Asturias Essay Essay

The concept of Celebrity and Fame are ones that affect relationships both positively and negatively. Fame refers to the state of being known by many people, and Celebrity is the noun for a famous person. The experiences and perspectives of celebrities who have gone through the process of Fame have all had their relationships affected by their status both positively and negatively – whether it is a celebrity’s relationship with corporations, the concept of Fame or their peers and rivals. This statement is supported by Brian Caswell’s novel _Asturias,_ Jay Z and Justin Timberlake’s song _Holy Grail,_ and Donna Rockwell’s article _’Fame is a Dangerous Drug: a phenomenal glimpse of celebrity†_ all showcase these arguments with textual evidence. In brief, textual evidence have been provided to establish the implications Fame present on a celebrity’s relationships. Corporate relationships with a celebrity are professional, but the effects of Fame on these relationships may force the bond to become personal. An example of a positive relationship between celebrities and a corporate figure is demonstrated through Asturias’ relationship with their manager, Max. This is exemplified through the use of comparison in Chapter 22, â€Å"These are people †¦ Kids. They’re not some ‘bottom line’ on a sales-report†. It outlines Max’s personal concern for the band – he overlooks the professional implications on the band’s/his career, worrying more about their well-being. On the contrary, the relationship between Asturias and Symonds, a distant but more powerful figure, is an example of a negative relationship between celebrities and corporate figures. For example, the use of objectification is expressed by Symonds in the same chapter, â€Å"They’re a product, for Christ’s sake! We made them, we can remake them.† This use of objectification takes away the Asturias’ human dignity and conveys Symonds’ negligence on the band’s well-being and emotional state, selfishly focusing on generating quick profit and securing his income and position on the ladder. In summary, the relationship between celebrities and corporations is a relationship that can either be based on nurturing and guiding said celebrity, or harshly exploiting/overworking them for high profits. Another factor that affects a relationship which is influenced by Fame is the  nature of Fame itself, and its connection with the celebrity. Fame has an influential nature that commonly consumes the celebrity ‘s identity; it requires attention at all times and occupies the subjects’ lifestyle, privacy and well-being – the thirst for fame can result in the subject being obsessive and wanting more, after having experienced the perks and benefits of becoming a celebrity. An example of how the implications of fame affect a person negatively is demonstrated through the use of rhetorical question, â€Å"Was he scared? Did he call out to me?† This use of rhetorical question was triggered by the event of Alex leaving Abuelito behind due to his priorities to the band, missing Abuelito’s peaceful demise – he was so caught up with his celebrity priorities that he didn’t even know how Abuelito passed away. In comparison, a positive opinion on this notion is stated through the use of motif, â€Å"The ride was every bit as exciting as they’d promised.† â€Å"The ride† is a motif found throughout the book, and refers to celebrity-hood – this statement expresses that despite the sacrifices in relationships, living famously is as exciting as it is perceived to be. This opinion can drive celebrities (or even non-celebrities) to work harder and be consistent, getting what they want constantly. The article strengthens this argument that albeit being aware of the negative implications of fame on its subject and their relationships, the subject still disregards these implications in order to keep pursuing the perks of Fame. This is exemplified through the use of figurative language, â€Å"the allure of wealth, †¦ keeps the famous person stuck in the perpetual need to keep their fame machine churning.† Through the use of figurative language, the author expresses the obsession of celebrities with fame, and how they tirelessly work through, neglecting their relationships on the way, their way to staying relevant. Therefore, these texts obviously overlook the negative aspect of fame, and focuses on the positive outcomes it may bring to its subject. Finally, through the use of a bridge, Justin Timberlake sings, â€Å"And you take the blade right out my heart, just so you can watch me bleed / And I still don’t know why, why I love you so much.† referring to his addiction with  being a celebrity – he overlooks the deeply negative impacts of Fame, and blindly craves for more which shows a celebrity’s obsessive relationship with Fame. Competition within the celebrity industry also affects relationships positively. These positive results a relationship gains from competition is exemplified through the use of colloquialism, â€Å"Enough sticks, it was time for carrot.† This use of colloquialism comes from working with donkeys, where sticks were used as force to get the donkey moving, whilst carrots were used as motivators to do the same thing: it’s basically referring to whether you use force or threats on someone to get them to do something or persuade and motivate them into doing something. In this case, it portrays Max’s security in his situation – he is so confident about negotiating with his competitor, Symonds, that he started with threatening him but knowing the man, he offered him a better deal that would get him fired meaning his liability would be taken away. Another example is presented in Holy Grail, where the use of personification is expressed, â€Å"Fuck the fame, keep cheating on me, what I do, I took her back.† This use of personification expresses the struggle with staying relevant as a celebrity as if it were an intimate relationship (when he says that Fame â€Å"cheats on him†, he is referring to whenever other celebrities get more attention than him as if Fame favoured them more). Initially a negative statement, he then goes on to say that he takes Fame back, which can be comprehended to mean that he is driven and motivated to success by his competition which makes it a positive statement as to say that he has gotten over the nature of fame, and learnt an effective way to cope with it. However, as celebrities become more immersed and competitive, they also become more jealous and greedy. This is best exemplified in Asturias through the use of the multiple narrators. The use of multiple narrators allows Tim to reflect, â€Å"Everyone shines in their own way, but one child shines brighter. In our â€Å"family†, that one was Alex. And I got to the stage where I couldn’t forgive him for it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Through this quote, it is clearly seen that Tim and Alex’s relationship was deteriorating because of Tim’s thirst for  attention and recognition: something only Fame had inflicted on him. Originally being a friendly person, his ego is slowly fed by his fans which made him envious of Alex’s vitality to the band. The article reinforces the negative effects of jealousy and greed through the use of metaphor, â€Å"I’ve been addicted to almost every substance known to man at one point or another, but the most addictive of them all was fame.† The metaphorical comparison between the concept of fame and illegal drugs suggest that fame evokes an unhealthy addiction within its subject – like how drugs detaches its user from their relationships and lifestyle and into addiction, fame does the same. Thus, these textual evidences outline the notion of fame detaching its subjects from their originally close relationships, through jealousy, thirst and greed. In conclusion, Fame is a concept that affects a celebrity’s relationship both positively and negatively – it merely depends on the situation the celebrity is in. The arguments of fame affecting corporate relationships, relationships with the actual concept of fame and relationships with peers and rivals during the pursuit of becoming famous are all provided with both the positive implications of these arguments, and the negative. These arguments are supported by Textual evidence from varying texts such as a novel, an audio text and an article. Overall, the textual evidence provided clearly demonstrate how Fame affects a celebrity’s relationships with their surroundings.

Fiction essay thesis and outline Essay

â€Å"The Lottery,† written by Shirley Jackson and â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner,† written by D.H. Lawrence both use the stories settings in contradicting ways in order to present the seriousness of the stories. Jackson used the setting as a way to sidetrack the readers while Lawrence used the setting to  construct the story. Setting is an important piece in any story and is extremely true in the two short stories that are about to be shared. In â€Å"The Lottery†, the setting is used by Jackson in an effort to distract that reader. By distracting the reader by using beautiful memory visuals, the author is able to formulate an ironic ending to the story. The setting is illustrated to be warm, bright, happy and peaceful. Some readers may suggest that the scene is pleasant and in a certain way, suspenseful. The author described the day to be â€Å"clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day.† (Jackson p.250) Jackson used the specific description in hopes to create a harmonious, calm and amiable scene for the readers. This calming mental picture of the atmosphere made the readers believe that the story will have a happy ending. The characters also played a role in throwing off the horrific ending. Throughout the story, the character all remained calm and happy. As the readers continue to read the story, they soon realize the truth about what is truly about to happen. This deceives the idea of a perfect ending. The portrayal of the buildings, town and the lottery box all added to the setting that throws readers off track of the gruesome reality of what is going to happen. In â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner†, written by Lawrence, the setting is the center of the short story. Lawrence also used real life places throughout the world and London to help create the setting in short story. The author also used real life events and hobbies to help the reader really feel involved in the story and not feel the need to try very hard to mentally visualize the setting. Lawrence outlines the characters struggles to constantly be competing with the neighbors. The in-depth description that Lawrence uses of the house and gardens paint a picture of the conflicts of income and actual lifestyle. The mood and environment fit well with this story setting. There is not a lot needed from the author to paint the scenery. Since a lot of readers have personal experiences with horses, the readers are able to read and understand without much thought. As soon as a reader can relate to an event, the little details are not needed to pull the reader into the story. There is one similarity and a few differences in these two short stories. The one and only similarity of these two short stories is that in both of these short stories, the settings are reasonable, realistic and convincing. The settings in both stories are either real locations or places that have a huge possibility of existing. In difference, Jackson used the setting to distract the audience from the gruesome, shocking and horrific ritual of stoning that was about to take place. The readers were all swayed from this reality until the end of the story. Contradicting, Lawrence incorporated the setting into the story and used vivid descriptions to allow the readers to add their own memories. Lawrence created the setting in an effort to draw the readers in as the story unfolded. In conclusion, although both stories had a similarity, they both used the setting in different ways. Shirley used the setting to distract the readers while Lawrence used the setting as the main focal point in the story. Both stories surely provided the readers with firsthand examples on how important the setting can be in a story and how it can have a huge impact on the readers perception. â€Å"The Lottery,† written by Shirley Jackson and â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner,† written by D.H. Lawrence both use the stories settings in contradicting ways in order to present the seriousness of the stories. Jackson used the setting as a way to sidetrack the readers while Lawrence used the setting to construct the story. Works Cited: → Kennedy, X. J, and Gioia, Dana,eds.. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Interactive Edition. 7th ed. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2013 →Jackson, Shirley. â€Å"The Lottery†. 250-256. →Lawrence, D.H. â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner†. 234-244

