Comments on: Can you recommend books like Flatland which mix fiction and math and/or explain the mathematical concepts to laymen?

Question: Can you recommend books like Flatland which mix fiction and math and/or explain the mathematical concepts to laymen?

Evstar — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:11:17 -0800

I read Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland this weekend and really enjoyed its fiction and speculative geometry/mathematics. I guess the logical next step would be to read the unofficial sequel, Flatterland, but can any of you recommend other books that similarly twist math and fiction, or just books that explain mathematical concepts or theories to laymen such as myself in ways that are entertaining to read?

By: thethirdman

thethirdman — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:18:49 -0800

My answer, which isn't exactly the same kind of reading, is the books of Douglas Hofstadter. He wrote, notably, Godel Escher Bach, and Metamagical Themas. The former is a long series of intermixed fiction segments with math explanations, and the latter is a collection of columns from (I think) Scientific American. I heart his books- I should maybe re-read them.

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:19:44 -0800

While I can't suggest any other titles, I can really recommend The Annotated Flatland, with annotations by the same guy who wrote Flatterland. It brings a lot of insight into the original book; not just the geometry but the politics and thoughts of the time in which it was written.

By: whatzit

whatzit — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:25:16 -0800

I loved Clifford Pickover's The Loom of God. It ties mathematical history to a fiction story about time travel and mysticism. He's written a lot of other good math-ish books, but this is probably my favorite. (In case the name sounds familiar, he also used to write the brain-boggler column for Discover magazine.)

By: aberrant

aberrant — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:33:04 -0800

Just finished "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku (Amazon here.) A great read, requires very little advanced math/theoretical physics knowledge, though some linear algebra might be good. More theory than pure fiction, but mentions Flatland and other texts, so it might be worth perusing the bibliography for more of what you're looking for, if this book isn't it.

By: Chris Freiberg

Chris Freiberg — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:33:17 -0800

Some of Rudy Rucker's short stories deal with human beings encountering 4-dimensional geometrical spaces in a way that seems to be directly inspired by Flatland. One of the stories is a semi-sequel to the book itself.

By: rustcellar

rustcellar — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:38:12 -0800

A Tour of the Calculus by (David?) Berlinski is a great narrative introduction to lots of mathematical concepts.

By: Aquaman

Aquaman — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:45:22 -0800

Second the Rudy Rucker book! It's called "Spaceland", and is a great read, as is almost all of Rucker's stuff.

My favorites are the bopper books, the best of which is "Wetware".

Rucker is da man.

I think there's an official sequel, by Abbott himself. I'll check it out...

By: Aquaman

Aquaman — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:49:45 -0800

Ah, the sequel I vaguely remembered was, in fact, this:

Sphereland, by one Dionys Berger, 1965.

As I recall (poorly, obviously), this is very much in the style of the original.

By: bingo

bingo — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:52:12 -0800

Einstein's Dreams.

By: Gamecat

Gamecat — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:55:39 -0800

A.K. Dewdney's The Planiverse: Computer Contact With a Two-Dimensional World probably fits the bill, and I enjoyed it enormously.

By: LongDrive

LongDrive — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:06:50 -0800

Sort of related, is the incredibly designed Vas

Dubbed an "opera in flatland", more of a visual pleasure if anything, but very interesting to read, and better understood if you have a grasp on Flatland.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:15:16 -0800

If you want a true headfuck novel (at least, it was for me), try Don DeLillo's Ratner's Star, a difficult and very wonderful novel about mathematics.

That link is from a page called MathFiction, which I just discovered in looking for a link to Ratner's Star, and which looks like it might be of interest to you.

By: BadSeamus

BadSeamus — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:28:16 -0800

Ill second Planiverse.

By: togdon

togdon — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:07:42 -0800

I'll third Planiverse.

By: bshort

bshort — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:24:50 -0800

Yeah, ok, I'll fourth Planiverse.

By: majcher

majcher — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:28:52 -0800

I'll fifth Planiverse. Of all the Flatland wannabe books out there, Dewdney nails it right down.

By: hindmost

hindmost — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 00:00:50 -0800

One Two Three...Infinity by George Gamow. Not a fiction based book like Flatland, but he has a wonder conversationalist style that really gave me a love of mathematics at an early age. It's highly readable and not very technical, although it explains a lot of more advanced concepts in math.

By: zanni

zanni — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 00:25:52 -0800

Knuth (yes, that Knuth) wrote a book called Surreal Numbers about a young couple who get stranded on a desert island and discover some stone tablets with symbols carved on them from which they derive Conway's set-based number system.

Written in novel form (OK, novella) but without an actual plot or significant characterization. Nevertheless, it really captures the thrill of discovery as the couple works out each new bit of Conway's system.

Short. Readable. Engaging. One of my favorite books about math, though I've never had any use for surreal numbers in real life.

Also, second thethirdman's vote for Godel, Escher, Bach. Brilliant, wide-ranging book covering AI, philosophy, music, art, zen, genetics, programming, computability and turing machines, godel's theorem, and more.

By: hot soup girl

hot soup girl — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 02:00:15 -0800

I really enjoyed Sue Woolfe's Leaning Towards Infinity.

By: ModestyBCatt

ModestyBCatt — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 03:29:49 -0800

Mathenauts compiled by Rudy Rucker is an interesting collection of short mathematical(ish) stories.

You could try getting it via BookCrossing I guess.

By: Evstar

Evstar — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 04:29:57 -0800

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, guys. I'll definitely be searching some of these out.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 04:53:38 -0800

Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland is about a man who can personally explore the effects of relativity. It's a fun way to learn Einstein.

I also recommend any of Raymond Smulyan's logic-puzzle books, which include a lot of stories.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 06:13:35 -0800

Second or third or however many for Godel, Escher, Bach and Surreal Numbers.

And maybe Martin Gardener's The Armchair Universe; not much on the fiction but really intriguing topics, and designed around computer experimentation.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 07:16:08 -0800

You would probably enjoy Stanislaw Lem:
"His Master's Voice" is about a mathematician, and a lot of very cool made-up theorems are discussed. It might not be so enjoyable if you don't already know a little math (but a quick trip to google or wikipedia will tell you enough.)
"The Cyberiad" has a lot of funny science jokes.
"The Investigation" is good, but you won't follow the mathematical "thrust" of it until the end.

I bet you'd like Borges, too.

By: Capn

Capn — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 08:15:26 -0800

More big-ups for G.E.B. I try to read it every couple of years, and everytime I do, it blows my mind in a completely different way than the time before.

By: initapplette

initapplette — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 11:58:01 -0800

Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino.

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:15:21 -0800

G.E.B. is great, but don't take everything in it as fact, particularly the stuff about Zen Buddhism, which is often wrong or made-up. For example, there is no such thing as "the art of Zen strings" -- which is obvious if you are clued in to the fact that it's a put-on by the genetic pun in that particular dialog, but I didn't catch it the first couple times through -- and "mu" does not really "unask the question" in Japanese (this sense was introduced in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I believe, and is not really derived from Zen).

The book becomes fun in a different way after you know something about the subjects it discusses.

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 11:12:36 -0800

In case anyone is still reading this thread, Alex Kasman of the College of Charleston keeps a list of mathematical fiction (with reader reviews) here.