Digital Art and its Market :: Technology Essays

Digital Art and its Market missing works cited The future of digital art promises many new alternatives to traditional artwork. Digital art offers a whole new perspective on the way people see and perceive art. For this reason, people across the globe have varying opinions on whether or not digital art should be accepted into society. This technological based art allows people to express themselves through art created using a computer. People who can’t draw traditionally can turn to digital art as a way to convey their inner thoughts and feelings. Likewise, more advanced artist can sell their extremely realistic pieces from hundreds to thousands of dollars each. New and exciting advances are coming about when it comes to displaying digital art, and this may strengthen its market it the long run. Digital art although extremely controversial, provides a new way of expression and allows for a whole new market to evolve. The value of digital art pieces is steadily increasing throughout the years. In 1998 the value of the digital fine art prints reached over 170 million dollars, and by 2003 the number was predicting to be at 249 million (Williams). This figure is only based on work produced by artists, and there are many at amateur levels creating art at home. This is a huge amount of money that is being invested into this new form of art. Digital art is still at its early years, and like a young child it still will mature more and more. Digital Art still remains experimental too in many ways. It’s taught in art schools, but no one really has a firm grasp of what it actually is (qtd. in Jesdanun). As long as technology plays a stronger role in our lives, artists will continue to use it to help them come up with new ideas for their artwork. Golan Levin, a man who works artistically with computers often says that â€Å"The computer is just as much a medium of art,† contrary to those who believe the computer is not. It may not be panting, carving or sculpting the old-fashioned way, but it takes just as much knowledge and intelligence to be able to work with the computer to create a finished product. Artists have been exploring digital art since the 1960s, but only in the past few years has it become widely practical because of better technology and prices (qtd.

‘Of Mice and Men’ shows how factors beyond the characters’ control prevent them from leading fulfilling lives Essay

John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set, and was written in the time of The Great Depression, 1929. During The Great Depression there were as many as fifteen million people, in the United States of America alone, left unemployed and with no way to feed their families. The Great Depression was caused by the Wall Street crash. The Wall Street Crash, when stocks and shares plummeted, resulted in America as a world trading country loosing gargantuan amounts money due to the many of the large companies of America going bankrupt. Because the companies went bankrupt they could no longer afford to pay any workers, this meant that they lost their jobs. Even the farms in the country could not stay running because of the Dust Bowl effect, this is when there is prolonged drought and the earth becomes like dust, entirely unsuitable to grow anything in. With a vast amount of the nation unemployed, people were desperately searching for work, simply in order to survive. When the idea came about that people could go and work the land in California, people jumped at the chance despite the appalling pay. The cruel thing is that the employers in California had paid their original workers more than they paid the migrant workers, and the migrant workers only worked because they were so desperate. The employers took advantage of their situation for their own benefit. It was very much every man for himself in that time, though in this novel there is an exception, Lennie and George, who for Steinbeck are the stereotypical migrant workers. I believe George to be living a fulfilled life within the dream he shares with Lennie and, later on in the novel Candy: the popular American dream of the period, to own a piece of land and be entirely self-sufficient from that land. The reason I think this is because George is constantly saying things such as â€Å"we’ll do her†, â€Å"we’ll fix up that little old place an’ we’ll go live there†, this shows that they are living in metaphoric clouds (their dream), a far nicer place than reality, Lennie and George seam to be willing to live through anything just to achieve it. The fact that George lives for a dream, one that he truly didn’t believe would happen, â€Å"Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her!† this also shows that now George actually believes in himself it will happen, George would have no reason to dream if he was content in reality. Whilst living a content life inside the sanction of his dream, it is clear that he is not content in reality otherwise he would have no cause to dream of a better place. Another reason for George not being content could be that he had been burdened with Lennie all of his life and thus not been able to live his own life and be his own person, George says to Lennie in the novel that he could have a much better life without Lennie â€Å"When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never get no peace†. This shows that even George feels Lennie as burden some of the time, if he felt this all of the time he could just get rid of Lennie, but he doesn’t. I believe Lennie feels much the same as George in that he lives for the dream also, whenever Lennie is uncomfortable with his surroundings in any way he will ask George to tell the story of the dream to him so that he can escape reality into his imagination, as if in fact the dream is where he wants to be. â€Å"Tell about the house George† Lennie begs.† â€Å"An’ the rabbits†. George has told Lennie that he can tend to the rabbits in their house, because Lennie is very simple this sense of responsibility and his fetish for soft things (the rabbits) provides the perfect attraction for Lennie to the Dream. Because Lennie also has to dream of a better place shows that his life is not being fulfilled on the ranch. If this was not evidence enough Lennie even says â€Å"George, I don’t like it here George†¦Ã¢â‚¬  clearly showing that he does not want to be there. The only woman on the ranch, Curley’s wife, also I believe lives an unfulfilled life because firstly all she is known as throughout the novel is â€Å"Curley’s wife†, making he sound like a possession of Curley’s. This says a lot about the period in which this novel was written, women were treated as inferior beings at this time, and I personally find it hard to see how you could live a fulfilled life when you are being put down constantly. The men on the ranch also have very dim views on her such as George’s opinion of her, â€Å"I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ’em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her†, not only does this starve her for attention it puts her down also. â€Å"Curley’s wife also has a dream, a dream of becoming famous, as she tells Lennie â€Å"He was gonna put me in the movies†, showing that she cannot be content in reality either. Curley’s wife is naturally seeking attention because she has married a man who she hardly ever sees and no one is willing to talk to her: â€Å"Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely†, and she believes she should be â€Å"†¦ in the movies†, a place where you will always be in the ‘spotlight’ so to speak, quite the opposite to how she is being treated on the ranch. Candy is the ‘crippled swamper’ on the ranch, and is only able to do menial jobs around the ranch; this offers him no real fulfilment. Despite this Candy’s life amounts to the work he does on the ranch and his dog, these are all he lives for â€Å"When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me.