Analysis of the book Flatland

João Victor Soares Pereira

 First steps
It is very important to speak and promote the book "Flatland". For
me, it's an abandoned classic. This is because the book presents
certain interpretations about the nature that surrounds us never seen
before.
I read the book without prior information and when I finished I can
guarantee that my whole conception about nature has changed.
Flatland is a hard-to-understand book if it is not read carefully. This is
because, unlike other books written in Victorian England, it is not a
book of romance, fiction, terror or suspense: It is a book of
mathematical philosophy. Its author, Edwin Abbott Abbott (Sounds
strange but it's the real name of the author.) was a genius in his days.
This is because, as already said, he presented certain ways of seeing
the dimensions of mathematics in a completely different, intelligent
and, most importantly, pedagogical way, so that complex subjects like
the fourth dimension can be understood by those who have not even
had contact with the subject .
Like most geniuses, Edwin Abbot was forgotten. His most important
book, which is the subject of this analysis, was done in an extremely
creative way and yet he did not have the recognition he deserved.

-Image from the illustrated book.

 The history

The book describes a fictional 2D world that, properly, is called

Flatland. In this world, everything that forms it only has two
dimensions: width and length. The living beings that live in Flatland
are geometric figures, like triangles, squares, rectangles and circles
(The protagonist of the book is a square). Because they are two-
dimensional beings, they can go back and forth, right and left, but they
have never heard of "above" or "below." To better understand how
Flatland works, imagine a flat table. You cut out some images of
geometric figures and put them on that table. Well, those pieces of
paper have a hefty height, but imagine that there is no height at all:
That will be our Flatland.
 A curiosity within the book and in the film (Yes, there is a Flatland
movie!) is that the society of this land is made in a hierarchical way
where those who have more sides are more influential. The scum of
society are the triangles, while the king, of infinite sides, is a circle.
Life in Flatland is quiet but difficult for us, three-dimensional beings,
to understand. One of the most important factors of the book is to
understand how the beings of this universe see. I will try to explain
with drawings made by me, but it takes time for you to think about
yourself and understand. And it is of utmost importance to remember
the way the Flatlanders see it, as this will be discussed later, so do not
forget.
Imagine two beings from Flatland, two squares, one in front of the
other. A square has eyes on one of its sides. Technically, as the
Flatlanders have no height, the square would see nothing, but let's
ignore this and pretend they have a minimum height. By exercising
your imagination a little, you will realize that the square will see only
one line, only one side of the square. He does not know the true shape
of the other square, but he knows he's there. Like this:
 If you understand, remember this information, as it will be useful
later.
Going back to the story, it develops and nothing very important
happens, until one day, the life of the square changes completely. No
one from Flatland knows, but that land was situated in a 3D world,
and the first lucky one who had the chance to have contact with this
world was the protagonist of the book, that square. One day, a sphere,
a 3D-being, decides to visit the square that was in the room. She
shouts from the top something like "Hello, square!" and he does not
respond. The square looks around and sees nothing, can only conclude
that he is going crazy. The sphere, very disappointed, decides to make
a visit to that square, and projects itself in Flatland. The square goes
crazy. What he saw was a point that was soon turning into a circle and
soon became a point again, until disappearing. To understand what the
square saw, follow these drawings:
 When the square sees this, as said, it goes into shock. The sphere
then tries to tell the square that she is a three-dimensional being. Poor
square, he understood nothing of what the sphere said. "How I am
foolish, I will take you to my world and I will make you see through
my eyes, so you will see your land in the same way I see it." - said the
sphere soon after. And so it was done, the sphere carried the square
and allowed him to see Flatland on top, and he was amazed. The
square looked at his friend triangle and saw EVERYTHING of him,
not just a line: Saw all its sides and saw INSIDE it, saw the color the
triangle had. He saw the outline of the King Circle, saw his vassals,
saw that the houses of Flatland were just lines that marked out spaces.
He was amazed, and could not contain his happiness.
But the ride was over. The square falls again in Flatland and
everyone goes to the surroundings of him to understand what
happened, since for them, the square had appeared there suddenly. "I
was in a world called the Third Dimension," said the square. "I could
see you in a way you can not even understand." Someone in the crowd
said, "Show us where this world is. Point to that Third Dimension."
The square, frustrated, saw that it could not do that. It was impossible
to show this by living in two dimensions. Now he understood what the
sphere meant when she said to him it was impossible to make a 2D
being understand 3 dimensions just by saying.
This is the end of the story here. Some things happen after that, but
the important thing has already been said. It takes time to understand
Flatland, letting the story mature in your head is very important so that
you can understand it clearly. This story is very important to
understand some things that happen in our world and we can not
explain. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the sphere
was visited by a 4D being?
I have.
 Understanding the fourth dimension

To be honest, this is the most complicated part of this book's analysis.

Because, like the square, we can’t understand what the fourth
dimension is like. But we can try to do this, thanks to the book
Flatland. Let's start with the hardest, understand the dimensions. That
being understood, the other parts will be easier to understand. Let's
start by defining what the dimensions are:

Okay, this is easy. Now pay attention. The following comments will
be shown by drawings later. Have you ever thought what a line is? A
line is something made by TWO things 0D connected (2 points
connected, form a line). And a square? A square is something made by
TWO connected 1D things (Two connected lines, make one square).
And finally a cube, the pattern still repeats itself. A cube is something
made of TWO connected 2D things (2 connected flat squares form a
cube). Understand with the drawings:
 With this in mind, think of what would be a geometric shape in
the fourth dimension, a 4D cube (We call this Hypercube or
Tesseract). Following the pattern of the drawing, a Tesseract
would be made of two things 3D (Two cubes) connected by each
other: Its sides would be 3D cubes! Just as the 3D cube has sides
of 2D squares, a Hypercube in 4D would have its sides made out
of 3D cubes. This is hard to imagine, but it's not over yet.
Imagine the possibility of 4-dimensional beings. How would they
see? Remember when I said it was important to remember how
the Flatlanders saw the world? This moment has come.
 There is also a pattern in the view of dimensional beings. One
dimensional beings (Who would live in a line) would only see points,
because they could only walk on one axis. All they can see are points
moving away and approaching. Then, beings of ONE dimension
would see in ZERO dimensions (Points). Advancing, beings of two
dimensions, Flatlanders for example, only see lines, as already
mentioned. So, beings of TWO dimensions see in ONE dimension
(Lines). Now, let's think of ourselves. As difficult as it may be to
understand, we, 3D beings, see in 2D. We do not see what is behind
someone, only what we see is a "slice" of the front of it, we do not
know the outline that person presents behind it, just as the square saw
only one side of his other square friend.
 As a conclusion, think about what the vision of a 4D being would
look like: He would see in 3D. That is, at the same time that he sees
your face, he sees your back, the top of your head, the sole of your
foot, your organs, and goes on ..., ALL of what you are made of. It is
impossible for us to understand this. But we can make bets, because
this is the way of science: To discover what is not known, and to get
new doubts. This is how human history has been traced.
I hope this analysis was good for you. Follow the link to see the
movie Flatland online on Youtube with English subtitles and the
interpretation of the physicist Carl Sagan about the book.

Flatland Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfglluny8Z0

(Just turn on the subtitles on the player)

Carl Sagan Interpretation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnURElCzGc0

The End