Deus Ex: Anna Navarre's killphrase (Spoiler)

[Brian H.]

Ok, English is not my native language. I'm just curious about the
killphrase of Anna Navarre: "Flatlander woman". Is it some kind of humor?
There's a slang in my native language (whatever you wouldn't care) that
described women with not-so-big breasts as "airport", which means it's a
large piece of flat land for planes to land. Is this "Flatlander" here in
English the same as this "airport" in my native language?

[Brian Siano]

"Brian H." wrote:

"Flatland" was the title of a book by a mathematician which
attempted to describe existence in only two dimensions. A.K. Dewdney
did an even more elaborate book titled _The Planiverse_. It's a
math fan's in-joke-- nothing to do with Anna's figure.
The game is full of literary and science-geek references to things
like that.

--
Brian Siano - bsi...@cceb.med.upenn.edu

[Alexx S Kay]

Brian Siano <bsi...@cceb.med.upenn.edu> writes:
>"Brian H." wrote:

> "Flatland" was the title of a book by a mathematician which

>attempted to describe existence in only two dimensions. A.K. Dewdney
>did an even more elaborate book titled _The Planiverse_. It's a
>math fan's in-joke-- nothing to do with Anna's figure.

Actually, I suspect it's one remove away from Dewdney's Flatland. Larry
Niven, in his "Known Space" cycle of stories had a human colony named
Flatland. Inhabitants of this world were called "Flatlanders".

> The game is full of literary and science-geek references to things
>like that.

Ayup. Glad to see that Warren like _The Man Who Was Thursday_ as much
as I did :-)

Alexx Kay
Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers
al...@world.std.com
http://world.std.com/~alexx
Reality is not always probable, or even likely.
[Seen on a Nancy Button, na...@genie.slhs.udel.edu]

[Brian Siano]

Alexx S Kay wrote:

> > "Flatland" was the title of a book by a mathematician which
> >attempted to describe existence in only two dimensions. A.K. Dewdney
> >did an even more elaborate book titled _The Planiverse_. It's a
> >math fan's in-joke-- nothing to do with Anna's figure.
>
> Actually, I suspect it's one remove away from Dewdney's Flatland. Larry
> Niven, in his "Known Space" cycle of stories had a human colony named
> Flatland. Inhabitants of this world were called "Flatlanders".

Could be: the word "Flatland" isn't so offbeat as to come from
only one source.

> > The game is full of literary and science-geek references to things
> >like that.
>
> Ayup. Glad to see that Warren like _The Man Who Was Thursday_ as much
> as I did :-)

Which reminds me of one item the game had that, frankly, I wish
they had more of. Spoiler space....

In the Hong Kong sequence, we're confronted with a few Emails from Maggie
Chow, wherein she tells others about these two books she really likes.
I took note of those because, surprise, they turned out to be her passwords.
I wished more of Deus Ex's passwords were like that-- requiring a little
detective work on the part of the player, instead of merely putting them in
a nearby palm Pilot-like pad.
Might've made for a more challenging game: have a character note that
his favorite book is _Gravity's Rainbow_, but not tell the player that his
password is either "pynchon," or "slothrop." (Not that the game wasn't
challenging already.)

Brian Siano - bsi...@cceb.med.upenn.edu

[Brian H.]

Thanks. It's good to learn something new from USENET everyday. =)

Brian Siano <bsi...@cceb.med.upenn.edu> wrote in message
news:39A1301A...@cceb.med.upenn.edu...

>
> "Flatland" was the title of a book by a mathematician which
> attempted to describe existence in only two dimensions. A.K. Dewdney
> did an even more elaborate book titled _The Planiverse_. It's a
> math fan's in-joke-- nothing to do with Anna's figure.

> The game is full of literary and science-geek references to things
> like that.
>

[dingb...@my-deja.com]

In article <Fznsp...@world.std.com>,

al...@world.std.com (Alexx S Kay) wrote:
> Brian Siano <bsi...@cceb.med.upenn.edu> writes:
> >"Brian H." wrote:
>

> > "Flatland" was the title of a book by a mathematician which
> >attempted to describe existence in only two dimensions. A.K. Dewdney
> >did an even more elaborate book titled _The Planiverse_. It's a
> >math fan's in-joke-- nothing to do with Anna's figure.
>

> Actually, I suspect it's one remove away from Dewdney's Flatland.
Larry
> Niven, in his "Known Space" cycle of stories had a human colony named
> Flatland. Inhabitants of this world were called "Flatlanders".
>

Actually, this is not quite true. There never was a human
colony "Flatland" in Known Space. The term 'Flatlander' referred to
humans who lived on Earth and couldn't or wouldn't tolerate space
travel.

I'm scared that I knew that. :)

/bruce

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[stoic]

On Mon, 21 Aug 2000 09:35:22 -0400, Brian Siano
<bsi...@cceb.med.upenn.edu> wrote:

> "Flatland" was the title of a book by a mathematician which
>attempted to describe existence in only two dimensions. A.K. Dewdney
>did an even more elaborate book titled _The Planiverse_. It's a
>math fan's in-joke-- nothing to do with Anna's figure.

> The game is full of literary and science-geek references to things
>like that.
>

My high school comp sci teacher mentioned that book.
(Supposedly) the rest of the joke was that in Flatland, in order to
tell the woman apart from the men (everyone appears as a line in the
2D world of Flatland,) woman always had to move/rotate in place. It's
a sexist thing. =)

[super-tone d.]

also, a flatlander, in the 'known space' universe of larry niven
books, means a person born on the planet earth.
>