{"id":22344,"date":"2020-06-24T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T08:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=22344"},"modified":"2020-06-22T16:48:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T16:48:51","slug":"the-case-of-alan-turing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2020\/06\/24\/the-case-of-alan-turing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case of Alan Turing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Eric Liberge<\/strong> & Arnaud Delalande<\/strong>, translated by David Homel<\/strong> (Arsenal Pulp Press)
\nISBN: 978-1-55152-650-8 (HB Album)<\/p>\n

After decades of cruel injustice and crushing, sidelining silence, British mathematician Alan Turing – one of the greatest intellects in humanity’s history – has at last become the household name and revered pioneer of science he has always deserved to be.<\/p>\n

As well as books and films describing the amazing achievements and appalling way this brilliant, misunderstood man – arguably the creator of the modern world we inhabit – was treated by society, there’s another graphic novel delineating the factual stuff whilst trying to get beneath the skin of a most perplexing and unique individual.<\/p>\n

This gloriously oversized (231 x 13 x 287 cm) full-colour hardback biography – appropriately also available in digital formats – was first released in Europe as Le Cas Alan Turing<\/strong><\/em> in 2015 and employs an emphatic literary approach, more drama than documentary, to exploring the life of this tortured man.<\/p>\n

The moving script by author Arnaud Delalande (La Piege de Dante<\/strong><\/em>) – via award-winning translator David Homel – only touches on Turing’s early, troubled home life and post-war scandals when the genius descended into self-loathing and court-mandated chemical castration to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social deviancy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

Allegations or accusations of homosexuality destroyed the lives of countless men until officially decriminalised in Britain’s 1967 Sexual Offences Act, and although Turing was posthumously pardoned of his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crimes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 2013, his loss to suicide deprived the entire world of a generation of marvels\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The major proportion of this tale concentrates on World War II and Turing’s work as a cryptographer and inventor at British code-breaking centre Bletchley Park<\/em> (it’s a stunning shrine to invention<\/em> now: and you should visit it soon and often) where the insular young man struggled to convince his officious, unimaginative superiors to let him construct a mechanical brain to defeat the Wehrmacht’s presumed-infallible Enigma machines. Turing’s victories cemented his reputation and ensured that the battle against fascism (one sort, at least) was won\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The key figures are all there: sometime fianc\u00c3\u00a9e Joan Clark<\/em>, Professor Max Newman<\/em>, and the shady, morally-bankrupt \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rent-boy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Arnold Murray<\/em> who brought about Turing’s eventual downfall and demise, as are less well known figures: the MI5 operative who was his constant shadow before and after the war, boyhood lost love Christopher Morcom<\/em> and many other unsung heroes of the intelligence war\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Played out against a backdrop of global conflict, Turing’s obsession with Walt Disney’s Snow White <\/strong>and a recurring motif of poisoned apples – the method by which he eventually ended his life – figure largely in a tale which reads like a movie in the making. Moreover, this powerful tale of an outsider’s temporary triumphs and lasting impact is beautifully and compellingly rendered by master of historical comics Eric Liberge (Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres<\/strong><\/em>, Le Dernier Marduk<\/strong><\/em>, Tonnerre Rampant<\/strong><\/em>, Les Corsaires d’Alcibiade<\/strong><\/em>), affording it an aura of unavoidable, impending destiny\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Balancing out the tragedy of chances missed is an informative photo-illustrated essay on ‘The Cryptography War’<\/em>courtesy of historian, educator and government consultant Bruno Fuligni, detailing the development and use of different kinds of cipher and codes; how Enigma changed the rules of the spying game and how Turing changed it all again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This is an astoundingly effective way to engage with a true story of incredible accomplishment, dedication and terrifying naivety: one that inevitably ends with tragedy that still blights us all and leaves forever-unanswered sentiments of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What If?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If Only\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nText \u00c2\u00a9 \u00c3\u2030ditions des Ar\u00c3\u00a8nes, Paris 2015. Translation \u00c2\u00a9 2016 by David Homel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Liberge & Arnaud Delalande, translated by David Homel (Arsenal Pulp Press) ISBN: 978-1-55152-650-8 (HB Album) After decades of cruel injustice and crushing, sidelining silence, British mathematician Alan Turing – one of the greatest intellects in humanity’s history – has at last become the household name and revered pioneer of science he has always … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Case of Alan Turing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[214,122,215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european","category-historical","category-lgbtqia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-5Oo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}