Chalice Chapter 9

He was introduced to her with a tremendous flourish, although no reason was given for his presence; which, with the air and the flourish, was explanation enough, and her heart plummeted. By the time the Grand Seneschal informed her, stiffly, that this was the Overlord’s choice for the next Master’s Heir, she didn’t need to be told, and in her anger and frustration she said, â€Å"That is hasty,† before she remembered to whom she spoke, and she bit her lip, waiting for the rebuke. But none came. She was so surprised she looked into his face. He scowled at her at once, the familiar contemptuous, disapproving scowl, but when she ducked her head and then glanced back again a moment later, his face had relaxed into what looked a lot like sadness. The new man’s name was Horuld. She paid little attention to his breeding, that several of his forebears’ lines ran directly from Willowlands, and several more had crossed in the ensuing generations, and which Deager was very eager to tell out, over and over and over, even to such unworthies as the demesne’s shabby and erratic new Chalice, who was herself one of the indications (Deager didn’t say this but he didn’t have to) that the demesne was still in trouble, over a year after she had taken her place in the Circle. So far as she knew no Chalice had ever been deposed. But she had never seen any record of a Chalice chosen when there was no Master to hold the land steady while the Circle did its work either. It had very occasionally happened that an apprentice died with or before her Chalice; but then too there had always been an experienced Master. And there were stories of Chalices who had not been able to bear the work they were called on to do – even those who had had their proper apprenticeships – and broken under it. There were only a few of these stories, but one was too many, and there was more than one. She believed that one such Chalice was the Chalice she herself followed. She was surprised – even more surprised than she had been at the Grand Seneschal missing a chance to reprimand her – when Horuld seemed disposed to talk to her. There were other, more prepossessing and conversationally skilful members of the Circle he could address himself to; demesne hierarchy declared that Chalice was Second of the Circle, but that had to be remembered only when there was work to be done. Her Circle recollected it only when they had to, as did the Overlord’s agent – or they always had done previously. She was, as Chalice, compelled to be present for the agent’s visit, and – as Chalice – she would serve whatever Master fate set over Willowlands. That was enough. Perhaps the training she hadn’t had would have included how to hold superfluous discourse with people she would rather avoid. When she was standing Chalice or performing a ritual she did not have to chat; but Horuld’s first visit was informal. In other circumstances this would have seemed friendly and considerate; as it was it seemed ominous and coercive. Deager, having proved to his own satisfaction, if not all of his audience’s, that Horuld’s bloodlines were an excellent choice, wished to make it clear – he said – that the Overlord was merely anxious that an unambiguous Heir should be in place, after the recent disaster. If such an accident should happen again, the demesne might fall apart entirely. It had been without a Master for seven months; it could not survive this a second time. She tried to tell herself that a declared Heir was a sensible precaution; their present Master was the end of his family. The previous Master should have declared an Heir when he sent his only brother to Fire. She wondered why the Overlord had not obliged him to do so; she had only been a small woodskeeper then, and small woodskeepers heard little about Overlords’ decisions. The demesne gossip said merely that the Master was a young man, and hale, and he would produce Heirs – had probably produced a few already, the uneasy joke went. But they would be bastards, and prohibited. By the time the ordinary folk of the demesne had begun to realise that their young Master seemed to have no intention of marrying and producing a proper Heir, especially in combination with his increasingly alarming general behaviour, the fear of what this meant also meant that no one wanted to talk about it. And then the worst had happened. Perhaps she should try to believe that the Overlord was merely doing the responsible thing – the responsible thing he had failed to do before – but again she wondered. It was too soon to tie an Heir to the present Circle; Willowlands was still too precarious. However necessary an Heir was, forcing him upon them now would unbalance it further. Would the next thing be that she was obliged to take an apprentice? She had no energy for the binding that would entail. Leaving aside that she had nothing to teach one. Perhaps it was only her dislike of both Deager and Horuld that made her feel the agent was making it clear that Horuld was being introduced to Willowlands as the Heir only after he had made something else even more clear, if not in so many words: that the Overlord would like to see Horuld taking up this inheritance soon. She was too quick to feel she needed to defend the Master, she told herself. But what she had taken from the agent’s description of Horuld’s bloodlines was that if he was the best that could be done for her poor demesne, the Overlord should be straining every muscle to support the present Master. Did the Overlord want to break Willowlands entirely? Surely not. The disruption would damage the Overlord’s grip too†¦no. He would be counting on riding it out; might he, more, be betting on the huge increase of his own power the successful changeover would produce? She knew almost nothing of the politics among Overlords. Demesne folk did not travel to the crown city nor visit the court of the king; and as practising Chalice she was furthermore indissolubly tied to her land. But whatever else she knew or thought of the Grand Seneschal, he would not have kept such a piece of news as a visit from the Heir from the rest of the Circle; and Deager glossed, or slithered, over the question of why Willowlands had not known who was coming with him, which made it plain that there had been no message that had gone awry. She had mixed the cup she would offer to the company before she came. She had mixed it for the visit from the Overlord’s agent, and that was all. That was how it was done; that was why it was important that a Chalice know in advance who would drink from her cup, and for what reasons. Last-minute changes were destabilising, which was why battlefield cups, which were perforce rare, were also notoriously volatile. It should not have been a good omen, that a Master’s Heir should be left out of the first cup he received from the Chalice. Perhaps the Overlord, or some other of his plotters, had decided that being left out was better than a Chalice throwing her weight against him, which a loyal Chalice might be suspected of doing upon the presentation of any outblood Heir. Chalices were parochial by definition; of all the Circle, only the Chalice could not set foot across her demesne’s boundaries. Some of the oldest records called the Chalice the Landtied – and because of this literal overidentification, the Chalice’s response to outbloodedness in any member of the Circle was considered crucial. This perhaps explained why Horuld was interested – indeed eager – to talk to her. Perhaps she could be disposed to include him kindly in her mixture for his next visit, after he had been careful to make a good first impression. She would not need to be disloyal. An y Master’s Heir was an important part in the demesne structure; most accepted Heirs attended at least some Circle gatherings; and under the present circumstances the only possible Heir was an outblood. A Chalice must at least punctiliously include her Master’s Heir in any cup he was present for; of course it would be better if she felt at least benign toward him, or even generous. But she did not feel benign or generous. She listened, smooth-faced, when the agent pronounced some blather about how the surprise of presenting Horuld unannounced would create â€Å"clarity† in an awkward situation; that he would be more able to see where he would best fit into difficult circumstances if no one was trying to soften the truth. She knew that a properly schooled Chalice would have some matching blather to offer in return, but she was not a properly schooled Chalice, and it gave her a little meagre pleasure that her silence discomfited the agent, and by his discomfiture he exposed that he knew his action had been dishonourable. Did she loathe Horuld because Deager was a toad? No. Sunbrightener was a toad, and his antics merely made her feel tired and sad. Or because the Chalice was repelled by outbloodedness? She looked at Horuld and every particle of her recoiled. No. She bore the Chalice, she was not engulfed by it. Mirasol had arrived a little late at the House for the meeting with Deager. Just as she was leaving her cottage a young mother had burst into the meadow carrying a wildly weeping child. Mirasol knew them, Kenti and her daughter Tis; they were neighbours. Tis had pulled a kettle of boiling water over. Fortunately it had only been half full, but the child still had a badly burned arm; and the local herbswoman, Catu, was gone to a lying-in, Kenti did not know where. Mirasol hadn’t spoken to Kenti or her husband Danel properly since she had become Chalice, in spite of the fact that Danel and she had grown up together; she had been jealous when he had been apprenticed to a ploughman, for the horses. Kenti said breathlessly, â€Å"Can you do anything? Can you help?† Her eyes went to the back of Mirasol’s right hand, which was holding the edges of her cloak together over the cup of congruence in her left hand, and then hastily rose to Mirasol’s face. But she couldn’t meet the Chalice’s eyes the way she had many times met Mirasol’s, and they dropped away again. Poor Tis was weeping in a miserable, exhausted way that was painful to hear. Mirasol brought them into the cottage and took down a small pot of the honey especially good for burns and smeared it carefully over Tis’ arm. The little girl cried out at the first touch but by the time Mirasol had finished she had fallen silent, and leant back against her mother’s body staring at Mirasol with huge still-wet eyes. Even as Mirasol looked back at her the eyelids drooped, and Tis was asleep. And then Kenti burst into tears. Mirasol led her to the big soft chair by the fireplace where Mirasol did much of her reading and let her collapse. â€Å"It was my own carelessness – I know what she’s like – I let myself be distracted – it was only a moment – and then I heard her scream – and I knew Catu was away – I didn’t know what to do – it was awful† and then she couldn’t say anything for a while. Mirasol made a tisane – a spoonful of her soothing honey with a spoonful of the calming herbs she’d had from Catu herself; in the early months of her Chalicehood she’d drunk it by the bucketful. When she brought a cup to Kenti, Kenti laid Tis tenderly down beside her on the chair, sticky arm uppermost, and took it. She breathed in the steam and gave a little half laugh: she recognised Catu’s mixture. â€Å"I’ve used honey for littler wounds – your mother taught me that when I wasn’t much older than Tis – but this one was so dreadful. And then I remembered – I remembered your hand. I thought, if your – if the Chalice’s honey can cure what a Fire-priest can do, then perhaps it can cure Tis’ arm.† Mirasol said gently, â€Å"The Master cured my hand.† â€Å"He – ?† said Kenti unbelievingly, and Mirasol saw the fear in her face, the same fear she saw in the Housemen’s faces before they bent nearer their Master to slide the chair under him as he sat down; the fear she saw in the faces of most of the others of the Circle when their part in a rite brought them too close to him – the fear of him that made the Master leave the burnt grove before any of his people saw him there. â€Å"Yes. He.† She wanted to say, Tell Danel. Tell your mother. Tell all your friends. But she watched Kenti’s face and knew that she would tell the story – if she believed it. Kenti’s face said that she wanted to believe it – she wanted that hope, not only for herself, but for her demesne. Kenti sat looking at her daughter for a long moment and then said wonderingly, â€Å"Look – the mark is already fading. Your mother’s honey could not have done so much so quickly. It is the Chalice in you, I know, but perhaps – perhaps – perhaps it is also that we have a Fire-priest for Master†¦.† Her voice had sunk to a whisper. Mirasol was still thinking about the hope in Kenti’s face when she walked up to the House. She knew she was late, but it was only Deager, the agent, coming for a – snoop, she thought uncharitably. Overlords’ agents were supposed to visit their Overlords’ demesnes, but she didn’t like the way Deager’s nose twitched, the way his eyes darted around, as if he were hoping to smell something rotten, to see someone doing something illicit or disgraceful. And then she arrived, and there was a surprising number of people churning around in the big hall behind the front doors, and a youngish, weaselly-faced man she had never seen before standing a little too close to Deager’s elbow. The situation was uncomfortable enough to begin with, when it was only Deager and Horuld, herself and the Grand Seneschal and the Seneschal’s apprentice Bringad, and four of the minor Circle (the others were hastily sent for when Horuld was revealed as the Heir) plus the attendants the visitors brought and their own Housefolk. As the word spread about Horuld, more and more people streamed in, and both the noise and the tension level, it seemed to Mirasol, rose, and the ever-worried Bringad looked more worried than she had ever seen him. But when the Master arrived†¦she did not know how to understand it, explain it, even to herself. It was as if the level ground tipped a little in one direction and the high curving sky changed its arc just a little in some other direction. A Master was not expected to greet a mere agent on his arrival; the Grand Seneschal did that. But as the representative of his Overlord, a Master would be churlish as well as foolish not to see him at some point during his visit. She assumed the Grand Seneschal had despatched a message to the Master about Deager’s unexpected companion; it was impossible to read any trace of surprise or disquiet on the Master’s shadowy black and strangely mutable face when he made his entrance. Mirasol heard with what was beginning to be a familiar sinking of the heart the conversation falter and then stop as he was noticed, before the head Houseman announced him. Perhaps all Masters are greeted with a respectful hush, but she doubted that most demesne folk drew together as if for protection when their Master appeared. When Deager (his voice positively quavering as he addressed the Master) described Horuld as the Overlord’s candidate for Heir, the Master merely bowed his head. There was a disagreeable pause, and then the agent rushed to begin telling Horuld’s bloodlines over again, speaking too loudly and too quickly, and at first forgetting his flourishes. But when a Master has no son nor other suitable close relative, the meeting between the Master and the Master’s newly declared Heir was as laboriously and ponderously formal as centuries of tradition could make it, including, in this case, the tradition that an unexpected situation should be treated even more formally than the same situation when everyone knew what was happening. The Grand Seneschal managed to insert an orotund phrase or two (rather like a pole through the spokes of a wheel, Mirasol thought) into the agent’s barrage of genealogy, which had a steadying effect. When Deager finally fell silent, his concl uding bow was as elaborate as if he were being presented to the king. But Mirasol found herself thinking that the Master had bowed his head so very ceremoniously indeed that perhaps he had somehow known of Horuld’s coming before the message from the Grand Seneschal. Most of the initial gestures among any group that required the presence of the Chalice were stylised, just as her offering of the cup was, but during Horuld’s first visit to Willowlands they all seemed to move as if they were puppets in a puppet show, their limbs made of wood, the pulling of their strings performed by a puppeteer. If there had been an audience Mirasol felt they would not have found the performance convincing. Although Deager had insisted in a manner