compete much more easily since consumers will prefer to buy the most innovated and technological updated products. For example Steve Job’s firm, Apple spent $758 million on R&D during the first fiscal quarter of 2012. If we take Apple as an example which is one of the most profitable companies, we clearly see that it has benefited from the heavy spending on R & D. It has come up with products such as the iPhone where the sales reached the number of 98,144,000 in the first three quadrants of 2012. However, some businesses prefer not to spend on R & D because they do not think about the longer term. Also there are other firms that fail to spend on R & D. For example the procedure of R & D may result in no innovative products or procedures that will improve competitiveness and therefore. Another way, by which businesses might improve competitiveness, is by improving productivity. Productivity is the output per worker. There are different ways by which productivity can be improved. For example if the firms increase the wages, workers might be motivated to work harder. Also, training can improve the knowledge and skills of staff. Improved recruitment and selection may have the same effect which will increase productivity in the short term. If the business increases spending on training, workers will be more educated and informed about their job. This will increase the productivity since they will be able to produce more output at the same working hours and wages. If the productivity is increased, it means that more output will be produced at relatively the same costs. This will allow the firm to get bigger in size, lower the running and operational costs, increase income and gain a greater share of the market. This will increase both price and non-price competitiveness. However productivity doesn’t always improve competitiveness. For example if training isn’t done effectively, and workers do not give attention or really care about the job, then they won’t improve their knowledge and skills, training will not improve productivity, and therefore productivity will not improve competitiveness. In addition, productivity might not improve competitiveness because in the case of increasing the wages in relation of the output the worker producers, there are workers that wouldn’t be motivated by an increase in their salary and therefore will not produce a greater output. Productivity can be used as a measure to improve competitiveness only if it is used correctly and it can increase both price and non-price competitiveness. It can improve price competitiveness by allowing the businesses to set lower prices and improve non-price competitiveness by expanding as a firm and increasing its popularity.

Compare and Contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Compare and Contrast - Essay Example ue sense of the word whichever way it is interpreted, the Prioress is the medieval feminine ideal, soft-hearted almost to a fault and academically well-educated. These differences can be easily determined as early as the general prologue as each character is described. The Prioress is shown to be the ideal by the positive statements made of her and her pleasing physical appearance while the Wife of Bath is described with a much less pleasing appearance and behaviors that match. The Prioress is described as possessing all of the attributes a man was supposed to look for in a woman in Chaucer’s time. She was â€Å"smiling, modest was and coy† (General Prologue, The Prioress, 2). She could sing well in the proper way, speak French fluently, had excellent manners so that â€Å"never from her lips let morsels fall, / Nor dipped her fingers deep in sauce† (General Prologue, The Prioress, 11-12), was pleasant to be around in any company and was charitable almost to a fault. Physically, she is given attractive attributes such as a fine nose, bright blue eyes, a small red mouth and a fair forehead. Chaucer tells his reader, â€Å"truth to tell, she was not undergrown† (General Prologue, The Prioress, 39), indicating a pleasant figure that men are not supposed to notice in that way when looking at a nun. Her clothing is neat and is well-maintained as would be expected of a lady high born. The Wife of Bath, on the other hand, immediately breaks the rules of true womanhood by being involved in commerce as a highly skilled seamstress. This vocation not only makes her lowly because she works for a living, but because she is in charge of her income, something that a true woman in medieval times would never dream of wanting. Despite this talent, or perhaps because of it, her behavior is also that of a course, undesirable woman. She tells lewd tales, has been married at least five times and has countless other lovers besides who are only hinted at with the comment that