Logicomix: An epic search for truth

Given that I am not familiar with Russel's philosophical work, I was delighted that I was able to follow this with relatively little difficulty. I don't really think that it was meant to be an in-depth account of his theory, just a titillating introduction to further study. I also enjoyed the story in itself, as well as the creative self-referential style in which it was presented. I hope they do more on other intellectuals, I would certainly buy them.

Traumatic.The short stories and drawings are great, but this has taught me to fear studying rather than enjoying it. If you hope to become a mathematician or philosopher, you have been warned. If you already are one, I hope you don't go through this rabbit hole.

I was expecting to understand the philosphy of Russel Bertrand through this book , major portion of this book is devoted to the life of Russel , his personal struggles etc rather than his work and philosophy and places where his phlosophy is explained it looked vague, probably i lack the maturity to understand it, some day i would give it one more try , though the Art and graphics are above average overall a nice and bold effort.

This book is very interesting and extremely innovative. I think its great that the authors took the bold move to tackle the story of modern logic and philosophy in a graphic fashion. I'm not a ready of comics, but this was great.

The book tells the story, in comics, of the formalization of the foundations of mathematics by telling the story of Bertrand Russell (a philosopher and a mathematician) and other logicians of his time. Most of them were or turned crazy. Coincidence? The book asks this question and attempts, unsatisfactorily, to answer it. It is a well executed, unique, and engaging book about a subject which is typically too dry for general audience. But the book is scattered among too many themes and fails to find a coherent voice.

This book is beatiful comic art that tells a meaningfull story. The picture frames speak the prose that the captions leave out and complement the story masterfully. Unfortunately the fundamental undestanding of mathematical truth or of any other phylosophical understanding of truth is also left out of the rhotoric. Perhaps the author needs a fresh read on Spinoza and a clear understanding of emptiness to deliver on the promise of truth even if at a personal level.

This book is really very interesting: philosophy, logic and mathematics in a graphic novel form. The drawings are fine, the text very good, and amusing. Highly recomended for everyone who likes philosophy, and even for who dislike it.

The beauty of ideas,graphic art,& rational pursuits combined with the age old problem of a search for certainty and its elusiveness makes this an exceptional read. i found myself reviewing lost loves and regreting unpursued goals. A great experience.

It's interesting because, using the logicians and their history in the between wars period in the XXth S, the authors sugest that some kind of mental chaos-related illness is behind the obsession of that people in logic and in absolute truth.

Great pictures and dialogues.

The primary narrative on Betrand Russell is entertaining enough, but the self-referential asides to the artist are constantly interrupting the flow, and apart from that they are annoyingly not well-written. I'm literally having to skip all the parts where they cut back to the artists (about a third of the book) in order to make it through.

Overly dramatic and too superficial to be of interest to anyone who reads Russell.

Had I not read Russell's biography and at least some of his more technical work, I might have enjoyed it more.

Perhaps for a budding high school student who hasn't encountered Russell in his own words.

"logicomix" attempts to tell the story of the early twentieth century effort on the parts of some of the most brilliant minds in the mathematical community to provide a foundation for mathematics. for the most part, this graphic novel fails in its noble attempt. those who already know this material will likely find the treatment here quite lacking in depth and also erroneous at times. those who are seeing this material for the first time will likely not understand the entire enterprise as presented. however, some lenience should be granted to the two authors of "logicomix" because of the difficulty of the subject matter, especially since the authors are neither mathematicians nor philosophers.

the actual ideas hold second stage to the drama in this graphic novel. right from the beginning, the authors tell the reader that "logicomix" is not meant as a textbook on the philosophy of mathematics. indeed. one of the authors is a computer scientist and the treatment of the subject matter here is perverted to fit his perspective as a computer scientist. it's a shame that "logicomix" wasn't written with the consultation of a mathematician or a logician or a philosopher instead.

the narrative is choppy and contains stilted dialogue. i groaned at one point when a character explicitly states that he is using the reductio ad absurdum in a proof. other times, the exposition of the ideas clashes with the drama and both are diminished as a result. for example, the authors chose the truth values of paths in a maze as a means of explaining the logical connectives "and" and "or." there are simpler ways of explaining this and, furthermore, the difference between "and" and "or" is probably obvious to most of the potential readers in the first place. the authors chose the maze example in order to illustrate a budding romance between bertrand russell and his first wife alys, but the pedantic explanations just get in the way.

ultimately, the graphic novel is probably an inadequate format to present the philosophy of mathematics to a wide audience. "logicomix" was perhaps too ambitious an undertaking.

Great ideas, solid artwork, but why the graphic novel form? I really wanted to like this book, and I wouldn't say I disliked it, simply that it added nothing either to what I knew -- or to my experience of -- the philosophers and philosophies it treats. If you've never read Russell, Godel, or Wittgenstein, this is a fine (and gentle) introduction to their lives and minds. If you have, there's not much here to edify or entertain -- save for the graphics themselves. I greatly respect the author's/illustrator's choice of subject matter and form, and can well understand why this book enjoyed an appreciative reception by many readers, but it didn't do much for me.

I read "Uncle Petros" in the original Greek and loved it. On the evidence of the dialogue in "Logicomix," the author, an amateur mathematician, has a much better command of the Greek language than any other, and I presume that's what's steered him toward the comic format here.

It's mighty successful!

There's poetic license here, a lot of interpretation, a fair amount of vanity (I once went to a lecture where Doxiadis spoke and he's a lot thinner in "Logicomix" than in real life) but the bottom line is that the book is vastly entertaining, highly instructive and paints a deep, complex portrait of Bertrand Russell, takes you though his relationships with the mathematicians and logicians he worked with, including Frege, Whitehead, Wittgenstein and Godel and as an added bonus teaches you a fair amount of logic.

It's easy to complain that it's not complete, or that it's not fully accurate etc. but IT'S A COMIC BOOK for crying out loud. If you want more there are libraries out there.

I guess the ultimate measure of the book's success will be if I find it in me to schlep over to Imperial and take out a couple books on logic...

The dialogue reads like a mediocre translation from a European language, which is fine for the present-day characters (their speech sounds all the more authentic), but throwing in the odd "jolly good" isn't enough to make the Brits' English pass.

The multilayer narrative appears to serve no purpose other than to indulge the creators' vanity by putting them in the story. You expect a Borgesian revelation-through-structure, but instead you get intrusive commentary that provides no insight.

The actual story, on the other hand, is engaging and enlightening. I'd like to see a future edition shorn of everything but the core. Then it would get five stars.

Let me first say that this book was highly entertaining. The only other gravic novel I have tried to read was Watchmen; being told that it was the best ever, let's just say I got 10 pages into Watchmen and stopped out of agonizing boredom. With Logicomix however, I read this in one sitting. That's right; one sitting. I even came to a point where I told myself I was going to stop to take a quick break but upon reading the heading of a new chapter...I couldn't stop myself from continuing. So, If I were to rate this book based off of entertainment, it easily gets its five stars.

