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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The plot doesn't start until about halfway through, and the characters barely count as characters. But it's a fun little book if you like math and/or satirical Victorian social commentary. I actually liked the first half of the book, which just describes how Flatland works, better than the second half.
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Classism
As a mathematician-in-training, it's a wonder it took so long to read this. I read G.E.B. as a kid but somehow missed Abbott. I had not expected to, but I saw the free Prime edition recommended in my Kindle app, and I realized it could easily be read in an hour sitting. I then realized it had an audiobook version, so I just played that throughout commute and downtime today (i.e., between doing math).
In any case, I expected to like it based on the subject matter, but I expected it to have sort of one trick: To introduce the notions of dimension in a playful narrative form. That's worthwhile of a short story at least, but Abbott expands much beyond this to something special. The language and mores present are dated even for 1920, but---independent of Abbott's beliefs, about which I know nothing---the society of Flatland can clearly be seen as satire. The all-important system of caste, both the marginalization and danger of women, the means of moving up in caste (namely, likely killing your child), the using of "lessers" (irregulars essentially serving as experimental subjects in schools until they starve to death), the emphasis on regularity, and much more have parallels with the real world that are not revolutionary but provide good humor. Moreover, the society of Flatland is cohesive and well thought-out, which is itself an accomplishment.
I can understand how some could be turned off by the tiny bit of (easy but insightful!) math in this book. I too can see how the language reduces the audience, it being of a classically educated man of the 19th century basically. Further still, some of the social elements can be jarring when discussed so plainly. But I would argue each actually enhance the book if approached with an open-mind. Once one gets over this bit of friction, it is a seamlessly fun, elegant, and singular story.
In any case, I expected to like it based on the subject matter, but I expected it to have sort of one trick: To introduce the notions of dimension in a playful narrative form. That's worthwhile of a short story at least, but Abbott expands much beyond this to something special. The language and mores present are dated even for 1920, but---independent of Abbott's beliefs, about which I know nothing---the society of Flatland can clearly be seen as satire. The all-important system of caste, both the marginalization and danger of women, the means of moving up in caste (namely, likely killing your child), the using of "lessers" (irregulars essentially serving as experimental subjects in schools until they starve to death), the emphasis on regularity, and much more have parallels with the real world that are not revolutionary but provide good humor. Moreover, the society of Flatland is cohesive and well thought-out, which is itself an accomplishment.
I can understand how some could be turned off by the tiny bit of (easy but insightful!) math in this book. I too can see how the language reduces the audience, it being of a classically educated man of the 19th century basically. Further still, some of the social elements can be jarring when discussed so plainly. But I would argue each actually enhance the book if approached with an open-mind. Once one gets over this bit of friction, it is a seamlessly fun, elegant, and singular story.
This is not what I expected! I don't honestly know WHAT I expected, but it wasn't this. For a start, it is way older than I had thought - 1884! And for another, there is almost no plot. It's sort of a memoir, sort of a philosophical treatise, about Flatland: a land that exists in only two dimensions. Our interlocutor is a Square - in Flatland's hierarchy, solidly middle class (Isosceles Triangles are working class, the most-sided Polygons the highest class. Women are Straight Lines). The first chunk is Square explaining how life and society can function in just two dimensions, with a great discussion about how you can tell the difference between triangles and polygons either thanks to their voices (a method only for the lower classes), feeling (slightly more respectable) or sigh (only for the upper classes because it takes years to perfect). After all of that he comes to the point (heh), which is experience of meeting a Solid - a Sphere - who informs him that there is another dimension, and proceeds to prove it. Sadly, this is heresy in Flatland...
This little book - 82 pages! - operates on many levels. On one, it's an amusing intellectual conceit, to consider how life would be different in two dimensions (there's also brief discussion of Lineland and Points). Thanks to this, it's also an intellectual challenge, because as Square himself says to Sphere: if you're telling me there's another dimension that I can't perceive but need to accept basically on faith, is there then a fourth...? Quite apart from the mathematical side, this is a biting satire of Victorian society and manner, in the way that undesirable elements amongst the lower (Isosceles) triangles are described and in how manners and attitudes of exalted Polygons are portrayed.
