Presentation Questions

Summery of questions asked to the class during our presentation:

Did you find the language barrier a problem within the comics and images found in The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana?
Consensus was that the language difference between the text and images was not a barrier to understanding and enjoy the novel but that it was slightly annoying. Because the novel was originally written in Italian, and the comics, book covers, albums, etc. were also in Italian, an Italian audience has a different and more complete experience of the novel than the English audience. It is difficult to determine how the translation of the images would have worked, as some of the songs were translated but ended up not making a lot of sense.

Did you find the images helpful in understanding the text?
Having the images along with the descriptions of them adds an extra layer of meaning and understanding to the text. Once Yambo goes to Solara the story intertwines with his visual discoveries, without seeing these the reader would not feel as connected to the main character.

Did you think the text would have been more effective as an online narrative?
The connection between Yambo looking through books and the reader holding a book is important. With the images included hyperlinks are not necessary. The class agreed that an online narrative, or even just reading the novel online, would not be as effective as the physical book. This then initiated a discuss about the positives about owning physical books over reading and purchasing novels online.