On another note, I'm very interested in philosophy. Though I've never taken a single philosophy course, I've read enough to be familiar with the basic sketch of the history of western philosophy over the last 100 years. That being said, though I found this book very entertaining, I didn't really learn anything new. In fact, at times it seemed like just a single point was made on a philosopher and then they were no longer discussed. This felt very superficial to me... It's like being taken to a party and the moment you're just about to have an interesting conversation with one person, you get grabbed by the hand to meet another..somewhat unsettling and disattisfying..

That being said, I really didn't learn anything new.. It was a bummer. I also felt like they overglorified The Vienna Circle. They mention that the Vienna Circle went down through an assasination and did make it clear that the Vienna Circle was birthed out of misunderstanding Wittgenestein. However, I was surpised they never mentioned how inefficient the positivists' modus operandi was regarding communicating in science itself. Nor did it even explain, let alone 'mention' that the positivist paradigm is self-refuting..this is common knowledge in contemporary philosophy. Moreover, they made Herbert to be such a favoror of the infinite. Yet Herbert himself showed how absurd life would be if the infinite existed (Hilbert's Hotel)...thus desproving actual infinite through reductio ad absurdem. Given to these superficial dynamics, on an educational level I'd give this book a 3.

So on one hand, I had fun! It was cool to see some of my favorite philosophers thrown into cartoon form and see them come-to-life, so to speak. Nevertheless, unless you're brand new to philosophy, don't expect a new depth of understanding on what's happened in math or philosophy over the last 100 years...and if you are new, don't expect everything to be painted correctly..nevertheless, this can be a nice springboard into study or a fun fall into the rabbit hole if you're used to more rigorous philosophy books. That being said, I give this book 4 stars.

I probably never would have come near this book without reading many glowing reviews, so I'm fortunate that those first adopters put in the effort. This is a wonderful introduction to the key people and ideas in the philosophy of certainty and the foundations of mathematics in the late 19th and early 20th century. I have read/heard a number of other books/lectures on these topics, and this book clearly and faithfully manages to cover the main points. As the authors point out in the afterward, it's not to be taken as a history, but rather historical fiction that aims to illuminate, and in this it succeeds brilliantly. The graphic novel form drew me in, and I think it would draw in others who otherwise might be ambivalent about or even resistant to otherwise reading/thinking about the subject. To me this is the greatest success of the book - leading more people to consider these important and difficult questions of certainty and meaning will advance the ongoing philosophical debate and perhaps more quickly lead to further insights.

This book is a masterful example of how a graphic novel can trace a historical story. This is life of Bertrand Russell, told within a frame narrative, and with flashbacks and flash forwards. Really beautiful art and fascinating storytelling.

Apostolos Doxiadis (author of Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession) moves into the comic book format to tell his second story of mathematical semi-fiction, using the philosopher, logician and mathematician Bertrand Russell (Principia Mathematica) as his focus, telling a story of obsession for ultimate truths, and the ultimate consequences of many who follow that unending path.

"Logicomix" is not strictly a biography of Russell, nor an introduction to his philosophies, as Doxiadis makes it clear from the beginning that he is interested in telling a story, not making a comic book guide to logic. There is some truth here, but many meetings are fictionalized or purely invented, as Doxiadis allows the fiction to take precedence over the facts, and allows the things to progress along the idea of what makes a better story rather than what really happened.

Doxiadis is joined in his quest by Christos H. Papadimitriou (author of Turing (A Novel about Computation)) who represents a different viewpoint, and illustrators Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, all of who are both contributors and characters in the story. There are several "stories within a story" both in discussions between the team on how best to continue, what are the major points of Russell's life, and what is the meaning of their work. All of this helps contribute to the drama, contributing human elements to the complex world of math and logic, and give laymen's points of view for the less knowledgeable.

My math and logic knowledge is less than it should be, but I found "Logicomix" to be an incredible comic, one that I raced through captivated. I opened the cover, and was sucked into the story, never letting go until the very end. I even read through all of the extensive biographical sections and end-notes that contributed to the overall enjoyment of the story.

Papadatos and Di Donna's art work was beautiful, with clean lines and a very European style. They made great use of the comic format, achieving things that could not have been achieved in a non-visual medium. Because the story was at the forefront, I didn't come away with any elevated sense of Russell's philosophy, but I did come to know him as a human being, and gained insight into the type of obsession that drives some people to sacrifice everything in their search.

Somehow, these authors made it work. This title had already aroused my curiosity, even before the recent review in Science magazine. The authors have plenty of material for a great story, including personalities like Bertrand Russell, Kurt Goedel, Cantor, Peano, Frege, and others - many of whom weren't wrapped too tight. (The theme of logic and insanity runs deeply throughout this book.) Then there's the mathematical truth itself, the attempt to build a foundation solid enough to support the towering palace of mathematics, and the troubling holes that self-reference kept punching through its walls. And, if anyone could make the story work, it would be the authors, who have individually published math-based fiction of their own centered on Alan Turing and on the famous Goldbach conjecture.

Anyone already interested in math will find the story fascinating. In math, as in any other advanced research, the researcher's personality defines the area of interest. As you may guess, it takes a very distinctive personality to dive so deeply into the minutiae of mathematical reasoning, and find mystery where everyone else sees obvious fact. Then there is the upbringing, strange to modern eyes, that shaped that personality. Like Picasso or Einstein, an image emerges of profound and brilliant work coming from the mind of a deeply flawed man. That, I think, will hold the general reader's attention - the seeming contradiction between the crystalline jewels of mathematical logic and the dirt behind the personalities that created those jewels.

Logicomix makes a distinctive addition to the burgeoning world of graphic novels. They arguably started in the fine arts tradition, with works by Ward,Nuckel, and others. Then, starting around the 1970s, the term 'graphic novel' came to mean an extended comic book. The more recent generation, identifiable in the late 1990s but blossoming in the last decade, extends graphic novels into the mainstream of literature. Although Larry Gonick used the graphic novel effectively in presenting many non-fiction subjects, this uses the visual format to present a genuine biography and history of mathematics using fictional narrative. Truly, books like this make it an exciting time to read graphic novels.

- wiredweird

A graphic novel-comic book devoted to the ideas of Bertrand Russell is an interesting and ambitious idea. This is not exactly, however, what this generally entertaining book is about. As described in some of the opening panels, a major theme of Logicomix, perhaps the major theme, is the relationship between the search for absolute truth and insanity. This is a considerably more murky theme. The authors have seized on the fact that there was history of insanity - schizophrenia in Russell's family and that some other logicians and mathematicians concerned with the fundamentals of mathematics, notably the great Kurt Godel and Georg Cantor, became mentally ill. Using Russell's career as an armature, the authors present a pretty entertaining story about the search of absolutely secure foundations for mathematics. Their implication, however, seems to be that the search for this kind of absolute either leads to or is perhaps an attempt to escape certain types of madness. They also attempt to link denial of rationality to other forms of madness, notably political phenomena like Nazism. This is done partly through the primary story and partly through insertion of a secondary story involving the Oresteia. The authors seem to conclude with endorsement of a form of pragmatism.