† As time progresses Candy realises that he has not got long left and with his dog, a huge part of his life having just been killed out of sympathy, he asks to join George and Lennie’s dream instead of his life being over once he has been told to leave the ranch â€Å"S’pose I went in with you guys†. In wishing somebody would shoot him when he was told to leave the ranch shows that Candy fears for his future and where he has to go to when he is told to leave. To live your life in fear of your future, not knowing where you are going, not having control of you own life cannot be a very secure and pleasant mental environment to live in; Can dy therefore can’t have a very fulfilled life. Curley is a successful welterweight boxer, but unfortunately didn’t quite make it to the top, instead he is stuck on his father’s ranch, a place where he doesn’t always get the respect/fear he craves, so he has to be rude and hostile in his talking â€Å"Well, nex’ time you answer when you’re spoke to†. This shows that Curley is not living the life he wants to live, thus making his life unfulfilled. Curley has a huge problem with intimidation, meaning bigger people intimidate him easily. He is also obsessed with power and authority: â€Å"Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys†, and on a ranch full of large men, he does not always have the security he wants. Curley is in a loveless marriage despite what he thinks he feels for his wife, she refuses to pay him the same attention: â€Å"he ain’t a nice fella†. Curley does not have his life going his way at all, he is stuck living somewhere he does not want to be, without the power he wants and with people he does not like; his father’s ranch. On top of this, he is in a marriage where the only ‘love’ is on his behalf. This all leads me to the conclusion that Curley does not a have a fulfilled life. Crooks is a black stable buck in the novel, and during this time black people were regarded as inferior beings, this leaves Crooks open to much discrimination. Using Crooks as a stereotype, Steinbeck tries to show the relationship between black and white people in America in the 1930’s. Throughout the novel, Crooks is treated with great disrespect, for example he is constantly being referred to as a â€Å"God damn nigger†. Crooks also gets segregated from the rest of the workers, this makes him incredibly lonely, we can tell this from a touching extract between Lennie and Crooks â€Å"Crooks says gently, ‘Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunk-house and play rummy ’cause you was black. How’d you like that?† Crooks is insulted countless times every single day of his life, the name â€Å"nigger† is used such as the term ‘mate’ is used today, so without meaning to insult Crooks people did it every time they chose to speak to him. Every time when Crooks elevates himself above his usual status by making the odd chance comment or voicing his opinion, he is simply thrown back down to the ground. For example Crooks began to introduce his opinion into a conversation and was quite bluntly told by Curley’s wife, â€Å"you keep your place, then Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny†. I find it near impossible to even think that Crooks could lead a fulfilled life when he is treated like a dirty animal, and his thoughts or feelings are considered worthless. My thoughts are that Slim is the only main character in the whole novel that possibly leads a fulfilled life. Unlike Crooks, Slim is paid much respect by all of the other workers. Candy refers to Slim as â€Å"Hell of a nice fella†, and comments are also made about people’s reactions when he speaks, â€Å"all talk stopped when he spoke†. This gives Slim a sense of belonging and importance. Slim is a highly skilled worker and the ranch would not be the same without him, and he knows this, so do the other workers on the ranch, â€Å"He’s capable of driving ten, sixteen even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders†. It is comments and views such as these which make Slim feel needed. Slim is favoured by all on the ranch, perhaps especially by Crooks and Curley’s wife as he treats them without any prejudice or discriminative views. For example, Slim is very polite and actually pays a compliment to Curley’s wife â€Å"Hi, Good-lookin '†. Throughout the novel, Slim does not mention any other life that he might prefer, nor does he show any evidence of him having a dream, this shows that he must be reasonably content with his life on the ranch as he has no cause to dream. I believe Slim to be the only main character in the novel to live a fulfilled life because he is clearly respected by all members of the ranch and very much favoured by them. Slim has security and he is also very independent, because of everyone’s admiration he also feels good in himself, Slim must have a great sense of fulfilment in his life. In a time where everyone had to make the most of what they had, only one person in this novel has succeeded, and that in my eyes would be Slim. It was a ‘dog eat dog world’ during the Great Depression and Slim manages to rise above all of the bad things that have happened to him due to it. He manages to lift himself up above everyone else who were stuck in the rut of their own self pity, he manipulated the situation and uses it to his advantage. He took the wrong things in the other peoples lives and offered solutions for example he gave George someone to talk to, or the fact that he was polite to those who were treated like dirt, this made people like and respect him which is what drove him on inspite or the Depression.

The Da Vinci Code Chapter 33-37

CHAPTER 33 Sophie's SmartCar tore through the diplomatic quarter, weaving past embassies and consulates, finally racing out a side street and taking a right turn back onto the massive thoroughfare of Champs-Elysees. Langdon sat white-knuckled in the passenger seat, twisted backward, scanning behind them for any signs of the police. He suddenly wished he had not decided to run. You didn't, he reminded himself. Sophie had made the decision for him when she threw the GPS dot out the bathroom window. Now, as they sped away from the embassy, serpentining through sparse traffic on Champs-Elysees, Langdon felt his options deteriorating. Although Sophie seemed to have lost the police, at least for the moment, Langdon doubted their luck would hold for long. Behind the wheel Sophie was fishing in her sweater pocket. She removed a small metal object and held it out for him. â€Å"Robert, you'd better have a look at this. This is what my grandfather left me behind Madonna of the Rocks.† Feeling a shiver of anticipation, Langdon took the object and examined it. It was heavy and shaped like a cruciform. His first instinct was that he was holding a funeral pieu – a miniature version of a memorial spike designed to be stuck into the ground at a gravesite. But then he noted the shaft protruding from the cruciform was prismatic and triangular. The shaft was also pockmarked with hundreds of tiny hexagons that appeared to be finely tooled and scattered at random. â€Å"It's a laser-cut key,† Sophie told him. â€Å"Those hexagons are read by an electric eye.† A key? Langdon had never seen anything like it. â€Å"Look at the other side,† she said, changing lanes and sailing through an intersection. When Langdon turned the key, he felt his jaw drop. There, intricately embossed on the center of the cross, was a stylized fleur-de-lis with the initials P. S. !† Sophie,† he said,† this is the seal I told you about! The official device of the Priory of Sion.† She nodded. â€Å"As I told you, I saw the key a long time ago. He told me never to speak of it again.† Langdon's eyes were still riveted on the embossed key. Its high-tech tooling and age-oldsymbolism exuded an eerie fusion of ancient and modern worlds. â€Å"He told me the key opened a box where he kept many secrets.† Langdon felt a chill to imagine what kind of secrets a man like Jacques Sauniere might keep. What an ancient brotherhood was doing with a futuristic key, Langdon had no idea. The Priory existed for the sole purpose of protecting a secret. A secret of incredible power. Could this key have something to do with it? The thought was overwhelming. â€Å"Do you know what it opens?† Sophie looked disappointed. â€Å"I was hoping you knew.† Langdon remained silent as he turned the cruciform in his hand, examining it. â€Å"It looks Christian,† Sophie pressed. Langdon was not so sure about that. The head of this key was not the traditional long-stemmed Christian cross but rather was a square cross – with four arms of equal length – which predated Christianity by fifteen hundred years. This kind of cross carried none of the Christian connotations of crucifixion associated with the longer-stemmed Latin Cross, originated by Romans as a torture device. Langdon was always surprised how few Christians who gazed upon† the crucifix† realized their symbol's violent history was reflected in its very name:† cross† and† crucifix† came from the Latin verb cruciare – to torture. â€Å"Sophie,† he said,† all I can tell you is that equal-armed crosses like this one are considered peaceful crosses. Their square configurations make them impractical for use in crucifixion, and their balanced vertical and horizontal elements convey a natural union of male and female, making them symbolically consistent with Priory philosophy.† She gave him a weary look. â€Å"You have no idea, do you?† Langdon frowned. â€Å"Not a clue.† â€Å"Okay, we have to get off the road.† Sophie checked her rearview mirror. â€Å"We need a safe place to figure out what that key opens.† Langdon thought longingly of his comfortable room at the Ritz. Obviously, that was not an option. â€Å"How about my hosts at the American University of Paris?† â€Å"Too obvious. Fache will check with them.