Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions

weirdest book i’ve ever read😭

The first half of the book is full of so-called satire on Victorian era’s sexism and social stratification. But I didn’t enjoyed it — it took ages for me to finish.

The second part is quite brilliant — easy-readable and though-provoking. Highly recommended read for anyone who asked him- or herself: «what is the nature of space and universe itself?». Still relevant, nevertheless the two centuries have passed!

19th-century Victorian social satire through forward-thinking mathematical study. Behold yon miserable creature. That Point is a Being like ourselves, but confined to the non-dimensional Gulf. He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no cognisance even if the number Two; joe has he a thought of Plurality; for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet make his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and they to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy. Wild.

Likeable but not readable. I prefer the Dot and the Line or GEB

weirdest book i’ve ever read😭

Abbott is able to envision multiple allegorical worlds to represent the different dimensions and how they might be perceived to others lacking or gaining additional dimensions, and yet he can't seem to fathom the idea of women as anything other than lesser beings to men - in dimension, in intellect, in importance - and this is how he defines them. No matter the complete re-envisioning of perception, governance, society, or education in each of the three worlds, he can't seem to stretch his imagination beyond this point for women. I know he hints that the lack of education for women in Flatland was the cause of many issues, but the Sphere - from our own world of Space - sends away Square's wife when explaining the 3rd dimension to him. Why is this kept consistent in each world and never given the increased dimension that provides the satire with each new meeting of the worlds? A fun little mathematical and theological exercise, and a good starting point for imagining dimensions beyond the 3 (or 4) we can perceive, but this book neglects to truly reflect on the social issues it abstracts and satirizes along with its geometry.

لمن يعشق الرياضيات وذو خيال يكفي للايمان بوجود عالم ثاني يتكون من ابعاد ثنائيه فقط ف ليتجول في كتاب يصف تلك المدينه وهي الارض المسطحه حيث كل سكانها عباره عن مجموعه خطوط هندسيه ابتذائيه لم ترتقي بعد الى هندسه ثلاثية الابعاد اعتبره ك كتاب تعريفي عن رواية او ك زائر لنا من عالم فلات لاند ل يحكي عن بلاده في سطور بسيطه وفي الغالب معقده خياليا لا يمكن تخيلها ببساطه ، تحتاج للتركيز والتدقيق بشكل كامل وذهن صافي شكرا ل من رشحها لي ^_^ خفيفه جدا ولكن ذو عمق غير هين

Awesome, now I know why Sheldon Cooper loved flatland that much. 😂 A little bit sexist tho, but it was 1884 😅

For the love of geometry and all the dimensions!!

Enjoyable little book. I could almost imagine a hypercube by the end of it.

Read it forever ago … for a book written close to 150 years ago, it’s amazing how many times I tell people to read it.

Okay, so maybe it's not famous for a reason... In the realm of maths and geometry bringing abstraction into art is in itself a retransliteration of complexity, however, it just is a great book to understand orthogonal projections in a fun way! The story was flat, but maybe purposefully, a sort of literary dadaïsm... I am undecided of whether this was worth it or not, but I'm sure reading it back in the days of high-school might have felt better... In any case, I liked it, at keat the genre! I loved the punny double meaning, and that gives it the depth and height lost in a 2 dimensional world!

A charming book about what it would be like to live in one or two dimensions. Also seems like it's probably social satire, but I'm not super familiar with social prejudice in the 1800s, so it didn't do much for me on that count.

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.

This was quite a lovely read. I haven't read many books from the nineteenth century, and so it was fun to read through. I liked how the descriptions of the various geometries were done. Obviously, there were a some sexist parts in the book, but one has to keep in mind the culture of the time. Still, I found the story to be whimsical and enjoyable. You don't get to read many mathematical stories, so this was interesting.

A great, and literally mind-expanding, way to think about dimensionality.