Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions Paperback – August 6, 2010

Review of free Kindle editionASIN: B0083ZRQR4124 pagesI have long considered FLATLAND to be an overrated mostly boring book. However it is supposed to be a classic, admired and enjoyed by many people some of whom are considered to be or consider themselves to be intellectuals. So I thought, maybe it's me. Maybe a deficiency in my ability to grasp the fine qualities of the book prevents me from understanding how great it is. Then I read a passage about FLATLAND from THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED EDWARD ABBEY by J. Michael Orenduff. Orenduff, a former college professor with his PhD in Mathematical Logic, a former university president and chancellor is now a full-time author known mainly for writing the Pot Thief Mystery Series. He should understand FLATLAND as a mathematician and as an author. Here is what his characters say about FLATLAND:“All work is 3-D,” said Martin.We stared at him.He looked at me. “Remember that book Flatland you made me read?”“I didn’t make you read it.”“When a white college student visits a fourteen-year-old dropout on the rez and suggests a book, that’s the same as making me read it.”“But you liked it, right?”“Yeah, because it made me feel smarter than the guy who wrote it.”“How so?” asked Sharice.“He says the men who live in Flatland are polygons. The fewer sides a man has, the lower he is on the social scale. So triangles are the lowest level, squares are higher, pentagons higher and so on. But he also says they can see each other and interact, which is impossible. Because if they were truly two-dimensional, they would have no sides, so there would be nothing to see.”“You could see them from the top,” said Susannah, “and from that vantage point, you could also see how many sides they have.”“No. To see them from on top, you’d have to be above them. But there is no up in Flatland. And there is no down. There is only north, south, east and west. So they wouldn’t even know other men existed.”“They would when they bumped into them,” she said.He shook his head and placed two pennies on the table, sliding them until they touched. “These pennies can bump into each other because they have sides. But imagine them without sides. I don’t mean just really flat. I mean no side dimension at all. The men in Flatland can’t bump into each other because they have no sides.”“Why do you keep calling them men? Aren’t there women in Flatland?”“Sure. The author says they are straight lines.”She shook her head. “Sheesh. I might have guessed. The women are the lowest life-forms because they have only one dimension.”“Right. And he makes the same sort of mistake in describing them, saying that seen from straight-on they look like a point. But you can’t see the end of a line because that would require that it have some height. Lines have only length. You could see them from below or above but not in a world that has only two dimensions.”“He says something else about women,” I noted. “Because of their lack of intelligence, they accidentally pierce and kill people without even knowing it. But ten minutes later they can’t remember it happening.”Sharice stared at me. “And you made him read that?”“For the math part. I knew he was smart enough not to believe the stuff about women.”“He was also smart enough not to believe the stuff about math. A guy who thinks you can see something that doesn’t have sides …wait, they can’t see anything anyway. If they had eyes, they would have to be on their surface, because they have no sides. So the only direction their eyes could look would be up. But there is no up.”“See,”I said, trying to move beyond my having forced a misogynist book on Martin, “You’re also smarter than the author.”I agree with Mr. Orenduff and his fictional characters. That's my position and I'm sticking to it.

First published in 1884 the story within the book is about a Square living in a two-dimensional world learning about the many types of spaces. In other words the book is about learning about multiple dimensions. But it was also a way for the author, Edwin A. Abbott to talk about Victorian England, attacking sexism and the class system. But there is no Romance in the book. Unless the subtitle means it is a Scientific Romance? The archaic term for science fiction. So if you are looking for some kind of weird love story keep moving on.I believe anybody who loves science fiction, sciences, writing, or world building who love this book. In fact they NEED to read this book. Even Carl Sagan mentioned the book in his Cosmos television series when talking about dimensions. It has also been turned into short films by different artists. Something about it is just so...cool!Also, I noticed a few reviews complaining about the lack of drawings but my edition, the Dover Thrift Editions, does have the drawings which are referenced in the text. At about 83 pages this book could easily be finished on a rainy day, a bus ride, or during a pretty boring family reunion.

Flatland is widely considered a classic in teaching about mathematical and physical concepts. This was the first time I read the book and I have to say that I find the story (originally published in 1884) a very poorly written, bigoted product which may reflect the times it was written in but is no longer acceptable (and rightly so).There are some good ideas on describing dimensions but the Flatland society is wholly unnecessary for this and simply detracts from the mathematical subject. The entire book is just one long exposition on Flatland society without anything interesting happening. Reading this book may be valuable to some for its historical importance but it has nearly zero value as a book on mathematics. Maybe my expectations were unrealistic.The Kindle edition has very few, very low-quality illustrations but otherwise it's just a hack job. I cannot recommend either the story or this particular edition.

