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flowsthead 's review for:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
by Edwin A. Abbott
I have a version with an introduction by AK Dewdney which I found pretty annoying. Who talks about themselves in the third person like that? Anyways, I know introductions are supposed to hype a book, and maybe Flatland really is this absolutely brilliant satire of Victorian society, but I just find the majority of it to be incredibly boring, as of the first half which is where I think the satire is heaviest. The second half has more that interests me. The first conversation in Lineland has an interesting bit that sounds ableist. Forgetting about access to different amount of dimensions, the King of Lineland has incredible hearing and says it is much better than sight. The square professes not to possess such incredible hearing, but still thinks having sight is better. I don't think it's intentional, but it would be an interesting conversation about being stuck in an avenue of thought, which is a greater theme of the book but not meant in this particular way. The most interesting part for me is the brief stay in Pointland with the Point that cannot hear another person speaking without thinking of it as its own thought. The image of the point as a total being that fills its universe fully, like a god, is really compelling, and I wish we had spent more time there.