Noe’s Comics Nook: Sapiens – A Graphic History

Review

Graphic adaptations of books are a hit-or-miss affair. In far too many examples, rather than adapt the narrative or information to the medium, these adaptations simply add images, subtract a little text, and then say “voila! A comic!” as if there is no interplay between words and images. This is what I feared when taking on these first two volumes (of how many is unclear) of Sapiens: A Graphic Adaptation, which are adapted from historian Yuval Noah Harari’s book by the same name – luckily, I my fear was unfounded.

In these two volumes, we are introduced to characters living in a world that is effectively our own and centers around the adventures of Professor Harari and his niece Zoe as they travel across time and space to explore how humanity as we know it came to be. I say a world that is “effectively” our own because, even aside from the time travel, there are some fictions in place to help draw the reader more fully into the history. For example, we’ve got several series of comics within the comics that feature prehistoric humans that are used to advance understanding of social relations and choices in the past. There are also routine breaks in the comics where television series break in and aid in transitioning from one subtopic to another. Naturally, none of these in-comics kinds of media are available in the real world.

Overall, volume 1, The Birth of Humankind is more convincing than volume 2, The Pillars of Civilization, but the difference is slight and not because of the artwork or construction of the comic. Rather, it is the clarity of content and evidence that works better in volume 1; volume 2 gets a little into the weeds with the “everything is a fiction” point of view of civilization. Readers should be wary of hurting their wrists while reading these by the way! They are oversized, similar to paperback textbook size, and because of the paper and ink needed for quality comics printing, get heavy quickly. Heavy with knowledge, too, I suppose (I couldn’t resist).

Having read both the original and now these graphic adaptations, I would recommend reading these comics over the original any day. Casanave’s artwork makes much of the information more accessible, yes, but also enhances the appreciation for the history being discussed. It doesn’t hurt that humans are usually better able to empathize with the people we can see – so what better way to engender appreciation for our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great… grandparents than in comics?

Elements of Story

Plot: In these graphic adaptations of Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, we follow a cast of characters on a time and space-traveling journey to discover the who, what, where, when, why, and how of humankind.

Characters: Professor Harari, Zoe, Professor Saraswati, Doctor Fiction, Detective Lopez, numerous additional side characters

Major Settings: Earth, past and present

Themes: Anthropology, history, biology, humanity, climate, storytelling

Lesson Plan Idea Using Common Core Standards (CCS) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.3 – Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

Directions: The concluding section of Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1: The Birth of Humankind, is provocatively titled “Intercontinental Serial Killers,” and is focused on the path of extinction that seems to follow humans as they spread across the globe, beginning more than 50,000 years ago. Detective Lopez, alongside Professors Harari and Saraswati, track the expansion of humans across the millennia, gathering evidence for the culpability of humankind. The book ends with a massive trial against humankind – including those of us making decisions about how to live today – but I won’t spoil the outcome for you here.

For this assignment, students are tasked with evaluating the case presented against humanity in this chapter, using the full breadth of both volumes of Sapiens for the arguments, and ultimately deciding if the connection made between the expansion of humans in the distant past and the actions of the present is appropriate. Put more simply: what are the connections implied between the extinctions of the past and climate change today, and does it seem just to implicate humanity in both cases? Why or why not? To successfully complete this assignment, students should present at least 3 core arguments, citing explicit examples from the texts and from additional research. Estimated length is between 4 and 6 pages.