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**gennickO** · 07-09-2009, 02:56 AM

As I see it, the Knighthood is only a path, a way for Agilulfo to make himself exist. It's similar to Cosimo's attitude, that with a strict code of discipline he is trying to become someone. If Agilulfo is not a knight, then he's no one. Then he makes an amazing couple with Gurdul? who is EVERYTHING, a dog, a tree, a chicken. An amazing way for Calvino to depict the nonsense of existante in modern world.

This story is much more than a mockery of knighthood, it is a search to find individualism and question existance in this modern days.

You're not the first person I've heard who says that Gurdul? is everything, but I have to disagree, he is nothing just as much as Agilulfo is. In their own way, all the characters are unsure of their existence - in the sixth chapter when Rambaldo courts Bradamante, the narrator says (I've read the book in Romanian so I'm translating roughly): "or could it be especially vanity, the search for the ceritude of existence, one which only a woman could give?" What's more, Torrismondo says that chivalry and the war they all bear are made of paper and you can't be sure of them/their existence. The existence of the whole world is unsure at dawn. I think, to some extent, the charm of the books lies much more in the characters themselves and in the whole context of the story than in the whole "the question of existence in the modern era" talk- there are enough stories about existence/existentialism out there and Calvino's cunning and original way to treat the problem makes this one so delicious to read.

Also something that's been bugging me ever since I finished the book three days ago is the fact that Agilulfo did exist before he was a knight. Sofronia says a knight in a white armor saved her, so he could have survived even if he wasn't named Agilulfo of the Guildiverns. But maybe it's just my simplistic approach.

07-09-2009, 02:56 AM	#4
gennickO Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 469 Senior Member	As I see it, the Knighthood is only a path, a way for Agilulfo to make himself exist. It's similar to Cosimo's attitude, that with a strict code of discipline he is trying to become someone. If Agilulfo is not a knight, then he's no one. Then he makes an amazing couple with Gurdul? who is EVERYTHING, a dog, a tree, a chicken. An amazing way for Calvino to depict the nonsense of existante in modern world. This story is much more than a mockery of knighthood, it is a search to find individualism and question existance in this modern days. You're not the first person I've heard who says that Gurdul? is everything, but I have to disagree, he is nothing just as much as Agilulfo is. In their own way, all the characters are unsure of their existence - in the sixth chapter when Rambaldo courts Bradamante, the narrator says (I've read the book in Romanian so I'm translating roughly): "or could it be especially vanity, the search for the ceritude of existence, one which only a woman could give?" What's more, Torrismondo says that chivalry and the war they all bear are made of paper and you can't be sure of them/their existence. The existence of the whole world is unsure at dawn. I think, to some extent, the charm of the books lies much more in the characters themselves and in the whole context of the story than in the whole "the question of existence in the modern era" talk- there are enough stories about existence/existentialism out there and Calvino's cunning and original way to treat the problem makes this one so delicious to read. Also something that's been bugging me ever since I finished the book three days ago is the fact that Agilulfo did exist before he was a knight. Sofronia says a knight in a white armor saved her, so he could have survived even if he wasn't named Agilulfo of the Guildiverns. But maybe it's just my simplistic approach.
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