Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos H Papadimitriou: Logocomix; An Epic Search for Truth

Having dug this out think I am going to re-read so these are very much a few random memory jottings and I will probably add to them when I have finished.

It shows wonderfully well how a graphic work can be used with the highest levels of thought - in this case the foundation of mathematics - and connected to this, an exploration of reality, as well as a biography of Bertrand Russell who is taken as an emblematic figure to explore these ideas.

I also greatly enjoyed the self-referential nature of the opening with the writers and illustrators appearing and introducing the work as characters in their own creation - and of course this is a witty way of beginning to get us to think about the nature of reality - the focus of the book.

It is also good to be re-acquainted with Russell as I can vividly recall how excited I was when I discovered him when in the 6th Form at school - the crystalline clarity of the writing, even on the most abstruse topics which allowed me, then and perhaps now, to think that i did begin to have some understanding of these topics - relativity/the nature of reality/philosophical arguments…Now I am very unsure about all that but perhaps that is what happens with maturity. I also recall his three-volume autobiography which I devoured and it was that I think that reading got me fascinated by Lady Ottoline Morell and her ‘court’. I also recall being fascinated by Aldous Huxley - more by his smartness than anything else at that time. If I went back to him now I wonder if I would be so impressed.

After rapidly re-reading:

Yes, superb with its mastery of probably one of the most complicated topics ever; how do we know what is absolutely true and how is that related to how we do or should live our live. I think that the best and most creative aspect was the Epilogue where the entire topic was connected clearly and fascinatingly to the ending of the Orestia trilogy. That balance of an emotional response/way of living, as epitomised by the Eumenidies to a rational and reasoned one (epitomised by Athena) was a superb way of bringing all the central elements together. And the ‘answer’ to the philosophical/life problems posed was to have a balance. And of course going back to the Ancient Greeks, the intellectual fathers of western civilisation made total sense.