Figure and Force in Animation Aesthetics is a major intervention in the history of modernism. In this beautiful book, Pierson so carefully, so lovingly tracks the formal and philosophical seriousness of abstract animators -- Mary Beams, Robert Breer, Norman McLaren, to name only a few -- whose work has caused major categorical discomfort for scholars of popular narrative-based forms of animation, on the one hand, and for the gatekeepers of the modernist canon, on the other. Moreover, Pierson has opened up a whole new vocabulary for thinking about form in the realm of philosophical aesthetics. His conceptualizations of force, movement, figure, re-centering, illustrative and demonstrative metamorphosis alone will be with us, I predict, for a very long time. * Brian Price, Professor of Visual Studies, University of Toronto * Figure and Force in Animation Aesthetics constitutes a tour de force in animation studies. Rejecting conventional forms, Pierson turns to figure and force to overturn everything we thought we perceived in animation. Through careful analyses of animated films, Pierson shows how every distinct figure is a threshold, generated differentially through the force of the sensible, imperceptibly minute perceptions. But what makes this book so compelling and challenging is that Pierson does not stop there. Figure and force provide a springboard for asking how aesthetics orients questions of life and living -- exposure, complexity, alienation, love. * Thomas Lamarre, Duke University * Our theoretical terms and frameworks for understanding the moving image -- developed primarily through encounters with live-action media -- fit animation awkwardly, if at all. Pierson wipes that slate clean and starts anew with refreshing and insightful questions about animation and movement. His answers are stunning and elegant; no one who cares about animation can ignore them. This book will reset the conversation about what animation is. * Scott Curtis, Northwestern University *