Partly because of the ambition of the themes, the final effect is not entirely coherent. The authors have naturally taken some artistic license with actual events but in the process commit some significant errors. They appear to present the Vienna Circle as some form of metaphysical positivists, when I think its more accurate to describe them as being interested in very precise descriptions of how humans describe reality. Frege's anti-Semitism was not a manifestation of mental illness but rather a very common prejudice among people of his class and generation, and indeed, quite typical of German academics in this period.

To summarize briefly, this graphic novel is about Bertrand Russell's life, from his early years through his quest to establish the fundamentals of mathematics on purely logical grounds so that everything is consistent and provable. He fails in this mission, but makes some very important discoveries along the way.

The story is very well-paced and structured in the form of a flashback within a story within a story. On the first level, the artists and writers have put themselves in the book, talking about Mr. Russell and a lecture which he gave at an unnamed American university in 1939, at the beginning of World War II. The second narrative level is Russell at the lecture, talking to a room full of students. The third level is Russell's own recollections of his past, which are part of his lecture and take the form of flashbacks. The novel cuts back and forth between young Russell doing his work, old Russell giving his talk, and the authors talking about all of it and discussing finer points of philosophy, logic, and mathematics. This formal structure, as well as the pacing, remind me strongly of Art Spiegelman's _Maus_. The structural complexity as well as the sheer length of the story gave me a really satisfied feeling after reading it. Here's a graphic novel you can really sink your teeth into!

The artwork is very good... easy to look at. Character designs are simple, clean, economical but expressive. I was impressed that the artist was able to show the characters getting older over time and achieve it with so few lines. The color looks great (though the advance copy only has 26 pages of color, and the rest is black & white, the publisher's blurb says "color throughout" so based on what I've got I assume the whole book looks as good as those first 26 pages.)

The subject matter is somewhat dry and "intellectual" though it is made more interesting by focusing the narrative more on the people than on their theories. A "notebook" in the back provides short biographies of important characters as well as brief summaries of various terms and concepts. Much of this material will be familiar to anyone who read Douglas Hofstadter's _Godel, Escher, Bach_ though here in _Logicomix_ I felt some of it was harder to understand since it was not as fully explained.

All in all, pretty good work. Even if math isn't your thing, it's still an interesting story, and you will probably learn something from it. Definitely worth a look.

This is the story of a brilliant thinker, who only late in life considered the question whether and how his thinking had bearing upon his life. Whatever you think of his overall importance to the history of philosophy, Bertrand Russell was certainly a giant in his time, and his work on the logical foundations of mathematics set the stage for radically new thoughts about logic and mathematics that continue to bear fruit. This graphic novel provides an entertaining and quick account of those ideas and their impact, while focusing on the man whose obsession with order and proof can be interpreted as attempts to overcome the anxieties and uncertainties of his childhood.

The story of ideas hinges upon discoveries that no system of thought can be complete and each system always leaves something out: that a set cannot consistently contain reference to itself (Russell), and that in any logical system there will always be propositions that are unprovable within the parameters of that system (Godel), or that there are always axioms that must be taken for granted and as long as they are self consistent there are no higher standards to which one might appeal (Hilbert). The underlying question of the story is what would drive these deeply intelligent men to obsess so strongly over order and foundations that appear on the face of it to be disconnected with questions of happiness and meaning and the general conduct of life. While the stories of these men suggest answers, it is nice that there is also a voice (that of one of the authors, all of whom are depicted in this story within a story within a story), a voice that cautions against putting too much credence in psychological explanations of genius or reading too much importance into the biography behind the ideas. Above all, for this author, it is the ideas themselves that endure and the important questions have to do whether these ideas are justified, and what we can do with them.

It all amounts to a very intriguing graphic novel and a fun read. There's nothing radical or groundbreaking here, either in terms of storytelling or ideas or graphics, but it is an intriguing story, with interesting ideas, and engaging pictures. I picked it up in an afternoon and didn't want to put it down until I'd gotten through it all a few hours later. The ideas were not new to me, and for the most part I found them to be accurately depicted. For more on Bertrand Russell, both the man and his ideas, see Ray Monk's fascinating two volume biography BERTRAND RUSSELL: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921 &Bertrand Russell: 1921-1970, The Ghost of Madness or for more on Ludwig Wittgenstein, who is probably not done justice in Logicomix, read Ray Monk's brilliant Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. I think, though, that this would be an entertaining and enjoyable read and a good introduction for anyone interested in ideas, and anyone who likes good stories, but especially for anyone with an interest in philosophy or logic or mathematics or computers. The book includes a useful and accurate appendix with entries on all the major ideas and thinkers the story addresses, so that this really can be read and appreciated by one who has very little familiarity with the math and logic and philosophy that animated the lives of the thinkers depicted here.

This book is surprisingly very engaging and I read it in a couple hours. I'm a developer of logic-based AI and I still learned something new from the book about the history of logic around Russell's time. (Note that the book isn't literally factual as the authors have acknowledged, but at a conceptual level it is very truthful.)

It is also clever as it comments on the two World Wars with a conclusion from the Oresteia trilogy, leaving it somewhat open to interpretation.

It's interesting that quite a few logicians went crazy in their later lives, including Emil Post, Georg Cantor, and Kurt Godel (there are probably more!) I guess if you look hard enough, you can find crazy people in all walks of life. For instance, Howard Huges had a similar food-poison paranoia as Godel.

The story seems to have some morals:

1. Russell changed his pacifist stance to support full-scale warfare in WW2 (the "lesser evil" argument)

2. Democracy can be a solution to endless cycles of revenge

3. Reason alone is insufficient to make meaning of the world

to which I want to add:

1. Most people think that the Nazi's are horrible because of their anti-Semitism, but they often overlook the fact that Winston Churchill also actively maintained the British Raj in India at about the same time. Thus WW2 is like a racist condemning another racist.

In a war, the two sides cannot be right at the same time -- that's logical. But they can be both wrong -- that's also logical.

2. Democracy eventually failed Athens. Every civilization creates its myths of superiority, and the Greek dramas were no exception.

But the book is overall very entertaining and worth reading. I don't think people should criticize it just because it is simplistic or at layperson's level. One can read tomes on WW2 or mathematical logic but that is not the point of this book, right?

