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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was very old on my to read list, and I finally got around to it. The story wasn't very interesting, it progressed pretty slow. There was a lot of weird sexism which felt.... unnecessary? And random? And excessive. Even though the book was short it felt long. The more math focused parts are interesting though.
informative
slow-paced
Wow, this book makes you think! I'm around 99% sure that most of this book went over my head, yet at the same time it makes you think about attitudes toward class and religion, through the medium of maths and science. Unlike anything i've ever read before! And to think it was written in the late 1800s. Highly recommended. Only rated 4 stars due to the face that there was things i didn't understand!
Went in expecting a fun story about shapes and mathematics.
Came out learning about a harsh society that:
• Steals equilateral children from their isosceles parents
• Kills women for sneezing in public
• Supports cannibalizing irregular babies
- - -
Part 1 is really dry. Like, REALLY really dry. It about made me drop the book. It goes on for way too long about the narrator's 2D social structure. It's good to explore the idea and get the reader in a 2D headspace but it just bored me after a few chapters.
But Part 2 is a lot more fun! It discusses how beings of lower dimensions would perceive their worlds, then extrapolates the ideas out to 4, 5, and N dimensions. (I mean, *I* think it's fun)
Part 2 is really good and I loved it (4 stars), but Part 1 isn't great (1 star) and makes up half the book. If you like math, I'd recommend reading the first 3-4 chapters of Part 1 and then skip to Part 2.
Came out learning about a harsh society that:
• Steals equilateral children from their isosceles parents
• Kills women for sneezing in public
• Supports cannibalizing irregular babies
- - -
Part 1 is really dry. Like, REALLY really dry. It about made me drop the book. It goes on for way too long about the narrator's 2D social structure. It's good to explore the idea and get the reader in a 2D headspace but it just bored me after a few chapters.
But Part 2 is a lot more fun! It discusses how beings of lower dimensions would perceive their worlds, then extrapolates the ideas out to 4, 5, and N dimensions. (I mean, *I* think it's fun)
Part 2 is really good and I loved it (4 stars), but Part 1 isn't great (1 star) and makes up half the book. If you like math, I'd recommend reading the first 3-4 chapters of Part 1 and then skip to Part 2.
challenging
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In a recent Blog post (Books That Have Shaped How I Think) by Tim O'Reilly, he listed Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions as highly influencial. I had heard of the book but never read it.
Written from the perspective of "a square," the narrator describes his world-Flatland. And his subsequent visits from space by "Sphere" and to Lineland and Pointland. Writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions." Abbott include much detail about what life would be like. One example is how you would recognize circles from squares from triangles from lines - a very important part of life.
In 2008, K and I read A Wrinkle in Time, a novel by Madeleine L'Engle in which the characters pass through a two-dimensional world with different effects .The characters in A Wrinkle in Time are painfully forced into two-dimensions rather than only being partially visible to inhabitants as in Flatland.
Not only that, I found the world created by Abbott rich and full of life including social-structures, religion and laws that are coherent with living in a two-dimensional universe. In many ways it reminded me of the world that was created by Frank Herbert in Dune.
Written from the perspective of "a square," the narrator describes his world-Flatland. And his subsequent visits from space by "Sphere" and to Lineland and Pointland. Writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions." Abbott include much detail about what life would be like. One example is how you would recognize circles from squares from triangles from lines - a very important part of life.
In 2008, K and I read A Wrinkle in Time, a novel by Madeleine L'Engle in which the characters pass through a two-dimensional world with different effects .The characters in A Wrinkle in Time are painfully forced into two-dimensions rather than only being partially visible to inhabitants as in Flatland.
Not only that, I found the world created by Abbott rich and full of life including social-structures, religion and laws that are coherent with living in a two-dimensional universe. In many ways it reminded me of the world that was created by Frank Herbert in Dune.
This must be what tripping on acid while reading a geometry textbook feels like
I wasn't expecting the shapes to be doing eugenics. Awesome!
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
1 hour 39 minutes - I read this after one of my professors mentioned it in a lecture, and it is such a fascinating but strange read. I expected it to be wholly mathematical, but the author made up a whole social class system for these shapes. It is rife with sexism and classism, but this book was written in the 1880s, so honestly it was refreshing to see women dehumanised only because they are 1-dimensional instead of 2. This whole book felt a little like a fever dream.