Flatland

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.

Section 1 and Section 2?What do you think they call Flatland, if they don't call it Flatland?

I think that Flatland is going to be about, people who aren't accepted in a unusual realm. People aren.t happy, and there are always disagreements.

What does he mean when he says:"my universe"?

He is talking about the world that he lives in, he says "my universe", because he's involved in it, he lives it all the time, and people adapt to it.

What is an equalateral triangle?

An equalateral triangle has three equal sides, and angles. In the story there the Tradesmen. I think that they're equalaterals because they are high in society. There rest don't have equal sides because they don't tgink they belong in the high society. For example the women, they are just straight lines. They aren't accepted in society at all.

What is a Tradesman?

A Tradesmen is an equilateral triangle, it represents a tradesman from a respectable class.

How is the sailor a metaphor?

Sailor is a metaphor because it represents shapes floating around. What subject does the author differ?

What is the author going to do instead?

Tell us about the climate and geography of Flatland.

There is no sun, and people can't