that was obviously meant to be magnificent but came over as merely presumptuous, that this first informal meeting with the Heir should proceed as it would have if Horuld had not been there, this was not possible, as Deager would have known it was not possible. Furthermore any meeting involving the Circle to which the Chalice stood should be precise about the number of people present, the number of people who would be offered the Chalice’s cup – which Deager would also know. And the Willowlands folk were doubtless awkward with surprise. They had known an Heir would be chosen, and Mirasol had held Chalice during the gathering when the Master had acceded to the Overlord’s wish, as presented by Deager, that the Overlord do the choosing. But that had only been a few weeks ago, and they had heard nothing of the progress of the search. She had begun reading about the meeting of a Master with an unknown Heir, so she knew that if it had been a proper meeting she should offer her cup first to the Master and second to the Heir. After a moment’s invisible dithering behind the face she tried hard to keep in an expressionless Chalice mask she did so anyway: let Deager assume this was a manifestation of magnanimity and support; she considered it buying time. The contrast between the Master and an ordinary human had never been so marked, she thought, as between the Master and his Heir when she took the cup from one and offered it to the other. She had directed them to stand on either side of her – which would also have been the correct form for a planned first meeting between the two of them: she could see Deager smiling with satisfaction, but she ignored him. The Master seemed to tower over her, and his natural heat, as she stood close enough to him to hold a cup to his lips, wrapped itself around her as if claiming her – and briefly and disconcertingly she remembered riding home with him after the fire in the Onora Grove. Horuld, who was no more than average size, seemed puny and frail in comparison; and the fact that he was obviously struggling not to flinch away from the Master added to this impression of weakness. She might have helped him, as she often helped the Circle members who were still reluctant to approach the Master, by stepping toward him, by allowing him to maintain a greater distance; but she did not. She offered the cup to the Master with a bent arm, and then turned and offered the cup to Horuld, again with a bent arm, and waited, forcing him to step close, not only to her, but to the Master. He did not try to take the cup from her, but he did raise a hand to grasp it, and she could feel him trembling. There were beads of sweat on his upper lip which she doubted were only from the heat. Before she took the cup on to Deager and the rest of the Circle, she bowed, to the Master, and then to Horuld. The Master must receive the deeper bow, of course, but the Heir might have had one nearly as deep; her bow to the Heir was only enough more than perfunctory not to be offensive. She let her gaze pass as if carelessly over Deager, and saw that he had stopped smiling. She could feel, before she had got halfway round the Circle, that it was not a good binding. When she made her final bow it was almost difficult to stand upright again, and she was exhausted. She had to make a great effort to meet the eyes of Horuld and Deager; the Grand Seneschal’s eyes looked glassy and unfocused, and the Master’s were as unfathomable as they had been the first day, when his hand had slipped and burnt her, and his face was only blurred shadows. She tried to remember the sudden surprising joy of his healing of her hand, of talking to him about what he saw, about her bees being tiny golden sparks in his strange vision – of the night that she had helped him put out the fire in Onora Grove, and the ride home after. But she remembered these things as she might remember something out of a book, a story told of someone else. Even if, by some extraordinary accident, the Chalice had not known beforehand all those who would drink, a well-mixed cup should have had a more positive effect than this. Perhaps she had mixed it injudiciously; that was likeliest. Even without his bringing an unannounced Heir, her dislike of Deager made it onerous for her to mix a cup that she would have to offer to him. But even if a more experienced Chalice might have done better, it was still true that introducing an Heir without proper advance warning was like throwing a boulder on one side of a delicate scales and expecting them still to balance. But perhaps the lack of binding and balance in this gathering was because Horuld was wrong†¦wrong for the demesne, wrong as Heir, wrong even to be here. It had been known in the past that an outblood Heir was rejected by the demesne, however carefully the humans had tried to make the best choice. Perhaps the Overlord had overplayed his game by giving the Master and his Chalice no forewarning that the Overlord’s choice was coming to be introduced to his hoped-for inheritance. By the end of the day, when she could leave the House and make her way back to her cottage, she was shaking and sick. She pulled her hood over her head and held it bunched round her throat with her hands, feeling that what she really wanted to do was disappear: if she wrapped the ends of her cloak around her tightly enough and then tighter still, eventually there would be no one left inside†¦. Usually the gentle thumping of the empty Chalice cup against her hip was comforting: another ritual got through. Today it was not; she felt that she – they – Willowlands had indeed not got through the ritual of the introduction of the Heir. She concentrated on the thought of sitting in the last of the daylight in the clearing by the cottage, listening to her bees. She was still ten minutes’ walk from the cottage when some of her bees came to meet her. She stretched out her arms to them and they landed on her hands and forearms, stroking her skin as if the tiny hairs were sepals they expected to secrete nectar for them. She shook her hood back, and several landed on her face and neck; out of the corners of her eyes she could see more landing on her shoulders. As she walked the last few minutes to the cottage she found herself thinking that her head felt strangely heavy, and that the hum of the bees was unusually loud; and then when she came out of the tree-shadowed path into the sunny clearing around the cottage she saw a great cloud of bees lifting away from her and dispersing, and she realised that she had been wearing a hood and cloak of bees. She watched them scatter about their proper bee business, and wondered. Horuld came twice more in the next few weeks with Deager, and then a third time he came alone. When he came with Deager their visits were announced in advance; but now as the acknowledged Heir, he might come as he pleased – and stay as he pleased. She was in the House library when he came that third time, and the first warning she had was a shadow falling across the open door; she was deep into her research and would not have noticed, except that a half-familiar voice said, â€Å"Chalice,† and her body had recoiled before her mind had recognised who it was. She turned the recoil, she hoped, into a mere startle, and stood up at once to make a ceremonial sign of greeting, saying, â€Å"Forgive me, my mind was lost in what I was doing.† He said smoothly, â€Å"And I have interrupted you; forgive me.† She bowed her head and waited, hoping his appearance was a formal signal only and that he had no business with her. The demesne’s folk were growing used to their new Chalice, and they were now coming to her more and more; this was a relief in some ways, and she knew she must be grateful for the good this was doing Willowlands, but she often had to put aside what other work she had planned on doing. She had fled to the House library today and was hastily reading up on the behaviour toward and reception of outblood Heirs. Part of her problem, she thought, as she had thought many times since the Chalice had come to her, was that she was not by nature a formal sort of person; she found that side of the duties of the Chalice so difficult as sometimes to feel incompatible with her private self. She wondered if this was anything like trying to live in the human world when you were a priest of Fire. Chalice Chapter 9 He was introduced to her with a tremendous flourish, although no reason was given for his presence; which, with the air and the flourish, was explanation enough, and her heart plummeted. By the time the Grand Seneschal informed her, stiffly, that this was the Overlord’s choice for the next Master’s Heir, she didn’t need to be told, and in her anger and frustration she said, â€Å"That is hasty,† before she remembered to whom she spoke, and she bit her lip, waiting for the rebuke. But none came. She was so surprised she looked into his face. He scowled at her at once, the familiar contemptuous, disapproving scowl, but when she ducked her head and then glanced back again a moment later, his face had relaxed into what looked a lot like sadness. The new man’s name was Horuld. She paid little attention to his breeding, that several of his forebears’ lines ran directly from Willowlands, and several more had crossed in the ensuing generations, and which Deager was very eager to tell out, over and over and over, even to such unworthies as the demesne’s shabby and erratic new Chalice, who was herself one of the indications (Deager didn’t say this but he didn’t have to) that the demesne was still in trouble, over a year after she had taken her place in the Circle. So far as she knew no Chalice had ever been deposed. But she had never seen any record of a Chalice chosen when there was no Master to hold the land steady while the Circle did its work either. It had very occasionally happened that an apprentice died with or before her Chalice; but then too there had always been an experienced Master. And there were stories of Chalices who had not been able to bear the work they were called on to do – even those who had had their proper apprenticeships – and broken under it. There were only a few of these stories, but one was too many, and there was more than one. She believed that one such Chalice was the Chalice she herself followed. She was surprised – even more surprised than she had been at the Grand Seneschal missing a chance to reprimand her – when Horuld seemed disposed to talk to her. There were other, more prepossessing and conversationally skilful members of the Circle he could address himself to; demesne hierarchy declared that Chalice was Second of the Circle, but that had to be remembered only when there was work to be done. Her Circle recollected it only when they had to, as did the Overlord’s agent – or they always had done previously. She was, as Chalice, compelled to be present for the agent’s visit, and – as Chalice – she would serve whatever Master fate set over Willowlands. That was enough. Perhaps the training she hadn’t had would have included how to hold superfluous discourse with people she would rather avoid. When she was standing Chalice or performing a ritual she did not have to chat; but Horuld’s first visit was informal. In other circumstances this would have seemed friendly and considerate; as it was it seemed ominous and coercive. Deager, having proved to his own satisfaction, if not all of his audience’s, that Horuld’s bloodlines were an excellent choice, wished to make it clear – he said – that the Overlord was merely anxious that an unambiguous Heir should be in place, after the recent disaster. If such an accident should happen again, the demesne might fall apart entirely. It had been without a Master for seven months; it could not survive this a second time. She tried to tell herself that a declared Heir was a sensible precaution; their present Master was the end of his family. The previous Master should have declared an Heir when he sent his only brother to Fire. She wondered why the Overlord had not obliged him to do so; she had only been a small woodskeeper then, and small woodskeepers heard little about Overlords’ decisions. The demesne gossip said merely that the Master was a young man, and hale, and he would produce Heirs – had probably produced a few already, the uneasy joke went. But they would be bastards, and prohibited. By the time the ordinary folk of the demesne had begun to realise that their young Master seemed to have no intention of marrying and producing a proper Heir, especially in combination with his increasingly alarming general behaviour, the fear of what this meant also meant that no one wanted to talk about it. And then the worst had happened. Perhaps she should try to believe that the Overlord was merely doing the responsible thing – the responsible thing he had failed to do before – but again she wondered. It was too soon to tie an Heir to the present Circle; Willowlands was still too precarious. However necessary an Heir was, forcing him upon them now would unbalance it further. Would the next thing be that she was obliged to take an apprentice? She had no energy for the binding that would entail. Leaving aside that she had nothing to teach one. Perhaps it was only her dislike of both Deager and Horuld that made her feel the agent was making it clear that Horuld was being introduced to Willowlands as the Heir only after he had made something else even more clear, if not in so many words: that the Overlord would like to see Horuld taking up this inheritance soon. She was too quick to feel she needed to defend the Master, she told herself. But what she had taken from the agent’s description of Horuld’s bloodlines was that if he was the best that could be done for her poor demesne, the Overlord should be straining every muscle to support the present Master. Did the Overlord want to break Willowlands entirely? Surely not. The disruption would damage the Overlord’s grip too†¦no. He would be counting on riding it out; might he, more, be betting on the huge increase of his own power the successful changeover would produce? She knew almost nothing of the politics among Overlords. Demesne folk did not travel to the crown city nor visit the court of the king; and as practising Chalice she was furthermore indissolubly tied to her land. But whatever else she knew or thought of the Grand Seneschal, he would not have kept such a piece of news as a visit from the Heir from the rest of the Circle; and Deager glossed, or slithered, over the question of why Willowlands had not known who was coming with him, which made it plain that there had been no message that had gone awry. She had mixed the cup she would offer to the company before she came. She had mixed it for the visit from the Overlord’s agent, and that was all. That was how it was done; that was why it was important that a Chalice know in advance who would drink from her cup, and for what reasons. Last-minute changes were destabilising, which was why battlefield cups, which were perforce rare, were also notoriously volatile. It should not have been a good omen, that a Master’s Heir should be left out of the first cup he received from the Chalice. Perhaps the Overlord, or some other of his plotters, had decided that being left out was better than a Chalice throwing her weight against him, which a loyal Chalice might be suspected of doing upon the presentation of any outblood Heir. Chalices were parochial by definition; of all the Circle, only the Chalice could not set foot across her demesne’s boundaries. Some of the oldest records called the Chalice the Landtied – and because of this literal overidentification, the Chalice’s response to outbloodedness in any member of the Circle was considered crucial. This perhaps explained why Horuld was interested – indeed eager – to talk to her. Perhaps she could be disposed to include him kindly in her mixture for his next visit, after he had been careful to make a good first impression. She would not need to be disloyal. An y Master’s Heir was an important part in the demesne structure; most accepted Heirs attended at least some Circle gatherings; and under the present circumstances the only possible Heir was an outblood. A Chalice must at least punctiliously include her Master’s Heir in any cup he was present for; of course it would be better if she felt at least benign toward him, or even generous. But she did not feel benign or generous. She listened, smooth-faced, when the agent pronounced some blather about how the surprise of presenting Horuld unannounced would create â€Å"clarity† in an awkward situation; that he would be more able to see where he would best fit into difficult circumstances if no one was trying to soften the truth. She knew that a properly schooled Chalice would have some matching blather to offer in return, but she was not a properly schooled Chalice, and it gave her a little meagre pleasure that her silence discomfited the agent, and by his discomfiture he exposed that he knew his action had been dishonourable. Did she loathe Horuld because Deager was a toad? No. Sunbrightener was a toad, and his antics merely made her feel tired and sad. Or because the Chalice was repelled by outbloodedness? She looked at Horuld and every particle of her recoiled. No. She bore the Chalice, she was not engulfed by it. Mirasol had arrived a little late at the House for the meeting with Deager. Just as she was leaving her cottage a young mother had burst into the meadow carrying a wildly weeping child. Mirasol knew them, Kenti and her daughter Tis; they were neighbours. Tis had pulled a kettle of boiling water over. Fortunately it had only been half full, but the child still had a badly burned arm; and the local herbswoman, Catu, was gone to a lying-in, Kenti did not know where. Mirasol hadn’t spoken to Kenti or her husband Danel properly since she had become Chalice, in spite of the fact that Danel and she had grown up together; she had been jealous when he had been apprenticed to a ploughman, for the horses. Kenti said breathlessly, â€Å"Can you do anything? Can you help?