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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I never realized you could be racist and sexist against shapes, but here I am, reading that women are "wholey devoid of brain power". Like, I get the main focus is on the dimensions, and parts are staire, so you could read it as "flatland is kinda stupid and backwards anyway". The classism of the different shapes is done well. But why have classes be different shapes, but an entire gender is just one, the lowest one? There's so much BS and bad world building at the beginning that is never revisited or really has any affect on the story. I might be being too harsh on a short story from 1884, but I feel like it's overhyped in certain circles as "great science fiction". Just go play with 4d toys (on Steam), you'll get just as much out of understanding higher dimensions.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Sexism
Minor: Violence, War
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Math!
Amazing theoretical sci-fi work given that it was written 1884. Its still a fun quick read.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Sexism, Classism
This was an interesting read for me, my mentor included it on his list of must-read science fiction, a list he compiled of the best-written and most historically significant works to the development of the genre. Without its inclusion on that list, I doubt I would have ever gone out of my way to read it. It's an interesting book, certainly unlike anything else out there, and after finishing it, I’m mostly curious what the impact of it was back when it was actually published. Unfortunately, we don't really have any mentions of the book from contemporary sources that give us an idea of what its readers thought. While the book wasn’t ignored, there are no real historical mentions of it until Einstein’s theory of relativity was published, when it was retroactively praised for seeing time as a wholly separate dimension. Ironically, it seems clear to me that that was not what Mr. Abbott was really writing about.
Flatland tells the story of a polygon who lives in a plane of existence where there are only two dimensions. We are told how his world works, its various social hierarchies and government, and how its citizens are able to recognize and interact with one another. Over the course of the story, he learns that there are dimensions outside of his own. First, in a dream, he descends to a plane of existence where there is only one dimension and speaks with the king of that dimension about its functionality and how to understand it in relation to his own existence. Then, a citizen of Spaceland enters Flatland and attempts to explain to our protagonist how it exists in a three-dimensional space.
This book operates on two levels, the first is mathematical and the second is satirical. Mr. Abbott’s main point from the mathematical perspective is that we don’t know the true dimensionality of the universe. As physics has progressed further and further beyond where it was when Flatland was published, we’ve learned that there may be an infinite number of dimensions to the space that we inhabit, it's just a matter of discovering them and finding out whether it's capable for us to even perceive them. This is more or less the exact same thing that happens to the protagonist twice. He visits and is visited by spaces that he previously didn’t believe were possible, and yet he does all he can to understand them. This is a practice engaged in by mathematicians and scientists to this day, and it will continue for as long as those professions exist, a fact which lends this story eternal relevance.
The satirical aspect of this book is the one that I enjoyed far more than the mathematical one, as it seems clear to me that Mr. Abbott wanted to use the story to comment on the absurdity of classism in his own day. If we look at each of the different dimensional planes as different social classes, and the rules and regulations contained therein, then we come away with an understanding that these modes of living are close-minded and ultimately suffocating. These social mores only lead to two-dimensional thinking, and the only way to remove yourself from it is to open your mind to other ways of thinking and living, as well as to integrate with the things you previously closed yourself off from. It's clever, but I definitely understood the point after the protagonist’s visit to Lineland, after that I felt like he was beating me over the head with his point while aggressively winking at me.
The book is well written, and the language used is plain enough that almost anyone could read this, which can be rare for books written in the 1800s. However, the story is just too long. This was a pretty threadbare premise, and it's impressive that Mr. Abbott was able to draw it out into anything more than a short story, but the novelty of it wears off pretty quickly. In my opinion, there just isn’t enough content in the ideas and settings he’s using to justify how long the book is, for a good chunk of it I was wondering if there was going to be any additional evolution or new idea introduced, but there never was. Is Flatland essential reading? Maybe for a select few, but overall I feel it’s a piece of work that can be skipped.
Flatland tells the story of a polygon who lives in a plane of existence where there are only two dimensions. We are told how his world works, its various social hierarchies and government, and how its citizens are able to recognize and interact with one another. Over the course of the story, he learns that there are dimensions outside of his own. First, in a dream, he descends to a plane of existence where there is only one dimension and speaks with the king of that dimension about its functionality and how to understand it in relation to his own existence. Then, a citizen of Spaceland enters Flatland and attempts to explain to our protagonist how it exists in a three-dimensional space.
