E=MC²…Or Does It?
Logicomix
Math has spelled doom for us in most cases. All the way through elementary school and high school afterwards we have cursed our math teachers for the incessant homework that gave us nightmares. But Believe it or not, math is important. Without it, nothing we know today or almost, would not even exist. So the history behind the beginning of mathematics s important but seldom told of in stories and such. A new graphic novel has come out and details exactly that, but in an unorthodox way, even I don’t quite get the essentials of it. It seems to deal with a bunch of different aspects of human behavior, somehow tying it all to mathematics. Madness and logic, paradox, science. It all does make sense when you dwell on the subject a little longer, you realize that math must have caused many suicides and depressions, many fights and maybe even wars. Math as we know it now is pretty complete but always evolving, people are always finding new theorems, new equations. It’s all an never-ending source of sorrow and loneliness. Logicomix is sure to be a thought provoking life-changer.
Logicomix
The story is that of Bertrand Russell. and begins in nazi Germany, three days after their invasion of poland on september fourth 1939. As Russell is about to give a lecture on the importance of logic, a horde of isolationist protesters (people against the participation of The united states in the second world war) stop him and ask him to join their cause. They reply to Russell when he tells them about his lecture, asking how logic could justify participating in a world war. This starts off a series of flashbacks into Russell’s life, dealing with the question of “What is logic?”. First detailing his childhood, full of loneliness and dominated by his grandmother. Over the years he decides to seek peace in the abstraction of mathematics. finding them to be the only true source of reality and logic. I’d like to know how someone can be at peace with mathematics, to me they are just a bunch of numbers in complicated equations that are supposed to mean something but that normal people like you and I struggle to simply read. Throughout the Graphic Novel, we see the meaning of madness in this man’s life, his uncle is institutionalized for being violently insane, his aunt avoids it but is no saner. This caused many nightmares, that the artist depicts with vivid detail, and a fear of hereditary madness that would follow him for the rest of his days.
Logicomix
With appearances by historical figure such as Gottlob Frege, The greatest logician since Aristotle, Georg Cantor, the inventor of the mathematical theory of infinity, and even Adolph Hitler. The Novel is a great source of information on the subject of logic throughout the decades. A different point of view on the loneliness of a mathematician and the madness and horror surrounding his life. Written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos,H, Papadimitriou and illustrated by Alecos Papadotos and colored by Annie Di Donna.
Contribution: Vedran
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