† Her eyes went to the back of Mirasol’s right hand, which was holding the edges of her cloak together over the cup of congruence in her left hand, and then hastily rose to Mirasol’s face. But she couldn’t meet the Chalice’s eyes the way she had many times met Mirasol’s, and they dropped away again. Poor Tis was weeping in a miserable, exhausted way that was painful to hear. Mirasol brought them into the cottage and took down a small pot of the honey especially good for burns and smeared it carefully over Tis’ arm. The little girl cried out at the first touch but by the time Mirasol had finished she had fallen silent, and leant back against her mother’s body staring at Mirasol with huge still-wet eyes. Even as Mirasol looked back at her the eyelids drooped, and Tis was asleep. And then Kenti burst into tears. Mirasol led her to the big soft chair by the fireplace where Mirasol did much of her reading and let her collapse. â€Å"It was my own carelessness – I know what she’s like – I let myself be distracted – it was only a moment – and then I heard her scream – and I knew Catu was away – I didn’t know what to do – it was awful† and then she couldn’t say anything for a while. Mirasol made a tisane – a spoonful of her soothing honey with a spoonful of the calming herbs she’d had from Catu herself; in the early months of her Chalicehood she’d drunk it by the bucketful. When she brought a cup to Kenti, Kenti laid Tis tenderly down beside her on the chair, sticky arm uppermost, and took it. She breathed in the steam and gave a little half laugh: she recognised Catu’s mixture. â€Å"I’ve used honey for littler wounds – your mother taught me that when I wasn’t much older than Tis – but this one was so dreadful. And then I remembered – I remembered your hand. I thought, if your – if the Chalice’s honey can cure what a Fire-priest can do, then perhaps it can cure Tis’ arm.† Mirasol said gently, â€Å"The Master cured my hand.† â€Å"He – ?† said Kenti unbelievingly, and Mirasol saw the fear in her face, the same fear she saw in the Housemen’s faces before they bent nearer their Master to slide the chair under him as he sat down; the fear she saw in the faces of most of the others of the Circle when their part in a rite brought them too close to him – the fear of him that made the Master leave the burnt grove before any of his people saw him there. â€Å"Yes. He.† She wanted to say, Tell Danel. Tell your mother. Tell all your friends. But she watched Kenti’s face and knew that she would tell the story – if she believed it. Kenti’s face said that she wanted to believe it – she wanted that hope, not only for herself, but for her demesne. Kenti sat looking at her daughter for a long moment and then said wonderingly, â€Å"Look – the mark is already fading. Your mother’s honey could not have done so much so quickly. It is the Chalice in you, I know, but perhaps – perhaps – perhaps it is also that we have a Fire-priest for Master†¦.† Her voice had sunk to a whisper. Mirasol was still thinking about the hope in Kenti’s face when she walked up to the House. She knew she was late, but it was only Deager, the agent, coming for a – snoop, she thought uncharitably. Overlords’ agents were supposed to visit their Overlords’ demesnes, but she didn’t like the way Deager’s nose twitched, the way his eyes darted around, as if he were hoping to smell something rotten, to see someone doing something illicit or disgraceful. And then she arrived, and there was a surprising number of people churning around in the big hall behind the front doors, and a youngish, weaselly-faced man she had never seen before standing a little too close to Deager’s elbow. The situation was uncomfortable enough to begin with, when it was only Deager and Horuld, herself and the Grand Seneschal and the Seneschal’s apprentice Bringad, and four of the minor Circle (the others were hastily sent for when Horuld was revealed as the Heir) plus the attendants the visitors brought and their own Housefolk. As the word spread about Horuld, more and more people streamed in, and both the noise and the tension level, it seemed to Mirasol, rose, and the ever-worried Bringad looked more worried than she had ever seen him. But when the Master arrived†¦she did not know how to understand it, explain it, even to herself. It was as if the level ground tipped a little in one direction and the high curving sky changed its arc just a little in some other direction. A Master was not expected to greet a mere agent on his arrival; the Grand Seneschal did that. But as the representative of his Overlord, a Master would be churlish as well as foolish not to see him at some point during his visit. She assumed the Grand Seneschal had despatched a message to the Master about Deager’s unexpected companion; it was impossible to read any trace of surprise or disquiet on the Master’s shadowy black and strangely mutable face when he made his entrance. Mirasol heard with what was beginning to be a familiar sinking of the heart the conversation falter and then stop as he was noticed, before the head Houseman announced him. Perhaps all Masters are greeted with a respectful hush, but she doubted that most demesne folk drew together as if for protection when their Master appeared. When Deager (his voice positively quavering as he addressed the Master) described Horuld as the Overlord’s candidate for Heir, the Master merely bowed his head. There was a disagreeable pause, and then the agent rushed to begin telling Horuld’s bloodlines over again, speaking too loudly and too quickly, and at first forgetting his flourishes. But when a Master has no son nor other suitable close relative, the meeting between the Master and the Master’s newly declared Heir was as laboriously and ponderously formal as centuries of tradition could make it, including, in this case, the tradition that an unexpected situation should be treated even more formally than the same situation when everyone knew what was happening. The Grand Seneschal managed to insert an orotund phrase or two (rather like a pole through the spokes of a wheel, Mirasol thought) into the agent’s barrage of genealogy, which had a steadying effect. When Deager finally fell silent, his concl uding bow was as elaborate as if he were being presented to the king. But Mirasol found herself thinking that the Master had bowed his head so very ceremoniously indeed that perhaps he had somehow known of Horuld’s coming before the message from the Grand Seneschal. Most of the initial gestures among any group that required the presence of the Chalice were stylised, just as her offering of the cup was, but during Horuld’s first visit to Willowlands they all seemed to move as if they were puppets in a puppet show, their limbs made of wood, the pulling of their strings performed by a puppeteer. If there had been an audience Mirasol felt they would not have found the performance convincing. Although Deager had insisted in a manner that was obviously meant to be magnificent but came over as merely presumptuous, that this first informal meeting with the Heir should proceed as it would have if Horuld had not been there, this was not possible, as Deager would have known it was not possible. Furthermore any meeting involving the Circle to which the Chalice stood should be precise about the number of people present, the number of people who would be offered the Chalice’s cup – which Deager would also know. And the Willowlands folk were doubtless awkward with surprise. They had known an Heir would be chosen, and Mirasol had held Chalice during the gathering when the Master had acceded to the Overlord’s wish, as presented by Deager, that the Overlord do the choosing. But that had only been a few weeks ago, and they had heard nothing of the progress of the search. She had begun reading about the meeting of a Master with an unknown Heir, so she knew that if it had been a proper meeting she should offer her cup first to the Master and second to the Heir. After a moment’s invisible dithering behind the face she tried hard to keep in an expressionless Chalice mask she did so anyway: let Deager assume this was a manifestation of magnanimity and support; she considered it buying time. The contrast between the Master and an ordinary human had never been so marked, she thought, as between the Master and his Heir when she took the cup from one and offered it to the other. She had directed them to stand on either side of her – which would also have been the correct form for a planned first meeting between the two of them: she could see Deager smiling with satisfaction, but she ignored him. The Master seemed to tower over her, and his natural heat, as she stood close enough to him to hold a cup to his lips, wrapped itself around her as if claiming her – and briefly and disconcertingly she remembered riding home with him after the fire in the Onora Grove. Horuld, who was no more than average size, seemed puny and frail in comparison; and the fact that he was obviously struggling not to flinch away from the Master added to this impression of weakness. She might have helped him, as she often helped the Circle members who were still reluctant to approach the Master, by stepping toward him, by allowing him to maintain a greater distance; but she did not. She offered the cup to the Master with a bent arm, and then turned and offered the cup to Horuld, again with a bent arm, and waited, forcing him to step close, not only to her, but to the Master. He did not try to take the cup from her, but he did raise a hand to grasp it, and she could feel him trembling. There were beads of sweat on his upper lip which she doubted were only from the heat. Before she took the cup on to Deager and the rest of the Circle, she bowed, to the Master, and then to Horuld. The Master must receive the deeper bow, of course, but the Heir might have had one nearly as deep; her bow to the Heir was only enough more than perfunctory not to be offensive. She let her gaze pass as if carelessly over Deager, and saw that he had stopped smiling. She could feel, before she had got halfway round the Circle, that it was not a good binding. When she made her final bow it was almost difficult to stand upright again, and she was exhausted. She had to make a great effort to meet the eyes of Horuld and Deager; the Grand Seneschal’s eyes looked glassy and unfocused, and the Master’s were as unfathomable as they had been the first day, when his hand had slipped and burnt her, and his face was only blurred shadows. She tried to remember the sudden surprising joy of his healing of her hand, of talking to him about what he saw, about her bees being tiny golden sparks in his strange vision – of the night that she had helped him put out the fire in Onora Grove, and the ride home after. But she remembered these things as she might remember something out of a book, a story told of someone else. Even if, by some extraordinary accident, the Chalice had not known beforehand all those who would drink, a well-mixed cup should have had a more positive effect than this. Perhaps she had mixed it injudiciously; that was likeliest. Even without his bringing an unannounced Heir, her dislike of Deager made it onerous for her to mix a cup that she would have to offer to him. But even if a more experienced Chalice might have done better, it was still true that introducing an Heir without proper advance warning was like throwing a boulder on one side of a delicate scales and expecting them still to balance. But perhaps the lack of binding and balance in this gathering was because Horuld was wrong†¦wrong for the demesne, wrong as Heir, wrong even to be here. It had been known in the past that an outblood Heir was rejected by the demesne, however carefully the humans had tried to make the best choice. Perhaps the Overlord had overplayed his game by giving the Master and his Chalice no forewarning that the Overlord’s choice was coming to be introduced to his hoped-for inheritance. By the end of the day, when she could leave the House and make her way back to her cottage, she was shaking and sick. She pulled her hood over her head and held it bunched round her throat with her hands, feeling that what she really wanted to do was disappear: if she wrapped the ends of her cloak around her tightly enough and then tighter still, eventually there would be no one left inside†¦. Usually the gentle thumping of the empty Chalice cup against her hip was comforting: another ritual got through. Today it was not; she felt that she – they – Willowlands had indeed not got through the ritual of the introduction of the Heir. She concentrated on the thought of sitting in the last of the daylight in the clearing by the cottage, listening to her bees. She was still ten minutes’ walk from the cottage when some of her bees came to meet her. She stretched out her arms to them and they landed on her hands and forearms, stroking her skin as if the tiny hairs were sepals they expected to secrete nectar for them. She shook her hood back, and several landed on her face and neck; out of the corners of her eyes she could see more landing on her shoulders. As she walked the last few minutes to the cottage she found herself thinking that her head felt strangely heavy, and that the hum of the bees was unusually loud; and then when she came out of the tree-shadowed path into the sunny clearing around the cottage she saw a great cloud of bees lifting away from her and dispersing, and she realised that she had been wearing a hood and cloak of bees. She watched them scatter about their proper bee business, and wondered. Horuld came twice more in the next few weeks with Deager, and then a third time he came alone. When he came with Deager their visits were announced in advance; but now as the acknowledged Heir, he might come as he pleased – and stay as he pleased. She was in the House library when he came that third time, and the first warning she had was a shadow falling across the open door; she was deep into her research and would not have noticed, except that a half-familiar voice said, â€Å"Chalice,† and her body had recoiled before her mind had recognised who it was. She turned the recoil, she hoped, into a mere startle, and stood up at once to make a ceremonial sign of greeting, saying, â€Å"Forgive me, my mind was lost in what I was doing.† He said smoothly, â€Å"And I have interrupted you; forgive me.† She bowed her head and waited, hoping his appearance was a formal signal only and that he had no business with her. The demesne’s folk were growing used to their new Chalice, and they were now coming to her more and more; this was a relief in some ways, and she knew she must be grateful for the good this was doing Willowlands, but she often had to put aside what other work she had planned on doing. She had fled to the House library today and was hastily reading up on the behaviour toward and reception of outblood Heirs. Part of her problem, she thought, as she had thought many times since the Chalice had come to her, was that she was not by nature a formal sort of person; she found that side of the duties of the Chalice so difficult as sometimes to feel incompatible with her private self. She wondered if this was anything like trying to live in the human world when you were a priest of Fire.

