Flatland

I read this book for the first time while I was in undergrad, and picked it up again after reading Death’s End by Liu Cixin. I think it was lost on me how much of the book is social criticism about Victorian England. The first half is an overview of what Flatland is like, and it’s obvious how rigid the social roles are, and how absurd and arbitrary their assignments are. The second half of the book explores Lineland, Flatland, Sphereland, and Pointland, and it’s here that we learn about the 3+1 visual dimensions (to humans).

The second half of the book is really quite interesting, but this short little text is a bit of a slog.

I'm perhaps being a little over-the-top there, but also not really. The way this book serves as political/societal satire while simultaneously teaching a fairly advanced mathematical concept in an entertaining and accessible way is masterful. The social commentary may be a bit less relevant than it was in its time, but sadly still isn't entirely irrelevant even now, and I think the geometry lesson is still one of the best explanations of the concept I've seen.