Just read Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott and it may just be the single most eye opening book I’ve ever read

Submitted by sashanktungu t3_11dp0h1 in books

Just 83 pages but what a masterpiece. The explanation of dimensions and the possibility of lower and higher dimensional beings has opened up my brain to possibilities like never before. Drawing similarities to issues we face in our day to day lives (if everyones the same why do we need such tedious ways to discern between one another) and explaining the limitations we face in viewing these higher dimensions is done in a funny yet comprehensible manner.

The fact that Edwin was able to write this Novella even before Einstein had come up with the General Theory of Relativity gives this book even more props. I recommend this to everyone and anyone.

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HanaBothWays t1_jaa15ob wrote

Flatland is really a satire about British social structure and the difficulty of imagining alternatives though…

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violetsprouts t1_jaat36t wrote

Munmun also does this. It's an alternate world where buying power determines your actual physical size. The littlepoors are the size of mice, while the extra rich are the size of skyscrapers. It's not an enormously popular book, but I like it.

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sashanktungu OP t1_jaa3zuq wrote

I’d go further and say its a satire on the world social structure.

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Fleckeri t1_jadncoa wrote

It’s the reason why Flatland women were represented by 1-D lines: they were perceived by many Victorian men as rather stupid, often invisible, and incredibly dangerous.

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general-dc t1_jab0xib wrote

Check out Flatland (the film) on YouTube. It's a trip.

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mysteryofthefieryeye t1_jabk251 wrote

I read this book ages ago and then immediately dived into Michio Kaku's Hyperspace. So I associate the two together. Those were a fun few weeks of reading for me.

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heyitsme963 t1_jacr6om wrote

THATS WHAT ITS CALLED oh wow, these books were next to each other on my 5th grade teacher’s bookshelf and I remembered Flatland but couldn’t remember the name of the other one. I guess that’s what I’m doing today. Thank you so much for the unintentional lightbulb moment.

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plantnativemilkweed t1_jaadnyz wrote

Thanks for sharing this. I had never hear of this book but it looks quite interesting and unusual- which is always a a big draw for me. I just downloaded it for free to my Kindle app.

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bhbhbhhh t1_jaa1jc4 wrote

Look for The Planiverse. I was very happy to see it ask what it would mean for flatlanders to have biology and gravity and all that.

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RankinPDX t1_jaabroo wrote

Maybe The Three-Body Problem and its sequels next, which has some more cool ideas about multiple dimensions.

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Moonghiest t1_jaa1xcq wrote

I wanna read this...

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Ariadnepyanfar t1_jaf4osu wrote

It’s good! Nice and short, so your brain doesn’t get taxed by this weird new way.

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cMeeber t1_jaao2uw wrote

We had to read a condensed/annotated version of this in 4th or 5th grade.

I remember my mind being blown. It gave me all kids of ideas about alternate dimensions and the things I was seeing…like quick lines in the corner of my vision and what they might be.

I’ll bring it up now and then but no one else knows what I’m talking about and didn’t have to read it in school.

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GrudaAplam t1_jaa9jrs wrote

Yeah, great book. Funny, too.

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fla_john t1_jaaxjb8 wrote

There's also an animated version with Martin Sheen and Kristin Bell that's really good too. It actually brought me to the book.

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Bookanista t1_jab0o4r wrote

This book is a blast.

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oldprocessstudioman t1_jabq1hu wrote

this book gave me the context to understand the idea that an object casts a shadow one dimension less than itself- as in a 3d object casts a 2d shadow, a 2d object casts a 1d shadow- a 4d object casts a 3d shadow. makes my brain hurt in a good way!

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Rubberfootman t1_jabtjoi wrote

There’s a great song (with the same name) based on the book by Tunng too.

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confetti27 t1_jadvzfm wrote

If you’re interested in some sci-fi which really explores the limits of the concepts in Flatlands (among other concepts) I highly recommend The Three Body Problem Trilogy.

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