† â€Å"You must know people. You live here.† â€Å"Fache will run my phone and e-mail records, talk to my coworkers. My contacts are compromised, and finding a hotel is no good because they all require identification.† Langdon wondered again if he might have been better off taking his chances letting Fache arrest him at the Louvre. â€Å"Let's call the embassy. I can explain the situation and have the embassy send someone to meet us somewhere.† â€Å"Meet us?† Sophie turned and stared at him as if he were crazy. â€Å"Robert, you're dreaming. Your embassy has no jurisdiction except on their own property. Sending someone to retrieve us would be considered aiding a fugitive of the French government. It won't happen. If you walk into your embassy and request temporary asylum, that's one thing, but asking them to take action against French law enforcement in the field?† She shook her head. â€Å"Call your embassy right now, and they are going to tell you to avoid further damage and turn yourself over to Fache. Then they'll promise to pursue diplomatic channels to get you a fair trial.† She gazed up the line of elegant storefronts on Champs-Elysees. â€Å"How much cash do you have?† Langdon checked his wallet. â€Å"A hundred dollars. A few euro. Why?† â€Å"Credit cards?† â€Å"Of course.† As Sophie accelerated, Langdon sensed she was formulating a plan. Dead ahead, at the end of Champs-Elysees, stood the Arc de Triomphe – Napoleon's 164-foot-tall tribute to his own military potency – encircled by France's largest rotary, a nine-lane behemoth. Sophie's eyes were on the rearview mirror again as they approached the rotary. â€Å"We lost them for the time being,† she said,† but we won't last another five minutes if we stay in this car.† So steal a different one, Langdon mused, now that we're criminals. â€Å"What are you going to do?† Sophie gunned the SmartCar into the rotary. â€Å"Trust me.† Langdon made no response. Trust had not gotten him very far this evening. Pulling back the sleeve of his jacket, he checked his watch – a vintage, collector's-edition Mickey Mouse wristwatch that had been a gift from his parents on his tenth birthday. Although its juvenile dial often drew odd looks, Langdon had never owned any other watch; Disney animations had been his first introduction to the magic of form and color, and Mickey now served as Langdon's daily reminder to stay young at heart. At the moment, however, Mickey's arms were skewed at an awkward angle, indicating an equally awkward hour. 2:51 A. M. â€Å"Interesting watch,† Sophie said, glancing at his wrist and maneuvering the SmartCar around the wide, counterclockwise rotary. â€Å"Long story,† he said, pulling his sleeve back down. â€Å"I imagine it would have to be.† She gave him a quick smile and exited the rotary, heading due north, away from the city center. Barely making two green lights, she reached the third intersection and took a hard right onto Boulevard Malesherbes. They'd left the rich, tree-lined streets of the diplomatic neighborhood and plunged into a darker industrial neighborhood. Sophie took a quick left, and a moment later, Langdon realized where they were. Gare Saint-Lazare. Ahead of them, the glass-roofed train terminal resembled the awkward offspring of an airplane hangar and a greenhouse. European train stations never slept. Even at this hour, a half-dozen taxi sidled near the main entrance. Vendors manned carts of sandwiches and mineral water while grungy kids in backpacks emerged from the station rubbing their eyes, looking around as if trying to remember what city they were in now. Up ahead on the street, a couple of city policemen stood on the curb giving directions to some co nfused tourists. Sophie pulled her SmartCar in behind the line of taxis and parked in a red zone despite plenty of legal parking across the street. Before Langdon could ask what was going on, she was out of the car. She hurried to the window of the taxi in front of them and began speaking to the driver. As Langdon got out of the SmartCar, he saw Sophie hand the taxi driver a big wad of cash. The taxi driver nodded and then, to Langdon's bewilderment, sped off without them. â€Å"What happened?† Langdon demanded, joining Sophie on the curb as the taxi disappeared. Sophie was already heading for the train station entrance. â€Å"Come on. We're buying two tickets on the next train out of Paris.† Langdon hurried along beside her. What had begun as a one-mile dash to the U. S. Embassy had now become a full-fledged evacuation from Paris. Langdon was liking this idea less and less. CHAPTER 34 The driver who collected Bishop Aringarosa from Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport pulled up in a small, unimpressive black Fiat sedan. Aringarosa recalled a day when all Vatican transports were big luxury cars that sported grille-plate medallions and flags emblazoned with the seal of the Holy See. Those days are gone.Vatican cars were now less ostentatious and almost always unmarked. The Vatican claimed this was to cut costs to better serve their dioceses, but Aringarosa suspected it was more of a security measure. The world had gone mad, and in many parts of Europe, advertising your love of Jesus Christ was like painting a bull's-eye on the roof of your car. Bundling his black cassock around himself, Aringarosa climbed into the back seat and settled in for the long drive to Castel Gandolfo. It would be the same ride he had taken five months ago. Last year's trip to Rome, he sighed. The longest night of my life. Five months ago, the Vatican had phoned to request Aringarosa's immediate presence in Rome. They offered no explanation. Your tickets are at the airport.The Holy See worked hard to retain a veil of mystery, even for its highest clergy. The mysterious summons, Aringarosa suspected, was probably a photo opportunity for the Pope and other Vatican officials to piggyback on Opus Dei's recent public success – the completion of their World Headquarters in New York City. Architectural Digest had called Opus Dei's building† a shining beacon of Catholicism sublimely integrated with the modern landscape,† and lately the Vatican seemed to be drawn to anything and everything that included the word† modern.† Aringarosa had no choice but to accept the invitation, albeit reluctantly. Not a fan of the current papal administration, Aringarosa, like most conservative clergy, had watched with grave concern as the new Pope settled into his first year in office. An unprecedented liberal, His Holiness had secured the papacy through one of the most controversial and unusual conclaves in Vatican history. Now, rather than being humbled by his unexpected rise to power, the Holy Father had wasted no time flexing all the muscle associated with the highest office in Christendom. Drawing on an unsettling tide of liberal support within the College of Cardinals, the Pope was now declaring his papal mission to be† rejuvenation of Vatican doctrine and updating Catholicism into the third millennium.† The translation, Aringarosa feared, was that the man was actually arrogant enough to think he could rewrite God's laws and win back the hearts of those who felt the demands of true Catholicism had become too inconvenient in a modern world. Aringarosa had been using all of his political sway – substantial considering the size of the Opus Dei constituency and their bankroll – to persuade the Pope and his advisers that softening the Church's laws was not only faithless and cowardly, but political suicide. He reminded them that previous tempering of Church law – the Vatican II fiasco – had left a devastating legacy: Church attendance was now lower than ever, donations were drying up, and there were not even enough Catholic priests to preside over their churches. People need structure and direction from the Church, Aringarosa insisted, not coddling and indulgence! On that night, months ago, as the Fiat had left the airport, Aringarosa was surprised to find himself heading not toward Vatican City but rather eastward up a sinuous mountain road. â€Å"Where are we going?† he had demanded of his driver. â€Å"Alban Hills,† the man replied. â€Å"Your meeting is at Castel Gandolfo.