Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
1884 • 104 pages
Ratings76
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings76
Average rating3.5
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, though written in 1884, is still considered useful in thinking about multiple dimensions. It is also seen as a satirical depiction of Victorian society and its hierarchies. A square, who is a resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, dreams of the one-dimensional Lineland. He attempts to convince the monarch of Lineland of the possibility of another dimension, but the monarch cannot see outside the line. The square is then visited himself by a Sphere from three-dimensional Spaceland, who must show the square Spaceland before he can conceive it. As more dimensions enter the scene, the story's discussion of fixed thought and the kind of inhuman action which accompanies it intensifies.
Reviews with the most likes.
The book is very technical. It describes how a world of two dimensions would be like. The concept is very interesting, but it just don't lend to an engaging fiction reading. Also not at all for audio listening as it requires a good deal of thinking about what was said and seeing the pictures to help you understand it.
Read 46/3:29 22%
This one should be required reading in geometry class. A fun story that helps illustrate the idea of higher dimensions through conversation between 2D and 1D creatures and finally 3D and 2D creatures.
Much like Cavendish's The Blazing World, this is more interesting than entertaining, and you probably shouldn't read it if you want something thrilling and/or adventurous. It does have, however, a plot, though it takes several chapters to get there. Some, if not most, of the social criticism is very current, and the prejudices presented in Abbott's fictional society reverberates with the prejudices we have today.
Brilliant.
Flatland is a quirky little novella about a square, living in Flatland, a country comprised entirely of two dimensions. Mr. Square is content to go about his polygonal existence, until he has a revelation of the Third Dimension, and meets a sphere.
As the title implies, though, this is a story of “many dimensions”, so it's not just that: it's also a rather funny satire of both religious revelation and Victorian social culture, looking at social stratification and the belief in innate differences of class and ability and lampooning them.
Where things get really interesting, though, is that a century later this whole thing also stands for a perfect metaphor for where modern physics is at. I have, I confess, had a really tough time understanding string theory, and its reliance on extraspatial dimensions. So the protagonist's resistance to the third dimension really resonated with me, and I think that even if I'm not closer to understanding string theory, I can at least see a little better where its proponents are coming from.
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154 booksBooks read in your formative years can shape the person you become just as much as parents, teachers and friends. What were some of the books that you remember most from your childhood years?