This book operates on two levels, the first is mathematical and the second is satirical. Mr. Abbott’s main point from the mathematical perspective is that we don’t know the true dimensionality of the universe. As physics has progressed further and further beyond where it was when Flatland was published, we’ve learned that there may be an infinite number of dimensions to the space that we inhabit, it's just a matter of discovering them and finding out whether it's capable for us to even perceive them. This is more or less the exact same thing that happens to the protagonist twice. He visits and is visited by spaces that he previously didn’t believe were possible, and yet he does all he can to understand them. This is a practice engaged in by mathematicians and scientists to this day, and it will continue for as long as those professions exist, a fact which lends this story eternal relevance.
The satirical aspect of this book is the one that I enjoyed far more than the mathematical one, as it seems clear to me that Mr. Abbott wanted to use the story to comment on the absurdity of classism in his own day. If we look at each of the different dimensional planes as different social classes, and the rules and regulations contained therein, then we come away with an understanding that these modes of living are close-minded and ultimately suffocating. These social mores only lead to two-dimensional thinking, and the only way to remove yourself from it is to open your mind to other ways of thinking and living, as well as to integrate with the things you previously closed yourself off from. It's clever, but I definitely understood the point after the protagonist’s visit to Lineland, after that I felt like he was beating me over the head with his point while aggressively winking at me.
The book is well written, and the language used is plain enough that almost anyone could read this, which can be rare for books written in the 1800s. However, the story is just too long. This was a pretty threadbare premise, and it's impressive that Mr. Abbott was able to draw it out into anything more than a short story, but the novelty of it wears off pretty quickly. In my opinion, there just isn’t enough content in the ideas and settings he’s using to justify how long the book is, for a good chunk of it I was wondering if there was going to be any additional evolution or new idea introduced, but there never was. Is Flatland essential reading? Maybe for a select few, but overall I feel it’s a piece of work that can be skipped.
Meh. Glad I got this of my tbr but I was kind of hoping for more. The concept is good though.
This quick read was funny, quirky, and made me wonder if ghosts were real. There is some simple geometry involved, but figuring out the descriptions made by the narrator, A. Square, with the help of geometrical diagrams made this novella all the more enjoyable for me. I'd recommend this book for people who: like reading about different dimensions, are ok with math, & like laughing at the chauvinistic eccentricities of a government ruled by geometric shapes.
FLATLAND is a classic of math sci-fi written by a Shakespearean scholar, of all people--but the writing here most resembles Jonathan Swift. In the first half of the book, our narrator, a middle-class Square, describes the agressively misogynistic and anti-Marxist structure of his two-dimensional society. I wasn't expecting so much poli sci in a math book, but Abbott obviously has fun with it. Most of the math philosophy comes in the second half, when our Flatlander travels first to one-dimensional and then to three-dimensional and no-dimensional space.
Abbott shows that the contemplation of abstract mathematics requires both audacity and humility: the audacity to imagine dimensions we have never seen, and the humility to accept our own insignificance. I was struck by his vision of Pointland, whose lone inhabitant soliloquizes about the joy of existance, knowing nothing beyond itself. As our Flatlander traverses the dimensions, all the constructions of his own world fall away. The elegance of FLATLAND is that the author spends the first 50 pages constructing a complex, restrictive social heirarchy and the second 50 pages tearing it down.
FLATLAND is definitely worth a read for anyone who likes to think. Feel free to throw the book against the wall when the blatant sexism described therein gets too disgusting, but be sure to pick it up and finish it later.
Abbott shows that the contemplation of abstract mathematics requires both audacity and humility: the audacity to imagine dimensions we have never seen, and the humility to accept our own insignificance. I was struck by his vision of Pointland, whose lone inhabitant soliloquizes about the joy of existance, knowing nothing beyond itself. As our Flatlander traverses the dimensions, all the constructions of his own world fall away. The elegance of FLATLAND is that the author spends the first 50 pages constructing a complex, restrictive social heirarchy and the second 50 pages tearing it down.
FLATLAND is definitely worth a read for anyone who likes to think. Feel free to throw the book against the wall when the blatant sexism described therein gets too disgusting, but be sure to pick it up and finish it later.
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
In an effort to read more books suggested by my husband, I had the pleasure of reading this odd, hidden gem. A Book he read years ago and then found it at a used bookstore he said he wasn't sure if it was my cup of tea. Although it took me a minute to understand what I was reading and the purpose of the literature, I thoroughly enjoyed this odd tale of the world of Flatland. I laughed out loud many times at the absurdity I was unraveling as I read a citizen of Flatlands account of his world and the worlds beyond, unknown, and unfathomable.