Thursday, May 12, 2011

Down and Down and Down The Rabbit Hole

Logicomix by Apostolos K. Doxiadēs, Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, and Annie Di Donna
352 pages
published by Bloomsbury USA

I'm sure questioning the very foundations of mathematics was a very hot topic back in early 1900s, and it certainly was interesting to jump down the rabbit hole with Russell but there wasn't enough character development within the narrative for me to care enough about the logic/math hoopla. They put forth tremendous ideas, such as the play between madness and the quest for absolute truth, or the complexities of "the map" vs. "reality". But I don't feel that they were fully explored, or really explored at all. If they had, I think they would have found more character, more humanity. One last jab: the story relied far too much on epiphanies to move plot along. Seems like every other section had a miraculous Eureka! But maybe that's how it was. But maybe not.

The understated artwork carried the story but the logic and math-speak was a bit much at times which is 100% my weakness. I wasn't going to read this but then I came upon a damaged copy at my book shop so what the hell, ya know?