Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Rating:
Summary: An aging classic
Review: Once a classic of imagination, but now an outdated, tedious read, it is at least short. Read it if you have to in college (if you happen to major in Computer Science or Math)

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Summary: Existentialist fiction for math nerds
Review: Even after 110 years, Flatland is a fascinating book. We are introduced to life in Flatland -- a 2-dimensional world -- through the eyes of a scholarly square, a respectable gentleman. He teaches us the ways of Flatland, and then takes on a mind-blowing adventure into the third dimension and beyond. Through the Square's discovery, we expand our view of our own world. We begin to wonder if we, the human race, are like inhabitants of Flatland, blissfully unaware of all that we cannot see. We wonder if we might even be as the King of Lineland, mightily ruling our fragile Earth. We question the validity of our perceptions of the world. Reading Flatland requires full concetration, due to Abbot's dense prose, but the results are spectacular. Take a look at Flatland and expand the dimensionality of your universe.

Rating:
Summary: Ridiculously enjoyable. Should be illegal.
Review: Witness profundity stunningly aproportionate with length! This treatise boggles the mind with its premise, the plausbility of conceptualizing higher dimensions. With fanatical brilliance, this book elucidates on the transdimensionalism underlying spacetime, superstrings, and other theories central to modern physics. But even more, even more, it's an appealing story. If you read and loved _The Phantom Toolbooth_, or have an even passing interest in mathematics, herein will you find the sublime

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Summary: A mind expanding journey into the extra-dimensional.
Review: This charming story takes the reader on a trip through both of the two known dimensions (flatland and lineland) before breaking all the rules to discover a third dimension. A middle class square describes his homeland, where everything is seen through two dimensional eyes. Just when you are growing accustomed to a life of triangles, squares, pentagons, circles, and their friends, the narrating square brings you along on a dream into lineland. The end result is a greater appreciation for forward thinkers, and a quaint reminder to "think outside the box".

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Summary: Excellent read for 4d+ philosophy
Review: This is a fascinating book -- although it is about a hundred years old, it remains an engrossing and mind-enriching tale. A character living in a 2-dimensional world explains his universe to the reader, as well as his ventures into 1D (LineLand), 0D (PointLand), and 3D (SpaceLand). He also invites the reader to ponder the fourth dimension and beyond. Excellently written, and a real mind-bender. Read it

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Summary: Aamzing book - high school freshmen literature student
Review: I started reading this book thinking it would not work well for analysis in a literature class but I was suprised. While explaining geometric concepts, it has all the elements of any other story. The book was easy and fast to read and comprehend. After finishing this book as an assignment, I quickly bought Flatterland for independant reading. I haven't found the time to start Flatterland but by the blurb on the jacket and other reviews, I am looking forward to it. I recommend this book to any high school student or slightly younger students interested in math or science. Of course, I recommend this to adults as well.

Rating:
Summary: Flatland
Review: This book is a great reminder that what lies outside of our understanding does not necessarily lie outside the realm of possibility. You don't have to enjoy mathematics to enjoy this book - I'd recommend it to anyone!

Rating:
Summary: leaves you with self-questioning
Review: Okay honestly I felt the book was a bit drab to read through, such that, how excited can one get about little triangles & polygons, moving here & there on a two-dimensional plane? And yet, the personalities the author invokes onto these geometric figures indeed livens up the story-line substantially. And near the end things come together in not exactly a nail-biter, but somewhat of a page-turner nevertheless. I had found myself pretty emotionally invested in this little geometrical society.

What I came away with after finishing the book was a renewed sense of humility for this multi-dimensional world we live in, the multi-dimensional lives we lead. In the story, the geometrical or linear figures who insist that their world of one or two dimensions is all there is, and who scoff at the possibilities of any superceding possibilities (like a two or three-dimensional world) occasionally reminded me of my own limited view, evidenced by my pride. Today we can look back on great thinkers who shook up our complacent intellectual views of our world (Freud & Einstein are the first two which come to mind), who indeed added extra dimensions to our world, to our thought about our lives. And in a less dramatic fashion perhaps, this book caused me to think of new, undiscovered dimensions awaiting me in existing relationships, in new pursuits, career changes, etc. - through trying to see things in an entirely new way.