Edwin Abbott Abbott published this, his brilliantly original novella in 1884 and it has always remained popular. If this is the first time you will be reading this, then you will soon find out why, and become a fan of it yourself.Schooled in the Classics, Mathematics and Theology, and becoming a schoolmaster and theologian, you can see how the education and beliefs of Edwin A Abbott helped to inspire this book. And this story works on so many levels. With its details on shapes and dimensions this also is a satirical look at the way people were at the time, with females considered inferior and the stratification of society. Indeed, the more you think about this story the more things you notice, and so for instance I can see references to what we now refer to as eugenics, and I could also argue that this raises the possibilities that we are still finding out with regards to quantum physics. On top of that this could be seen as ultimately trying to prove that God must exist.This is ultimately a book that you just cannot grow bored with, and each time you come back to it you seem to find another layer, which shows not only the genius of the author, but also that this never ages, always staying current in one idea or another.In all this is a fascinating book to read, and although short is packed full of ideas, and it must be admitted that it isn’t hard to read, and at times very funny. This just seems to all come together seamlessly, making something that is really great to read.

How do I classify this?A romp into mathematical reasoning?A political satire?An introduction to geometry?A classic of early science fiction?A Christian allegory?It's all of these, yet totally unique, an intellectual morsel that should have been twice as long.The author takes us into a world of two dimensional figures where everything in life is determined by the size of one's angles and no one questions the harsh order of a strict social hierarchy.What happens when the unthinkable occurs and a sphere enters their world, convincing a square of the reality of a third dimension?Beautifully written and unforgettable.In defence of Abbott, it is obvious to me that Flatland does not represent his social ideal, but he is making a comment on the faults of Victorian class structure which he intends to challenge by his own Christian faith.

'Flatland' is quite unlike anything I have ever read. It tells the story of a square living in two-dimensional space; the first part of the book describes the life of this square and the society he inhabits, all of which perfectly sets up the second part of the book, where a three-dimensional being interrupts the square's life to show him that Space is not what it seems.A magnificent triumph of a book, one that will have you thinking and thinking. It reminded me of Butler's 'Erewhon' but arguably better executed - mostly because of its delicate focus on the matters at hand. There is very little by way of moralising - the reader is left to draw their own conclusions, and so a Christian reading this book will draw analogies with the Christ legend, while atheists will find in it arguments aplenty against all manner of religion.

At just over eighty pages this is a short novel, but by no means a simple text. Written in 1884, this book is full of ideas that will interest mathematicians, physicists, historians, sociologists, politicians and paranormalists alike. It deals with issues such as eugenics, equality, revolution, the rigid class system of the late Victorian era, mathematical shapes, higher dimensions, shape-shifting and teleportation. The book is narrated to the reader by an inhabitant of Flatland, a Mr A. Square who happens to be a mathematician. The first half of the book describes the Flatland’s houses, its inhabitants and its history. From this we learn that the lowliest members of society, represented by straight lines, are its women. They are deemed to be stupid, emotional and unfit for education. Although feminists will hate this part of the book, it was however an atypical view of women throughout Victorian society, and the author is parodying this view. The author informs us that failing to educate women has an adverse effect upon the intellectual development of future generations of women and men. Other shapes within Flatland reflect the rigid class system of this society. The more sides a regular shape possesses, the higher its place within society. The ultimate expressions of this ideal are the circles who represent the society’s political and religious leaders. All shapes aspire for a better life for their offspring and will send their children to be re-shaped at schools so that they can enjoy a better life. Irregular shapes are deemed a threat to society and are euthanized at birth, or imprisoned / executed in later life. Why? Because, these irregular shapes either end up as criminals or as revolutionaries. Life for the majority of the triangles, who represent the bulk of the working class, is one of constant drudgery. This underlying current of discontent once led to the Colour Revolution. But this rallying cry for equality did not make everyone’s lives better, instead it led to the intolerable situation where the middle classes were dragged down to the same level as the criminals and the… women! The Revolution failed. Thereafter, the rulers carefully manipulated the working class so that they would fight each other. In the second half of the book, Mr A. Square experiences a dream where he is living in a one dimensional reality; a vision where he is transplanted into a three dimensional reality by a god-like sphere; and then he has another dream where he experiences a reality with no dimensions. Mr. A Square fails to get either the one dimensional inhabitants or the sole non-dimensional inhabitant to comprehend the concept of a two dimensional reality. Equally, he finds it difficult to understand the sphere’s explanation of three dimensional space and is confounded by his attempts to get other inhabitants of Flatland to believe or understand him. He even ponders the possibility of four to eight dimensions. This section of the book deals with concepts such as teleportation, omniscience and shape-shifting. One slight problem, in the two dimensional world there is no Sun or any stars, so there is no light. Yet the shapes identify can each other by sight! For anyone to see anything, light has to be absorbed by an atom, resulting in the excitation of that atom – it then gives off a photon of a particular wavelength which the retina can then see. Admittedly, only a minor point and should not detract from the main issues raised in the book. This book will appeal to many readers. It is a damning indictment of the class ridden society of the Victorian era – a class system which is still evident in today’s world. It is also an insightful portrayal of life for any creature living in different dimensions.

Considering the book was written a very long time ago, before some of the mathematical concepts were commonplace it’s a very interesting read. The language it’s written in sounds a little silly today yet it’s fun to read it in that tone. Story-wise it’s interesting though not for everyone. Some might find it a bit boring. If possible, read in one go. Otherwise it might get thrown into the “maybe later category”