Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

20 All Time Classic Sci Fi Novels - Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by A. Square (Penguin Classics)

Reviews
 

There have been a lot of reviews already for this book which is obviously famous for the author's take on a reduced dimension reality - a line and a plane. I am sure I can add very little to what has already been expressed but I did want to lodge my feelings about the book.

You will like the ideas of `life on a plan'; and doubtless the all too clear analogy of the unawareness of other higher dimensions for us all will ring some bells for people but I found this book incredibly irritating. I enjoyed the ideas but there are many immense unanswered problems for me with the story. 1) Physical life itself could not exist in 1 or 2 dimensions 2) If one's entire consciousness and being was existent and/or constrained in 1 or 2 dimensions the presence of other dimensions is irrelevant and can have no meaning 3) Even given more dimensions that doesn't equate to a better, more valid plan of existence or one to aspire to and 4) some of the premises in 2D life felt all too 3D and even then they didn't work. There are many plans of existence even in 3D - a displaced orang-utan knows nothing of the London nightscene, a fish will never understand a bird. Abbott still had wars, sexism and authoritarianism in 1 and 2 dimensions; we've got them in 3D - so who says 4D would be any different?

I found it annoying to think that the story was perhaps a means to find a place for a deity - if he's not here in 3D he must be in a higher dimension sending his "sphere" equivalent to the "flat" earth. I'll credit the author with having the Square wanting the Sphere to show him the dimensions beyond 3D as this widens the scope of the book to accept that there could be a never ending layer of dimensions. What the story needed was a means of communicating existence outside of any "reality" - beyond dimensionality.

Different worlds is the essence of literature itself; as literature this story fails - as a concept novel it works well.

So it could get 5 stars for concept and effort, or 1 star for literary depth and insight. Let's go for 2.

H. Tee

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This is an extraordinary book and once you read it you'll try to count how many points, lives, squares and cubes would a hypercube (tesseract) consist of.

The book is very thin and it can be comfortably read in one day. In order to introduce the reader to 2D world, author starts to describe the society, rules and manners of that world. Between the lines he thus provide a small criticism on our human society vy showing some issues from other point of view. When a sphere comes to preach the word about new dimension to Square, who is the narrator of the story, Square has huge problems of visualizing the third dimension, until he sees it on his own eyes.
Jan Janikovic

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An excellent price for a famous, slim-volume, story about a single dimensional world. Must have required a really strange insight at the time of writing. An interesting, fascinating, thought provoking work. Does not require any specialist knowledge just a willingness to think a bit as you read.
Alan Gray

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Written over 100 years ago and narrated by the solid A Square, Flatland is a brilliant fantasy about a life in a two-dimensional world at the same time as a witty satire on the Victorian view of an ordered society and a call for a wider view of life. As well as a tour of Flatland, complete with its perfect and revered circles, noble polygons and criminal isosceles triangles (not to mention the foolishly linear women) , Mr Square also guides us on his excursions into lineland and pointland before admitting the revelation vouchsafed to him on his journey into the world of three dimensions. As Mr Square himself puts it "I exist in hope that these memoirs ... may find their way to the minds of humanity in Some Dimension, and may stir up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited Dimensionality"
Melmoth

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A. Square (!), trying to work out what it might be like as a cube, while we of 3 dimensions watch him and ultimately pine with him for even more dimensions. The author is clearly barmy, and a legend. And not only does it leave you in a happily confused state of mind, trying desperately to understand the nature of space, there's also some hilarious satire, and purely inspired explanations for how the whole thing would work. Although the style is sometimes difficult to follow, and it is a bit too short, Flatland is certainly worth a read.
apostrophes&arcadefire

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