The question of the women is one I haven't quite worked out for myself. If I can accept that Abbott is being satirical about the lower classes then I am hoping that he is being satirical about the women, too, because they really don't come off very well. They are Straight Lines, therefore no angles, therefore... no brains? They're certainly treated as emotional not rational, to the point of there being basically two languages - how men speak to themselves and how they speak to their wives. I suspect he may indeed be ironic, because in the introduction to the 1884 edition (reprinted here) "Square" responds to some alleged criticism from Spaceland, about being a woman-hater, in which he admits that he is similar to our Historians, to whom until recently "the destinies of Women and of the masses of mankind have seldom been deemed worthy of mention and never of careful consideration."
An amusing book, and a quick read.
This little book - 82 pages! - operates on many levels. On one, it's an amusing intellectual conceit, to consider how life would be different in two dimensions (there's also brief discussion of Lineland and Points). Thanks to this, it's also an intellectual challenge, because as Square himself says to Sphere: if you're telling me there's another dimension that I can't perceive but need to accept basically on faith, is there then a fourth...? Quite apart from the mathematical side, this is a biting satire of Victorian society and manner, in the way that undesirable elements amongst the lower (Isosceles) triangles are described and in how manners and attitudes of exalted Polygons are portrayed.
The question of the women is one I haven't quite worked out for myself. If I can accept that Abbott is being satirical about the lower classes then I am hoping that he is being satirical about the women, too, because they really don't come off very well. They are Straight Lines, therefore no angles, therefore... no brains? They're certainly treated as emotional not rational, to the point of there being basically two languages - how men speak to themselves and how they speak to their wives. I suspect he may indeed be ironic, because in the introduction to the 1884 edition (reprinted here) "Square" responds to some alleged criticism from Spaceland, about being a woman-hater, in which he admits that he is similar to our Historians, to whom until recently "the destinies of Women and of the masses of mankind have seldom been deemed worthy of mention and never of careful consideration."
An amusing book, and a quick read.
How do you make math sexist? I don't know, but this book found a way.
DNF ~40% Absolute sexist drivel that's just a sort of self-stimulating sort of musing about what it would be like if the world was one dimensional, from the physical space to the mindsets. Cute for a couple of minutes, but it wears thinner than the inhabitants of Flatland pretty quick.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
This was quite possibly one of the most interesting books I've ever taken up to read. The book is brief; it's utter quality, however, more than accounts for the lack of quantity in pages. I recall the following days after I had read this book(because, of course, I was unable to put it down after picking it up and read the entire thing in a single day), the bizarre speculation I devoted to EVERYTHING. Hardly more than a hundred pages, and this book had already changed my view of the things around me. Now, whenever I encounter someone, even strangers, who seem deserving of that little jewel, I tell them of it. "Abbott," I'll say, "his name is Abbott."
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A brilliant allegory, a sharp social satire, profoundly philosophical. This one is at the top of science fictions for me.
A human figure, the Square, from the two-dimensional world of Flatland tells about his world and relates about how he meets an emissary from Spaceland who changes his entire perception of the world that he knew before. All his preconceptions and prejudices about the sufficiency and sensibility of two-dimensional world is disrupted until he finds out that there are worlds beyond what he imagined possible. It delivers his allegory of how humans can very well get used to the knowledge they posses about their world. Their comfort and confidence becomes too valuable to be disrupted. Their understanding about the rules and patterns of Nature is also a well-earned power which civilization collectively values and tries to grown and pass on with each generation. As a result, there develops this inertia to preserve whatever model of the world makes sense to them. It is important to relax the cognitive muscles and enjoy this sense of security about the known world around them. However, the story talks about how human knowledge always has its own limitations, its own blind spots which are forever in the process of being discovered. These discoveries will inadvertently cause disruptions. And like the self-possessed Square, our human self will have a tendency to violently resist any new information that tries to draw us into ambiguity and confusion. We crave the order that our self-created tools like science provide us and makes our life easy. However, this attachment may restrict us from experiences that may eventually enrich our finite existence. Just beyond the two-dimensional plane that we may feel assured to live in, may lie a third unanticipated dimension that is waiting to be discovered. We should not protest any new awareness which broadens our perspective. In fact, it is sometimes necessary to take a leap of faith and acknowledge the possibility that what we know may not be enough. May never ever be enough. Embrace Aristotle's "The more you know, the more you realize you don't know".
