The Tesseract (Magill’s Literary Annual 2000)
At a glance:
- Author: Alex Garland
- First Published: 1999
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The late 1990’s
- Setting: The Philippines
- Principal Characters: Sean, Don Pepe, Jojo, Teroy, Bubot, Rosa, Raphael, Lita, Corazón, Alfredo, Totoy, Vincente
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Psychology or psychologists, Dreams, Cats, Ships, Sailing or sailors, Gangsters, Organized crime, 1990’s, Philippines or Filipinos, Guns
- Locales: Philippines
In a note at the end of The Tesseract, Alex Garland writes: “Some definitions of a tesseract describe it as a hypercube unraveled, and others as the hypercube itself. I chose the version used here only because I happen to prefer it.” This is not only a definition of the title of this novel; it is something of a description of its structure. Unfortunately, the meaning of the term is clear only to those with a prior knowledge of esoteric terms in mathematics. A title should clarify for the reader, not obfuscate. In this novel, it is clear only that several disparate elements...
[The entire page is 1634 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