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Market Model Patterns of Change - Essay Example According to International Business (2009), the Coca-Cola Company used to be a monopoly initially when there were no competitors. This is because it was the only seller that had a well-defined commodity since there were no substantial substitutes of a similar commodity from other firms into the market. However, the Coca-Cola Company can no longer be defined as a monopoly. Its market model (monopoly) has undergone change into oligopoly. International Business (2009) argues that this is due to the presence of the Pepsi and Schweppes Companies among others that have brought plenty of competition in the market for the Coca-Cola Company, with all their products. For the oligopoly market, model, each supplier has a possibility of influencing the market price; thus, leading to competition among the suppliers. In an oligopoly market model, there are only a few industries that dominate the market. For instance, the Coca-Cola Company and Pepsi dominate the bottled and canned soft drinks indust ry, in most countries. They have control over the market prices and supplies and have high barriers to entry. Their products are nearly identical; hence, the companies involved compete for the market share, and are independent due to the market forces. According to Barlow (2005) there are short-run and long-run behaviors of oligopoly. Long run can be described as a period in which all factors of production, as well as cost, are variable. In this case, industries are able to adjust to cost. The short run refers to a period where the quality of some inputs cannot be raised beyond the priced amount that is available; hence, short run industries can only be able to influence the prices through adjustments made to production. However, in economics, long run models can shift from short run equilibrium where the supply and demand, reacts to price levels with more flexibility. Thus, oligopolistic companies share a variety of short run and long run behaviors such as interdependence, rigid pr ices, competition, mergers and collusion (Barlow, 2005). The Bertrand model and the contestable markets theory leads to a long run oligopoly market-equilibrium price and output solution, which is similar to that achieved in a competitive market (International Business, 2009). Bertrand argues that products and production costs are identical or similar the customers are likely to purchase from the company selling at the lowest possible price. In addition, the kinked demand curve model of oligopoly that was developed by Paul Sweezy assumes that a business in an oligopoly may face a dual demand curve for its product based on the reactions of other companies in the market to a change in its variables (Cameron and Green, 2009). Thus, short-lived price war between rival companies happens under this model, in which firms are seeking to seize a short term advantage and gain some extra market share. Areas in the company that could lead to transaction costs include the global environment, the competitive environment and the socio-cultural differences. The global environment has become quite sensitive forcing many companies that operate locally to join the global market; thus, resulting in globalization. The Coca-Cola Company is also sensitive to the strategies of globalization, which has led to high competition, as well as to transactions costs. The competitive environment also plays a similar role. Coca-Cola Company, which is a

