The mathematical magpie

What Hacker News says

1. mjcohenMay 2025
   Clifton Fadiman edited two collections of mathematical fiction "Fantasia Mathematica" and "The Mathematical Magpie". I have them and enjoyed both.
   thread
2. themadturkAug 2021
   I first read this delightful story (and the Heinlien story) about 1968 (my 7th grade year) in a Clifton Fadiman anthology entitled “Fantasia Mathematica.” He also edited another anthology, “The Mathematical Magpie.” I’ve always been terrible at math, but loved stories about mathematics. This book, at least, was heavy on the topology stories.
   thread
3. jonjackyJul 2019
   There was a burst of this in the 1950s and 1960s, inspired by interest in/anxiety about science and math prompted by Sputnik, the space race, and nuclear war. So these are period pieces but you still might enjoy them -- I did:

   Fantasia Mathematica (1958) and The Mathematical Magpie (1962), two short story collections edited by Clifton Fadiman

   Mathenauts (1967), short story collection edited by Rudy Rucker

   The Space Child's Mother Goose (1958?), poetry

   Come to think of it, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle (1962) fits right in with this group. The math and cold war anxiety themes are stronger in the book than in the recent movie.

   Show morethread
4. JadeNBDec 2011
   This story is in either "Fantasia Mathematica" or "The Mathematical Magpie", both edited by Clifton Fadiman. I don't have my copies here to check, but a look at the table of contents suggests that it might be "The Hermeneutical Doughnut", by H. Nearing Jr. (Even if it's not, it's worth picking up the books to look; anyone who liked this story is guaranteed to like them.)

   EDIT: Sorry; on looking closer, it's clearly Gardner's "The No-Sided Professor" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasia_Mathematica).

   Show morethread