I’m just reading Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal’s book A Certain Ambiguity which uses the structure of a novel to get across mathematical ideas.

I’m not far enough through it at the moment to comment in any detail, though so far it has been surprisingly enjoyable. The main exposition of math(s) so far has been in a lecture attended by a group of students. The effect is eerily reminiscent of the way Galileo puts his message across in a dialogue, with the students taking the part of Simplicio who asks the dumb questions.

If it does succeed – as I say, I’m not far enough through to be certain – it will be a rarity. All too often attempts to make learning approachable by turning it into a story result in toe-curlingly awful storytelling.

I think the best example as far as educational material working as fiction goes I’ve come across is the UK radio soap opera The Archers which works well as a drama in its own right, but was always intended as vehicle for getting across information about agriculture.

We’re all people who try to get science across to others – what do you think about the use of fiction to do this? I’m not really talking about Lab Lit , which is more literature that has an effective science setting, but rather fiction that has the explicit aim to educate. Can it ever really work?