What, if anything, was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution Essay

What, if anything, was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution - Essay Example he telescope, the dissection and the new conception of the universe will be used to discuss the causes of the Scientific Revolution as well as illustrate how the Scientific Revolution influenced society then and now. Before the mid-1500s, when the Scientific Revolution is generally agreed to have had its start, ideas regarding medicine, the body and the universe were not based on the same sorts of observations that are available to us today. For those who considered the placement of the earth in relation to the universe, it was understood that the earth was at the center with concentric bands of water, air and fire surrounding it. Surrounding these were further bands of the stellar spheres with Jesus and the saints existing even beyond the outermost stellar sphere. Another conception of the universe, the Ptolemaic Universe, was described as consisting of two spheres, the inner one was the earth and the outer one, the remainder of the universe, revolved around this inner core. These images originating in scientific books on the subject produced in this period help to illustrate the depth to which these ideas, born of Biblical interpretations, were believed. However, touching off the debate that w ould eventually change the world, Copernicus wrote to Pope Paul III regarding his soon-to-be published and revolutionary idea that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around (Copernicus 1543 cited in Levick, 2004: 524). Fearful of the backlash his observations might have on a public firmly entrenched in the idea of being central to the universe, Copernicus was working to gain the support of the Pope by pointing out the purely mathematical means by which he came to his conclusions as well as the support he found for this idea in ancient texts. In this letter, he informs the Pope that it is only by assuming a motion of the earth in addition to the observed motions of the other planets can the universe possibly retain its apparent

Ethics in a Universalist Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethics in a Universalist Society - Essay Example In addition, moral Universalists hold that once a certain behavior or conduct is seen to be wrong in a particular community or environment, the same will apply to other communities and environments regardless of circumstances in those environments. According to Gert, the theory of moral universalism has been of great essence in determination of international human rights and certain laws governing ethical conduct. For instance, the United Nations while in Geneva Convention of 1948 settled upon the needs for fair treatment of war prisoners. Moral universalism dictates that human beings have certain special rights whose breaching qualifies for immorality (Gert). Moral universalism operates under the notion that moral assessment of persons and their conducts of social governance should base on basic doctrines that not in any way discriminate against other people in the society. Moral Universalists further argue that freedom to exercise self-desires and wills constitute the basic element s of morality in the societies. Protagonists of moral universalism insist that any morally wrong behavior or accomplishment of by an individual is always within that person’s control and authority as it were before the accomplishment. Immanuel Kant and theory of Moral Universalism Kant investigates that universal moral requirements base on the standard rationality known as the categorical imperative (CI). Kant defines immorality as any circumstantial violation of categorical imperative and therefore qualifies to be irrational. Kant presentation of moral universalism intends to impact particular sense of self-respect and respect to the other human beings. According to Johnson, a moral individual has the right to make viable judgments and decisions that do not defile anyone’s freedom within the surrounding. The moral judgment arrived at by an individual should be that which any morally sane, sober, normal and reasonable adult will confer with. Kant further argues that mo ral universalism with rational wills acquaints individuals with autonomy. Kant argues that in order to achieve ethical sanity in our environment, the rational moral values should be determined first before any other attempt. Kant’s theory of moral universalism dictates that development of appropriate ethical values lies on the basic factors of analysis of concepts like goodwill, obligation and logical relation. Kant’s theory of moral universalism has been used to investigate behaviors of individuals in line with moral requirements (Johnson). The good will component of morality that depends upon the common sense of an individual assists particular persons in making viable moral decision that are in conformity with the laws of morality. The idea of good will in the Kant’s theory of moral universalism leads people into performing their exact outstanding moral duties and responsibilities without unnecessary breach of other peoples’ dignity. The idea of good w ill has been used by many personalities in executing their exact basic and righteous duties without considering other external factors. The idea of commonsense has been repeated in the societies with basic stand of nurturing peace and harmonious coexistence among individuals living in the

