Logicomix

7/10
Grand in scope but let down in part by the medium and some baffling decisions by the creators, Logicomix is still a fascinating read.
I've always loved it when serious topics are explored visually, whether in animation or books - but Logicomix overextends and underextends itself in turn. At the altar of brevity and mass appeal, it sacrifices accuracy, but this wouldn't have mattered so much if the crucial details covered were at the least in-depth, which they were sadly not.
A case in point is that Apostolos mentions Godel, Wittgenstein, Hilbert, von Neumann, and other giants, but he annoyingly glosses over their contributions. The book also repeatedly jumps out and into Athens or the ‘real world' instead of the comic world to explain some of its decisions to the reader - but this breaking the fourth wall is only partially effective since its novelty wears off quickly. It is utilized to excellent effect only near the end.
Where the book shines the most is letting its audience know, through comics, about Godel's incompleteness theorem of the first and second-order, Russell's paradox, and Wittgenstein's metaphysical theories - a sentence I could not imagine writing a day ago. And that fact alone is worth most, in not all of, the acclaim.

Life can be very strange. Why would I pick up a graphic novel about the life of philosopher Bertrand Russell at the library convention? And, even odder, why would I choose to read it while I waited for a session to begin?

I like odd books. And I did like this one. But, warning: It is not for everyone. (Honestly, are there others who would enjoy reading this book? Not sure.)

A graphic novel on Bertrand Russell's life and on the battles about the logical foundation of mathematics during the first half of the 20th century. With a dash of the madness of the brilliant. We (and Russell) meet all the important players along the way: Whitehead, Frege, Hilbert, Cantor, Poincaré, Wittgenstein, Gödel... The story of this quest of mathematics and it's importance is cleverly told on multiple levels, as the narrative jumps between Russell's life and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the graphic novel.

Fascinating perspective on an attempt to give foundations to math through logic and looking at the life of Bertie Russell as well as exposing the concerns of those individual who wrote the graphic novel. While you do get this kind of transparency in author forwards and such, it's interesting to have it play such a clear part of telling the whole story. Some liberties were taken with the history - putting a couple people in places they probably weren't - but the ending points (most, all?) of them out and I think it serves the narrative flow ably. #metafiction #bookclub4m #bookclubformasochists

Loved the book. Unique idea, beautiful artwork. I learned a lot about the historical connections between people and ideas in mathematics of late 19th and early 20th century.

My main quibble is that the only place in which people of color appear in this book is in the depiction of prostitutes (in 3 frames on page 210). I get that most of this takes place in Europe 80+ years ago, involving real persons, so I am not proposing adding “token” people of color to the story. I also get that modern Athens is a diverse city, which, I am willing to believe, has sex workers of African descent. Despite factual correctness, this choice of supporting characters does nothing to advance the story, while countering the attempts to make students with non-European roots feel part of the scientific community. Imagine a young African girl trying to learn about the foundations of computer science and only seeing people like her as those working with their bodies and not their minds. This unnecessary perpetuation of stereotypes could have been easily avoided; I hope it will be in future editions.