# Tesseract house, SF story ID; Omni magazine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351 "2013-07-01T14:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/1 "2013-07-01T14:45:47Z")
I remember reading a short story in the '80s about a guy in a tesseract-shaped house. I think I may have read it in _Omni_ magazine. I searched ‘tesseract house’ and came up with Heinlein’s _–And He Built A Crooked House–_. That story was first published in 1941. I don’t remember enough detail to tell if the plot I read matches the story I’m trying to remember. I’m _pretty sure_ I read the story in _Omni_, and the Wiki article for Heinlein’s story does not mention the magazine. Was there a short story, that was not _–And He Built A Crooked House–_, that appeared in _Omni_ about a guy inside of a tesseract house? If so, what was its title? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/2 "2013-07-01T14:47:54Z")
Reported for forum change. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/3 "2013-07-01T15:02:39Z")
_Tangents_ by **Greg Bear** was published in Omni in '86 - it concerns a boy who can see and interact with 4-space. Maybe you have conflated that with “and he built a crooked house” ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/4 "2013-07-01T15:16:08Z")
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/5 "2013-07-04T23:27:18Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > _Tangents_ by **Greg Bear** was published in Omni in '86 - it concerns a boy who can see and interact with 4-space. Maybe you have conflated that with “and he built a crooked house” It’s possible. I do remember a ‘boy’. But I’m pretty sure he was trying to find his way around a tesseract house. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/6 "2013-07-05T02:50:03Z")
One of the later Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy books - the last one, I think - well, I don’t think that anyone will say they’ve seen any later book in the series. Anyhow, and it may not have been specifically identified as such, but ‘Wonko the Sane’ lives in a strange house on the California coast that could very well be extra-dimensional. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/7 "2013-07-05T02:56:57Z")
AIUI, Wonko the Sane lived in an ‘inside-out’ house, where the interior furnishings were outside and the garden and such were on the inside. I think he called it ‘Outside the Asylum’. In the story I’m looking for, the house was an actual tesseract. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Evil_Prince_Zorte)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesseract-house-sf-story-id-omni-magazine/662351/8 "2013-07-05T05:48:58Z")
I read it too, and the summary in Wikipedia matches my memory of it. We got Omni, and I did a project on Tesseracts for my 8th grade science fair around '86 so that is probably were I encountered it as well.