Non-Tariff Barriers in South Korean Automobile Market Essay

Non-Tariff Barriers in South Korean Automobile Market - Essay Example South Korea and the U.S share a great deal of interest in pursuing positive development in the automobile industry’s trade performance. Both countries substantially rely on the profits of the automobile trade for their economic growth and their market sizes are often large. (Dyer & Chu, 2000). Consequently, S. Korea and the U.S Free Trade Agreement is about to come into effect and one of the biggest issues that prolonged the deal while negotiating for the FTA was regarding the automobile, especially passenger vehicle industry trade. President Obama and the U.S industry representatives claimed that the FTA deal regarding automobile trading regime is not fair if they start to trade bilaterally in the current condition and regulation. Opponents of recent FTA provision even claimed that the U.S automakers exaggerate the potential sales in S. Korea of cars produced in U.S. assembly plants (Schott, 2010). What are the causes of the U.S showing the lack of confidence for trading auto mobile goods with S. Korea under similar conditions and regulations? It is important to understand that there is a big difference between the two countries. The U.S. automobile industry has been primarily served domestic demand, whereas that of S. Korea has been export-oriented after 1997 (Choi, 2010). In often cases, the situation is also being illustrated as the failure of U.S auto-manufacture to compete in the global market. For an extended time, Korea has very successfully used a whole armory of trade tools, starting with absolute imports bans.

Rules about Delivery in Contracts Involving the Sales of Goods Assignment

Rules about Delivery in Contracts Involving the Sales of Goods - Assignment Example Before the creation of laws governing sales of goods contracts, the right of ownership or Law merchant was the major concept under sales law (Mann & Roberts, 2007, p. 398). Such laws comprised a system of regulations, customs, as well as usages self-imposed by the sellers themselves, in order to settle disputes while enforcing agreement duties between them. Such rules were introduced during fairs when merchants met to swap goods even as they settle their differences via the fair courts they operated themselves. Hence, from 17th-century judges refined the codes behind mercantile laws into contemporary commercial law of sales (Mann & Roberts, 2007, p. 398). certain issues arose under rules governing delivery in sales of goods. Firstly, how do you determine what time the title actually changed from seller to buyer? As it presented a challenge in deciding which party the possession title had at the instance of a loss. Secondly, even though orthodox assessment under such rules would probably indicate that equity laws do not pertain, it would be hard to uphold such view in a contemporary and globalized world. Thus, the aim of this paper is to evaluate how del ivery of contracts involving the sales of goods offers a contemporary uniform and fair regime practices for both domestic and international sale of goods. The paper also discusses the controversies surrounding such rules. In most jurisdictions, the sale of goods contracts is accorded between the seller and a buyer meant to cover the trade and delivery of goods, or any other personal property (Atiyah, Adams, & MacQuee, 2005, ch 1). For instance, in the US, domestic sales-contracts fall under the Uniform Commercial Code, while in Australia the contract for delivery under sales of goods falls under the Australian Sales of  Goods Act 1893. The rules are based on the Freedom of Contract, thus it is up to the concerned parties to agree on their bargain (Bridge, p. 45). Nevertheless, international sales contracts are governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 2009, or Vienna Sale Convention.  

Comparison of Heroin Lies with The Basketball Diaries Essay Example for Free

Comparison of Heroin Lies with The Basketball Diaries Essay Heroin is a deadly drug, which kills approximately one million people every year. In this essay I will be comparing two dramatic acts. Heroin Lies, which I acted out. The other is a 1995 hit called The Basketball Diaries. I chose this particular film to compare with my act because they have several similarities but also a number amount of differences. The beginning of the film The Basketball diaries starts with an ordinarily boy waking up in bed on a normal day. Instantly you see that he has got a type of book in his hand, which later on we see that it is his diary which he occasionally writes in. In the block opposite him we see a strong religious woman constantly shouting out what seems to be a prayer. We then witness the boy by the name of Jimmy Carroll change from an innocent being to a horrifying beast as he tells this religious woman to Shut up! We now see that Jimmy has a horrible side to him. As we watch on we see that Jimmy Carroll is a star basketball player on his New York City Catholic school team. Fellow basketball team mates Mickey and Neutron and unofficial cheerleader Pedro are Jimmys closest friends, and whenever trouble stalks one, it invariably affects them all. So, when the drug cycle starts, it quickly spreads to each of the four corners of the friendship. What begins as casual use first becomes a weekend habit, then an everyday obsession. Grades plummet, on-court performance becomes unreliable, and crime looms as the only means to pay for a seemingly endless supply of uppers, downers, cocaine, and heroin. Heroin Lies is a play written by Wayne Denfhy. The story is about a young teenage girl that is having problems with friends. Later on she finds her self addicted to heroin and soon after dies at an early age. We chose a scene from the play and we made changes to the scene as apart of our task, for example we added monologues and dialogues. I learnt a lot about the characters in our scene. Vicki was a young stubborn teenager who had a lot of confusing things going on in her life, although she finally decided to make a decision and start taking drugs to solve her problems. Mandy had been involved with drugs longer than Vicki. So obviously Mandy would be more confident about it. Mandy can easily loose her temper as we showed in the play when Vicki hits the drugs all over the floor. Mandy ends up slapping Vicki. This implies that Mandy is quite violent and doesnt know how to control her emotions very well. My character (Jason) wears corded trouser and an old knitted woollen jumper to sho w that he bought them from Oxfam, since what he wears is mentioned in the script. I believe that Jason is quite immature watching playschool and pretending to grow into a big tree. However this end scene Mandy got what she came for. Jason, my character, was an older brother of Vicki, as it says in the script however I had played him younger then Vicki. As Mandy was flirting with me I used a stuttering voice to emphasize the fact that I was shy. This tells us that Jason is growing up as the tree is growing, and Vicki is stuck, still having problems with friends and drugs. This scene Mandy probably would like to know more about Jason. Not only does the relationship between Mandy, and Jason but the relationship with Vicki later on in the scene. Vicki seems more dominating with Jason since she scares him off. I dont believe that Vicki feels very comfortable having Mandy in her house. This results in Vicki snatching the drugs off Mandy and Mandy hitting Vicki. After Vicki has been hit. Mandy comes to her senses and tells her she regrets hitting her and asks Vicki to take some drugs. I believe that this is the most important part of the scene because this is the first step of Vicki ending her life. Heroin Lies and The Basketball Diaries in my opinion had interesting but defiantly very similar characters. Vicki Brown (Heroin Lies) who is a drug addict who gets thrown out of her house. Jimmy Carroll (The Basketball Diaries) is a drug addict and like Vicki Brown gets thrown out of his house. This is an example of a similarity. However after becoming a drug addict Vicki Brown then leads to a tragic ending. Whilst Jimmy Carroll then realises his mistakes, then fights his addiction to drugs. I have researched Heroin to find out more about this drug. Heroin is a highly addictive drug, and its use is a serious problem in America. Recent studies suggest a shift from injecting heroin to snorting or smoking because of increased purity and the misconception that these forms of use will not lead to addiction. (From a website discussing drugs) The play that I did Heroin Lies and the film The Basketball Diaries had several similarities and differences. The main similarity that I picked up was that these two plays were based on drugs. This is also the main reason I chose to compare these two plays. Heroin Lies was set in the 90s, which is modern time. These days it tends to be teenagers that are addicted to these drugs. The film The Basketball Diaries was also set in the 90s, which again the teenagers are pushed towards Heroin.

