平面国 – Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

很难简单概括《平面国》这本书。

它可以是：首次解释”维度”概念的科普读物、脑洞大开的科幻小说、煞有介事的数学童话、剑走偏锋的精神启蒙、辛辣讽喻英国维多利亚时代的社会寓言。

这本一百年前横空出世的小书，通篇在一本正经地胡说八道，散发着浓浓英式幽默，有趣、迷人，令人捧腹 。

它启发过无数大师，深刻影响了现当代科学。“平面国”已然成为全球范围内的超级文化符号。

作者在平面宇宙设定基础上，展开细节详实的“平面国”生活画卷。平面国的各形状居民操心自己的国家社会，就像我们操心自己的日常生活。他们住在平面房子里，通过雾气和光线识别他人，靠彼此触摸识别“角度”区分地位。平面国史上还发生通过染色消除阶级而引发的大事件，比起空间世界的人类历史也不遑多让。

故事的主角，一位体面的正方形先生突然遇到了从三维国前来平面国传福音的“球”。他决定跟随这位导师向平面国传播立体空间的真理，却无法用平面国居民能理解的语言去解释高度和上（而不是北）。被人当做疯子后，他写出了这部传世的《平面国》。

作为读者的我们，将在这个故事中获得上帝视角，得以审视自身，以科学的态度，理解“科学的谦卑”。

This masterpiece of science (and mathematical) fiction is a delightfully unique and highly entertaining satire that has charmed readers for more than 100 years. The work of English clergyman, educator and Shakespearean scholar Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926), it describes the journeys of A. Square [sic – ed.], a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.

Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. “Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination.” — Mathematics Teacher.

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