What a wonderful blend! This graphic novel really isn't just a biography of Bertrand Russell, even though it does mention quite a few things that he did in his professional and personal life. I rather saw this book as a story dealing with two main themes -which incidentally were major themes in Russell's own life:

1) The major crisis that mathematics and philosophy went through between late 19th century and early 20th century, related to the search for absolute "truth".
2) Things beyond the scope of exact science, for example: education, or the ethical choices of war.

With respect to theme 1, all the major players appear, and the part they played is presented clearly enough, if only too briefly: Aristotle, Euclid, Boole, Cantor, Frege, Poincare, Russel himself of course, Whitehead, the Vienna circle, Hilbert, Wittgenstein, Gödel, Von Neumman, Turin, and some others I might be forgetting. I really liked the way the book showed how 2000+ years of mathematical "knowledge" and "truth" and tradition were questioned and shaken by just a few sharp and passionate (even obssessive) minds in just a few decades before WWII. Also, I like how the book links this apparently purely theoretical crisis with something very practical that was born right then as a consequence of the aftermath: namely, the computer!

With respect to theme 2, the book rather unexpectedly deals with much more than math and logic. It also deals with things clearly beyond the scope of exact science: ethical choices; oppression vs. freedom, and the role of democracy in the realm of the "non-exact" human affairs. How ethical choices are beyond the "facts of science"; how right or wrong might it be, for example, to join a specific war. What is the best way to educate our kids?

With respect to the second theme, the book closes (very appropriately, in my opinion) with references to the ending of "The Oresteia", by Aeschylus: Athena, goddess of wisdom, against the furies, deciding the sentence of a murderer. As odd as that might sound in a comic book like this, this was hugely opportune to give closure to theme 2, and I think it was a wonderful choice. I have now added the Oresteia to my soon-to-read book list.

A smaller theme was one connecting mathematical brilliance with insanity. How even brilliant minds, in particular those working on methods to prove things right, can go absolutely berserk, and how logic, as any other tool, can be used for very dark purposes.

The afterword of the book is an oddly named "Notebook" section of 20+ pages, which is actually a sort of glossary, including terms as well as short biographies of characters mentioned in the book. This "glossary" in and of itself is really excellent.

A possible second book is hinted, dealing with the history of computer science and computing. I hope the authors do work on it and publish it. Looking forward to it.

In conclusion, a very entertaining read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Bertrand Russell, and/or philosophy, logic, mathematics, and/or the baby steps of computer science, and/or ethics in general, or in particular, the ethics of war.

In a world where no other books competed for your valuable reading time (a finite resource), I'd have no hesitation in giving this book five stars. It's fun to read, executed with charm and flair (some might say chutzpah), and one has to admire the authors' sheer nerve in dreaming it up. Hell, you'll even learn a thing or two. A selective biography of Russell (with a few minor alterations), with cameo appearances by the various mathematical and philosophical luminaries who worked on the logical foundations of mathematics early in the last century. These were some tormented individuals; several became unhinged in later life (Frobe, Cantor, Godel), others struggled with a family history of mental imbalance (Russell, Hilbert). So the story is not dull. The authors' effort to explain the issues involved is a valiant one, but cannot avoid falling victim to the intrinsic limitations of the form. In the end, the most the reader can hope to take away from a graphic novel like this is a cartoon understanding of what all the fuss was about.

Judged on its own terms, the book is a success - it's entertaining and well executed. The inherent limitations prevent me from giving it more than four stars, however. Anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the fundamental issues raised in the book will need to look for answers further afield.

As an avid reader of all genres: sci-fi, economics, contemporary and classic fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, even science, I never thought I could be surprised by a book. Logicomix has done it. This is a genre-shattering work of genius.

Logicomix is a graphic novel of the story of Bertrand Russell's pursuit of the "foundations of mathematics." The authors (math geniuses in their own right) explore how the intellectual giants of the 20th century struggled with the fundamental questions of math, logic, and philosophy.

Before reading this book, I only knew Bertrand Russell through his dry "History of Western Philosophy." Logicomix creates a semi-fictional account of his efforts to find out if mathematics can be absolutely logical, provable, consistent, "real."

This book gives us brief introductions to Boolean logic, the seminal Mathematica Principia, Euclidean geometry, and philosophy. It's the first time in which I've had to put a graphic novel down to think about the implications of what I'd just read.

The authors are ambitious, asking many questions such as "does pure logical thought have to lead to madness?" "Why is there a thin line between mathematical genius and insanity?" Some of the questions are very timely with the current Wall Street meltdown due to over-reliance on mathematical models. "What is the limit of human understanding? What is the meaning of infinity?"

Russell pursues the hope that everything in mathematics and the physical world can ultimately be explained by rational thought, by pure logic. We still don't know if math is absolutely true and logical. Pure logic powers our computers, running millions of them successfully around the world. So it seems obvious that math is consistent. Russell, with his paradox, concludes that his quest for absolute truth is a failure, and that even mathematics cannot be considered "complete" and logical.

The authors reach their ultimate conclusion on page 296 when Russell says:

"Reflect on this please: if even in Logic and Mathematics, the paragons of certainty, we cannot have perfect assurances of Reason, then even less can this be achieved in the messy business of human affairs - either private, or public!"

He continues:

"Even now, I believe that Logic is a most powerful tool... as far as it goes. When it comes to talking about human life, it certainly isn't!... All the facts of science are not enough to understand the world's meaning....Listen: take my story as a cautionary tale...it tells you that applying formulas is not good enough - not, that is, when you're faced with really hard problems."

Logicomix comes to a dramatic finale with the Greek tragedy Orestia, adding even more explanation to Russell's (and mankind as a whole's) quest for perfect rational thought.

Don't let the subject matter of Logicomix scare you away! Of course, if I was a college or high school math instructor, I would have all of my students read this book on day one of the course. But I would also hand this book to a poet, a musician, an actress, or a stock analyst to read. Logicomix succeeds on so many levels that I believe it will be universally enjoyed by a much wider audience than is readily apparent.

Logicomix is a masterpiece, and in the top 20 of the 3000 or so books I've read. Of all the graphic novels I've ever read, there are now TWO that stand together, above them all: Watchmen and Logicomix.

The authors hint within Logicomix that their next book may be the history of the computer. I can only hope they are busy at work on that project today.

This is a wonderful format and account of the life and work of Bertrand Russell - as it relates to his major intellectual effort - Principia Mathematica - [...] The graphic novel is an excellent vehicle for portraying in a simple-graspable way very complicated information. This book manages to convey the personal life, the intellectual context and the ideas of Russell in a way that despite the simplicity of its format - does not lose its complexity. The book provides the psychological background/baggage of Russell that represents the narrative that structured his reasoning and his journey.