It is an unswerving commentary on how certain groups of people have instrumented the human society by regulating knowledge and the need-to-know. It critiques historical racism and pseudo-sciences originated right from the Victorian era when Charles Darwin's naturalist theories were published. How certain racial origins were advertised as being biologically inferior in terms of cognitive capacity, just to establish a "natural" hierarchy of the "superior race" imperialists over the colonizers. Square's Flatland consists of same established hierarchies where lower-sided polygons are considered inferior than higher-sided polygons. Accordingly, we see the nature of profession and social responsibilities were disproportionally justified on the basis of "natural" capacity. We also see this cementing a well-demarcated class-based society which is maintained in its rigidity by conventionalizing the gaps between classes based on "natural" attributes belonging to each class. In Flatland, a social aspirational movement is created from lower-sided polygons to higher-sided polygons by reserving access to more authoritative tasks to higher classes and more service oriented tasks to lower classes. Access to high-level education is also limited with the same exclusivity. More intensely in the story, we even see forms of communications cultivated according to social standing. Lower classes are not taught the more refined forms of communication consciously to further this divide. All of this sounds familiar. Even more familiarly, the story contains a social revolution where the classification of society is disrupted. The old norms are overridden by newer social constructs which allowed more movement between classes, lessening the gaps for the lower classes to disregard the previous conventions which restricted them. The old masters are naturally threatened by it and so seed dissonance between the revolutionary and succeed in reestablishing their supremacy where the infinite-sided circle is back on the pedestal of perfectionism. The parable of sexism is very satirically presented. Women are modeled as one-dimensional line and discriminated against owing to their physicality. The lines as "more feeling" and "less intellectually capable" than their two dimensional counterparts. Their disenfranchisement and their literal invisibility in Flatland is highly ridiculous. The absurdity of this mistreatment makes the satire very effective in my opinion. Even physical irregularity like uneven sided polygons get a treatment in Flatland which will not sound surprising given our historical context. Irregularity is an enemy of conformity. As a result, the proponents of natural perfection condemn the irregulars by making them unpopular, harassing and excluding them. Any physical imperfection in polygons is so undesired and feared, because it automatically makes them second-class citizens, that they resort to artificial modifications to be deemed "the more refined class". This is naturally the antithesis to individuality. Any tolerance for outliers of physical perfection disincentivizes the urge to climb this social ladder. And without this urge, the ladder would cease to exist.
