#Flatterland

[rjalker]

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin Abbot Abbot, published in 1884, is public domain. That means it has no copyright, and belongs to everyone.

This post will have links to as many versions and adaptations of it as I can find, and will be updated whenver I find new links to add.

Feel free to copy and paste this whole entire post and make it a new post for your own blog too!

None of these links are piracy, because you literally cannot pirate what has no copyright. Anyone who tells you you must pay to read the original Flatland is scamming you.

The only time you should be spending money on Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, is if you find a cool physical copy that you want specifically.

Check the original post before reblogging to look for updates if you are seeing this post days, weeks, or months after I originally post it.

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Visual books:

Public domain:

The Original Novel:

Read online or ownload the original book in multiple formats from Project Gutenberg

Read or download from Standard Ebooks

Read and download from the Internet Archive. This also includes a computer-generated audiobook.

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The 2024 translation:

Read online or download the 2024 translation in multiple formats from the Internet Archive. This also includes a computer-voiced audiobook.

Read the 2024 translation here on tumblr @flatland-a-2024-translation

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The 2024 Summary:

You can read and download this from the Internet Archive in multiple formats, including editable documents. Or read here on tumblr.

You can also buy a physical copy here, or purchase the files from Itch.io.

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Audiobooks:

The original novel:

Listen to the original book on the Internet Archive, read by Ruth Golding

Listen to the original book on the Internet Archive read by David "Grizzly" Smith

The 2024 translation:

Listen and read-along with the lazy audiobook of the 2024 translation on Youtube

(no audiobook available for the summary....yet)

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Free visual media with full stories:

Here’s an animation from 1965. Contains some flashing lights.

Here’s a stop motion film from 1982 in Italian with English subtitles

Here’s an animation from 2006

The 2007 Flatland film by Ladd Ehlinger is free on youtube. Unfortunately Ladd Ehlinger is a virulently racist and misogynistic conservative who thinks feeding school kids is the same thing as slavery. His film is filled with almost constant flashing lights and spinning cameras that cause headaches, motion sickness, migraines, and seizures.

Here is a link to timestamps for these if you still choose to watch it.

The film ignores all of the politics from the original novel because the creator of the film agrees with the bigotry the novel condemned. You are much better off watching another visual adaption or reading the original or translated book.

Especially if you suffer from photosensitivity or motion-sickness, this film will make you want to throw up.

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Shorter visual media:

In-universe

Part 4 of a Korean animation. from 2010. Haven't found parts 1-3 yet.

A short animation from 2020 showing an Equilateral being taken away from his Isosceles parents

Flatland Heist from 2013, A short animation from 2013 where the Narrator and Sphere team up to rob a bank :)

Flatland a Romance of Many Dimensions Alternate Timeline (without audio yet) 2024 Here's the version with audio

No Nonbinary Door 2024

A Visit to Lineland 2024

Up, Up, and Away 2024

Meta:

A short TED-Ed summarizing the math parts of Flatland from 2014

Another short animation explaining the math of Flatland from 2012

A long presentation (38 mins) about the math in Flatland. from 2017

Youtube Shorts:

A very short animation about the narrator meeting the Sphere

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Related books by other authors, in publishing order:

Public domain:

An Episode of Flatland: or How a Plane Folk Discovered the Third Dimension. With Which is Bound Up an Outline of the History of Unæa by Charles Howard Hinton. (1907) Public domain, unlimited reading and downloading. It's terrible. But you can rewrite it to make it not terrible.

The 4D Doodler, by Graph Waldeyer. Also on Youtube as an audiobook.

Other copyright:

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norton Juster (1963) Can be borrowed by 1 person at a time. A short....poem? Nothing to actually do with Flatland.

The Incredible Umbrella by Marvin Kaye (1980) Can be borrowed by 1 person at a time. I have not read it yet.

Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe, by Dionys Burger. (1983) Can be borrowed by 1 person at a time. It's racist. Was intended to be a sequel to Flatland, but the author's racist and failed every lesson Flatland tried to teach.

“Message Found in a Copy of Flatland” by Rudy Rucker (1983) free to read online from the author.

The Fourth Dimension, by Rudy Rucker (1984). Can be read for free online from the author. I have not read it yet.

The Planiverse: Computer Contact With a Two-dimensional World by Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (1984) Can be borrowed by 1 person at a time. Good 2D worldbuilding, nonexistant plot and boring abrupt ending.

Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So by Ian Stewart (2001) Can be borrowed by 1 person at a time. it's useless crap that unironically defends the bigotry against Irregulars from the original novel by pretending it's just natural selection that's totally natural and not at all artificialy and violently upheld to uphold the supremacy of the Circles.

Spaceland by Rudy Rucker (2002) Can be borrowed by 1 person at a time. I have not read it yet.

VAS: An Opera in Flatland (2002) by Steve Tomasula. no copies donated to the internet archive yet. I have not read it yet.

A 2024 Summary of Flatland. Buy a physical copy here. Buy a digital copy here.

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Neopronoun short stories:

The Breaking Point, a short story of a Line and Isosceles in another country of Flatland, attempting to deal with an abusive officer of the military who's invited himself into their home. Almost 4k words.

