ENGL362
are deliberately difficult for
‘You’ to make sense out
of as they are infused with
contradictory information,
irregular
dates
and
perplexing locations. On
the comic page, the reader
is pushed to solve the
same mysteries as ‘You’,
which continues to keep
the distinction between the
two blurred as both are
simultaneously working to
solve the same mysteries.
Each issue contains one
or two of these letters, up
until Issue #6, where the
final few letters are folded
into frame narrative. On
this particular page, his
signature is obscured but
the name ‘Ermes’ appears
in the body of one letter,
for readers to pick out. The
page depicts the desk of
Cavedagna. Red ink has
been used to circle dates
and annotate the letters to
show Cavedagna’s fruitless
attempt
to
understand
where Ermes is and what
order things are happening
in. The ink is smudged in
places, and a coffee ring
marks the desk to suggest
a certain disorderliness on
Cavedagna’s part. Not all
of the discrepancies have
been caught by Cavedagna,
but his initial markings are
an invitation to the reader to
hunt for clues themselves;
some letters are sent from
‘Cerro Negro’, but the
miniscule air mail stamp is
from ‘Cerro Blanco.’ Most of
the discrepancies are taken
from the book directly, but
this is an added visual quirk.
The New York letter was
copied word for word from
the novel, but the Cerro
Negro one was adapted to
first person to convey the
tone of “inspired evocation”
the protagonist infers from
the words.
Penelope Lively believes
that If On A Winter’s Night
A Traveller both ‘tantalises
and provokes’ the reader,
leaving them ‘alternately
exasperated and fascinated’
(cited in Orr, 1985, p.210).
This adaptation has been
carefully constructed to
elicit both of these reactions
in each reader, be they new
to comics or new to the
novel. However, veering
too far into exasperation is
a greater risk for a monthly
comic series than a novel,
since
an
exasperated
reader who already owns
the novel may still feel
inclined to continue - as they
can skim forward to find
material that better captures
their attention; gauge how
much of the novel is left
and weigh it up against
their current frustration; and
have usually purchased
the novel in its entirety
whereas
the
monthly
serialisation
of
comics
offers none of this security,
plus the additional peril of
its precarious position in a
highly competitive market.
Each issue must provide
enough intrigue to convince
the reader to keep buying
from month to month, for the
majority of a year. To combat
this risk, the adaptation is
very tightly structured, and
very clear about it. It is
strictly limited to ten issues,