† The Pope's summer residence? Aringarosa had never been, nor had he ever desired to see it. In addition to being the Pope's summer vacation home, the sixteenth-century citadel housed the Specula Vaticana – the Vatican Observatory – one of the most advanced astronomical observatories in Europe. Aringarosa had never been comfortable with the Vatican's historical need to dabble in science. What was the rationale for fusing science and faith? Unbiased science could not possibly be performed by a man who possessed faith in God. Nor did faith have any need for physical confirmation of its beliefs. Nonetheless, there it is, he thought as Castel Gandolfo came into view, rising against a star-filled November sky. From the access road, Gandolfo resembled a great stone monster pondering a suicidal leap. Perched at the very edge of a cliff, the castle leaned out over the cradle of Italian civilization – the valley where the Curiazi and Orazi clans fought long before the founding of Rome. Even in silhouette, Gandolfo was a sight to behold – an impressive example of tiered, defensive architecture, echoing the potency of this dramatic cliff side setting. Sadly, Aringarosa now saw, the Vatican had ruined the building by constructing two huge aluminum telescope domes atop the roof, leaving this once dignified edifice looking like a proud warrior wearing a couple of party hats. When Aringarosa got out of the car, a young Jesuit priest hurried out and greeted him. â€Å"Bishop, welcome. I am Father Mangano. An astronomer here.† Good for you.Aringarosa grumbled his hello and followed his host into the castle's foyer – a wide- open space whose decor was a graceless blend of Renaissance art and astronomy images. Following his escort up the wide travertine marble staircase, Aringarosa saw signs for conference centers, science lecture halls, and tourist information services. It amazed him to think the Vatican was failing at every turn to provide coherent, stringent guidelines for spiritual growth and yet somehow still found time to give astrophysics lectures to tourists. â€Å"Tell me,† Aringarosa said to the young priest,† when did the tail start wagging the dog?† The priest gave him an odd look. â€Å"Sir?† Aringarosa waved it off, deciding not to launch into that particular offensive again this evening. The Vatican has gone mad.Like a lazy parent who found it easier to acquiesce to the whims of a spoiled child than to stand firm and teach values, the Church just kept softening at every turn, trying to reinvent itself to accommodate a culture gone astray. The top floor's corridor was wide, lushly appointed, and led in only one direction – toward a huge set of oak doors with a brass sign. BIBLIOTECA ASTRONOMICA Aringarosa had heard of this place – the Vatican's Astronomy Library – rumored to contain more than twenty-five thousand volumes, including rare works of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Secchi. Allegedly, it was also the place in which the Pope's highest officers held private meetings†¦ those meetings they preferred not to hold within the walls of Vatican City. Approaching the door, Bishop Aringarosa would never have imagined the shocking news he was about to receive inside, or the deadly chain of events it would put into motion. It was not until an hour later, as he staggered from the meeting, that the devastating implications settled in. Six monthsfrom now! he had thought. God help us! Now, seated in the Fiat, Bishop Aringarosa realized his fists were clenched just thinking about that first meeting. He released his grip and forced a slow inhalation, relaxing his muscles. Everything will be fine, he told himself as the Fiat wound higher into the mountains. Still, he wished his cell phone would ring. Why hasn't the Teacher called me? Silas should have the keystone by now. Trying to ease his nerves, the bishop meditated on the purple amethyst in his ring. Feeling the textures of the mitre-crozier applique and the facets of the diamonds, he reminded himself that this ring was a symbol of power far less than that which he would soon attain. CHAPTER 35 The inside of Gare Saint-Lazare looked like every other train station in Europe, a gaping indoor- outdoor cavern dotted with the usual suspects – homeless men holding cardboard signs, collections of bleary-eyed college kids sleeping on backpacks and zoning out to their portable MP3 players, and clusters of blue-clad baggage porters smoking cigarettes. Sophie raised her eyes to the enormous departure board overhead. The black and white tabs reshuffled, ruffling downward as the information refreshed. When the update was finished, Langdon eyed the offerings. The topmost listing read: LYON – RAPIDE – 3:06 â€Å"I wish it left sooner,† Sophie said,† but Lyon will have to do.† Sooner? Langdon checked his watch 2:59 A. M. The train left in seven minutes and they didn't even have tickets yet. Sophie guided Langdon toward the ticket window and said,† Buy us two tickets with your credit card.† â€Å"I thought credit card usage could be traced by – â€Å"Exactly.† Langdon decided to stop trying to keep ahead of Sophie Neveu. Using his Visa card, he purchased two coach tickets to Lyon and handed them to Sophie. Sophie guided him out toward the tracks, where a familiar tone chimed overhead and a P. A. announcer gave the final boarding call for Lyon. Sixteen separate tracks spread out before them. In the distance to the right, at quay three, the train to Lyon was belching and wheezing in preparation for departure, but Sophie already had her arm through Langdon's and was guiding him in the exact opposite direction. They hurried through a side lobby, past an all-night cafe, and finally out a side door onto a quiet street on the west side of the station. A lone taxi sat idling by the doorway. The driver saw Sophie and flicked his lights. Sophie jumped in the back seat. Langdon got in after her. As the taxi pulled away from station, Sophie took out their newly purchased train tickets and tore them up. Langdon sighed. Seventy dollars well spent. It was not until their taxi had settled into a monotonous northbound hum on Rue de Clichy that Langdon felt they'd actually escaped. Out the window to his right, he could see Montmartre and the beautiful dome of Sacre-Coeur. The image was interrupted by the flash of police lights sailing past them in the opposite direction. Langdon and Sophie ducked down as the sirens faded. Sophie had told the cab driver simply to head out of the city, and from her firmly set jaw, Langdon sensed she was trying to figure out their next move. Langdon examined the cruciform key again, holding it to the window, bringing it close to his eyes in an effort to find any markings on it that might indicate where the key had been made. In the intermittent glow of passing streetlights, he saw no markings except the Priory seal. â€Å"It doesn't make sense,† he finally said. â€Å"Which part?† â€Å"That your grandfather would go to so much trouble to give you a key that you wouldn't know what to do with.† â€Å"I agree.† â€Å"Are you sure he didn't write anything else on the back of the painting?† â€Å"I searched the whole area. This is all there was. This key, wedged behind the painting. I saw the Priory seal, stuck the key in my pocket, then we left.† Langdon frowned, peering now at the blunt end of the triangular shaft. Nothing. Squinting, he brought the key close to his eyes and examined the rim of the head. Nothing there either. â€Å"I think this key was cleaned recently.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"It smells like rubbing alcohol.† She turned. â€Å"I'm sorry?† â€Å"It smells like somebody polished it with a cleaner.† Langdon held the key to his nose and sniffed. â€Å"It's stronger on the other side.† He flipped it over. â€Å"Yes, it's alcohol-based, like it's been buffed with a cleaner or – † Langdon stopped. â€Å"What?† He angled the key to the light and looked at the smooth surface on the broad arm of the cross. It seemed to shimmer in places†¦ like it was wet. â€Å"How well did you look at the back of this key before you put it in your pocket?† â€Å"What? Not well. I was in a hurry.† Langdon turned to her. â€Å"Do you still have the black light?† Sophie reached in her pocket and produced the UV penlight. Langdon took it and switched it on, shining the beam on the back of the key. The back luminesced instantly. There was writing there. In penmanship that was hurried but legible. â€Å"Well,† Langdon said, smiling. â€Å"I guess we know what the alcohol smell was.† Sophie stared in amazement at the purple writing on the back of the key. 24 Rue Haxo An address! My grandfather wrote down an address! â€Å"Where is this?† Langdon asked. Sophie had no idea. Facing front again, she leaned forward and excitedly asked the driver,†Connaissez-vous la Rue Haxo?† The driver thought a moment and then nodded. He told Sophie it was out near the tennis stadium on the western outskirts of Paris. She asked him to take them there immediately. â€Å"Fastest route is through Bois de Boulogne,† the driver told her in French. â€Å"Is that okay?† Sophie frowned. She could think of far less scandalous routes, but tonight she was not going to be picky. â€Å"Oui.† We can shock the visiting American. Sophie looked back at the key and wondered what they would possibly find at 24 Rue Haxo. A church? Some kind of Priory headquarters? Her mind filled again with images of the secret ritual she had witnessed in the basement grotto ten years ago, and she heaved a long sigh. â€Å"Robert, I have a lot of things to tell you.