This simple graphic novel presents some fundamental turning points in our intellectual frameworks that popular and lots of scientific cultures have still not grasped. The moments of Godel's proofs that no set of axioms can prove themselves as true from within their propositions- the fundamental destruction of the aim of Russell's lifework to provide the concrete uncontestable foundation of mathematics. It introduces the new cadre of Godel, Von Neuman (who on hearing Godel's paper new `it was over' and Turing). For anyone interested in the mathematical foundations of science - but has no mathematical knowledge this is a must read. I highly recommend this book and am very grateful for receiving it as a gift.

Logicomix is a historical fiction piece that gives a very accessible explanation for some of the most important ideas in modern mathematics and philosophy. At first it seems not only unconventional, but ridiculous to have such concepts put into this artistic medium, but somehow they pull it off and they pull it off exceptionally. I found myself engaged and enthralled by the atmosphere that the artists created. There were just enough details without having a sense of being overwhelmed by information and at times I was able to simply enjoy the art and story. The characters were unique and exciting, despite most of them being dead and obsessed with math, of all things, while they were alive. At times lighthearted, but deeply layered with an inner struggle to find knowledge of our vague understanding of reality, this story is a great read for all people who desire to better understand truth.

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I went through this in one sitting, unable to stop reading.

This is a graphic novel of the history of Western logic - it's written by a mathematician with heavy input from a computer science theorist (both Greek, very appropriate for the subject). It uses a recursive, self-referential narrative format which has you at least six levels deep at times if you include yourself reading the book, but remarkably is quite easy to follow. The art helps, as each character is drawn different enough that you can keep track of who's who even when they're mostly clean cut men in suits and there are subtle art style changes when you switch reference frames. I never got confused.

Bertrand Russell giving a lecture about his life is the primary framing device, but the construction of the book itself with all the authors as characters is the outer facade, and worked in everywhere are the deeper themes of World War I and II and the strange predilection of logicians towards insanity (or is it vice versa?)

This leads towards the conclusion which brings in a performance of the ancient Greek play Oresteia - you may not recognize the name, but it's also known as The Revenge Cycle and includes Clytemnestra and the Furies.

There is, perhaps surprisingly, not a lot of math - all you have to be able to follow is 1+1=2 and that 'This statement is a lie,' is a self-referential paradox. The authors specifically comment on this - _Logicomix_ is more about the personalities and the broad flow of logical theory; the themes of hope and despair; and how do you know what you really know?

It reminded me very much of Jim Ottaviani's books, particularly Suspended In Language : Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, And The Century He Shaped, and the excellent comic book series Action Philosophers Giant-Size Thing Vol. 1. If you've read Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid a lot of the theory side of this will be familiar as well.

The only disappointment, really, is that it appears that the book was all designed in color but they could only afford to do the first 20 pages in color on high quality gloss paper. And my preview copy has some black and white printing defects where half-tones are unevenly inked. I'd gladly pay $50 for the all-glossy all-color version of this.

I'd like to rant more about some very clever narrative devices, but I won't - just buy the book.

I'm pretty well versed in philosophy, not so much in mathematics. This book appealed to me because I've only just started appreciating the constraints and opportunities of graphic novels as a medium for literature. I was interested in how the authors would translate the subject matter to the genre.

Overall I found Logicomix to be successful. The work piqued my interest in Russell and his life's work. Other reviewers mention that the book is dry and reads more like a textbook. I think it's quite the opposite. It left me wanting further explanation of the concepts. I felt like the book's flaw was tied to its waffling between wanting to present Russell's biographical story and providing an introduction to the thinker's theories. I think with further revision, both could have come through stronger.

Who should read this book? Anyone with an interest in graphic novels, mathematics, or philosophy. While it's not perfect, its an interesting way to see all three topics in a new light.

The comics medium had long been considered a simplistic medium appealing only to the youngest of our society and frequently told tales of adolescent power fantasies wrapped in a garish wardrobe. But with innovative writers such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis....it was apparent that the comics medium has the potential to be so much more. This brings me to my review of Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth.

The book basically is an imaginative philosophy book told with the marriage of arts and words. In it's most simple description, it chronicles the intellectual journey of Bertrand Russell about the pursuit of the foundations of mathematics. Along his journey he crosses paths with other legendary thinkers and philosophers. This book is not an easy read but it is a very unique and rewarding experience. It tells a solid tale while at the same time pushes the envelope of what the comics medium can achieve. Recommended.

Logicomix, a biographical graphic novel written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou and illustrated by Alecos Papadatos, Annie Di Donna, Dimitris Karazaferis, and Thodoris Paraskevas, is a story about logic and mathematics, focusing on the late-18th/early-19th century mathematician Bertrand Russell.

(In this case Logic means the study of methodical thinking. Logicians apply Logic to any problems that need solving, be they math, social issues, or anything else)

Troubled as a child by the presence of mental illness in his family, Russell found refuge in the one thing that consistently made sense: math. While attending Cambridge Russell found a flaw in the fundations of mathematics, that being that instead of accepting axioms as givens (i.e. 1+1=2) even those axioms have to be proven in order for any math based on them to be valid. This quest to fix the foundations of mathematics was shared with other contemporaries and was the main focus of Russells career.

We are being told the story of Apostolos telling Christos of the story of Bertrand Russell speaking at a University, telling the story of his life. Despite that complicated premise the story is easy to follow. I admit I didn't always understand the math, but the it's clear enough when the characters are happy or unhappy with the concepts, and that's the main focus of the story. The characters are clearly illustrated, expressive and easy to tell apart.

I admit that when I read the high brow concept of this graphic novel, I was a bit intimidated. I in the end I found it to be a very readable biography.

Logicomix is an attempt to portray in graphic novel form the life of Bertrand Russell , the famous mathematician and logician, who like Einstein, longed to fashion a completely rational model of how the universe works. But instead of doing it with physics, Russell wanted to do it with logic, math, and language. He wanted to take mankind back to an almost Eden-like state, at least in terms of purity and elegance of thought. Bertrand was looking for something Pre-Babel. And it was probably a failed quest. So what brought about this quest? For one thing, a fear of going crazy. Another would be a reaction and guard against his own Existentialist leanings. Early on in his life, living with his grandparents, Russell finds out that his proverbial crazy uncle is locked up in a room in the mansion. Fearing that he too might end up mad, Bertrand considers committing suicide. But the thought that madness can be held off indefinitely by Reason and Logic saves him. One of the things that constantly bothers him is the fact that mathematics is resting on some paradoxical notions which interfere with his goal of "certain knowledge". He will devote the rest of his life to rewriting and correcting, sometimes even reinventing the foundations of math. This quest will at times make a normal life distant and unreachable as he strives with numerals, theories, and proofs, at the expense of his humanity.

