Unflattening - Outside of a Dog

English language

ISBN:: 9780674744431

(1 review)

Unflattening is a graphic novel by artist and researcher Nick Sousanis that was originally the first dissertation from Columbia University to be written in a comic book format. The book was published by Harvard University Press in April 2015 and won the 2015 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, taking top honor as book of the year. The Brazilian edition of the book (Desaplanar, editora Veneta, published in 2017), won the 2018 Troféu HQ Mix in category "best theoretical book".

1 edition

Marek reviewed Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

A superb philosophical exploration of identity, being, and knowledge

5 stars

I was given this as a gift, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a delightful graphical text, winding together of threads from across a number of different fields of philosophy.

As a demonstration of the medium, it's a compelling existence case for effective philosophical communication in sequential art. The monochrome imagery really helps capture complexity and nuance. Making ideas accessible, while there is a certain exploratory, introductory character to them, it would be very wrong to call the effect superficial. The artwork, rather, draws the reader in, invites further consideration and contemplation.

The themes are some that are of particular interest to me, on the dynamism and radically incomplete character of being, identity, and knowledge. I work in the area, and would consider this a rich and worthy way of getting into these issues. I think this would make an excellent text to work with with students, for instance - certainly …

I was given this as a gift, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a delightful graphical text, winding together of threads from across a number of different fields of philosophy.

As a demonstration of the medium, it's a compelling existence case for effective philosophical communication in sequential art. The monochrome imagery really helps capture complexity and nuance. Making ideas accessible, while there is a certain exploratory, introductory character to them, it would be very wrong to call the effect superficial. The artwork, rather, draws the reader in, invites further consideration and contemplation.

The themes are some that are of particular interest to me, on the dynamism and radically incomplete character of being, identity, and knowledge. I work in the area, and would consider this a rich and worthy way of getting into these issues. I think this would make an excellent text to work with with students, for instance - certainly at undergraduate level, and perhaps at secondary school too.

Highly recommended.