Flatland (Edwin Abbott Abbott)

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

How many people here have read this peculiar novella?
Flatland seems to be mostly popular with Mathematics students (and according to a recent poll there are quite a few Maths majors on here), which is not surprising for a book exploring mathematical dimensions and in particular the idea of worlds with a different number of dimensions than ours, yet I consider it just as valuable for its social aspect as an ingenious satire of then-contemporary Victorian society. In any case I recommend it to all intellectually curious people.

[Joseph Cao]

Abbott squared had an incredibly incisive wit that he exploited to the full on multiple levels. The mathematical, where his hammering of the at-the-time counterintuitive idea of higher dimensions deservedly ranks Flatland among the mathematical classics in a field that needs them badly. And the social, where he shows just enough of the literary knife to perform his commentary. An outstanding work of literature.

Have a read if you haven't: http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/

[Donerail]

Kids these days... too much Edwin Abbott Abbott, not enough Edward Abbey