[Duraccione]

[Possible spoilers] (This time I didn't forget to annotate it ;) )

And it has to be flat, for he lives in a two dimensional world and is just a square: I'm referring to the main character and narrator in "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott, written in about 1882. I've just finished reading it and found it a very enjoyable and shrewd (but short) novel, an allegory of our own world among its small horizons and conventions and customs...

The way this square discovers the third dimension and then goes out of his world's patterns is very fresh and somehow leaves the reader in search for a way to reach the fourth dimension, it seems like it really exists and is within reach if you know what to look for. What the dimensional jump means is - I think - the suggestion to start using one's own mind, with all the social perils it involves, and somehow this manages to have you looking at the world in a different way...at least for a short time... ;)

If you haven't read it yet, it's strongly suggested. :)
If you have...what's your opinion?

[Mugwump]

[Possible spoilers] (This time I didn't forget to annotate it ;) )

And it has to be flat, for he lives in a two dimensional world and is just a square: I'm referring to the main character and narrator in "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott, written in about 1882. I've just finished reading it and found it a very enjoyable and shrewd (but short) novel, an allegory of our own world among its small horizons and conventions and customs...

The way this square discovers the third dimension and then goes out of his world's patterns is very fresh and somehow leaves the reader in search for a way to reach the fourth dimension, it seems like it really exists and is within reach if you know what to look for. What the dimensional jump means is - I think - the suggestion to start using one's own mind, with all the social perils it involves, and somehow this manages to have you looking at the world in a different way...at least for a short time... ;)
If you haven't read it yet, it's strongly suggested. :)
If you have...what's your opinion?

I’m not sure how I missed this thread.

Flatland is one of the most sophisticated, witty and imaginative “ancient” SF tales even penned. On the one hand a trenchant stab at class prejudice, on the other: a thought-provoking insight into the tangled, dizzying concept of myriad spatial dimensions.

At the very least it should be mandatory reading for introductory physics classes.

Well done to Duraccione for bringing this engaging little gem to our attention.

[emohawk]

I haven't read it (or even heard of it!) but I'll certainly look out for it.

While not exactly similar, I would recommend Christopher Priest's Inverted World to anyone that hasn't read it.

[intensityxx]

I've got Flatland and needed the reminder, and just ordered Inverted World because Emo told me to. :D

[Mugwump]

Flatland, because of its age, can be picked up for next to nothing on a Dover Thrift print. A real bargain, in my opinion.

[Duraccione]

Well done to Duraccione for bringing this engaging little gem to our attention.
:o Thank you :o I just wanted to share with you my excitement in reading such a good novel, written well before science fiction even made as a genre: the stab you point is evident, and makes the whole book much more enjoyable while trying to convert ;) the 2d classes into the real classes of Abbot's age.

Too bad many modern writers lack in ideas and plots, so it's always nice to discover good novels from the deepest past. ;)