And Nancy benefits from this double-bluff strategy by … what?
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She wants to look rebellious and devil-may-care by “accidentally” allowing the comic book to peek over the top, and not let on that she’s actually being studious by really reading the hidden book: it might interfere with her image. Perhaps.
Note that the adult in the first panel is her teacher, and not Fritzi. Nancy had been told that she needed to catch up on all of her missing homework. She designed the double-bluff strategy with the comic book keep Fritzi from finding out that she wasn’t studiously working ahead, but in fact was catching up from behind.
Are the 3rd and 4th panels separated in time, or just about simultaneous, with the 4th panel giving us a diagrammatic / cutaway view of the nested reading materials?
I guess what I’m really asking about is the status of the “More Math” book. Has it replaced the simple “Math” book as the outermost, displayed layer? Or is it the innermost one – which she has been actually studying from all along – but now revealed to us by the cutaway view?
The caption specifically says it’s “hidden”. That implies it’s a cutaway view.
I agree that Nancy is hiding her late homework effort from Aunt Fritzi.
Nancy starts to sweat in panel 3. In panel 4 it’s a full on dripping sweat. This indicates an elongated time line.
The only way I can think of the 4th frame as not-a-mistake, is that the new outside book, “MORE MATH” plus the label, “HIDDEN SECOND TEXTBOOK” is supposed to convey Nancy’s increasing effort as the deadline approaches (or some similar idea).
I’m thinking that “More Math” is a hidden book, and the artist didn’t quite meet the challenge of showing it to us in a way that would make that clear. Despite the dotted lines, and muted tones for some of the layers, this book looks like it might be on the outside where the original “Math” was (or maybe still is, invisibly). To signal that it is hidden, the artist could have used a different color for the cover, plus chosen a muted tone that would look like it is passing thru layers.
(late) P.S. – Re-reading this comic just now, I think it would have worked better to present it sequentially (avoiding the “flashback”), by moving panel 1 to become panel 4.
Which arrangement of Tender is the Night do you prefer? I think I prefer the original 1934 version, which starts with the debauched crowd on the Riviera; but a lot can be said for the 1948 Malcolm Cowley revision which starts with the young doctor in Switzerland.
@ mitch (8) – Just on a whim, I re-read “The Great Gatsby” about two years ago (and I both understood and enjoyed the book a heck of a lot more than when I was forced to read it as a high school senior). Nevertheless, even though “Tender is the Night” is by the same author, and may (now) be considered “great literature”(†), after reading that synopsis I have absolutely no interest in reading either version.
P.S. (†) – I remember an incident that Gerald Durrell included in “My Family and Other Animals”, in which his elder brother Lawrence bitterly complained that he was being continually disturbed from his efforts to create “great literature”. I found the comment very amusing; I can understand that an author might be motivated to write well, but it seemed highly pretentious to claim in advance that the goal is to write a landmark work of art.
I know Gatsby holds more esteem with today’s public and canon, but I have always considered Tender the superior work
On Durrell – Long ago I started on the Alexandria Quartet. Didn’t much like them. And found out that the only one I did enjoy reading was considered to be a sop to suckers and squares. Ah well.
This would make more sense done over Christmas break, rather than the summer. At the end of the school year, what’s done is done.
Yeah, I’ve never heard of turning in homework a school grade late. Back in the day she might have gone to summer school to make up missed work but I’m not sure they even do that anymore.
Kevin A – I don’t see any sweat – what am I missing?
@ Meryl (14) – The are lots of little (sweat) spots on Nancy’s face in the fourth panel, but you may need to zoom in to be able to see them.
Comics I Don't Understand 
She wants to look rebellious and devil-may-care by “accidentally” allowing the comic book to peek over the top, and not let on that she’s actually being studious by really reading the hidden book: it might interfere with her image. Perhaps.
Note that the adult in the first panel is her teacher, and not Fritzi. Nancy had been told that she needed to catch up on all of her missing homework. She designed the double-bluff strategy with the comic book keep Fritzi from finding out that she wasn’t studiously working ahead, but in fact was catching up from behind.
Are the 3rd and 4th panels separated in time, or just about simultaneous, with the 4th panel giving us a diagrammatic / cutaway view of the nested reading materials?
I guess what I’m really asking about is the status of the “More Math” book. Has it replaced the simple “Math” book as the outermost, displayed layer? Or is it the innermost one – which she has been actually studying from all along – but now revealed to us by the cutaway view?
The caption specifically says it’s “hidden”. That implies it’s a cutaway view.
I agree that Nancy is hiding her late homework effort from Aunt Fritzi.
Nancy starts to sweat in panel 3. In panel 4 it’s a full on dripping sweat. This indicates an elongated time line.
The only way I can think of the 4th frame as not-a-mistake, is that the new outside book, “MORE MATH” plus the label, “HIDDEN SECOND TEXTBOOK” is supposed to convey Nancy’s increasing effort as the deadline approaches (or some similar idea).
I’m thinking that “More Math” is a hidden book, and the artist didn’t quite meet the challenge of showing it to us in a way that would make that clear. Despite the dotted lines, and muted tones for some of the layers, this book looks like it might be on the outside where the original “Math” was (or maybe still is, invisibly). To signal that it is hidden, the artist could have used a different color for the cover, plus chosen a muted tone that would look like it is passing thru layers.
(late) P.S. – Re-reading this comic just now, I think it would have worked better to present it sequentially (avoiding the “flashback”), by moving panel 1 to become panel 4.
Which arrangement of Tender is the Night do you prefer? I think I prefer the original 1934 version, which starts with the debauched crowd on the Riviera; but a lot can be said for the 1948 Malcolm Cowley revision which starts with the young doctor in Switzerland.
The wikipedia article.
@ mitch (8) – Just on a whim, I re-read “The Great Gatsby” about two years ago (and I both understood and enjoyed the book a heck of a lot more than when I was forced to read it as a high school senior). Nevertheless, even though “Tender is the Night” is by the same author, and may (now) be considered “great literature”(†), after reading that synopsis I have absolutely no interest in reading either version.
P.S. (†) – I remember an incident that Gerald Durrell included in “My Family and Other Animals”, in which his elder brother Lawrence bitterly complained that he was being continually disturbed from his efforts to create “great literature”. I found the comment very amusing; I can understand that an author might be motivated to write well, but it seemed highly pretentious to claim in advance that the goal is to write a landmark work of art.
I know Gatsby holds more esteem with today’s public and canon, but I have always considered Tender the superior work
On Durrell – Long ago I started on the Alexandria Quartet. Didn’t much like them. And found out that the only one I did enjoy reading was considered to be a sop to suckers and squares. Ah well.
This would make more sense done over Christmas break, rather than the summer. At the end of the school year, what’s done is done.
Yeah, I’ve never heard of turning in homework a school grade late. Back in the day she might have gone to summer school to make up missed work but I’m not sure they even do that anymore.
Kevin A – I don’t see any sweat – what am I missing?
@ Meryl (14) – The are lots of little (sweat) spots on Nancy’s face in the fourth panel, but you may need to zoom in to be able to see them.