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the discovery

‘Unflattening’ by Nick Sousanis

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Can comic books communicate in ways that text alone cannot? Newly minted PhD Nick Sousanis says yes. His doctoral dissertation about visual thinking and seeing the world from multiple perspectives is said to be the first written and drawn entirely in comic book form. It has now been published as a book, “Unflattening” (Harvard University). 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

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