About this title: A comic and philosophic tale told by one of its citizens, FLATLAND challenges notions of reality by walking readers through a two-dimensional life, in which everyone and everything is flat.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Softcover; 6th Edition; Good condition; Printed Text VG; name inside; some shelfwear; (shelf b105); "A classic science fiction story with a first rate introduction to the concepts of relativity and multiple dimensions of space"; read more
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Softcover; Good condition; Printed Text VG; name inside; shelfwear; (shelf G131); "A classic book about life in a two-dimensional world that introduces the concepts of relativity and multiple dimensions in space"; read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Some Favorite lines: p.109. Regarding the King of Pointland, the Sphere states ...to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy. p.20. It is only now and then in some very remote and backward agricultural district that an antiquarian may still discover a square house. p.43. ...but imagine that your Tradesman drags behind his regular and respectable vertex, a parallelogram of twelve or thirteen inches in diagonal: --what are you to do with such a monster sticking fast in your house door? p.61. 'Attend to your Configuration.' p.82. A Proverb common with the Frailer Sex in Flatland, 'A Straight Line to the touch is worth a Circle to the sight'.,/i> p.84. The thought flashed across me that I might have before me a burglar or cut-throat, some monstrous Irregular Isosceles, who, by feigning the voice of a Circle, had obtained admission somehow into the house, and was now preparing to stab me with his acute angle."
"Written in 1884, this brief book describes the inhabitants, geography, and living conditions in Flatland, an imaginary two-dimensional world, and exposes us to the millennial visit to Flatland of a sphere from Spaceland. The sphere attempts, with increasing frustration, to persuade a Flatland resident that there is in fact a different, three-dimensional world. We also visit Lineland and Pointland, exposing us to the very real possibility that there may very well be a four-dimensional world of which we here in Spaceland are blissfully unaware. Of course, a number of more current science fiction stories have been written on that supposition, but this quaint and charming book was probably the first of them. It's thought-provoking, fun, and even functions as a satire, shedding light on the way we treat each other here in Spaceland by looking at how people live in Flatland. Highly recommended."
"This is an interesting little book, which is set in a two dimesnional universe "Flatland". The main character is a polygon, living in a world of polygons. It goes on to describe the various different shaped characters in his world, and how they all co-exist within a strange but organized social hierachy. The main idea of the book is to help explain 'dimensions', with the added sprinkle of social satire!
The inhabitants of the two dimensional world of Flatland, cannot possibly imagine anything set within a three dimensional universe, in the same way that we in our human world have trouble grasping four dimensions. Yet our main character visits the world of three dimensions, and sees his own Flatland from above! He also goes on to visit the world of One dimension.
This was written in the 19th Century. It is an imaginitive and quite amusing 'essay', rather than a story. The plot is a vehicle to explain mathematics.
At times I wanted to give up with the read. But I am glad I prevailed. I believe this book was read by a young Einstein!"
"This book was quite a surprise. It's sort of dystopic Gulliver's Travels version of intro to geometry. Probably the thing that amazed me the most was that is was written in the 1880's, which I didn't know until doing some background reading about Abbott.
For those who don't know, Flatland posits a world which is two dimensional. The narrator has almost divine visions/visitations, first of a 1 dimensional world (Lineworld) and then of a 3D world (Spaceland). It doesn't have a plot per se, but rather it unviels another world in the process of illuminating geometric principles.
In so far as math goes, the story does give you a very small primer on geometry, but in truth the simple things it sets out to prove are done in such a way that I think un-mathy people will have trouble following it. It makes me wonder if the ability to understand the book easily was a basic expectation for educational institutions of the time, because wow, I can't imagine my 6th graders grokking the book.
However, the most interesting aspect of the book to me was not the math instruction but the society which Abbott creates. The first half of the book sets out to give the reader an understanding of the society, and it is very cool how the narrator sees his extremely classist, totalitarian society as a common sensical outgrowth of the "natural laws" of his world. Females are innately incapable of logic and memory simple because lines don't have the girth to have much intellect. Irregular figures (which in their minds are solids as they can only perceive and conceive of two dimensions) must be criminals for their potential to disrupt society. Classes exist along polygonal divisions, isoceles triangles being the lowest (and also okay to wholesale murder, apparently) and those many-sided polygons so diverse as to approximate circularity being the priesthood pinacle. Although the narrator thinks of he and his as humans, it was almost easier to see them biological factors on a cellular level. All in all, very cool.
So why only three stars? Well, first and foremost, my main love in books is for the story. The story in this was middling. Also, maybe just because it was a little archaic in writing style, or perhaps simply because the attitudes of the inhabitants being archaic to the point of barbarism in a sense, it was a bit of a slog to get through despite the books 100 page length. It is, however, one of the most unique things I've ever read, though that may say more about my own reading proclivities.
If you have an interest in math, or are willing to abide it and have a decent interest in sf for all the Asimov/Clarke type reasons, definitely read this. If you are intrigued by fascist regimes, check this out. If you find Shelley or Swift's writing enthralling, I think you'd like this. Three stars or not, it's a very cool book."
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