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A review by shmark
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
1.0
In this 80 page book, the author somehow manages to pack in 40+ pages of aggressively sexist and breathtakingly classist rambling that has absolutely zero to do with the story.
He creates a world where class is inherently and inexplicably linked to intelligence, women are always inherently the lowest (and least intelligent) class, and speaks with complete disdain about any attempts of lower class beings to change the order of things. The lowest class beings are imprisoned forever or just executed, and this is explained as totally normal and necessary.
This is addressed in the editors note at the beginning, which more or less boils down to, "just because it bears a striking resemblance to our current society doesn't mean it's a metaphor," which doesn't make it any less awful to read.
Even the description of higher dimensionality is pretty weak. He makes the same description four or five times without ever really elaborating or approaching the issue from another angle.
In short: while it may be a fictional story about a fictional land, spending fully half the book to create and defend a wildly classist/sexist/eugenics-ey world really undermines what little value there is in his explanation of dimensionality.
He creates a world where class is inherently and inexplicably linked to intelligence, women are always inherently the lowest (and least intelligent) class, and speaks with complete disdain about any attempts of lower class beings to change the order of things. The lowest class beings are imprisoned forever or just executed, and this is explained as totally normal and necessary.
This is addressed in the editors note at the beginning, which more or less boils down to, "just because it bears a striking resemblance to our current society doesn't mean it's a metaphor," which doesn't make it any less awful to read.
Even the description of higher dimensionality is pretty weak. He makes the same description four or five times without ever really elaborating or approaching the issue from another angle.
In short: while it may be a fictional story about a fictional land, spending fully half the book to create and defend a wildly classist/sexist/eugenics-ey world really undermines what little value there is in his explanation of dimensionality.