#flatland: a romance of many dimensions

[monstrousmuse]

I am not sure if anyone here has already made this connection or pointed this out (apologies if so), but while doing some research into Flatland/the 11 dimensions the other day, I discovered something pretty interesting…

…

In the ‘Book of Bill’ announcement video, as well as distorted, synthesised background music and the Morse Code (which has already been deciphered), we can also hear several lines of spoken dialogue, the first of which being the line: “some other mystic dimension”.

Timestamp: 0:04

Now, this line already raises several questions - which ‘dimension’ is being referring to here? And why is it considered to be ‘mystic(al)’? Well, we don’t have a definite answer to either of those questions just yet, but if you will humour me for a moment, I have a few suggestions. Either this ‘other mystic dimension’ could be referring to Bill’s own homeland, the Second Dimension (which would naturally be considered ‘other’, ‘mystic’ and generally unfamiliar to us, the readers), or perhaps, it is referring to the Third Dimension itself, or what is known as Spaceland (Height/Up) in Abbott’s novella. I think the latter to be far more likely, especially with what I am about to show you. This is where my excessive YouTube deep-diving habits came in useful.

…

During my research quest, I stumbled upon this video of the famous astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan (take note of this name) explaining the concept of the Fourth Dimension, as well as other Flatland-adjacent things. And lo and behold, at 4:37, what do we hear?

“And the poor Square has to say: ‘Well, I was in some other mystic dimension called Up…”

Yes, that’s right. The exact words that were used in the promo video.

To provide you some context, here Sagan is recounting the experience of A Square who, with the guidance and revelations of A Sphere, has just returned from a recent foray into the Third Dimension, and is trying to explain his sudden disappearance and newfound knowledge of Height to his friends. So saying, it is likely that the ‘other mystic dimension’ being referred to in the BoB video is in fact, the Third Dimension, since this is a book that has been written from Bill’s perspective, and it seems that he will be filling in the role of A Square in this narrative, discovering the Secrets Of The Universe and all. Although, I must emphasise that this is still just speculation on my part, based on the assumption that Bill’s backstory will be pretty similar to, if not a direct retelling of Flatland:

“Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams.”

Who knows, Alex Hirsch may just subvert our expectations entirely.

“I liberated my dimension (…)” / “Saw his own dimension burn. Misses home and can’t return.”

…

Anyway, I have another little piece of the puzzle to share. The line spoken in the announcement video isn’t merely a word-for-word recreation of what Carl Sagan said, It is Carl Sagan. They used a direct clip from an episode of Cosmos. This has me giddy with excitement, because Carl Sagan, a man with much notoriety within the scientific community, and many achievements and accolades to his name, is known to be one of Ford’s scientific idols.

The level of detail in this show, and I guess now in its extended literary canon’s advertisement material, is insane. Do with this information what you will. Perhaps there’s a connection here that will be expounded upon in the book. Perhaps it’s just a cool reference. Even so, it is a very intriguing one nonetheless, especially with the tie-ins to Flatland, theoretical physics and Ford’s hero-worshipping. It’s clearly intentional.

…

(If anyone is interested, here is an excellent meta which provides a very detailed exploration and analysis of Ford’s respective connections to Sagan and Tesla.)

[aaabatteryy]

i come bearing gifts!!

@beep-beep-beep-beep-beep MADE THE AWESOME DESIGNS FOR A SQUARE AND A SPHERE EVERYONE GO LOOK

[arthurdrakoni]

Flatland is an underrated classic that imagines life in a 2-D world. This is my review.

You’ll get a lot of answers when you ask when speculative fiction was born. Some will tell you that it began with Hugo Gernsback and the pulps. Others will say that it goes as far back as mythology and folklore. Personally, I go with those who say that it began with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, though I don’t discount earlier works such as Gulliver’s Travels or The Tempest. I say all of this because I’m taking us back to the 19th Century for today’s review. We’re going to review the classic novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott.

Imagine, if you will, a sheet of paper that is infinitely large and stretching to all sides. Now imagine that on this sheet of paper there are a series of geometric shapes, but instead of staying in place these shapes move about and have complex social lives. Welcome to Flatland, a world of only two dimensions. There is width and length, but there is no height or depth.

The book follows A. Square who is…well, he’s literally a two-dimensional square. He acts as our guide to the realm of Flatland and relates to use the ways of his countrymen and their doings. There are two main events that serve to completely change A. Square’s world view. The first is his contact with Lineland, a world of only one dimension, and the second is meeting a figure known as Lord Sphere. Lord Sphere claims to come from a strange world of three dimensions called Spaceland.

The book goes into great detail about how life works in a world with only two dimensions. For example, it is customary to meet someone by feeling them in order to determine their shape. It’s also considered polite to give directions to the way north when meeting a traveler on the road. Societal rank and job are determined by the number of sides that one has, with circles being at the top of things. Each successive generation gains an additional side, except for the low ranking isosceles triangles, though there are exceptions. Women, being incredibly sharp and pointy lines, have restrictions placed on them so that they can avoid constantly killing people by accident. We also learn much of the history of Flatland, such as why colors have been banned by the upper classes. There is some pretty great world building in this novel.

That having been said the fact the citizens of Flatland are all living geometric shapes does limit the amount of exploration that can go into their biology and physics. A. Square does hint at future explanations, but he decides that it will take up too much time and bore the reader. Or to put it another way, if you wonder how they eat and breathe and other science facts…well, I’m sure you all know the words to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 theme song. You’ll also notice that Flatland society bares more than a passing resemblance to the society of Victorian Britain. This is intentional, as Abbott intended for Flatland to be just as much a satire as a compelling story. For example, the class system of Flatland is rather absurd when given further scrutiny, but Abbott was making about about how the British class system was absurd and ultimately rather arbitrary.

Since it was written in 1884 Flatland has long since fallen into the Public Domain. As such, many other writer have tried their hand at tackling the subject matter Flatland is built upon. Usually they will focus on one particular aspect while ignoring the others. Admittedly I haven’t read any of these books, but of the ones I’ve heard of thanks to TV Tropes I’d say Planiverse sounds the most promising. It attempts to look at how biology, chemistry, physics and culture would function in a realistic 2-D world.

Have you read Flatland? If so, what did you think?

Link to the full review on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/02/book-review-flatland-by-edwin-abbot.html?m=1

[walks-the-ages]

Oh no, guys! People are thinking critically and writing (beautifully-detailed) critiques of the 2007 movie by infamous racist Ladd Ehlinger! Time to pull out the "fandom elder" card and claim anyone who critiques my favorite movie is being "shallow and reductive" without giving any examples whatsoever of either other people's "Shallow and Reductive Readings" nor my own, clearly superior reading that elevates the film to a sublime masterpiece of fiction, where anyone who does not like it simply doesn't understand it because they're only here from a children's show!

/end sarcasm lol.

Gotta love stans of racist media who see people writing beautifully crafted, detailed essays comparing their favorite adaption made by an extremely racist piece of shit and losing their cool completely once the fandom stops blindly worshipping that adaption and actually returns + reads for the first time the actual original work lmao.

You cannot be a "Fandom Elder" for Flatland. It's been around since 1884.

And no, you can't call people who are actually taking the time to read that original 1884 novel "shallow and reductive because they only watch children's shows"

when the movie you're so vehemently defending is probably even more childish and absurd than anything from the Gravity Falls show which I haven't even seen, but even I know its full of a lot of psychological horror from demonic possession and crap, and that, you know, Gravity Falls not only has twists, turns, and foreshadowing, but the creator is NOT a rampaging racist so bigoted he makes Republicans afraid to be seen with him.

Anyways, if you are new to the Flatland fandom, and you've only seen the movie, please do yourself a favor and enjoy the wide, wide world of Flatland being Public Domain, which means not only is the book completely free to read in multiple formats, it also has dozens of different adaptions of vastly, vastly superior quality to the 2007 movie by notorious racist Ladd Ehlinger.

If you want to check out more of what Flatland has to offer, checkout Rjalker's Masterpost of links:

[twptwp]

More Flatland 2007

Below is little comic

[invertedshroom]

figuring out flatland designs and also some oc ideas (idk what to name them yet)

[shapesenthusiastz]

Reread Flatland for the 10281938th times and suddenly got the strong urge to draw them so yeahhh

Im glad more ppl are discovering Flatland because of TBOB! I am so happy Bill's character and backstory are finally confirmed to be inspired by Flatland!(as if it wasn't already obvious from the start)

[ninten-draw]

[katiekatdragon27]

A silly assortment of Flatland shitposts from yours truly~

Some of these are older than others lol.

Og images below cut:

Have a good one dudes!

[3d-rulez]

The apostle!!!!

[rjalker]

Flatland adaptations

[ID: A version of the "missing the point", meme, showing a purple square shouting in all caps, Holy shit other dimensions exist", while staring at a green sphere that intersects with his plane, while the sphere says, with the words literally going over the square's head, "Racism, ableism, misogyny, and classism are bad.". End ID.]

how come I've watched three full length Flatland movies and many shorter animations but only one of them, which is in Italian, which I don't speak, ever has anything to say about the political themes of the book and instead just goes "woah cool interdimensional theory!"???

[John Crichton voice] Where's my damn political commentary?

Why do people want to just throw out all the criticism of systemic bigotry to focus only on the dimensional stuff?

Edit: Yes, this 1000% applies to the 2007 Flatland film. It is not exempt at all. It is one of the main things I was thinking of while making this. A few seconds of absurdist humor does not mean the 2007 Flatland film is scathing political commentary that forces the audience to think about systems of inequality and question whether they might not be upholding some that are just as absurd and made up to keep people in power.

[ID: The same meme as above, now with a hybercube or tesseract saying, "Racism, ableism, misogyny, and classism are bad.", with the yellow A Sphere from the 2007 Flatland film staring at it in open-mouthed shock, exclaiming, "Wow!! Absurdist humor!!!" while the point flies over his head. End ID.]

Edit August 20 2024: Ladd Ehlinger, the creator of the 2007 Flatland film, is disgustingly fucking racist and misogynistic. He is literally a proud conservative.

He made a political ad in 2011 that's literally so blatantly racist and misogynistic that youtube has literally restricted it so you literally cannot share the link outside of youtube.

Because it's that blatantly fucking bigoted.

I wish I could say I'm shocked but considering how terribly the 2007 film handles the themes of the original novel, I'm not surprised in the least.

The ad literally has Black men chanting, "give me your cash bitch so we can shoot up the street", while a white woman, with the face of the politician the add is against photoshopped over her, pole dances as a sex worker.

He runs a tumblr account so make sure you block him. His username is filmladd.

He's literally a racist misogynistic conservative.

For the love of all that's holy everyone please stop defending this film immediately and make sure people are aware of exactly what kind of person produced it.

[rainbow-wolf120]

I really suggest watching flatland!!! Its highly interesting, please give it a try!

Me when the land is flat idk I’ve never watched the book

[cosmocosmiccosmivech]

Squaritary Confinement

I drew this on my phone waiting for my friend to finish her quiz. 🎻🎻🎻

[flatlandenjoyer]

It's 2024, stop making people feel bad for not enjoying things the same way as you.

[mark-demolition]

"I depend on you"

This is kinda bad but its not THAT HORRIBLE so hehehe i rlly like this image

Alt/inspiration

[twptwp]

Flatland 2007

Unfortunately I do like the 2007 movie adaptation of Flatland, I've read the original book and like it more I certainly reccomend it! But the visual design in Flatland 2007 is awfully appealing to me. I wanted to draw some art of these designs, I may draw more, I may even create my own adaptations. But on the topic:

The guy who made the 2007 adaptation is a huge butt. Racist, mysoginist, incredibly ironic considering Abbott the creator of the Flatland book from all the way back in Victorian times believed in womans rights and helped women get educations. Abbott was a pretty progressive guy and Flatland was written as a satire criticising the strict and cruel norms of the time.

Which brings me to Ladd Ehlinger, the creator of the 2007 movie. I must wonder how absolutely dense must one be to create a movie adaptation of one of Abbott's works and proceed to be the very kind of person Abbott was producing satire against?

Luckily Abbott's messages can still be just about seen in the movie albeit tainted and watered down quite a bit. It's all deeply ironic

Rant over. The 2007 movie is as old as me and Ladd Ehlinger recieves no financial benefit from the movie as it is completely free to watch so I don't think drawing art of it is necessarily bad. Just do be aware of the kind of person at hand and be critical of the media. If you wish for more information regarding this things you can look at @ rjalker blog. Thank you for reading.