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windhover's review against another edition
4.0
I read this in high school and thought it was great. It does a lot of fun two-dimensional world-building of a satire of Victorian society (literally two-dimensional, the narrator is a square; his wife a line). It does fun things with math and geometry. It also has good things to say about being open-minded and humble and says them without being too preachy or obnoxious. Parts of it are boring, but, if memory serves, the whole book is pretty short, so even the slow parts don't last that long.
vanncrowe's review against another edition
3.0
The kind of book one can only appreciate when one deigns to explain it to another…because it forces you to confront what you got from it. My takeaway was that language cannot convey concepts that are wholly alien to a listener, without a frame of reference—one just sounds like a crazy person.
Go on, explain a color to someone without eyesight. I’ll wait.
Go on, explain a color to someone without eyesight. I’ll wait.
shari_billops's review against another edition
Flatland/Sphereland (Everyday Handbook) by Edwin A. Abbott (1994)
el_entrenador_loco's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
2.0
While Flatland is amazing (my review elsewhere), Sphereland is a dry and largely uninspired exercise in writing about the basics of Einstein's space using the world of Flatland. Highlights from the short work are the neo-colonial biases as the Flatlanders early on explore nearby lands and go south "to the jungles." But everything else is a storyline with only the most meager of conflicts or suspense while the characters say little for pages except, "It was most curious!" Frankly, it could be little else: the geometric ideas presented are--as made clear in the plot--accessible to five year olds. Their implications are--for those with no understanding of curved space--interesting. But the fun, the nuance, the satire, the multiple allegories, and most of all the cognitive dissonances of the original are left behind.
gokhanca's review against another edition
2.0
Ortaokulda olsam çok hoşuma gidebilirdi verdiği geometri bilgisi sebebiyle... Ama yıllanmış mühendis olarak sadece bunları 1800lü yıllarda yazmasına saygı duydum...
candournat's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing, satirical and so clever. Absolutely love the philosophical and geopolitical undertones.
arbieroo's review
3.0
Flatland
Abbott's classic, exuberant look at life in two dimensions and how hard it would be to understand a third deserves a wide audience; much wider than stereotypical maths or science nerds. Not only does it remind us that our direct perceptions are limited and limiting, it also acts as a severe critique and satire on Victorian society and hubris that we would do well to take note of even today. Finally, it ends on a bit of a downer note, telling us how visionaries are often treated as crazy.
Abbott's classic, exuberant look at life in two dimensions and how hard it would be to understand a third deserves a wide audience; much wider than stereotypical maths or science nerds. Not only does it remind us that our direct perceptions are limited and limiting, it also acts as a severe critique and satire on Victorian society and hubris that we would do well to take note of even today. Finally, it ends on a bit of a downer note, telling us how visionaries are often treated as crazy.
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