The creators of Logicomix enter into the book in metafictional asides, showing how and why Logicomix was made. Apostolos Doxiadis, the writer, a novelist and math prodigy is the main mover of the project and he thinks that Rusell's life is a large heroic story equal to any heroes in epics such as the Iliad or the Odyssey. And I pretty much have to agree with him. People who spend their entire lives devoted to extending man's knowledge of the world and the cosmos have to be heroic to make any progress in what seems to be an endlessly complicated universe. The book only very rarely soared over my head, and when it did, there were intermissions by Logicomix's writers and artists to help explain hard concepts in layman's terms. There is also a useful glossary at the back of the book. I enjoyed the book even though the subject does not lend itself to a fast readthrough. I hate math. And the idea of reading about a mathematican's life didn't get me very excited. But Logicomix was entertaining and reminds me a lot of Japanese manga. In the sense that you can do comics about subjects other than superheroes and still make things interesting. I wish there was a bigger market for graphic novels and comics like this.

Logicomix follows the life of logician Bertrand Russell. Flipping through the first few pages I was hooked and knew this book was going home with me. Three days later I turned the last page and was so glad I had taken a chance on a book about a subject I struggled with my whole life. Logicomix is super readable and I love the artwork. The authors' story telling is totally immersive. I had to force myself to put it down each night, I'm a little old for all nighters! I now have my eye on Apostolos' other book, which is also about mathematics.

Logicomix tells a fictionalized biography of famed mathematician, philosopher, and peace activist Bertrand Russell. The story begins with Russell's childhood. Sent to live with his grandparents at an early age, little Bertie chafes under the repressive, secretive, and authoritarian rule of his grandmother. Seeking an alternative to his grandmother's oppressive fundamentalist Christianity, he soon embraces mathematics as the rock of pure reason and the foundation of all knowledge. It is not long , however, he finds cracks in his new "faith" when he learns that the axioms that underlie mathematical proofs are themselves unprovable by the same methods. Troubled by this, Russell embarks on a life-long intellectual quest to bring logical certainty to the foundation of mathematic theory. In doing so, he gradually learns to use his reason to serve the human community he had long neglected in his relentless pursuit of knowledge.

The comic is visually appealing. The cartoon style is not my personal preference, but the lines are nice and clean and the colors bright without being garish. Russell's story is told first person in the context of a lecture. The point of view switches casually between the lecture hall, Russell's past, and scenes of the creators of Logicomix discussing the work as they write it. At first I found these interruptions by the creators somewhat disruptive and irritating. Occasionally it seemed that they were merely reiterating the main themes of the story, as if they were afraid that the audience might be too thick to understand without prodding. In later chapters these discussions got more interesting, and everything ties together nicely at the end. The story was engaging, moving fairly easily between abstract conversations and forays into events in Russell's personal life and in the world at large. A dose of dry humor helped alleviate some of the darkness without undermining the more sober overarching themes of the book. I was hoping to learn a little more about the philosophy that comes into play here, but the authors were upfront in the introduction that the ideas would be secondary to telling about Russell's life. As a result, the story moves briskly as Russell encounters various contemporary thinkers and their theories. The authors included a glossary at the back with a page or so about each of the major people and concepts in the work. This helped me keep the various names and ideas straight as I read, but did not add a great deal of theoretical knowledge. Overall I felt that Logicomix piqued my interest in these ideas and gave me a glimmer of comprehension rather than real understanding.

Obviously I'm not a math or philosophy wiz myself, so I'm not sure if a mathematician would appreciate this dramatic take on Russell's life or simply see these century-old debates as old news. I would recommend it most to people who enjoy dramatic character studies, especially those that deal with "tormented genius" type figures such as Pollock or A Beautiful Mind.

Logicomix is a comic about the history of Logic. It focuses on Bertrand Russell's life, but the main theme of the book is Logic. It gives good reasons to care about the topic and it gives very good ways of explaining different difficult mathematical concepts.

The comic also breaks the fourth wall a bit by showing us how the creators were having difficulty in terms of how much mathematics to show and how to move the story along. I really liked this breaks in the story.

One scene I loved in the book is a scene where Bertrand Russell explains the different kinds of infinity to his girlfriend by using the notion of an infinite hotel (Hilbert's hotel). It reminded me of many times when I have excitedly explained interesting mathematics to my wife. It made me laugh, as Bertrand's girlfriend seemed as interested in the story as my wife (which is, not much).

I highly recommend this book.

Story of my afternoon: get mail, open the store package, begin to flip through book, 3 hours later "oops, where'd the afternoon go?" And a little confession: B.A. in philosophy with senior thesis on model theory; retired computer nerd; fan of Apostolos Doxiadis' Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture.

Yes, a graphic novel/comic book based on Bertrand Russell seems an unlikely project. Then again, only a truly creative mind would be foolish enough to try it - especially in a "postmodern" style including the creators of the book in the book and adding flashes of Aeschylus' Oresteia as an interpretive foil. Logicomix does this and works making battles of the intellect riveting and interesting, raising issues of pairing logic/madness, acknowledging the irreducibility of reality to human logic while acknowledging the power of algorithms esp. re. computers.

Equally interesting,however, is the pacifistic Russell confronting the dilemma of WWII - one frame of this multiframed story. My only complaint - my personal preference is for less darkly inked comics...but I adjusted quickly.

It is a remarkable and moving graphic novel about the logical and philosophical underpinnings of computer science. Using self reference and some invention, they trace the story of Bertrand Russel from the precursors of modern mathematical logic (Hilbert and Poincare) to his impact on Wittgenstein, Godel, Turing and Von Neumann. It is wonderfully written and drawn, and perhaps needed two Greek authors to put so much attention into the logical and mathematical detail they provide. It's also a devastating story of the mental anguish and illness that so often accompanied the actors in the story.

I cried as I inhaled the last third of the book. I grew up in awe of the great thinkers of this book, but I didn't understand how they fit together. The Greek guys make a comprehensible and riveting story that parallels the Greek tragedy Oresteia, which they also depict.

They intend to follow this book with an equivalent story of the early years of the development of the computer science, and with stories like Turing's they will have no dearth of dramatic and tragic material.

Highly recommended.

For some people the certainty of ideas provides a rock to cling in the stormy sea of life's uncertainty and change. At one time religion commonly provided this certainty. When science challenged religion, showing that the world did not fit the myths of the old testament, a few, like Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead, sought certainty in formal logic and mathematics.

The wonderful graphic novel Logicomix is the story of people and the ideas that obsessed them. The story is interwoven with the story of the authors of the graphic novel, which provides a charming counterpoint. The search for mathematical certainty, a mathematics without paradox, is told through Russell's life.

I first learned about Russell's work as the background for its destruction at the hands of Kurt Godel, who proved that all formal systems of sufficient power contain paradox. As the authors of Logicomix point out, without Russell's work, Godel's proof would probably not have existed (at least not by Godel). I knew less about Russell than I did about Godel, so Logicomix provided some interesting background. The novel gave me some idea of what Russell was like as a person and what drove him to write his opus on logic. Russell is also famous for being a pacifist during World War I, although he was much less of a pacifist in the face of Hitler and World War II. There is an interesting scene when Russell is confronted by American isolationists before America's entry into World War II.

