bushmaster_dan's Full Review: Edwin Abbott Abbott - Flatland: A Romance of Many ...
FLatland was written by Edwin A. Abbott (1838 - 1926) in 1884. The book is supposed to be the memoirs of A. Square, an inhabitant of Flatland. The first half of the book is a description of Flatland, and world that has only two dimensions and exists on a plane, and how life in two dimensions works. The second half is about the adventures of A. Square as he visits Lineland (which has only one dimension), Pointland (zero dimensions) and Sphereland (which has the three dimensions that we are used too). A. Square "writes" the book so that anybody who reads it may gain the understanding that there may exists universes with more or less dimensions than their own. The dedication of the book reads thus:
"To
The Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERAL
And H. C. IN PARTICULAR
This Work is Dedicated
By a Humble Native of Flatland
In the Hope that
Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries
OF THREE Dimensions
Having been previously conversant
With ONLY TWO
So the Citizens of that Celestial Region
May aspire yet higher and higher
To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE or EVEN SIX Dimensions
Thereby contributing
To the Enlargement of THE IMAGINATION
And the possible Development
Of that most rare and excellent Gift of MODESTY
Among the Superior Races
of SOLID HUMANITY"
Edwin A. Abbott writes to book as a social commentary on the Victorian society. The commentary part has lost some power because we no longer live in it, and have not experienced it. However, the book is still very much worth reading. It still is interesting to learn more about what the Victorian age was like. There are also ways in which or society is somewhat similar to the Victorian one, and although they are rather slight, it is interesting to think about.
One review of this book here on epinions states that the author is a racist. I disagree with that, because I do not think that Abbott supports the society in Flatland in any way. Rather, it seems that he is against the rigid class barriers. This would seem to make him more of the opposite of a racist. The same goes for his views on women, who in Flatland are given no power, even though they wield the power to destroy any of the men if they wish, and are intentionally dumbed down and uneducated so they will not realize and take advantage of this power. As for retards and others with birth defects, he mentions at one point that many of the greatest men in Flatland were born with defects, but they got corrected, and if they had just been destroyed or not allowed to participate in society, Flatland would be worse off for it.
The way that Abbott creates a world in two dimensions is a work of genius. He does such a thorough job that it actually seems plausible that such a place could exist. He does a rather good job using mathematics for the inhabitants to decide what sort of a polygon they are addressing by means of feeling, or among the upper classes looking. That among the upper classes it was customary for children to spend a third of their life learning how to tell how many sides a polygon has by how quickly it fades into mist (that will not make sense unless you have read the book) was actually exciting to read.
The best part of his description of Flatland was about the class distinctions. Basically, the lowest class, the isoceles triangles, which only had two even sides and two even angles, would have their lesser angle increase in size every generation by half a degree until it reached 60 degrees, at which point it would become a regular triangle. This class was mostly soldiers, because their sharp point allowed them to easily kill other polygons. The smaller the small angle, the less intelligent the triangle was. This had to be so, because if they were smart there would be nothing to stop them from taking over Flatland. They probably are dumb because the ruling figures make them so by not educating them.
Among the middle class, composed of regular polygons (equilateral triangles, squares, etc) every generation gains a side (the son of a square becomes a pentagon, etc). This allows them to rise in the ranks rather quickly. Once they attain so many sides that it is hard to distinguish them from a circle, they start to gain many more sides per generation. There also is a procedure where when a new polygon is born, its sides are all broken, so it gains many more sides. Also, as the polygons move up in the ranks, the chances of them having offspring decrease. This shows how the circles must keep the class system to keep power, and one episode in the book shows that they will do whatever it takes to keep it. The thoroughness of this one section, and plausibleness of it due to the description of politics, can be seen throughout the rest of the book, and is a main reason why I think so highly of it.
Abbotts description of Lineland is much less detailed than the description of flatland, and it is a simpler place, because it only has one dimension. Pointland has even less of a description, and it is much simpler than even Lineland. There is no description of Spaceland, because to do so he would probably have to describe the Victorian culture, and that would take an incredible amount of time, and would be less powerful than the description of it by analogy using Flatland.
The book does not have much of a plot. It also does not need one. What would be considered the plot is actually just there to further comment on society. The extend of it basically is that someone learns something that would change the paradigm of society, and when he tries to teach this he gets locked up because it is too dangerous a thing to let everybody know.
All in all I must say that this book is a masterpiece. The social commentary is brilliant, and the talk of lands in different dimensions really made me think. I found this book so exciting, that my review may seem to be tedious or at parts a retelling of the story because while writing it I was trying to impart some of how I feel about the story to the reader. If that did not work, then I must say that I think that everyone should read this book. It is not long, and can easily be read in a day.
A. Squares two-dimensional world is forever changed when the emissary Sphere brings the gospel of the third dimension. Part geometry lesson, part soci...More at Christianbook.com
Classic of science (and mathematical) fiction. Charmingly illustrated by author. Describes the journeys of A. Square, a resident of Flatland, and his ...More at HotBookSale
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