† She paused, locking eyes with him as the taxi raced westward. â€Å"But first I want you to tell me everything you know about this Priory of Sion.† CHAPTER 36 Outside the Salle des Etats, Bezu Fache was fuming as Louvre warden Grouard explained how Sophie and Langdon had disarmed him. Why didn't you just shoot the blessed painting! â€Å"Captain?† Lieutenant Collet loped toward them from the direction of the command post. â€Å"Captain, I just heard. They located Agent Neveu's car.† â€Å"Did she make the embassy?† â€Å"No. Train station. Bought two tickets. Train just left.† Fache waved off warden Grouard and led Collet to a nearby alcove, addressing him in hushed tones. â€Å"What was the destination?† â€Å"Lyon.† â€Å"Probably a decoy.† Fache exhaled, formulating a plan. â€Å"Okay, alert the next station, have the train stopped and searched, just in case. Leave her car where it is and put plainclothes on watch in case they try to come back to it. Send men to search the streets around the station in case they fled on foot. Are buses running from the station?† â€Å"Not at this hour, sir. Only the taxi queue.† â€Å"Good. Question the drivers. See if they saw anything. Then contact the taxi company dispatcher with descriptions. I'm calling Interpol.† Collet looked surprised. â€Å"You're putting this on the wire?† Fache regretted the potential embarrassment, but he saw no other choice. Close the net fast, and close it tight. The first hour was critical. Fugitives were predictable the first hour after escape. They always needed the same thing. Travel.Lodging.Cash.The Holy Trinity. Interpol had the power to make all three disappear in the blink of an eye. By broadcast-faxing photos of Langdon and Sophie to Paris travel authorities, hotels, and banks, Interpol would leave no options – no way to leave the city, no place to hide, and no way to withdraw cash without being recognized. Usually, fugitives panicked on the street and did something stupid. Stole a car. Robbed a store. Used a bank card in desperation. Whatever mistake they committed, they quickly made their whereabouts known to local authorities. â€Å"Only Langdon, right?† Collet said. â€Å"You're not flagging Sophie Neveu. She's our own agent.† â€Å"Of course I'm flagging her!† Fache snapped. â€Å"What good is flagging Langdon if she can do all his dirty work? I plan to run Neveu's employment file – friends, family, personal contacts – anyone she might turn to for help. I don't know what she thinks she's doing out there, but it's going to cost her one hell of a lot more than her job!† â€Å"Do you want me on the phones or in the field?† â€Å"Field. Get over to the train station and coordinate the team. You've got the reins, but don't make a move without talking to me.† â€Å"Yes, sir.† Collet ran out. Fache felt rigid as he stood in the alcove. Outside the window, the glass pyramid shone, its reflection rippling in the windswept pools. They slipped through my fingers.He told himself to relax. Even a trained field agent would be lucky to withstand the pressure that Interpol was about to apply. A female cryptologist and a schoolteacher? They wouldn't last till dawn. CHAPTER 37 The heavily forested park known as the Bois de Boulogne was called many things, but the Parisian cognoscenti knew it as† the Garden of Earthly Delights.† The epithet, despite sounding flattering, was quite to the contrary. Anyone who had seen the lurid Bosch painting of the same name understood the jab; the painting, like the forest, was dark and twisted, a purgatory for freaks and fetishists. At night, the forest's winding lanes were lined with hundreds of glistening bodies for hire, earthly delights to satisfy one's deepest unspoken desires – male, female, and everything in between. As Langdon gathered his thoughts to tell Sophie about the Priory of Sion, their taxi passed through the wooded entrance to the park and began heading west on the cobblestone cross fare. Langdon was having trouble concentrating as a scattering of the park's nocturnal residents were already emerging from the shadows and flaunting their wares in the glare of the headlights. Ahead, two topless teenage girls shot smoldering gazes into the taxi. Beyond them, a well-oiled black man in a G-string turned and flexed his buttocks. Beside him, a gorgeous blond woman lifted her miniskirt to reveal that she was not, in fact, a woman. Heaven help me! Langdon turned his gaze back inside the cab and took a deep breath. â€Å"Tell me about the Priory of Sion,† Sophie said. Langdon nodded, unable to imagine a less congruous a backdrop for the legend he was about to tell. He wondered where to begin. The brotherhood's history spanned more than a millennium†¦ an astonishing chronicle of secrets, blackmail, betrayal, and even brutal torture at the hands of an angry Pope. â€Å"The Priory of Sion,† he began,† was founded in Jerusalem in 1099 by a French king named Godefroi de Bouillon, immediately after he had conquered the city.† Sophie nodded, her eyes riveted on him.† King Godefroi was allegedly the possessor of a powerful secret – a secret that had been in his family since the time of Christ. Fearing his secret might be lost when he died, he founded a secret brotherhood – the Priory of Sion – and charged them with protecting his secret by quietly passing it on from generation to generation. During their years in Jerusalem, the Priory learned of a stash of hidden documents buried beneath the ruins of Herod's temple, which had been built atop the earlier ruins of Solomon's Temple. These documents, they believed, corroborated Godefroi's powerful secret and were so explosive in nature that the Church would stop at nothing to get them.† Sophie looked uncertain. â€Å"The Priory vowed that no matter how long it took, these documents must be recovered from the rubble beneath the temple and protected forever, so the truth would never die. In order to retrieve the documents from within the ruins, the Priory created a military arm – a group of nine knights called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon.† Langdon paused. â€Å"More commonly known as the Knights Templar.† Sophie glanced up with a surprised look of recognition. Langdon had lectured often enough on the Knights Templar to know that almost everyone on earth had heard of them, at least abstractedly. For academics, the Templars' history was a precarious world where fact, lore, and misinformation had become so intertwined that extracting a pristine truth was almost impossible. Nowadays, Langdon hesitated even to mention the Knights Templar while lecturing because it invariably led to a barrage of convoluted inquiries into assorted conspiracy theories. Sophie already looked troubled. â€Å"You're saying the Knights Templar were founded by the Priory of Sion to retrieve a collection of secret documents? I thought the Templars were created to protect the Holy Land.† â€Å"A common misconception. The idea of protection of pilgrims was the guise under which the Templars ran their mission. Their true goal in the Holy Land was to retrieve the documents from beneath the ruins of the temple.† â€Å"And did they find them?† Langdon grinned. â€Å"Nobody knows for sure, but the one thing on which all academics agree is this: The Knights discovered something down there in the ruins†¦ something that made them wealthy and powerful beyond anyone's wildest imagination.† Langdon quickly gave Sophie the standard academic sketch of the accepted Knights Templar history, explaining how the Knights were in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade and told King Baldwin II that they were there to protect Christian pilgrims on the roadways. Although unpaid and sworn to poverty, the Knights told the king they required basic shelter and requested his permission to take up residence in the stables under the ruins of the temple. King Baldwin granted the soldiers' request, and the Knights took up their meager residence inside the devastated shrine. The odd choice of lodging, Langdon explained, had been anything but random. The Knights believed the documents the Priory sought were buried deep under the ruins – beneath the Holy of Holies, a sacred chamber where God Himself was believed to reside. Literally, the very center of the Jewish faith. For almost a decade, the nine Knights lived in the ruins, excavating in total secrecy through solid rock. Sophie looked over. â€Å"And you said they discovered something?