What Is It Governance Information Technology Essay

What Is It Governance Information Technology Essay IT governance is the process for controlling an organisation information technology resource, where these resources are defined to include information and communication systems as well as technology. An organisation management and owners (represented by the board of directors ) share responsibility for governing both enterprise and IT. Enterprise governance is the process of setting and implementing corporate strategy, making sure the organisation achieve its objectives efficiently, and manage risk. It governance is an increasingly important part of enterprise governance because of organisational dependent on information and communication, the scale of IT investment, potential for IT to create strategic opportunities, and the level of IT risk. IT governance also required controlling the process to ensure that it complies with regulatory, legal and contractual requirements. Organisation structure Boards and executive management have long known the need for enterprise and corporate governance. However, most are beginning to realize that there is a need to extend governance to information technology as well, and provide the leadership, organisational structures and processes that ensure that the enterprises IT sustains and extends the enterprises strategies andobjectives. Strategic alignment focuses on ensuring the linkage of business and IT plans; defining, maintaining and validating the IT value proposition; and aligning IT operations with enterprise operations. Value delivery is about executing the value proposition throughout the delivery cycle, ensuring that IT delivers the promised benefits against the strategy, concentrating on optimising costs and proving the intrinsic value of IT. Resource management is about the optimal investment in, and the proper management of, critical IT resources: applications, information, infrastructure and people. Key issues relate to the optimisation of knowledge and infrastructure. Risk management requires risk awareness by senior corporate officers, a clear understanding of the enterprises appetite for risk, understanding of compliance requirements, transparency about the significant risks to the enterprise and embedding of risk management responsibilities into the organisation. Performance measurement tracks and monitors strategy implementation, project completion, resource usage, process performance and service delivery, using, for example, balanced scorecards that translate strategy into action to achieve goals measurable beyond conventional accounting. ITGI: ISACA recognized this shift in emphasis towards IT Governance in 1998, and formed the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) to focus on original research, publications, resources and symposia on IT governance and related topics. In addition to the work carried out by the ITGI, ISACA addresses the topic through a regular column in and occasional dedicated issues of the Information Systems Control Journal, conference sessions and tracks, and education courses. TheIT Governance Institute (ITGI)exists to assist enterprise leaders in their responsibility to ensure that IT goals align with those of the business, it delivers value, its performance is measured, its resources properly allocated and its risks mitigated. Through original research, symposia and electronic resources, the ITGI helps ensure that boards and executive management have the tools and information they need for IT to deliver against expectations. ITGI: ISACA recognized this shift in emphasis towards IT Governance in 1998, and formed the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) to focus on original research, publications, resources and symposia on IT governance and related topics. In addition to the work carried out by the ITGI, ISACA addresses the topic through a regular column in and occasional dedicated issues of the Information Systems Control Journal, conference sessions and tracks, and education courses. TheIT Governance Institute (ITGI)exists to assist enterprise leaders in their responsibility to ensure that IT goals align with those of the business, it delivers value, its performance is measured, its resources properly allocated and its risks mitigated. Through original research, symposia and electronic resources, the ITGI helps ensure that boards and executive management have the tools and information they need for IT to deliver against expectations. Publications: There are two major publications from ISACA in the field of IT Governance. COBIT VALIT COBIT: The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a set of best practices (framework) for information technology (IT) management created by the ISACA, and ITGI in 1996. COBIT provides managers, auditors, and IT users with a set of generally accepted measures, indicators, processes and best practices to assist them in maximizing the benefits derived through the use of information technology and developing appropriate IT governance and control in a company. COBIT supports IT governance by providing a framework to ensure that: IT is aligned with the business IT enables the business and maximises benefits IT resources are used responsibly IT risks are managed appropriately COBIT Framework and IT Governance Areas: COBIT Product: Briefly, the COBIT products include: Board Briefing on IT Governance, 2nd Edition—Helps executives understand why IT governance is important, what its issues are and what their responsibility is for managing it. Management guidelines/maturity models— Help assign responsibility, measure performance, and benchmark and address gaps in capability Frameworks—Organise IT governance objectives and good practices by IT domains and processes, and link them to business requirements Control objectives—provide a complete set of high-level requirements to be considered by management for effective control of each IT process IT Governance Implementation Guide: Using COBIT  ® and Val IT TM, 2nd Edition—provides a generic road map for implementing IT governance using the COBIT and Val ITTM resources COBIT ® Control Practices: Guidance to Achieve Control Objectives for Successful IT Governance, 2nd edition—Provides guidance on why controls are worth implementing and how to implement them IT Assurance Guide: Using COBIT  ®Ã¢â‚¬â€Provides guidance on how COBIT can be used to support a variety of assurance activities together with suggested testing steps for all the IT processes and control VALIT: Val IT is a governance framework that consists of a set of guiding principles, and a number of processes conforming to those principles that are further defined as a set of key management practices. The Val IT framework will be supported by publications and operational tools and provides guidance to: Define the relationship between IT and the business and those functions in the organization with governance responsibilities Manage an organizations portfolio of IT-enabled business investments; and Maximize the quality of business cases for IT-enabled business investments with particular emphasis on the definition of key financial indicators, the quantification of soft benefits and the comprehensive appraisal of the downside risk Val IT addresses assumptions, costs, risks and outcomes related to a balanced portfolio of IT-enabled business investments. It also provides benchmarking capability and allows enterprises to exchange experiences on best practices for value management. Certification: Certified in the Governance of Enterprise Information Technology (CGEIT) is an advanced certification created in 2007 by the ISACA. It is designed for experienced professionals, who can demonstrate 5 or more years of experience, serving in a managing or advisory role focused on the governance and control of IT at an enterprise level. The certification is intended to: support the growing business demands related to IT governance increase the awareness and importance of IT governance good practices and issues define the roles and responsibilities of the professionals performing IT governance work Requirements: To earn the CGEIT credential, an individual must: Pass the CGEIT exam (first exam December 2008) Adhere to the ISACA Code of Professional Ethics Agree to comply with the CGEIT Continuing Education Policy Provide evidence of appropriate IT governance work experience as defined by the CGEIT Job Practice IT Governance experience Five (5) years required: Five (5) or more years of experience managing, serving in an advisory or oversight role, and/or otherwise supporting the governance of the IT-related contribution to an enterprise is required to apply for certification. This experience is defined specifically by the domains and task statements described in the CGEIT Job Practice. Specifically: A minimum of one (1) year of experience relating to the development and/or maintenance of an IT governance framework is required. The type and extent of experience accepted is described in CGEIT domain one (1) (see IT Governance Framework). Additional broad experience directly related to any two or more of the remaining CGEIT domains are required. The type and extent of experience accepted is described in CGEIT domains two (2) through six (6). These domains are:  § Strategic Alignment  § Value Delivery  § Risk Management  § Resource Management  § Performance Measurement Individuals can take the CGEIT exam prior to earning the above work experience. Substitutions for IT governance experience (2 years maximum) To recognize other management experience and/or the achievement of specific IT governance related credentials, advanced (post-graduate) degrees and certificates, up to two (2) years of the five years of required IT governance experience can be substituted. Specifically, each of the following will qualify (substitute) for one (1) year of IT governance experience, with a maximum of two years of substitutions being accepted. Other Management Experience—other management experience that is not specific to IT governance, such as performing consulting, auditing, assurance or security management related duties will qualify for up to one year of substitution. Specific Credentials, Advanced (Post-graduate) Degrees and Certificates—Credentials (in good standing), advanced (post-graduate) degrees and certificate programs which include an IT governance and/or management component or are specific to one or more of the CGEIT domains will qualify for up to one year of substitution. These include: Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) issued by ISACA Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) issued by ISACA Implementing IT Governance using COBIT and Val IT certificate issued by ISACA (available in 2008) ITIL Service Manager certification program Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP) issued by the British Computer Society Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) issued by the American Institute of CPAs Project Management Professional (PMP) issued by the Project Management Institute Information Systems Professional (I.S.P.) issued by the Canadian Information Processing Society Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors Certified Business Manager (CBM) issued by The Association of Professionals in Business Management Prince2 Registered Practitioner certificate from the Office of Government Commerce Advanced (post-graduate) degree from an accredited university in governance, information technology, information management or business administration (For example: Masters in Corporate Governance, Masters of Business Administration, Masters in Information and Operations Management, Masters of Information Systems Management, Masters in Information Technology) Exception: Two years as a full-time university instructor teaching IT governance related subjects at an accredited university can be substituted for every one year of IT governance experience. Applicants who have earned/acquired other credentials, advanced (post-graduate) degrees and/or certificates that include a significant IT governance and/or information management component and are not listed above are welcome to submit them to the CGEIT Certification Board for consideration. IT Governance Characteristics Sets direction and oversees compliance and performance Specifies the decision-making authority and accountability to encourage desirable behaviors in the use of IT Is a process for managing and controlling the use of technology to create value Are the rules and regulations under which an IT organization functions Ensures that everyone is playing by the same rules so that the computing environment works for everyone. Road Map for Implementing IT Governance The initial focus for developing an IT Governance Program is identifying needs and governance input rights and decision making based on:    Current state of IT within and supporting business organization and objectives      Internal and external requirements/regulations and applicable best business practices Business Alignment IT Business Executives set the IT Strategy, resolve issues, and shadow IT organizations eliminated Investment Board sets project priorities, costs,   oversees progress, reduced millions $ in costs Change Management and failures impacting users Changes managed actually blocked where not properly vetted or tested Number of user impact failures reduced from 200+ to Number of unauthorized application and infrastructure changes reduced to 1 or less per month Emergency changes reduced to less than 3% of total changes Improved results across the board, accountability built into personal performance evaluations Projects Projects on time, on budget increased by 60+% Improved from 40% SDLC compliance to 100% Technology Standards and architecture established and enforced via tech reviews reduced number of system software tools by over 50% 100% of the equipment on the network identified and none added unless authorized 24 hour server back-ups improved from 95% to 99.9% Security patches being performed within 24 hours of approval â€Å"System Admin Accounts† reduced by over 50% Governing Document Framework SAMPLE Conclusion: As we have discussed that in todays business environment information is the most valuable asset, therefore in order to protect the information we require a profound infrastructure that enables us to not only secure the information we have but to validate that information as well, plus enable the organization towards IT.