Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland

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Flatland

We are brought up thinking that everyone shares our views and

that they are correct and the only right way of seeing things. In

Flatland, a novel by Edwin A. Abbott, two men from different

dimensions argue about which one of their societies is right and

more superior. They accomplish nothing because each is so closed-

minded to the fact that what they have known all their lives may

be wrong. This is the case when it comes to homosexuality in

today's world or anything that involves looking, acting, and

thinking differently than us.

A. Square and the Monarch of Lineland are closed-minded to

the possibility ofthere being other worlds or multiple ways to

seeing things different from their own. Outside Lineland all was

nonexistent according to the Monarch. When A. Square tried to

explain to him that the universe was made up of more than just

straight lines and points, the Monarch called these suggestions

"impossible" and "inconceivable" (P. 46). A. Square shared his

ideas with the Monarch because in his words he had "to open up to

him some glimpses of the truth" (P. 47). Neither man could begin

to accept the possibility that his world and his beliefs could

be in any way inferior to those ofthe other. Yet the two men

state their case for what seemed to be a long while. During the

course ofthe conversation,

the Monarch called the Square and his ideas "uneducated,"

"irrational," and "audacious" (P. 51). The Monarch thinks if A.

Square "had a particle of sense, [he] would listen to reason" (P.

51). Upon listening to the opinion that Flatland is lacking so

much as compared to Lineland, A. Square strikes back, saying,

"you think yourself the perfection of existence, while you are in

reality the most imperfect and imbecile" (P. 5I). A. Square

continues, claiming, "I am the completion of your incomplete

self" (P. 51). Neither the Monarch nor A. Square could be swayed

to the other one's way of thinking.

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