† â€Å"They certainly did,† Langdon said, explaining how it had taken nine years, but the Knights had finally found what they had been searching for. They took the treasure from the temple and traveled to Europe, where their influence seemed to solidify overnight. Nobody was certain whether the Knights had blackmailed the Vatican or whether the Church simply tried to buy the Knights' silence, but Pope Innocent II immediately issued an unprecedented papal bull that afforded the Knights Templar limitless power and declared them† a law unto themselves† – an autonomous army independent of all interference from kings and prelates, both religious and political. With their new carte blanche from the Vatican, the Knights Templar expanded at a staggering rate, both in numbers and political force, amassing vast estates in over a dozen countries. They began extending credit to bankrupt royals and charging interest in return, thereby establishing modern banking and broadening their wealth and influence still further. By the 1300s, the Vatican sanction had helped the Knights amass so much power that Pope Clement V decided that something had to be done. Working in concert with France's King Philippe IV, the Pope devised an ingeniously planned sting operation to quash the Templars and seize their treasure, thus taking control of the secrets held over the Vatican. In a military maneuver worthy of the CIA, Pope Clement issued secret sealed orders to be opened simultaneously by his soldiers all across Europe on Friday, October 13 of 1307. At dawn on the thirteenth, the documents were unsealed and their appalling contents revealed. Clement's letter claimed that God had visited him in a vision and warned him that the Knights Templar were heretics guilty of devil worship, homosexuality, defiling the cross, sodomy, and other blasphemous behavior. Pope Clement had been asked by God to cleanse the earth by rounding up all the Knights and torturing them until they confessed their crimes against God. Clement's Machiavellian operation came off with clockwork precision. On that day, countless Knights were captured, tortured mercilessly, and finally burned at the stake as heretics. Echoes of the tragedy still resonated in modern culture; to this day, Friday the thirteenth was considered unlucky. Sophie looked confused. â€Å"The Knights Templar were obliterated? I thought fraternities of Templars still exist today?† â€Å"They do, under a variety of names. Despite Clement's false charges and best efforts to eradicate them, the Knights had powerful allies, and some managed to escape the Vatican purges. The Templars' potent treasure trove of documents, which had apparently been their source of power, was Clement's true objective, but it slipped through his fingers. The documents had long since been entrusted to the Templars' shadowy architects, the Priory of Sion, whose veil of secrecy had kept them safely out of range of the Vatican's onslaught. As the Vatican closed in, the Priory smuggled their documents from a Paris preceptory by night onto Templar ships in La Rochelle.† â€Å"Where did the documents go?† Langdon shrugged. â€Å"That mystery's answer is known only to the Priory of Sion. Because the documents remain the source of constant investigation and speculation even today, they are believed to have been moved and rehidden several times. Current speculation places the documents somewhere in the United Kingdom.† Sophie looked uneasy. â€Å"For a thousand years,† Langdon continued,† legends of this secret have been passed on. The entire collection of documents, its power, and the secret it reveals have become known by a single name – Sangreal. Hundreds of books have been written about it, and few mysteries have caused as much interest among historians as the Sangreal.† â€Å"The Sangreal? Does the word have anything to do with the French word sang or Spanish sangre – meaning ‘blood'?† Langdon nodded. Blood was the backbone of the Sangreal, and yet not in the way Sophie probably imagined. â€Å"The legend is complicated, but the important thing to remember is that the Priory guards the proof, and is purportedly awaiting the right moment in history to reveal the truth.† â€Å"What truth? What secret could possibly be that powerful?† Langdon took a deep breath and gazed out at the underbelly of Paris leering in the shadows.† Sophie, the word Sangreal is an ancient word. It has evolved over the years into another term†¦ a more modern name.† He paused. â€Å"When I tell you it's modern name, you'll realize you already know a lot about it. In fact, almost everyone on earth has heard the story of the Sangreal.† Sophie looked skeptical. â€Å"I've never heard of it.† â€Å"Sure you have.† Langdon smiled. â€Å"You're just used to hearing it called by the name ‘Holy Grail. ‘†

Hazel

Where did the ritual take place? Villa Maria College Chapel, Christopher, New Zealand 2. Why did you choose this location? I went to school at Villa Maria College and I had an affiliation with the location. I liked the quaint, small size of the chapel where the guests felt closeness to the wedding ritual. I chose a Catholic chapel due to Roman Catholic being my religion. 3. What symbols were used in the ritual? What significance did they have? Rings- Symbolism our everlasting love that we bound as one, wedding dress- white homebodies my purity and is a tradition. . How were these symbols Important In the ritual for you? The rings symbolized for me our love and commitment for the rest of our lives, they were important as we picked them together. The wedding dress was special to me as it was white, it made me feel beautiful and it was traditional. I chose a traditional wedding dress, as it is apart of the Christian ritual. 5. What was the purpose of the ritual for you? Because for us, It was a commitment for the rest of our lives and It meant that we would raise children In the Catholic community. It also expressed our everlasting love for each other. 6.In your opinion, what was the climax of the ritual? When we said our vows and exchanged rings. 7. Did you have to do anything Involved with the ritual before the ceremony? Engagement, apply for a certificate of marriage, planning the ceremony. 8. Did you have to anything involved with the ritual after the ceremony? Honeymoon. 9. Which parts of the ritual were most special to you? The exchanging of rings and vows was most Important to me. Also, In the ceremony my mother sung, â€Å"Love changes everything† by Michael Crawford because It was meeting that she loves to do and it was special as it played an important part of the ceremony. 0. How did the ritual change you as a person? I changed my social status and there felt a real deference between living together 1 1 . Who attended the ritual? The wedding part y, family and close friends. 12. What roles did the participants play? My mother sung as said previously and my mother in law and close friend said a reading at the ceremony. My close friend was a bridesmaid and my brother in law was the best man. My nieces were flower girls and nephew was ring bearer. 13. How was the community involved in the ritual?The Villa Maria College nuns that lived next to the chapel, helped to prepare the chapel for the ceremony. 14. What features in the ritual displayed your religion? The bible where the readings were from, the prayers of the faithful and the hymns. One reading I chose was Corinthians 13: 4-7 as it displays what real love is like. ORAL Good morning, my name is Hazel Faulkner and today I will discuss a rite of passage, marriage, from the variant Roman Catholic. A ritual is a ceremony that involves different actions, symbols and writings which are performed according to a set order.Rituals are apart of everyday life and can even be as simple as a morning routine. Religious rituals are important as they help adherents connect with their deity. A rite of passage is a ceremony or event that marks a change or transition in someone's life from one phase to another. They include birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Over the years, scholars of religion have provided ways to analyses rituals. For example, Arnold Van Genes argued that a rite of passage involves three stages: pre-lamina, lamina and post-lamina. Sacred refers to the adherent being connected o or dedicated to their deity.Profane or secular is the opposite of sacred, it means something or someone is not concerned with religion. Marriage is a rite of passage and getting married is an important part of Christians lives. Marriage is a life long commitment between husband and wife made in the presence of God. Catholics generally have a Nuptial Mass which involves Eucharist and takes place in a church. The transition in marriage is being single to becoming one with y our bride or groom. Catholic marriage fits most appropriately into Van Genie's model and Love's five-step approach.The difference between a marriage and a wedding is that the marriage is the life long commitment where as a wedding For the investigation of a Catholic marriage the interviewee was my mother, Sue Faulkner. Her role in the rite of passage was the bride. Some of the questions asked were where did the ritual take place, what symbols were used, what significance did they have and what was the climax of the ritual. The interviewee's marriage took place at Villa Maria Chapel in Christopher, New Zealand. The questions helped to find