With that said, the book has done me good. Thank you, Mr. Abbott!


Rating:
Summary: Ok, but no story
Review: I was assigned to read this book as part of my online geometry course, and it was ok, except there is absolutly no story line to the book.

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Summary: Some of my best friends are square
Review: The persecution of individuals is an abhorrent way of life in some lands. To be repressed simply for preaching a new view of things. To be imprisoned for your beliefs. I am thinking, at this moment, of one individual in particular who has had to suffer the humiliation of life without parole simply because he chooses to see things in a different way. Should the fact that this person is merely a square (four equal sides and corners) be any kind of an impediment towards our full understanding of him? As a recent convert to three-dimensional worlds, the author of "Flatland" (given, originally, as merely A. Square) describes his own two-dimensional existence as best as he is able. It is hoped that perhaps by publishing this petite memoir of his world and experiences he may shed new light on his predicament and perhaps even win a follower or two.

The world of Flatland (as opposed to our own multi-dimensional Spaceland) is a simple one. In it, the more sides an individual has, the (supposedly) greater intelligence and influence. Therefore it stands to reason that circles (which is to say, many sided polygons) rule as priests and all hexagons, squares, triangles, etc. hope to someday ascend or let their children ascend to that most worthy class. Women, sadly, are given short shift. They appear as lines (though the narrator does concede later on that they are perhaps more accurately described as very thin Parallelograms. The narrator goes on to describes how shapes in Flatland recognize one another, what their lives are like, and even gives a bit of brief historical background regarding the great Chromatic Sedition that almost made all shapes equal under the eyes of the law and society. The square then recounts the adventures he had when, in a dream, he approached Lineland and then was visited by a sphere preaching the gospel of the Spaceland. With the discovery of a third dimension the square is given to preaching about this new place to his fellows and, for his efforts, is summarily arrested and cast into prison from whence he writes this book.

"Flatland" was originally published in 1884, a fact that places some of its odder elements into (ha ha) perspective. Appended with a Preface that accompanied its second revised addition, the "author" (A. Square) responds to those critics that accuse him of classism and sexism. The square admits that years in prison may have, since the publication of the book, given him greater insight into both women AND his "betters". Just the same, it's difficult for a reader today to hear that women are "consequently wholly devoid of brain-power, and have neither reflection, judgement nor forethought, and hardly any memory" and not feel a little put out. On the other hand, we're dealing with some serious satire here, and we should treat the book accordingly. In general, it's a delight. Paving the way for such modern classics as "The Phantom Tollbooth" or even "A Wrinkle In Time" (the latter making at least one direct reference to "Flatland"), the book is a satire in the finest sense of the word. The narrator is, undoubtedly, unreliable which makes the entire book just that much more enjoyable. Author Edwin A. Abbott put an extraordinary amount of effort into this story. As is often the case with authors that slum in fiction, children's literature, or works of humor (right off the top of my head I'm thinking of Gilbert & Sullivan and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), "Flatland" was written as a bit of fluff and ended up (whether Abbott liked it or not) as the author's best known work.

Though a lovely concept, this book is perhaps best read by teens and adults rather that kids. I'm not saying that there won't be the spectacularly brainy ten year old who's a fan of both Math AND English and speeds through this book like butter. I'm just saying that such a child is in the minority and that you probably shouldn't foist a tale that contains such sentences as "Now, all our lines are equally and infinitesimally thick (or high, whichever you like): consequently, there is nothing in them to lead our minds to the conception of that Dimension". You get the picture. One fact I discovered to my own delight was that this book does not, in fact, require a firm grasp on geometry. It couldn't hurt, and I'm sure you'll get quite a lot more out of it than if you've heard of angles or circumferences, but it's not a prerequisite for enjoying this tale. As long as you've a certain amount of imagination and a will to suspend disbelief, you should be in the clear.

The Saturday Review of Literature once said that Flatland was, "One of the best things of its kind ever written". This seems to me to be somewhat backhanded praise since very few "things of its kind" HAVE ever been written. And shouldn't it be unequivocally be pronounced the best by default alone? To my mind, the book's well worth the reading. It deserves its praise and should be remembered amongst the best of the fantastical satires ("Gulliver's Travels" for example). It's a short book too, so you've really no excuse for not reading it. A delightful dip into the unknown.