Although I knew only the bare details of Russell's life before reading Logicomix, I know about Godel's proof, so in a sense I already knew a core part of the story. Logicomix clearly explains the issue of paradox, but I think that the explanation of Godel's proof may be less clear for someone who comes to this story without any background.

This book would make an excellent gift for someone in their later years in High School or college. Or simply as an amusing read for someone with a background in computer science or mathematics.

Yes, it was drawn with panels, and the characters had comic book like captions, but the plot was far from comic book. You are taken on a journey in to the world, a gray area world at the time between the mathematician and the logician. It starts very slowly and pushes you bit by bit along for the ride. You want to escape, but you keep telling yourself, it's only a comic, it's fun to read stuff like this, comics don't challenge the mind, they entertain it. Come on, just a little more, there must be good comic type stuff waiting just ahead. Then darn it, at the end of the rainbow there was no comic, you had to learn about math and logic. I could have done that at college for $200 a credit hour. Oh well better luck next time!

I pretty much agree with the prevailing consensus on the book as a success with a few caveats.

So, not being a mathematician but having done some undergrad philosophical studies, mostly on Russell's popular social texts under a Russell scholar, and even reading most (if not all) of his autobiography, some years ago, here goes:

I wasn't happy with the (admittedly few) shortcuts, omissions, and artistic liberties taken, even though the authors cop to them in the self-reflexive interludes and in the afterword. In a book about "truth," these kind of liberties seem almost perverse (which may be too strong a word for it, but there you go.)

Frankly, I found the self-referential stuff tedious. I think it was one of those decisions when the creators got so enamored with themselves and their creative process that they just had to let us (the readers) in on it. Guys! Thanks, but no thanks! Leave it for the afterword. It's akin to watching a film on DVD for the very first time with the Director's commentary on, even before seeing the work as it was meant to be presented. Irritating.

Thereto, I'm not sure the culmination with the staged Oresteia was "payoff" enough.

All that being said, I think it succeeds mostly in shedding light on the logical dilemmas and the personal battles Russell (and Wittgenstein, in passing) went through. Hopefully, the comic format will help to communicate the story to a wider
audience than would heretofore have been inclined to investigate it. (But here I also have doubts- we now-grown comic book readers who still page through the graphic novels are probably still a niche market in the ever dwindling book market. (Talk about "set theory"!)

Finally, the art and color by Papadatos and Di Donna is quite good, balancing an almost whimsical styling with an easy formality to the page structure, which, incidentally, serves the complex story matter with great clarity. Bravo on that!

As someone who studied Philosophy and Logic in college, I appreciated this graphic novel. Logicomix tries to explain a fairly complicated subject, Logic and Mathematics, and succeeds fairly well.

The art is excellent. The story is well written. I didn't really like the back and forth between Bertrand Russell's story and the narration by the authors, but it wasn't overly interruptive and tolerable. The best parts of the story for me were the explorations into the links between madness and those who strive to make rational sense of the world. The book touches on this in several places, but I wouldn't have minded an even deeper exploration into that theme. But as it is, a really enjoyable story that makes Russell's life, Logic, and Math interesting.

This is a surprisingly successful graphic novel about Bertrand Russell, famous English philosopher and writer. Most of the book has Russell talking about his own life and work as a series of flashbacks set in the frame of a speech given in the U.S. at the beginning of WWII.

However from time to time, another frame is used that has the writer, artists, and others involved in the production of the book having discussions about the contents of the book with a computer scientist. Frankly these came across as interruptions of the more interesting narrative story about Russell. This is most annoying at the end of the book when these characters attend a performance of the play "Oresteia" and attempt to draw some profound conclusions. The natural ending of the book, with the end of Russell's lecture, is more powerful and moving.

All in all a very entertaining book with good artwork. It's a really clever attempt to elucidate some rather abstruse concepts (they do a particularly good job explaining "Russell's Paradox").

I can't recommend this comic novel highly enough. It has everything, even a clever and meaningful denouement. All based on historical figures who are worth knowing about. Bertrand Russell and his generation wanted to encapsulate logic and mathematics in well defined parameters that could once and for all put a lid on the Dionysiac irrationality of life. You can imagine the trouble that ensued. Using a story within a story technique we get the life story of Bertrand Russell as if told to a lecture audience. But it is wonderfully dramatised and the graphics reminded me of the Tintin stories which I used to enjoy. The whimsicality of the illustrations contrasts with the import of the subject matter to create a frisson that leaves you wanting more.

The work that happened at the beginning of the twentieth century on the foundations of mathematics was indeed an "epic search for truth". However, this book gives these immense intellectual achievements short shrift. The issues and the contributions only get a passing mention. If you are really interested in the subject you would do much better by browsing Wikipedia.

Instead, the author/artists (who break the fourth wall from time to time to explain their plans) have chosen to present this as a human interest story. While some of the humans in this story (definitely Russell) certainly were very interesting, the human side of their life was not tightly tied up with their work on logic. Facing this impasse the authors have chosen to use insanity as a thread tying together the lives of their characters. But this gives a completely wrong picture of logic: as an abyss of thought peering into which will drive you crazy. Whereas the contribution of the people discussed in this book was precisely to take logic away from the realm of philosophical hair-splitting and turn it into a branch of mathematics amenable to ordinary reasoning. I am afraid that young people reading this will come away with the completely wrong idea that mathematics and logic is suitable only for mad geniuses.

This graphic novel focuses on British philosopher/logician/Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell and his "pursuit of the ultimate truth". The narrative unfolds at a September 1939 Russell lecture entitled "The Role Of Logic In Human Affairs", with a passionate audience fervently divided on the question of America entering WWII. Asked to choose a side, Russell instead embarks upon the story of his life. He describes his childhood at Pembroke Lodge under his affluent but strictly religious grandmother. He rejects her dogma and embarks on intense scholastic pursuits, especially in mathematics. His world travels offer meetings with various philosophers of the day, and he mentors a young Ludwig Wittgenstein. Twice divorced, Russell's personal life is not as successful as his academic endeavors.
Alecos Papadatos' wonderfully detailed splash page (page 23) of a walk through the city is a highlight of the artwork. Only the sixteen page "Overture" was colored in my advance copy, though I suspect the actual book will be in full color. The authors appear frequently with comments, irritatingly disrupting the flow. I disliked these characters more with each digression. The book encapsulates complex mathematical and philosophical ideas in an interesting manner, but the dry main narrative makes for a dull read. This is only recommended for those with significant interest in the aforementioned areas of study: it would probably not interest a wider audience.

On my first read (actually many attempts at reading) of Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, I found that it was like reading a textbook. I couldn't get into a groove. I felt like I had to take notes or I would forget what happened from the previous page.