useful information on the ritual and to discover an individuals view on marriage.A Catholic marriage has a clear structure. The first main element of a Catholic wedding is the wedding procession. It includes the bride walking down the aisle either by herself or with one or both of her parents as well as the wedding party. The symbolism of this elem ent is the beginning of a change of status and new life. Another element includes the readings from the Old Testament and New Testament. The purpose of the readings is to outline the importance of a Catholic tradition and make the presence of God in the marriage clear.The declaration of intention is also an important part of the wedding. This stage outlines the promises of commitment to each other throughout the struggles in marriage. The blessing of rings and exchanging of vows is often seen as the most important part of the wedding as the couple expresses the love they shares for each other and the vows symbolism commitment. Christians believe during the vows Christ becomes present. My interviewee saw this element as the climax of the ritual. The pronouncement of marriage is the stage where the change in status is almost completed.The signing of the register is a formal and legal recognition of the marriage and completes the stage f status for the couple. The recession concludes t he ritual ceremony, thus the change of status is final. As stated before, marriage suitably fits into Van Genie's model. He argued that there were three stages of a rite of passage, one being pre-lamina. The pre-lamina stage is the first stage in a rite of passage. It involves the separation from the couple's previous life. In a Catholic Marriage, the pre-lamina stage involves the bridal procession as it marks a beginning of a new status for the bride.It also involves the declaration of purpose where the priest outlines the significance of marriage and its repose in a Catholic context. The lamina stage involves transitioning from one stage to another and is often seen as the most important stage. The lamina stage in a Catholic marriage takes place after the giving away of the bride to the end of the exchanging of rings. The blessing of rings and exchanging of vows physically marks the change in status and transition. The post lamina stage in a Catholic marriage is the reincorporatio n stage where the couple is now ready to enter society with their new status.The post lamina stage in a Catholic marriage would include the signing of the register where the couple omelets their change in status and the recession where their change in status is Another model that is suitable to show and explain the structure of the ritual is Love's five-step approach. The model includes five steps, the first being the entry in which the participant leaves the ordinary world and enters the ritual. In a Catholic marriage this would include the proposal and declaration. The couple is now engaged and candidates for marriage.The second step is called the â€Å"preparation† in which the couple is involved in some sort of preparatory rite. This would include pre- Raritan counseling. The third is the climax of the ritual, which is the central, or highpoint of the ritual. In a marriage ceremony, the climax would be the exchanging of rings and vows. My interviewee agreed with this. The forth step includes the celebration which would be the wedding reception and the fifth step is called the â€Å"return† where the participants (bride and groom) leave the ritual and return to the ordinary world.The marriage ceremony marks separation from the ordinary or profane for the couple. The declaration of the couple as ‘husband' and Wife' displays that they are prepared from the community as they are now married. One element in a Catholic wedding which reinforces doctrinal teachings, is the readings. A common reading used is Psalm 103:8 which is a responsible psalm. â€Å"The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. † The message of the psalm is that the Lord is kind and merciful. The four major rites of passages are birth, adolescence, marriage and death.These passages will happen whether or not they are acknowledged with a ritual. Although, Christians choose to mark them with a special ceremony as they are important ruinatio ns in people's lives. The models by Van Genes, Turner and Loved are important as they help to break down rites of passages to better understand them. Catholic Marriage fits best into Van Genie's model as well as Love's. Marriage is important to Catholics as it promotes the same love that exists in the Holy Trinity and for the procreation of life, another aspect that mirrors the Trinity. Marriage creates a union between spouses.It is a sacrament and an institution created by God. B. WRITTEN SUBMISSION This investigation has helped to expand my knowledge on rituals, rites of passage ND marriage. I learnt that a ritual can be as simple as a morning routine and that there are many varieties of a ritual. Before the investigation, I had only a brief understanding of the models. The investigation helped to develop my knowledge on the particular models by Van Genes and Loved. The models helped me also to better the pre-lamina stage (separation), lamina stage (transition), and post-lamina st age (reincorporation).Love's model involves five steps: the entry, preparation, climax, celebration and return. These models are not only used for Christian rituals but for tails of any religion. The Buddhist view of marriage is considered a secular affair and is not seen as a religious duty. Buddhism marriage is a personal and social obligation. In Islam, marriage is a legal contract and the religion is a strong advocate for marriage. Referring to Hinduism, Hindus view marriage as a sacrament. They have similar views as Christianity in terms of marriage, believing that marriage is a union and Joins two individuals for life.Judaism also has similar views as marriage is viewed as a bond commanded by God in which a man and woman come together to create a legislations in which God is involved. Also, Jewish married couples are traditionally expected to have children. Australia is a multicultural society and therefore, we have a variety of different religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism and many others, which are continually developing in Australian society. This means marriage ceremonies in Australia significantly differ depending on the religion. The participant's culture may be expressed through clothing or music.My interviewee's wedding did not take place in Australia but New Zealand. Australia ND New Zealand are very similar thus my interviewee's wedding did not significantly differ from a traditional Australian wedding. In an Aboriginal marriage ceremony, couples are commonly involved in a traditional smoking ceremony which makes the couple feel cleansed and free, going into the marriage with no bad spirits to bring them bad luck and it is also performed to create a lifelong bond between the couple. Marriage in Aboriginal societies is complicated and has puzzled anthropologists for centuries.In a Catholic marriage, the most important or common symbol is the rings. The rings present a never-ending circle of eternal love. They al so represent the union and commitment of the couple. Other marriage symbols include the veil, wedding bells, the wedding dress and the bible. Marriage successfully draws participants beyond the ordinary and into the transcendent as it is does not Just simply include the man and woman being in love. It is something larger in which the partners have a special ceremony which expresses the very meaning of their life together.Even though the institution of marriage that binds the couple together is invisible actions such as the stating the vows and exchanging of rings expresses the love and union. Although my speech mostly discusses the wedding ceremony, the preparation of the doesn't Just involve getting the wedding dress, flowers, rings etc. Couples are encouraged to attend pre-marital counseling which helps them prepare for marriage. After the couple is officially married, they may decide to go on a honeymoon. Also, the couple may decide that they want to have children, as marriage is essentially the ideal foundation for the making of children.The investigation was interesting yet difficult at times. The most challenging part of he investigation was finding what the pre-lamina, lamina and post-lamina stages of a Catholic wedding are. Information on the internet told me that pre-lamina stage of a Catholic wedding is the engagement, lamina is the ceremony and post-lamina is the honeymoon. However, I wanted to find the stages in the specific ceremony, as it was my main focus. The investigation helped me to better understand the concept of a ritual and a wedding ritual. Bibliography Austere, L, What is transcendence and why does it matter?

