Flatland
Flatland
Book Excerpt
Windows there are none in our houses: for the light
comes to us alike in our homes and out of them,
by day and by night, equally at all times and in all places,
whence we know not. It was in old days, with our learned men,
an interesting and oft-investigate question,
"What is the origin of light?" and the solution of it
has been repeatedly attempted, with no other result
than to crowd our lunatic asylums with the would-be solvers.
Hence, after fruitless attempts to suppress such investigations
indirectly by making them liable to a heavy tax, the Legislature,
in comparatively recent times, absolutely prohibited them.
I--alas, I alone in Flatland--know now only too well
the true solution of this mysterious problem;
but my knowledge cannot be made intelligible
to a single one of my countrymen; and I am mocked at
--I, the sole possessor of the truths of Space
and of the theory of the introduction of Light
from the world of three Dimensions--as if I were
the maddest of the mad! But a truce to these pain
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Just finished reading it earlier today. This book is, in its entirety, thought-provoking. The obscenity of the third dimension, to flatland, is how we see our "upper dimensions." Once readers reach the climax, they'll understand the issue in as many as four dimensions, and as little as none.
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Great book. Abbott uses a mathematical exercise (imagining life in 2 dimensions) to pass commentary on social structure and sometimes even religion. I loved the book--the setting is creative and the concept is thorough. I am an engineer, but math is not needed to appreciate this book.
09/05/2010
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