Unflattening: Sousanis, Nick: 9780674744431: Amazon.com: Books

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Unflattening Paperback – April 20, 2015

by Nick Sousanis (Author)

4.6 393 ratings

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The primacy of words over images has deep roots in Western culture. But what if the two are inextricably linked, equal partners in meaning-making? Written and drawn entirely as comics, Unflattening is an experiment in visual thinking. Nick Sousanis defies conventional forms of scholarly discourse to offer readers both a stunning work of graphic art and a serious inquiry into the ways humans construct knowledge.

Unflattening is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art, literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points. While its vibrant, constantly morphing images occasionally serve as illustrations of text, they more often connect in nonlinear fashion to other visual references throughout the book. They become allusions, allegories, and motifs, pitting realism against abstraction and making us aware that more meets the eye than is presented on the page.

In its graphic innovations and restless shape-shifting, Unflattening is meant to counteract the type of narrow, rigid thinking that Sousanis calls “flatness.” Just as the two-dimensional inhabitants of Edwin A. Abbott’s novella Flatland could not fathom the concept of “upwards,” Sousanis says, we are often unable to see past the boundaries of our current frame of mind. Fusing words and images to produce new forms of knowledge, Unflattening teaches us how to access modes of understanding beyond what we normally apprehend.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard University Press
Publication date

April 20, 2015
Dimensions

7.75 x 1 x 10.5 inches
ISBN-10

0674744438
ISBN-13

978-0674744431
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Nick Sousanis’s Unflattening is a complex, beautiful, delirious meditation on just about everything under the sun; a unique and bracing read.”―Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Making Comics

“Nick Sousanis’s Unflattening is a genuine oddity, a philosophical treatise in comics form. ‘Flatness,’ for Sousanis’s purposes, is not the quality of abstraction that Clement Greenberg lauded in modern art, but the lamentable condition of the inhabitants of Edwin A. Abbott’s ‘Flatland’: the inability to understand that there might be more than one can immediately perceive. The solution he proposes is admitting visual elements, and especially drawings, into the intellectual domain of language. (Psst―he’s talking about comics!)”―Douglas Wolk, New York Times Book Review

“Ranging across a wide range of disciplines―the arts, the sciences, popular culture, critical theory―Sousanis argues that the verbal and the visual are inextricably entwined in the production of knowledge… It is a book that is dense with the syntheses of ideas, nimble, far-reaching and impossible to summarize. It liberates itself from the standard layout of panels within frames, teaching the eye and mind to read the unfailingly intelligent black-and-white artwork in unconventional and new ways. Unflattening deserves a place as a compulsory textbook in schools.”―Neel Mukherjee, New Statesman

“Although the implications are profound, Unflattening is less an insurrection than a carefully argued case for rethinking our priorities about art and learning. Unflattening is above all a humane piece of scholarship which challenges our assumptions about perception.”―Matt Finch, Brooklyn Rail

“If you prefer your mind-melt, dimension-bending comics with less costumes and melodrama, Nick Sousanis’ cerebral exploration of psychology and perspective offers a refreshing palate cleanser… Presented with a visual vocabulary that will blow readers minds in the most scholarly way possible.”―Sean Edgar, Paste

“Sousanis’s drawings are first rate and his writing style economical. To demonstrate how introducing new vantage points expands our thinking, he explores a range of philosophical concepts, calling on Plato, Copernicus, and even the ‘fifth dimension’ explored in the TV series The Twilight Zone.”―Jan Gardner, Boston Globe

“If Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics charmingly investigated the history, development, and formal features of visual narrative, Unflattening is its equally brilliant epistemological counterpart. With profound depth and insight, Sousanis looks at how the ‘unflattening’ possibilities of this form of storytelling allow us to see the world from entirely new perspectives… Written with remarkable clarity and insight, its sometimes-haunting, sometimes-breathtaking illustrations prove the book’s arguments about how visual information can shape our understanding… Weaving together language, perception, and the theory of knowledge in an investigation of how the multidimensional possibilities of graphic storytelling can awaken us to ways of knowing from multiple perspectives, Sousanis has made a profound contribution to the field of comics studies and to semiotics, epistemology, and the burgeoning study of visible thinking. Essential reading for anyone seeking to create, critique, or consider the visual narrative form.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An important book, Unflattening is consistently innovative, using abstraction alongside realism, using framing and the (dis)organization of the page to represent different modes of thought. The words and images speak for themselves and succeed on their own terms. I couldn’t stop reading it.”―Henry Jenkins, author of Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Society

“An incisive meditation on the relationship between text and images.”―David Dabscheck, New York Observer

“Entirely non-narrative, the book takes on the dichotomy between words and images in Western thought and argues that both are simultaneously involved in the production of meaning. Executed in sharp black-and-white diagrams, and abstract and geometric images, this scintillatingly intelligent book succeeds in the great feat of holding the reader’s attention not through a story but through ideas. Sousanis’s own book is the perfect illustration of the inextricability of the verbal and the visual.”―Neel Mukherjee, The Independent

