![]() ![]() If there are higher dimensions, is there a fourth-dimension beyond the third? Sphere grumpily rejects such a preposterous idea, and Square is plunged back to Flatland. In this case in two-dimensional Flatland.īut Square speculates further. Thus, a three-dimensional: object from that higher dimension is experienced and can be experienced only in terms of the dimension in which it is encountered. Square's visionary guide in that final dimension is a Sphere, which in Flatland is experienced first as a point, then an expanding and contracting circle, and finally back to a point. ![]() ![]() Through a series of dream and strange encounters in other dimensions beyond Flatland: in Lineland (one dimension), Pointland (no dimension), and ultimately Sphereland (three dimensions). Abbott, an ardent social reformer, was mocking class-based hierarchies, pervasive elitism, and the deeply-rooted misogyny that limited women in many ways in Victorian society. Social status is determined by the number of sides a figure possesses, and women are delegated to straight lines, the least significant shapes. It is narrated by "A Square", a mathematician in the two-dimensional world of Flatland, where Squares and Pentagons are deemed professionals and "gentlemen". ABBOTT'S NOVELS IN THE VICTORIAN RELIGIOUS CONTEXTįlatland (1884) is a hugely popular whimsical satire in novella form by Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926), mathematician, educator, clergyman, and author. ![]()
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