Paperback, 69 pages
Spanish language
Published Sept. 28, 1999 by José J. de Olañeta.
¿Cómo sería la existencia en un mundo de dos dimensiones? ¿Y de una sola? ¿Y de ninguna dimensión? Y, por encima de las tres dimensiones, ¿existen espacios de 4, 5, 10 o más dimensiones? Y, si existen, ¿se puede conectar con ellos?
En 'Planilandia', la fantasía matemática se entrecruza con otro género: el de la sátira social (en su variante de viajes imaginarios en clave cómica, en la línea de Rabelais o Swift). La crítica social aquí alcanza mucho más allá de la sociedad victoriana que constituía su blanco directo. La condición plana del mundo de Planilandia, y la consiguiente imposibilidad, para las figuras planas que lo habitan, de mirar hacia arriba o hacia abajo, funcionan como una eficaz metáfora para la representación satírica de la estrechez de miras de una sociedad regida por una elite satisfecha de sí misma, cuyo prestigio se basa en la desigualdad institucionalizada.
Las posiciones …
¿Cómo sería la existencia en un mundo de dos dimensiones? ¿Y de una sola? ¿Y de ninguna dimensión? Y, por encima de las tres dimensiones, ¿existen espacios de 4, 5, 10 o más dimensiones? Y, si existen, ¿se puede conectar con ellos?
En 'Planilandia', la fantasía matemática se entrecruza con otro género: el de la sátira social (en su variante de viajes imaginarios en clave cómica, en la línea de Rabelais o Swift). La crítica social aquí alcanza mucho más allá de la sociedad victoriana que constituía su blanco directo. La condición plana del mundo de Planilandia, y la consiguiente imposibilidad, para las figuras planas que lo habitan, de mirar hacia arriba o hacia abajo, funcionan como una eficaz metáfora para la representación satírica de la estrechez de miras de una sociedad regida por una elite satisfecha de sí misma, cuyo prestigio se basa en la desigualdad institucionalizada.
Las posiciones de Edwin A. Abbott, favorables a la completa emancipación de la mujer, a una igualdad universal de derechos cívicos cuya consecución comportaría el derrocamiento de las capas sociales dirigentes, y a la instauración de una democracia popular sustentada por el (entonces todavía lejano) sufragio universal, podrían ser suscritas desde las posiciones sociopolíticas más avanzadas de la actualidad.
Al cabo, pues, de más de un siglo de su primera publicación, 'Planilandia' es un imprescindible relato de desbordante ingenio matemático al tiempo que aguda sátira social.
Really enjoyable story about a square that learns about the third dimension. With elements of an educational novel, this book is also brilliantly witty with a Johnathan-Swift-esque humour to the benign adventures of an unlikely protagonist in a world only a geometrist could dream up.
Having read the "unofficial sequel" Flatterland before, I was a bit disappointed by the very low amounts of science and mathematics in this book. But, on the other hand, it verges more towards philosophy and sociology.
If you always keep in mind when this book was written, it serves as a nice satire of the thinking in that time (and even present thinking in some cases).
Don't read this book for the plot, because it is very thin, but this is not really a big issue in this case.
The book loses a star because of the frankly horrible "Preface to the second edition" where the author (sorry, the editor who speaks for the anonymous square who wrote the book) tries to answer to some of the criticisms he received - by denouncing some of the very ideas of the book and apparently failing to see the newly opened possibilities …
Having read the "unofficial sequel" Flatterland before, I was a bit disappointed by the very low amounts of science and mathematics in this book. But, on the other hand, it verges more towards philosophy and sociology.
If you always keep in mind when this book was written, it serves as a nice satire of the thinking in that time (and even present thinking in some cases).
Don't read this book for the plot, because it is very thin, but this is not really a big issue in this case.
The book loses a star because of the frankly horrible "Preface to the second edition" where the author (sorry, the editor who speaks for the anonymous square who wrote the book) tries to answer to some of the criticisms he received - by denouncing some of the very ideas of the book and apparently failing to see the newly opened possibilities for satire.
1) '''I am indeed, in a certain sense a Circle,' replied the voice, 'and a more perfect Circle than any in Flatland; but to speak more accurately, I am many Circles in one.' Then he added more mildly, 'I have a message, dear Madam, to your husband, which I must not deliver in your presence; and, if you would suffer us to retire for a few minutes#-' But my Wife would not listen to the proposal that our august Visitor should so incommode himself, and assuring the Circle that the hour of her own retirement had long passed, with many reiterated apologies for her recent indiscretion, she at last retired to her apartment.
I glanced at the half-hour glass. The last sands had fallen. The third Millennium had begun.''
2) ''An unspeakable horror seized me. There was a darkness; then a dizzy, sickening sensation of sight that was not like …
1) '''I am indeed, in a certain sense a Circle,' replied the voice, 'and a more perfect Circle than any in Flatland; but to speak more accurately, I am many Circles in one.' Then he added more mildly, 'I have a message, dear Madam, to your husband, which I must not deliver in your presence; and, if you would suffer us to retire for a few minutes#-' But my Wife would not listen to the proposal that our august Visitor should so incommode himself, and assuring the Circle that the hour of her own retirement had long passed, with many reiterated apologies for her recent indiscretion, she at last retired to her apartment.
I glanced at the half-hour glass. The last sands had fallen. The third Millennium had begun.''
2) ''An unspeakable horror seized me. There was a darkness; then a dizzy, sickening sensation of sight that was not like seeing; I saw a Line that was no Line; Space that was not Space: I was myself, and not myself. When I could find voice, I shrieked aloud in agony, 'Either this is madness or it is Hell.' 'It is neither,' calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, 'it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.''
