The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
A Science Fiction, Science, Mathematics book. Distress not yourself if you cannot at first understand the...
Flatland is a unique, delightful satire that has charmed readers for over a century. Published in 1884 by the English clergyman and headmaster Edwin A. Abbott, it is the fanciful tale of A. Square, a two-dimensional being who is whisked away by a mysterious visitor to The Land of Three Dimensions, an experience that forever alters his worldview—just as the book altered the worldview of its Victorian readers with the then-radical idea of a fourth dimension.Like Abbott's original text, Ian Stewart’s commentary takes readers on a strange and wonderful journey. With clarity and wit, Stewart illuminates Abbott’s numerous Victorian references, weaves in biographical information about Abbott and his intellectual circle, which included the novelist H.G. Wells and the mathematician George Boole, and traces the scientific evolution of geometric forms and dimensions.Touching on such diverse topics as ancient Babylon, Karl Marx, Frankenstein, Mt. Everest, and phrenology. Stewart makes fascinating connections between Flatland and Edwin Abbott’s life and times. The result is a classic to rival Abbott’s own, and a book that will inspire and delight curious readers for generations to...
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- Filetype: PDF
- Pages: 239 pages
- ISBN: 9780465011230 / 465011233
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More About The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
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 cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality, for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and... 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 cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality; for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn his lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and... Distress not yourself if you cannot at first understand the deeper mysteries of Spaceland. By degrees they will dawn upon you. Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions //
When you read this book, keep two things in mind. First, it was written back in 1880, when relativity had not yet been invented, when quantum theory was not yet discovered, when only a handful of mathematicians had the courage (yet) to challenge Euclid and imagine curved space geometries and geometries with infinite dimensionality.... Don't be a square - read this book by A. Square; the author of this tale who describes the worlds of Pointland, Lineland, Flatland and Spaceland and the idea of other lands which mathematically and logically lie beyond the latter. This book has just joined the ranks of my all time favourite classics of original genius, such as Micromegas,... I first read about this novella in a book of Mircea Eliade (The Art of Dying, I think) and although I found the idea very ingenuous, I couldnt imagine it developed in a long work without becoming sort of boring. Surprisingly, it was not at all like that. The narrator, a Square, having had the revelation of Many Dimensions divides his...
