Alecos Papadatos

I read this in the library today in about an hour and enjoyed it a lot. Although it deals with philosophical concepts that I had very little prior clue about, I find it very accessible and compelling. The art style is appealingly vivid and the layers of narrative work well. What I found especially effective was the contrast drawn between the heights of theory and abstraction and the mental and familial stability of those reaching them. The use of the Oresteia at the end was also excellent - I have a soft spot for Greek tragedy.

Now I feel better informed and less intimidated by Wittgenstein et al. If there are other graphic novels about philosophy, I'd be keen to read them.… (more)

If not the most gripping graphic novel I've read, this is certainly on of the most intellectual. It tells a simplified and slightly dramatized life of Bertrand Russell, using the structure of a reflective lecture on logic's application to real life, given in the US in the early days of World War II when the debate about whether to enter the war was hot and heavy. Add yet another framing structure where the co-creators of the book debate the themes of logic and madness, and that Papadimitriou is invited to co-author because as a computer scientist he can explain exactly what Russell, Frege, Goedel, Hilbert, and the others were trying to do and whether they succeeded or not. As both a math major who focused on pure logic, and a computer scientist myself, I can't judge how well the explanation of theory works for others. For me, it felt sincere but incomplete, no pun intended.

Reommended.… (more)