March 14, 2012
I had no idea this was actually in print anywhere! And now I have lost $60. But so it goes, because this is seriously one of the coolest books ever published. Byrne’s rendering of Euclid was revolutionary—even a little scandalous! Before him no one had ever thought to render geometric objects as anything other than areas contained by these rigid, “solid” magnitudes, and yet Byrne’s use of color offered up an arguably more faithful representation of these “breadthless” magnitudes: that “lines” and “points,” rather than being endowed with any positive spatial significance in their own right, instead only ever reside in the negative space where colors intersect. Which of course was some pretty serious Plato hate! Via something something Empedoclean effluvia or whatever. But then come to think of it moral philosophers had long since begun quietly whispering amongst themselves that maybe Thrasymachus was right, so I guess Byrne’s moment of Plata-hatin’ was already pretty passé, but anyway, whatever, you should definitely buy this if you like books with lots of pictures.

I had no idea this was actually in print anywhere! And now I have lost $60. But so it goes, because this is seriously one of the coolest books ever published. Byrne’s rendering of Euclid was revolutionary—even a little scandalous! Before him no one had ever thought to render geometric objects as anything other than areas contained by these rigid, “solid” magnitudes, and yet Byrne’s use of color offered up an arguably more faithful representation of these “breadthless” magnitudes: that “lines” and “points,” rather than being endowed with any positive spatial significance in their own right, instead only ever reside in the negative space where colors intersect. Which of course was some pretty serious Plato hate! Via something something Empedoclean effluvia or whatever. But then come to think of it moral philosophers had long since begun quietly whispering amongst themselves that maybe Thrasymachus was right, so I guess Byrne’s moment of Plata-hatin’ was already pretty passé, but anyway, whatever, you should definitely buy this if you like books with lots of pictures.

12:55pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZpI0byH_2h2B
(Notes: 32)
  
  1. cdsf reblogged this from dorkismo
  2. atechnologyjobisnoexcuse reblogged this from dorkismo and added:
    Six books of Euclid. [via dorkismo.]
  3. pareidolalia reblogged this from dorkismo and added:
    You know, it’s worth a try.
  4. dorkismo reblogged this from langer and added:
    This is so great!!...made a needlepoint of Book II Prop. XI when
  5. machomochi reblogged this from langer
  6. nostrich said: I remember this pic from Ed Tufte’s curated book of infographics. He forgot to ↬, but it’s a lovely diagram!
  7. leonstj said: I hate you for making me know this exists.
  8. langer posted this