VAS: An Opera in Flatland

steve tomasula stephen farrell

Printed in the colors of flesh and blood, An Opera in Flatland —a hybrid image-text novel—demonstrates how differing ways of imagining the body generate diverse stories of history, gender, politics, and, ultimately, the literature of who we are.

A constantly surprising, VAS combines a variety of voices, from journalism and libretto to poem and comic book. Often these voices meet in counterpoint, and the meaning of the narrative emerges from their juxtapositions, harmonies, or discords. Utilizing a wide and historical sweep of representations of the body—from pedigree charts to genetic sequences— VAS is, finally, the story of finding one's identity within the double helix of language and lineage.

Genres fictionadultscience fictionartpoetrycomicsgraphic novels21st centuryschool

370 pages, Paperback

First published December 15,2002

This edition

Format: 370 pages, Paperback
Published: December 15, 2004 by University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226807409
ASIN: 0226807401
Language: English

About the author

steve tomasula

Steve Tomasula is the author of the novels The Book of Portraiture (FC2); VAS: An Opera in Flatland (University of Chicago Press), an acclaimed novel of the biotech revolution; TOC: A New-Media Novel (FC2/University of Alabama Press, and also as an multimedia app for iPad); and IN & OZ (University of Chicago Press). He is also the author of a collection of short fiction, Once Human: Stories. He most recently edited Conceptualisms: The Anthology of Prose, Poetry, Visual, Found, E- & Hybrid Writing as Contemporary Art, an anthology that brings together a wide variety of written works that stand in relation to traditional literature as conceptual visual art stands to traditional art. Ascension: A Novel, a novel about the end of Nature, is forthcoming this summer.

Incorporating narrative forms of all kinds—from comic books, travelogues, journalism or code to Hong Kong action movies or science reports—Tomasula's writing has been called a ‘reinvention of the novel.' He lives in Chicago, and can be found at www.stevetomasula.com