Because I found it, uhm, difficult (and because I know I'm mathematically and philosophically-challenged), I recruited a few others to give me some extra help with my review by reading it as well and being much smarter than me (in math and philosophy), their opinions were different.

My friend: This is cool. It was kind of old fashioned but cool. I'd read it again. So how do I sign up to get these things?

My son: It was a little dry but good. And I liked the 40s serial style of comic art. It worked for the material.

So there you have it: Three opinions - Opinion #1. Huh? I don't get it. I need to read it again. Opinion #2: Cool. I need to read it again. Opinion #3. Good. I don't need to read it again.

Based on the above, I'd say give it a try and if you fall into one of those three opinions, just remember that you are not alone.

This felt like a very groundbreaking graphic novel. These days, a graphic novel can contain just about anything, but I'd never expected a biography of modern logic! The story itself is gripping, but the technique used to introduce it is a little dry. There are many scenes featuring the authors and artists themselves thinking about what to write in the book. Further, Russel's story is told by Russel during a lecture. It wasn't confusing, but the narrative was broken and reestablished several times, which lowered the 'enchanting' factor of the work.

Dateline Wales: Unusual seismic activity has been reported in the mountains. Reports have been received of areas seemingly 'turning over'. One eye-witness remarked about it being connected with Bertrand Russell's ashes being scattered in the mountains nearly 40 years ago and a new book being released about him - and it's a Comic Book!

The thought of Bertrand Russell and comic book being used together is strange. I am using "comic book" because the authors continually used it. It was only in the end notes that "graphic novel" was used by them.

There was a very good balance between the art and the text - neither overshadowed the other. The interludes to advance the story were also well done.

Though some fiction was employed, this is a very well developed thumb-nail sketch of Russell and his life until the start of World War II. The inclusion of others active in the fields of logic, mathematics and philosophy helped to display both those who influenced Russell and those whose works were influenced by him.

I was fortunate to have 'discovered' Russell, through his "History of Western Philosophy", while he was still alive (he died in 1970). Though his appearances on television were few, it was always fascinating to see anything by him or about him. Having this book develop through one of his public appearances was a clever touch that worked well.

Like most, I didn't agree with him on everything, and I certainly didn't understand a lot that he wrote. I did, though, recognize genius, and the haggling was over the details. Both his professional life and personal life were filled with controversy.

He was one of those who could be described as "bigger than life". Though few today may even recognize his name, he had a significant influence in the first half of the twentieth century; and an impact on thought that continues to today.

If you have an interest in logic, math or philosophy, this is an excellent introduction to a fascinating man and his work. If not, you will probably not like this book. While it doesn't require in-depth knowledge (much is explained), some familiarity with the subject will add to your enjoyment.

This was an impressive method of presenting this material. Hopefully, the creators will do more in the same manner.

Logicomix is a sometimes fascinating story deafened by two overzealous framing devices. Both Bertrand Russell giving the story of his life at a lecture in 1939 and the self-indulgent creative team, which inserts itself into the graphic novel excessively, herald Russell's life story as if it is of seminal importance to the whole of humankind or, at the very least, "the foundation of mathematics." Neither is clear by the end. Instead, the promised triumphant revelation that takes 298 pages to arrive at seems to land with a whimper, leaving me to wonder what all the fuss and fanfare had been about.

At least part of the problem is that, despite suggesting the contrary, Doxiadis and team seem to understand very little about the graphic novel format. They justify its usage because theirs is "an honest-to-god, real yarn. Simply, a...STORY!" and while this sort of statement seems to trivialize much of what comics are and what they have accomplished over the years, it also foreshadows the tragic flaw of this "yarn": It doesn't really understand what a comic is for or how to use it. The images in this novel are rarely anything more than talking heads. They deliver nothing beyond the literal. There is no artistic communication occurring before our eyes. So, while the "hero" of this story is driven to utilize logic as a tool for dealing with the irrationality he has come to fear in humans, we're never given the opportunity to connect to that yearning on an emotional level. Russell's half-crazy, domineering grandmother from his childhood is always presented literally, never as a subjective monster that must be subdued with the works of Boole and Cantor. Aside from a few menacing cracks of lightning, what we see on the page never leaps to expressive, artistic, nor emotional levels. It is all relegated to the level of a Dick and Jane storybook.

As a result, Bertrand Russell never becomes the hero with whom we identify, and while Doxiadis frequently insists in this work that giving attention to the characters of this story is more important than spending time on their ideas, the characters feel flat and uninteresting, leaving us only with their ideas to compel us.

And compel us they do.

Once some attention is finally given to exploring the meaning of logic in mathematics and following Russell in his quest to make more sense of it, the story becomes incredibly exciting. Doxiadis and Papadimitriou do an excellent job of making complex theory accessible to the mathematic layman, and so I found the middle section of this novel absolutely fascinating. Then, unfortunately, the ideas drop out of the story. Though a significant amount of time is spent on Russell and Whitehead writing the Principia Mathematica, little explanation is given for what it actually contains, and everything that follows is overly simplified all the way up to Russell's final, climactic revelation about math, logic, and human affairs, which reads more as a platitude than a developed idea. With neither an empathic connection to Russell nor a solid footing in his concepts and ideas, the big moment we've spent the whole novel waiting for means little. While we should be breathless and awed (or at least cheering), I instead found myself wondering why the crowd (which was angry and impatient from the start) didn't leap up and tear Russell into pieces for wasting their time.

In the end, one can't deny that Logicomix hits gold for at least a third of its 313 pages. There were many times when I found this book weighing heavily on my mind hours after putting it down. Still, it takes far too long to attain this level of interest, and the novel is unable to maintain it up to the big conclusion, all while we are constantly interrupted by the lecturing Russell and the creative team, both unnecessarily framing this story, and both persistently promising that this is all far more compelling and important than it seems to be. Perhaps Russell's lecture really was the foundation of modern mathematics, but no real sense of this is delivered, either emotionally or intellectually, by the close. Instead, Bertrand Russell comes across as a smug and self-important lecturer, presented by a smug and self-important creative team, blowing smoke where one was anxiously awaiting a fire.

Logicomix tells a biography mostly of Bertrand Russell and his lifelong quest to define a logic system by which everything could be described and proven. Intermixed are tangents about his love life, philosophizing about the wars, and some banter amongst the authors who wrote themselves into the comic. Overall it's a very surface-level presentation of the work, rarely getting technical when it comes to math or logic. On the one hand, the comic format doesn't quite seem suitable as there isn't much you need a visual representation of, most every panel is pretty mundane. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have read a biography of Russell had it not been in so accessible a format. Overall the information you get from the comic doesn't surpass what you could learn browsing wikipedia for a short while, though you would miss out on some of the Socratic debate that demonstrates how opposing viewpoints came to be.

Only the first 26 of 347 pages were in color, though I suspect this is merely because I read an advanced reading copy.