Name: Flatland
Rating: 4.5 (1 reviews)

Edwin A. Abbot

A work that still poses provocative questions about perception and reality, Flatland is a brilliant parody of Victorian society where all existence is limited to length and breadth - its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. The amiable narrator, A. Square, provides an overview of this fantastic world - its physics and metaphysics, its history, customs and religious beliefs. But when a strange visitor mysteriously appears and transports the incredulous Flatlander to the Land of Three Dimensions, his worldview is forever shattered.

Written more than a century ago, Flatland offers an extraordinary animation of dimension, geometry and physical space that continues to resonate in contemporary science.

A Romance of Many Dimensions

Flatland

My biggest issue with many fictional worlds is how they feel so… human. And I say that with disdain.

Many fantasy and/ or fictional worlds I’ve seen don’t feel shaped by the characters and how they would uniquely act considering their differences to us. I think of movies like Luca or The Good Dinosaur. Why are they farming and herding animals, things like that? Why have their societies formed to be a near mirror reflection of our own, the only difference being a fantasy tinged hue? Edwin A. Abbott has constructed a fully realized world that is so perfectly, radically different to ours. Their rule of laws and customs and history can ONLY have come about due to their nature of being shapes and living within a two dimensional space, something I find refreshing, as well as the strongest part of this novel.

Another strength would be the humor of this novel. I’ve been told by the back of this book that it’s a parody of Victorian society. Of course, I cannot vouch for how well it does at satirizing those times considering I’m neither an expert of those times nor lived in them. However, some parts of what its making fun of (like attitudes towards women and social classes) are still evident despite the 150 odd years that have elapsed. Probably because those issues still very much exist ! Anyways, the book manages to weave in social commentary without it being ham fisted, nor a one to one parallel, and it does so in a genuinely hilarious way. The absurdity of the humor in this is just top notch and I really did not expect this of all books to be the funniest book I’ve read this year.

The way the dialogue was structured could be kind of confusing at times. Sometimes, the book would use quotations while two characters were speaking to each other, but the full conversation would be in just one paragraph, as opposed to a new paragraph starting each time someone new was speaking (like we do today.) This could make who was talking occasionally hard to decipher and then, after a little bit of this, the dialogue would turn into a play style format. You know:

And I wish it would have just stuck to the play style format the whole time because it made more sense and it felt like getting whiplash every time they changed the style.

Another criticism is that the book could get pretty weedy. Perhaps I just wasn’t smart enough to understand some things, but every once and a while I felt like things just weren’t explained the best, or sometimes they were just overly explained and with too much detail. Because of this, some parts could be confusing. However, I was always able to get the gist, even if I didn’t always understand it in full.

Would I recommend this to everyone? Yeah, probably not. It’s definitely a very specific novel that I feel like has to speak to a very certain type of human. The first half being an anthropological textbook of sorts and the second half being a dimension traveling adventure, it’s definitely structured very oddly. And with the mix of anthropology, geometry, and Victorian era language, some parts can feel pretty dense, despite the shortness of the book.

I still enjoyed it A LOT and I think that it was very well written. The latter half reminded me almost of The Little Prince, and my favorite part of writing were the chapters when A. Square pleads for higher knowledge and when he encounters the being from no dimensions.

Rachel


My biggest issue with many fictional worlds is how they feel so… human. And I say that with disdain.

Many fantasy and/ or fictional worlds I’ve seen don’t feel shaped by the characters and how they would uniquely act considering their differences to us. I think of movies like Luca or The Good Dinosaur. Why are they farming and herding animals, things like that? Why have their societies formed to be a near mirror reflection of our own, the only difference being a fantasy tinged hue? Edwin A. Abbott has constructed a fully realized world that is so perfectly, radically different to ours. Their rule of laws and customs and history can ONLY have come about due to their nature of being shapes and living within a two dimensional space, something I find refreshing, as well as the strongest part of this novel.

Another strength would be the humor of this novel. I’ve been told by the back of this book that it’s a parody of Victorian society. Of course, I cannot vouch for how well it does at satirizing those times considering I’m neither an expert of those times nor lived in them. However, some parts of what its making fun of (like attitudes towards women and social classes) are still evident despite the 150 odd years that have elapsed. Probably because those issues still very much exist ! Anyways, the book manages to weave in social commentary without it being ham fisted, nor a one to one parallel, and it does so in a genuinely hilarious way. The absurdity of the humor in this is just top notch and I really did not expect this of all books to be the funniest book I’ve read this year.

There are still a few criticisms.

The way the dialogue was structured could be kind of confusing at times. Sometimes, the book would use quotations while two characters were speaking to each other, but the full conversation would be in just one paragraph, as opposed to a new paragraph starting each time someone new was speaking (like we do today.) This could make who was talking occasionally hard to decipher and then, after a little bit of this, the dialogue would turn into a play style format. You know:

A. Square: hello.

Line Wife: hello.

And I wish it would have just stuck to the play style format the whole time because it made more sense and it felt like getting whiplash every time they changed the style.

Another criticism is that the book could get pretty weedy. Perhaps I just wasn’t smart enough to understand some things, but every once and a while I felt like things just weren’t explained the best, or sometimes they were just overly explained and with too much detail. Because of this, some parts could be confusing. However, I was always able to get the gist, even if I didn’t always understand it in full.

Would I recommend this to everyone? Yeah, probably not. It’s definitely a very specific novel that I feel like has to speak to a very certain type of human. The first half being an anthropological textbook of sorts and the second half being a dimension traveling adventure, it’s definitely structured very oddly. And with the mix of anthropology, geometry, and Victorian era language, some parts can feel pretty dense, despite the shortness of the book.

I still enjoyed it A LOT and I think that it was very well written. The latter half reminded me almost of The Little Prince, and my favorite part of writing were the chapters when A. Square pleads for higher knowledge and when he encounters the being from no dimensions.

Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions

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