Connotations 18.1-3 (2008/2009)

42
DAVID FISHELOV
not-taken), hovering around the core. These potential, suggested
meanings sometimes resurface in adaptations, highlighting the fact
that a literary text is a complex system of realized and unrealized
potentialities.
Initiating Text
Core
Meanings
Drawing III
Suggested
meanings
Adaptation
This drawing requires three clarifications. Firstly, around core and
suggested meanings one should also imagine a much larger circle,
encompassing the amorphous field of elements enabled by the text.
Secondly, the drawing highlights the fact that adaptations must include
at least some core meanings and usually draw on a few suggested
meanings; the rest consists of elements that are either part of
the fluid field of enabled elements or elements that are contrary (but
not contradictory) to the initiating text. The more an adaptation is
faithful to core meanings, the more the outcome is simple and
predictable. By the same token, the more an adapter uses only a hand-