“Unflattening will no doubt become an essential teaching tool for helping students―especially undergraduates―think about comics, graphic novels, and other media in which words and images combine… The book is potentially revolutionary… This is a book that wants to teach, a book that will be talked about and belongs in any forward-looking library.”―R. J. Baumann, Choice

“[This] will alter your perceptions, of comics, of art, of how to see and process your world and your ideas. Sousanis is relentlessly innovative in his solutions to picturing his concepts and in the process provides irrefutable proof of the efficacy of the medium to explain engagingly and memorably… It also uses two dimensional words and images to encourage us to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding, in other words to perceive in multiple dimensions. And yes, reading comics re-wires your mind.”―Paul Gravett, paulgravett.com

“Unflattening is Nick Sousanis’s meditation on the nature of learning and visual communication… At a time when graphic literature has become widely accepted as a medium for fiction and memoir, Unflattening breaks new ground in the use of visual narrative for the expression of abstract ideas. Beautifully drawn and brilliantly conceived, Unflattening is an instant classic.”―Rob Salkowitz, Forbes

“Sousanis’ investigation into the connection between word and image could not have been presented in any other way… [He] presents a philosophical and reference heavy treatise in a compelling and accessible manner.”―Don O’Mahony, Irish Examiner

“Frankly, genius.”―Zachary Petit, Print

“Sousanis has achieved something powerful―a book that goes beyond just saying a thesis to actually showing one.”―Stephen Asma, Los Angeles Review of Books

“There is much in Unflattening that will interest and stimulate thought for higher education scholars, teachers and students… In this beautiful and complex book, Sousanis grapples with core tenets of Western knowledge: who are our heroes, and why do we valorize their charts and grids so much more than, for example, the oral traditions of Pacific navigators who could read the stars? It is a beautiful book and a complex book that defies categorization―that’s why I recommend it.”―Frances Kelly, Higher Education Research & Development

About the Author

Nick Sousanis is an Eisner Award–winning comics maker and Associate Professor in Humanities and Liberal Studies at San Francisco State University, where he runs an interdisciplinary Comics Studies program. His comics have appeared in Nature, the Boston Globe, and Columbia Magazine.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; First Edition (April 20, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674744438
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674744431
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.77 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 1 x 10.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #92,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #44 in Educational & Nonfiction Graphic Novels
- #73 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels
- #370 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 393 ratings

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4.6 out of 5

393 global ratings

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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2021

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Personally I felt like this was one of those books that could only be read a handful of pages at a- time for risk of missing some of the brilliant ideas and connections that were drawn. I often found myself viewing the images before the text, then going back and forth between the two, and then back and forth again to the other pages that were connected to each recurring image, and it didn't feel tedious, but filled with even more insightful.

Some of the text, quotes, and references truly went over my head, but I am looking forward to rereading this and researching the information I know I missed the first time but I think the quote at the end of the book by Alfred North Whitehead sums it up nicely, "philosophy begins in wonder," and quite inline with the philosophy of the book, the quote is left UNfinished, "and, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains."

I added the rest of the quote to the margins of my book, and throughout the book even left some extra notes, doodles, and on one page I even taped a drawing onto it. A lot of my friends have expressed interest in reading this book asked that after I finish it, to lend it to them, so I am going to lend it to them, and suggest they fill in the margins and extra space with whatever they wish as well. When I get it back- I will have a brand new but familiar book each time.

It starts with illustrations of "flat," orderly, machine-like people, trapped in a machine-like world, seemingly ruled by one perspective and machine-like laws, with seemingly inconsequential lives.

The next chapter they step out of the machine and into a maze, equipped with only their own limited point of view. With wonder, and multiple perspectives, they find something of their own, a new perspective- one of the many that exist.

These separate points of view combine into a larger whole, cratering new thoughts, dynamics, common ground and complexities- bridging gaps with newly formed, multidimensional ways to relate to the world.

I think the third chapter was my favorite combining the most text with very thought provoking images, tempting us to step out of language all while using the same language as a tool to do so.. but I'll leave the rest of the play-by-play for the book.

I think if you're not able to at least appreciate the illustrations and allegory in this work, that really goes to show how, "flattened" societies influence and prevents certain points of view and relation. I find it highly ironic that one review of this book just says... "Toxic," seems pretty flat.