Abbott was a clergyman. The fact that a man of Christian faith chose the medium of science fiction shows the modernist view of religion that Abbott champions. The narrator Square had to make a literal breakthrough to enter Spaceland and witness a "brave new world" that was beyond his comprehension and even imagination. This disruption of his model of understanding of the world needed an intervention from an extra-dimensional being - somebody beyond the two-dimensional cognition to impart this evolution. But before this, what followed what a natural resistance to discredit and fight this demolition of the sensible world. This rebellion was an act of defense, a weapon of egotism, and a primitive response to stick to the familiar rather than plunge into the unknown. But the intellectual development that follows for the Square is clearly a reward well-justified beyond the risk. This narrative transformation is a symbol of precious wonder and wealth of consciousness. It celebrates the open-mindedness that can safely acknowledge its own limitations and thereby, makes itself available to grow. After mastering the conservatism that makes us afraid of change, Square enriches his own prior knowledge exponentially. He transcends his original plane of existence. And even surpasses the three-dimensional's expectations. Abbott wrote this at a time when four-dimensional constructs were being imagined as another dimension that was beyond perception measurement by our worldly three-dimensions but capable of existing nonetheless. Abbott very cleverly and effectively conveys this wonderful concept to educate his readers. Rather than diverting to explaining religious myths and existence of God in this four-dimensional possibility, he rather focuses on the humility of knowledge. Square's adventure reinforces the limitation of human experience, and consequently, human knowledge. The self-assurance and comfort that tools of knowledge like science imparts can create an existential arrogance in placing what we know above everything else that we do not know about. New knowledge can be unsettling but revolutionizing. After the dust of disruption settles, the new vision may be clearer and even more expansive than before. Abbott considered religion to be a vehicle of Christian values and lifestyle, rather than a crusader of religious myths. He found God in all the unknowns and all that is left for humans to be made conscious of. This is the philosophical God that he wants the readers to imagine even if it means admitting that they may never see or feel that God - somewhere in the higher dimension, always beyond reach.
"<i>For the rest, he begs his readers not to suppose that every minute detail in the daily life of Flatland must needs correspond to some other detail in Spaceland; and yet he hopes that, taken as a whole, his work may prove suggestive as well as amusing, to those Spacelanders of moderate and modest minds who—speaking of that which is of the highest importance, but lies beyond experience—decline to say on the one hand, “This can never be,” and on the other hand, “It must needs be precisely thus, and we know all about it.”<i>"
A human figure, the Square, from the two-dimensional world of Flatland tells about his world and relates about how he meets an emissary from Spaceland who changes his entire perception of the world that he knew before. All his preconceptions and prejudices about the sufficiency and sensibility of two-dimensional world is disrupted until he finds out that there are worlds beyond what he imagined possible. It delivers his allegory of how humans can very well get used to the knowledge they posses about their world. Their comfort and confidence becomes too valuable to be disrupted. Their understanding about the rules and patterns of Nature is also a well-earned power which civilization collectively values and tries to grown and pass on with each generation. As a result, there develops this inertia to preserve whatever model of the world makes sense to them. It is important to relax the cognitive muscles and enjoy this sense of security about the known world around them. However, the story talks about how human knowledge always has its own limitations, its own blind spots which are forever in the process of being discovered. These discoveries will inadvertently cause disruptions. And like the self-possessed Square, our human self will have a tendency to violently resist any new information that tries to draw us into ambiguity and confusion. We crave the order that our self-created tools like science provide us and makes our life easy. However, this attachment may restrict us from experiences that may eventually enrich our finite existence. Just beyond the two-dimensional plane that we may feel assured to live in, may lie a third unanticipated dimension that is waiting to be discovered. We should not protest any new awareness which broadens our perspective. In fact, it is sometimes necessary to take a leap of faith and acknowledge the possibility that what we know may not be enough. May never ever be enough. Embrace Aristotle's "The more you know, the more you realize you don't know".
