Rampant baron, Italo Calvino: The extraordinary determination of being self

There is no doubt that if the man was his own creator, then would correspond to project their self and the meaning of their existence. But man is not its maker comes into existence and given an identity and a certain nature, that by virtue of its structure and purpose must be developed as the possibilities and order inherent in it. It is not difficult to understand, so that authenticity is part of natural law, which is universal and immutable: it is the assumption of the truth-and following, the man acts and develops according to his Being and dignity of person corresponds to a rational creature. To elaborate a little on this reflection, we gloss to one of the most significant writers who have given us the last century...

NEORREALISM AND FANTASY

Italo Calvino Mameli Giovanni was born on October 15, 1923 in Santiago De Las Vegas, near Havana (Cuba). The son of an agronomist before the age of two he moved with his family in his father's homeland, first to San Remo, then in Turin, where most of his childhood was spent. His mother, Evelina Mameli, had a degree in Natural Sciences. In 1925, the family returned to Calvin San Remo, where parents run an experimental floriculture station. After two years, his brother Floriano born, who would become a geologist and professor of international fame.

At the outbreak of World War II, Calvin is forced to interrupt his studies. In 1943, he was called to do military service for the Italian Social Republic. The young Italo defected and join partisan Garibaldi Brigades along with his brother Floriano. Three years later, he published, with the help of Cesare Pavese, her first novel, The Paths Of Spider Nests, which recounts his experiences in the resistance. After the war, is literary studies at the University of Turin, obtaining his degree with a thesis on Joseph Conrad. Then start working for Einaudi, who collaborate with their entire lives. In 1949, Calvin published a volume of short stories Lastly, El Cuervo . The two works cited were written within the aesthetics of Italian neorealism, especially the first, which has a fabulous tone. In this same period, and also of neorealist and thematic working with visible influences from Pavese, is an unfinished novel that would have entitled the Young Po. Calvin then sought an objective literature that attempt to define the condition of the man of his time.

After editing some anthologies of stories fabulistic court, with which he walked away from the realistic writing its inception, Calvin writes trilogy 'Our Ancestors' involving Cloven Viscount (1952), Baron Rampant (1957) and Knight Nonexistent (1959), fantastic and poetic narratives adorned with wonderful elements, in which the role of the politically engaged writer poses. This trilogy marked a major turning point in his literary evolution, because it leaves aside his initial inclinations and get neorealist masterfully reinvent conte philosophique seventeenth century. With a refined set of emblematic events that bring your style to the story in The Cloven Viscount is to analyze and report the contemporary reality and own loneliness and fear of the human condition. This same problem continues Baron Rampant and The Nonexistent Knight , works that revealed his awareness of living in a world in which the simplest individuality of people is denied, reduced to a series of preset behaviors.

In 1957, deeply disappointed by the events in Eastern Europe, Calvin I leave the Communist Party. In the years that followed, his writing takes a voice, unusual and distinctive. His main works are Cosmicomics (1968), The Invisible Cities (1972) and If On A Winter Night a Traveler (1979). During his later years he became an avid film and renowned professor, often traveling to meet both activities. Calvin died in Siena, a result of a cerebral hemorrhage on 19 September 1985.

BETWEEN CANOPY

Rampant Baron is the story of two brothers, Biaggio and Cosimo, belonging to an aristocratic family in decline, that seeks to imitate the lifestyle of the upper class. The story begins when Cosimo decides to climb trees and more promises never to set foot in the ground, having had an argument with his father because of his sister Battista, which cooked with mushrooms, rats and other rare animals. Biaggio begins to narrate the life he would lead his brother since climbed trees until his death, for during his life in the heights he would send letters and every time I visited him his adventures. Cosimo created his residence on the trees, hunting animals get food and manufactures their clothing from the skins of the same, intense adventures living observing everything that happened in the village.

From the first lines of Baron Rampant, is very clear about the nature of this impulsive character, strong-willed and suggestively Adorable (virtue to be revealed in the course of the plot). Calvin has built this so captivating fable revealing geographic location, titles of nobility and family who owns the voice of the story: the character of a brother-Biaggio docile and moderate character. The author tells us life, for more than fifty years of a man who, as a child, making a final decision: perching in treetops and never lose.