4 people found this helpful

A Phenomenal Contribution to Comics Studies!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 30, 2017

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In "Unflattening", Nick Sousanis adapts his Ed.D. dissertation, "Unflattening: A Visual-Verbal Inquiry into Learning in Many Dimension," into a full-length graphic novel that explores the privileged place that text has long held in our culture, arguing that text and image must work together as an educational tool. Necessarily, any written review will not capture the point of this work, so any oversimplifications are my own. Sousanis writes of the history of comics, "At this juncture, it's time to attend to the intricacies, peel away and delve into the inner workings of this hybrid form (meant to be both read and viewed). First, it's name - ever a prickly topic. The one it came with conceals its potential. [comic books, comics] Hence, a quest for respectability: grander varieties put forth [graphic novel]; more descriptive titles adopted [sequential art]; each highlighting specific features [picture writing, image-text, graphein, commmix]. From different climates [manga], distinct offshoots arose [bandes dessinées, fumetti]. While often seen as a budding form, it's an evolving dialect, in constant cultivation. Its lineage runs deep. Its history our own. A means of grappling with experience before we had names for it. Comics, as I prefer, 'by any other name would small as sweet'" (pg. 60). As to their use, Sousanis writes, "Perhaps in comics, this amphibious language of juxtapositions and fragments - we have such a form" to fulfill Bertrand Russell's longing for a language that expresses "all relations by analogous relations" (pg. 67). In the course of his work, Sousanis draws upon other comics theorists like Scott McCloud, thereby contributing to the growing field of comics studies. Furthermore, Sousanis makes extensive use of Edwin Abbott Abbott's 1884 novella, "Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions", which used metaphor and satire to open readers' minds to the role of dimensionality in our conception of the world. After summarizing the story, Sousanis extends this metaphor to the role of image and text in how we conceive of ourselves and the world around us, thereby engaging with theories of phenomenology. Sousanis concludes, "The means to rise up and upend our thinking are found in this tumbling of relations. Unflattening, we remind ourselves of what it is to open our eyes to the world for the first time" (pg. 151-152). "Unflattening" belongs in the libraries of any who study comics theory, cultural history, or phenomenology.

3 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Cassio Sozinho Amorim

Awe-inspiring! Highly recommended!

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on September 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

I almost never evaluate anything as 5 stars in Amazon, but this... It is hard to put this work in a word, for I can think of many of them to properly describe it: Amazing! Entertaining! Amusing! Breathtaking! Informative! Mind-blowing! Inspiring! Profound!

In this work, Nick Sousanis comes up with an incredible piece of art, where every page stirs the intellect, the imagination, and the emotions altogether, a double view point that is felt while reading through it, and while being explored at the same time as defended by him. By defining a flatness of vision, "Unflattening" becomes a bold objective claimed right from the title throughout the whole comics; and this objective is more than merely achieved, it is exposed and explored in a beautiful dance between method and objective in each corner of the infinitely many ones presented here. This has been, maybe, the best book, comics, and scientific work I have seen recently (at least in this and the past year).

Now, if any criticism or warning is necessary, I would place one. Written as American comics, under Western culture environment, the inherent cultural bias present in "Unflattening" may shout at every page, placing a potentially disturbing agent for aliens to this culture. I briefly showed a few pictures I found specially intriguing to a Japanese friend, and unfortunately he could not understand it straight away. That was all foreign to him. Some metaphors are heavily based on Western culture, what traditional academic production pretends to avoid in order to present itself clearer to everyone, but not at no cost. So, Sousanis takes a delightful approach that I do not see as a disadvantage: it is the method the author exposes his claim for unflattening, for different views. This work can be, even with its cultural bias, at once mind-opening and experience-enhancing even for those who may not immediately understand what a rosary bid is or other details - and still profit from every detail.

philip noble

WONDER FULL !

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 2, 2015

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In UNFLATTENING Nick Sousanis, Postdoctoral Fellow in Comic Studies at the University of Calgary, uses his skills as a graphic artist to present a beautiful and evocative work of printed art. He interweaves research into learning processes, various philosophies, and the history of science using a minimum amount of text. A couple of short quotes give a flavour of the content.
‘What is beyond your horizon is curiosity.’
“It is our vision and not what we see that is limited.”
We are constantly encouraged to keep on travelling towards ‘…a destination always out of reach yet always providing a ‘marvellous journey’ on the way.’
The journey we are on not only alerts our perspective but leads us into higher and higher dimensions.
Those who study this work will discover cultural resonances, echoes of half remembered stories whether from comic books, or scientific and mathematical discoveries.
The notes at the back of the book are very helpful in explaining some of these and it might be a good idea to keep one finger in the back as you read so as to get the most out of the material.
I didn’t find it a quick read at all but took some time to study and marvel, not so much at the novelty of the approach but at the avenues that it opened up for further thought and exploration.
I loved it.

16 people found this helpful

Viv

Fantastic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 19, 2021

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Worth getting for the drawings alone. It is beautifully done and incorporates lots of concepts and ideas within Western philosophy that makes it a pleasure to read and gives you food for thought.

Scott_T

Do yourself a favour and buy this stunning book, you won't regret it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

I would, and regularly do, highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in ideas and how they interconnect. Nick beautifully intertwines ideas from science, literature, philosophy and poetry to explore the often tumultuous relationship between texts and visuals.

A book that is at the same time dense and light on its toes and unravels with each read.

Every time I read it, it blows my mind that the thinking and the stunning artwork came from the one mind.
.

6 people found this helpful

such a cool game

Powerful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

An amazing alternative realistic inclusive view to western education, food for thought imagination and change

2 people found this helpful

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