《测量世界》是德国青年作家克尔曼的成名之作。在这部小说中,克尔曼把德国启蒙时代的历史人物和事件作为叙事的素材,构建了一个精英成长与老化的漫画世界。克尔曼通过高斯对欧几里得空间概念的怀疑,指出康德纯粹理性批判的不切实际。围绕德意志化和年华老去的主题,克尔曼继续了战后德国知识分子围绕"后现代性"问题的争论:启蒙产生了现代主义,也带来了后现代的不确定性。
Measuring the World was written by Daniel Kehlmann, a young German writer, and has won the reputation worldwide. In the novel, Kehlmann deals with the historical figures and events in the Age of German Enlightenment as the narrating materials through which he builds a cartoon world of an elite's growing and aging. By Gauss's doubting about Euclid's definition of space, Kehlmann points out the impracticalness of Kant's critique of pure reason. Concentrating on the theme of Germanizing and aging, the author continues the debate, which the German post-war intellectuals raised, about post-modernity-enlightenments have produced modernism and also brought about the uncertainty of postmodernism.