Event Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Event Tourism - Essay Example Event tourism generally refers to an event which is organized for an audience from around the world. The event can be a public or corporate event which attracts people from around the globe and they visit the country to attend the event. Event tourism as a business includes the hotel reservations, transportation facilities, journey tours, and several other procedures that are organized for the tourists in order to make it easy for them. Event tourism brings huge revenues for the host country and adds value to the destination itself. This paper will discuss how event tourism has emerged as a popular type of tourism and what the main goals are. The event tourism has taken a considerable position in the tourism industry of today. Many tourism industries have given special attention to the event tourism and worked with event management companies to ensure an attractive event. The event can be a cultural festival, a sports event, a religious rally or a corporate conference. Such events ca n be organized by the private or public sector but the tourism business boosts immensely during these events. This is because most of the tourism agencies play their part by assisting the tourists, planning tours for them, arranging tickets for the event and reserving hotel rooms. It is the responsibility of the community and the tourist agencies to manage and supervise these major events which attract people from all over the world (Getz, 2008, p. 415). The major approach that a community shall adopt to host a successful event is the effective tourism planning. Even though the normal tourism industry faces much ups and downs regularly which are due to a variety of reasons such as changing weather conditions, acts of violence etc. But the event tourism industry manages to produce a large number of populations despite any of these factors. The major events that are planned have financial aspects which are arranged in advance so that the market fluctuations do not affect the arrangeme nts. The host community for major events such as the cricket world cup or the Olympics is decided as a result of a tough competition. The wide range of events adds to the host community’s economic health and a community shall carry out certain roles to determine the development of their event tourism industry. There are many aspects that a community has to consider while deciding whether to host a major event or not. Before competing for the hosting of the special event, a community must do their homework. A community shall consider an event specialist and know about all the basics about the event. This includes the event demographics, the needs, the dates and the things that need to be avoided for example in a religious event, a community might consider which drinks to serve and which ones to avoid. It is important for a community to know its own strengths and weaknesses before hosting a major event. The major things to consider are the funds available for the event, the emp loyees that are available and how skilled they are like are they multilingual, the facilities that can be offered and those which can’t be offered (Damster, 2005, p. 4). Advertising is another important action that has to be taken by the community and the tourism agencies to develop the event tourism and to host a major event. A community must know the potential basics before advertising the event and the facilities. The community must be sure of the party who is holding the event and the type of audience which is targeted. They should know the reason and motive behind the event, the reasons for choosing the location for the event and the expectations of

Problem Recognition Process for the Consumer Assignment

Problem Recognition Process for the Consumer - Assignment Example Thus, realizing that the desired state was a much bigger TV that would be suitable for the interest of both the children and her husband, Alice decided to go for the 32-inch Panasonic flat screen TV, although it cost her considerably. However, the need for a bigger TV was not so urgent, until Alice and her family moved into a bigger house, when they realized that the TV appeared too small for the comfort of watching from the situated sitting positions within the living room. According to the Ordinal utility theory of consumer behavior, situational influences may cause a consumer to realize an existing difference between the real and ideal situation (Lantos, 22). Thus, the movement from one house to the other was a situational factor that caused the need for a new TV to become more urgent. The problem recognition stage was followed by the information search stage, which entailed assessing the available information related both to the different sizes and brand of TVs. The information search stage also entailed evaluating information related to the choice between the purchase of a new TV or a secondhand TV. Thus, Alice had to consult her family, most especially her husband, regarding the most appropriate TV set that should be purchased to replace the small one. Alice also contacted some of her friends in order to here different options available for the range of money she intended to spend on the TV. Evaluation of alternatives entailed low effort processing in evaluating information related to the desirable TV, since advertisement messages were not important considerations in reaching the TV purchasing decision (Roth, 72). Under the evaluation of information, the consideration was the appropriateness of a secondhand TV vs. a new TV, in which the second hand TV appeared to be riskier compared to a new TV, especially regarding quality and durability.

Heart of Darkness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Heart of Darkness - Essay Example At this point the fact to be admitted is that when Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness, and even at the time presented in the story, the British colonial empire was at its zenith. It enjoyed colonies in Hong Kong, Malaya, India, and Africa. On the one hand, the work allows the reader to look into Congo through the eyes of an imperialist. For example, the very beginning of the novel points out that Thames is â€Å"a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth† (Conrad 6). Thus, some critics argue that this point itself reveals how racist Joseph Conrad is. However, the mere fact is that the novel puts forward the message that even the notion of civilization is an illusion. To illustrate: for Marlow, reaching Congo is a realization of the hollowness of his own notion of civilization. He fails to understand why the cannibals employed on his ship should not eat the other passengers (Conrad 57). Also, he feels that the cannibals possess no morality and conscience so that t hey can control their own basic animal desires. However, in the same situation, Marlow reaches the conclusion that the people along with him on the ship must not look so appetizing. It is ironic here to note that the same civilized Marlow who believes that the cannibals have no moral values proves that if he were in the position of the Africans, he would do the same, too. In other words, Conrad effectively portrays that the concept of civilization and enlightenment are rather superficial in nature. Despite the so-called civility, there is an underlying beast in humans that just comes out in the right circumstances. In other words, in the case of Marlow, the trip to Africa made him understand the basic animal-like tendencies in humans that thrive in the wild. Also, he realizes the fact that the civility the Europeans try to introduce in the wild is rather phony in nature because the cruelties of the wild are not crueler than the cruelties of imperialism. Admittedly, one cannot deny t he fact that Conrad was an imperialist. It becomes evident from the fact that Marlow is highly careful to ensure that he does not fall prey to the charms of the wild as happened to Kurtz. While Kurtz admitted the rules of the wild, Marlow is not ready to descend into that darkness. Thus, one gets the insight that instead of rejecting Western culture and ideals, the purpose of Conrad is to point out that most of the time; the Western society is not functioning in the way it is supposed to function. In other words, the Western ideals fail to perform in a more human way than the ideals of the savages. Another perfect example is the way the slaves are treated by the West. He says â€Å"they were dying slowly---it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now† (Conrad 42). Again, one has to remember the fact that Conrad resorted to such a statement at a time when imperialism was at the zenith of its power around the world. Though it is possible for critics to claim that one can find fragments of imperialist ideologies in the work of Conrad, they cannot forget the fact that Conrad expresses in clear terms as to how ones morality and conscience will condemn the savagery committed by European imperialism as much as one condemns the savagery of the wild. Here, one gains the insight that Marlow - the conscience of Conrad - is in constant conflict with the