However, what really memorable of this parable is that, unlike Rousseau's Noble Savage or Tarzan Burroughs, Cosimo remains fully integrated into their society, in their community. The population learns to accept the eccentricities of the young Baron, which continues to be the same as organizing a fire fighting service and introduced into the region encyclopedic knowledge and Freemasonry. From its tree cusps Cosimo washes, hunting, love, read, lectures and remains socially integrated. This is the great contribution of the novel, creating a new archetype in a time when all seemed to be already created paradigms: the active rebel, since its supposed isolation struggle for the growth of others. A true transcript of Calvin's political ideas.

The future Baron Rondo is a revolutionary, a man of extraordinary, surprising and innovative vision. It is to live among the trees is an advantage of perspective depth observed the evils and virtues of the status quo, and more easily intuit solutions. Calvin invites us to abandon the traditional optical and complex, and without fuss delve into new paths that lead to a more rewarding life. Many believe that for Calvin Cosimo represents his own evolution as a human being. As mentioned Italo-deeply troubled by the invasion of Hungary at the hands of the USSR left the active membership in the Communist Party and away from its principles, similar to what takes Cosimo throughout the novel only that the beliefs of his character are not so clear at the beginning and vary as the years pass. The format chosen (a costume of light comedy) further reinforces your message, away from more dense and less effective ways.

Rampant Baron offers a simply perfect view of the history of the Italian nation yet exist, since the mid-eighteenth century to the 1820s. A compendium of the formation of its national spirit as thread using the character of Cosimo. Even the luxury of creating a fabulous encounter between Napoleon Bonaparte and Cosimo allowed. This candid narrative novel is a small miracle, a novel in which nothing is superfluous or missing, is less stark than the other two novellas that make up the trilogy, and has a tremendous and consistent finish.

PORTRAIT OF THE COMPANY

With a close to magical realism story, Calvino brilliantly describes all its characters and social groups, one to one ripping his faults and virtues. Cosimo focuses his lens on the world under the trees, using the height from which observes a reality of their own deceptions and injustices of a hierarchical and full of complex society.Everything goes through the critical eye of Calvin: the nobility, the villains, the clergy, the military, criminals ... But this criticism is always wears fun and inconsequential tone of adventure and fantasy which hides deeper and precise intentions. Calvin Optics is sharp and uncompromised, with his characters behave without duplicity and logically. Once Cosimo decides to live among the trees, all the events that happen in your life seem perfectly legitimate by the character of an extraordinary man, but for the other inhabitants of Ombrosa come from his madness.

Calvin transpires the outcome of his novel, yet the reader is forced to continue reading to the end, which is the least important of this work. The author uses the rebellion of Cosimo to denounce the absurdity of a society based on social hierarchies, in continuous wars between countries and individuals, and the often negative influence-of-a religion and convention. Calvin leaves no stone cold, not only to use the rebel Cosimo, but his brother conformist, the first end comprising motivations and why of their actions.

It is difficult to determine which may be the default Baron Rampant , if any. Maybe that will never be able to read it again for the first time, that feeling that, like Cosimo there on high, each leaf is a world to discover a land with no return possible in the long and winding road to feel maturity. A novel of youth and initiation, and a magnificent vindication of utopia, rebellion, imagination and nonconformity as true engines of the world. A bedside book, of which one can rediscover again and again throughout life, because they always provide something new to the reader.

Rampant Baron is a highly recommended for those who do not want to be left tie formalities, nor in the social field or the literary novel, pleasant in form and powerful for their content. His critique goes beyond the time that seeks to recreate and one in which it was written, a classic of the twentieth century that can be enjoyed at any age, a lesson in words which can mean rebellion when he obeys healthy purposes and illuminating.

The value to be consistent to the person granted authority and autonomy to their tastes and intentions proposed initiative to achieve ambitious goals, stable character and sincerity foolproof, which makes you to lead a life in harmony with his will. The desire to excel will always be highly regarded, but relatively often waste time wanting to be what we are not. That's why the authenticity gives the person a natural confidence, because with the passage of time has learned to fulfill their duties in the studio, family and work, trying to improve the performance of these tasks, overcoming apathy and superficiality, to finally be crowned by his courage and respect.

Jorge Antonio Buckingham