From our continental correspondent – Logicomix, a philosophical biography in comics | The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

From our continental correspondent – Logicomix, a philosophical biography in comics

Thu, Sep 10, 2009

Comics and cartoons, From our Continental Correspondent

On September 4, 1939, just after Great-Britain had declared war with Germany, philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell spoke to a very sceptical American audience about the “Role of logic in human affairs”. This anecdote is the starting point for Logicomix, a graphic novel about the origins of Russell’s lifelong search to find the undeniable logical foundations of mathematics.

Logicomix is the brainchild of two Greek writers (the book was originally an unlikely bestseller in Greece, staying on the charts for several months), Apostolos Doxiadis, a celebrated writer and director who previously created a shadow-puppet musical about Jackson Pollock, and Christos H. Papadimitriou, a professor in computer sciences at Berkeley, who can count Bill Gates amongst his alumni.

Russell’s life, and his activities as a philosopher, mathematician and rationalist, but also as a pacifist, activist and notorious womaniser, proved dramatic enough to provide material for a tome of no fewer than 350 pages, in which the two writers look back to Russell’s childhood, his early steps in the world of science and the conflicts he needs to overcome to spread his revolutionary theories.

The book might have become yet another biography aimed at a highbrow-yet-popular public, but thanks to the ligne clair art of illustrators Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, there’s also plenty to look at. In the five years it took them to create the illustrated narrative, they not only took up Hergé’s style in an attempt to be as clear as possible, but they also emulated the celebrated Tintin creator’s maniacal use of documentation and reference. Papadatos and Di Donna travelled across Europe and America to find the places where Russell lived and to recreate the backdrops of his life as truthfully as possible.

Logicomix Bertrand Russell

(a scene from Logocomix, by and (c) Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, published Bloomsbury)

The book, which is scheduled to be published this week, comes with high praise from graphic novel author Posy Simmonds, who provided the quote: “Logicomix is highly original, a rich and enthralling encounter with myth, maths, theatre and the giants of 20th-century philosophy.” In the science world, the book can claim high praise as well, from people like the American historian Haward Zinn, Barry Mazur of Harvard University and Michael Harris, mathematics professor at the Université Paris 7.