First Day of School, a young equilateral has zov first day at school, and discovers that the "specimen" they're supposed to be studying is someone zo knows.

Gaining a New Perspective, a short story of the Sphere contemplating everything that's happened after throwing the narrator of Flatland back down to his plane. Almost exactly 5k words.

Other short fiction:

[link me your stories and a short summary to go here!!]

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Please feel free to add more links and I'll add them to this original post.

Here's the first masterpost I made which has fewer links.

[julessuretries]

Victoria (Vikki) Line and her autistic rubber 90s toy

Also I’m aware this might be a deep cut in the Flatland cinematic/literary universe so… yeah this is from the 2001 book Flatterland in which a 3D guy named Space Hopper takes Vikki line on a tour of the “mathiverse”

[meloncholicmonosodium]

a sphere gijinka i still have 2 (to) digitalize .. ive been 4getting (forgetting) about my socials as of l8 (late) so soz !

post-war thing is just a "what if" type of design so bleehh

also ive been a bit obsessed w spheres 22 (too) .. oops !

drew everyone by memory hhhhg I LOVE THEM 😢😢 also i dont know how would space hopper act i haven’t been able 2 read flatterland, ignore how spherius looks truamatized hel

"don’t forget about me too you guys!"

[mr-cosmic-11]

Reading flatterland and it feels like a fanfic made by a 12 years old on wattpad...?

I mean, I've only read like 21 pages so far... so Idk

[dipperpines-kin]

The two Flatland books i got for Christmas!

[presidentcircles-assistant]

Space Hopper and Vikki @therealstara

[lurking-latinist]

anybody read Flatterland by Ian Stewart? I read it at a Formative Age; it’s a quasi-sequel to Edwin Abbott’s Flatland that covers things like hyperbolic geometry and the geometry of spacetime and black holes and things

and for me it’s one of those things that you reread and you say “oh THAT’S where my taste came from”

[2d-dreams]

i like to think that Flatterland's Vikki walks like this. i love this book but also not. dislike at least a 80% of the flatland stuff. Everytging else good. but like. why shoes on a Line. they dont shy away from "theyre literal shapes" so how tf is she wearing a SKIRT and JACKET simultaneously. how tell them apart. Why .

[ID: A simple digital drawing with a grey background showing a character made up of a line with an eye in a sequence of four movements leaning over to do a headstand. End ID.]

[apostleofthreedimensions]

In Ian Steward's Flatterland his A Sphere replacement is THIS FUCKING THANG!!!!!!!!!

[wreedenthusiast]

I love this idea, they totally would've if the stakes during Weirdmageddon were different!

"I could play him like a fiddle" they say in unison

[meloncholicmonosodium]

lil spacehopper doodle i made a bit ago

haven’t talked about this critter in MONTHS !! idk i love their design pleas

[dipperpines-kin]

Some Flatland-esk books I'm going to try and find for my Flatland collection

1. Sphereland by Dionys Burger

2. The Planiverse by Kee Dewdney

3. The Annotated Flatland by Ian Stewart

[wither-r0se-leaf]

Reblogging again :D

"Thank you for all the answers to the survey! By boss has given me the thumbs up, and now the Dimensional Portal is active! Enjoy your time at Enlightenment Enterprises (and please follow the rules)."

"HAVE FUN!!"

Thank you again to everyone who liked the idea of a Flatland Discord Server. I think it looks good right now, but if anything needs changes, don't be afraid to reach out either here or on Discord. Also, feel free to share it around :)

Have a good one!!

EDIT: Now there's a permanent link! (Hopefully). Lmk if there's any problems.

[spaceboisstuff]

If you ever feel like your fandom is too weird, remember I was a fan of flatland: a romance of many dimensions, my favorite adaptation was flatland 1965, and someone would call you racist if your A. square design was anything interesting and your The sphere designed resembled this man

Because they couldn't separate art from artist and the creator of the most popular flatland adaptation flatland 2007, was a piece of shit

Also did I mention this is a Victorian satire and math book?

You can't say your ship is weird if you weren't shipping actual geometry yaoi, with a 2D square who is very touchy and also a fucking lawyer

Also a woman eats herself with the text "women can do that" and no explanation in the movie and it's not part of the book

Also my favorite insult from flatland "YOU 6 INCH IDIOT!"

Also this book spawned the debate of how a 2D creature could have a digestive system without splitting in half which a fan book decided on an airlock style system and I decided they were single celled organisms

Also there was a fan book called flatterland that I couldn't read cuz I was sobbing trying to figure out how an actual line wears shoes, skirts, jackets, and uses the computer, also her name was Vikki short for Victoria

And literally none of the fan books and adaptations realized the A. In A. Square stood for Abbott, like the author Edwin Abbott Abbott, he's literally A.²

@that-one-unknown-artist you aren't going to comprehend shit about this

[presidentcircles-assistant]

@penguinsinhell thank you for this mental image

[charlesoberonn]

Have you ever read Flatterland (Ian Stewert)? It's a sequel to flatland that keeps going with the concept. Highly recommended if you need more two dimensional content.

I have not. I should, though.