It is an unswerving commentary on how certain groups of people have instrumented the human society by regulating knowledge and the need-to-know. It critiques historical racism and pseudo-sciences originated right from the Victorian era when Charles Darwin's naturalist theories were published. How certain racial origins were advertised as being biologically inferior in terms of cognitive capacity, just to establish a "natural" hierarchy of the "superior race" imperialists over the colonizers. Square's Flatland consists of same established hierarchies where lower-sided polygons are considered inferior than higher-sided polygons. Accordingly, we see the nature of profession and social responsibilities were disproportionally justified on the basis of "natural" capacity. We also see this cementing a well-demarcated class-based society which is maintained in its rigidity by conventionalizing the gaps between classes based on "natural" attributes belonging to each class. In Flatland, a social aspirational movement is created from lower-sided polygons to higher-sided polygons by reserving access to more authoritative tasks to higher classes and more service oriented tasks to lower classes. Access to high-level education is also limited with the same exclusivity. More intensely in the story, we even see forms of communications cultivated according to social standing. Lower classes are not taught the more refined forms of communication consciously to further this divide. All of this sounds familiar. Even more familiarly, the story contains a social revolution where the classification of society is disrupted. The old norms are overridden by newer social constructs which allowed more movement between classes, lessening the gaps for the lower classes to disregard the previous conventions which restricted them. The old masters are naturally threatened by it and so seed dissonance between the revolutionary and succeed in reestablishing their supremacy where the infinite-sided circle is back on the pedestal of perfectionism. The parable of sexism is very satirically presented. Women are modeled as one-dimensional line and discriminated against owing to their physicality. The lines as "more feeling" and "less intellectually capable" than their two dimensional counterparts. Their disenfranchisement and their literal invisibility in Flatland is highly ridiculous. The absurdity of this mistreatment makes the satire very effective in my opinion. Even physical irregularity like uneven sided polygons get a treatment in Flatland which will not sound surprising given our historical context. Irregularity is an enemy of conformity. As a result, the proponents of natural perfection condemn the irregulars by making them unpopular, harassing and excluding them. Any physical imperfection in polygons is so undesired and feared, because it automatically makes them second-class citizens, that they resort to artificial modifications to be deemed "the more refined class". This is naturally the antithesis to individuality. Any tolerance for outliers of physical perfection disincentivizes the urge to climb this social ladder. And without this urge, the ladder would cease to exist.
Abbott was a clergyman. The fact that a man of Christian faith chose the medium of science fiction shows the modernist view of religion that Abbott champions. The narrator Square had to make a literal breakthrough to enter Spaceland and witness a "brave new world" that was beyond his comprehension and even imagination. This disruption of his model of understanding of the world needed an intervention from an extra-dimensional being - somebody beyond the two-dimensional cognition to impart this evolution. But before this, what followed what a natural resistance to discredit and fight this demolition of the sensible world. This rebellion was an act of defense, a weapon of egotism, and a primitive response to stick to the familiar rather than plunge into the unknown. But the intellectual development that follows for the Square is clearly a reward well-justified beyond the risk. This narrative transformation is a symbol of precious wonder and wealth of consciousness. It celebrates the open-mindedness that can safely acknowledge its own limitations and thereby, makes itself available to grow. After mastering the conservatism that makes us afraid of change, Square enriches his own prior knowledge exponentially. He transcends his original plane of existence. And even surpasses the three-dimensional's expectations. Abbott wrote this at a time when four-dimensional constructs were being imagined as another dimension that was beyond perception measurement by our worldly three-dimensions but capable of existing nonetheless. Abbott very cleverly and effectively conveys this wonderful concept to educate his readers. Rather than diverting to explaining religious myths and existence of God in this four-dimensional possibility, he rather focuses on the humility of knowledge. Square's adventure reinforces the limitation of human experience, and consequently, human knowledge. The self-assurance and comfort that tools of knowledge like science imparts can create an existential arrogance in placing what we know above everything else that we do not know about. New knowledge can be unsettling but revolutionizing. After the dust of disruption settles, the new vision may be clearer and even more expansive than before. Abbott considered religion to be a vehicle of Christian values and lifestyle, rather than a crusader of religious myths. He found God in all the unknowns and all that is left for humans to be made conscious of. This is the philosophical God that he wants the readers to imagine even if it means admitting that they may never see or feel that God - somewhere in the higher dimension, always beyond reach.
"<i>For the rest, he begs his readers not to suppose that every minute detail in the daily life of Flatland must needs correspond to some other detail in Spaceland; and yet he hopes that, taken as a whole, his work may prove suggestive as well as amusing, to those Spacelanders of moderate and modest minds who—speaking of that which is of the highest importance, but lies beyond experience—decline to say on the one hand, “This can never be,” and on the other hand, “It must needs be precisely thus, and we know all about it.”<i>"
slow-paced
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism