When I first read the title in Mychio Kaku’s book Hyper Space I told myself: “I have to read this”. I quickly went to Amazon and found the copy so cheap that I bought it. My curiosity took me to reading the book and with the first thing I stumbled with was the ancient (old english) in which it was written. It didn’t bother me that much as long as I had an open mind and my dictionary close.
Edwin A. Abbott, wrote it in 1884. Edwin was a clergyman, scholar, Shakespearean and mathematician (the last one was a hobby). Whatever his motivations were, the book is so fun and ingenious that it will keep you reading. It’s an 82 page book (at least the edition I have) and is a social critic and satire of that time. It serves as an introduction to the concept of dimensions which was not too spoken of at the time. The story is narrated by a “Square” who introduces you to the social and political structure of the two dimensional world, explaining from the different social classes to the method of recognition of each. Triangles comprise the lower classes (unintelligent, all males) and females are lines (dangerous, not easily controlled impulsive beings). The more sides a figure had, the higher its rank until the priest (or circle) was reached, the highest ranking figure and the supreme power.
One day our narrator the square had a visitor from the third dimension (a sphere) who after various attempts of trying to explain what the third dimension was and what it looked like, took him to the third dimensional realm. The journey ended pretty soon due to the Square annoying the Sphere with questions. At the end our Square friend ends up in jail for speaking about other worlds and dimensions, a topic that was forgiven in Flatland.
This classic is worth reading and enjoying either if you are a science fiction fan or just a regular reader. It’s a short read and very entertaining.
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