Flatland Topics
Flatland is available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/201. It may be useful to download this so you can
search electronically for phrases.Choose one topic for a short paper. If you
choose to work with another student then choose
one social topic and one mathematical topic and write 2 short papers. Be sure to justify your hypothesis with quotes
(and page numbers) from the book. Part
of your task is to convince me that you have read the entire story. Note: each
paper should be original. You can share
ideas with your partner; but do not submit ideas from other people. I will
entertain ideas for other topics, just ask.
Social topics
Shakespearean quotations: choose one, give the original quote (some have been purposefully misquoted), its source, speaker and context. Explain why the author selected this quote and how it is appropriate (or not) to Flatland. Quotes: title page (2); p. ix; p. 1; p. 41; p. 83
Calendar: Does Flatland use the same calendar we do? Explain any differences/similarities. On page 43, Square refers to the last day of 1999 as the last day of the second millennium, is he right?
Evolution in Flatland: Regular polygons have children with one more side. Is this evolution? Are there any exceptions to this rule? What does this imply about the long term population of Flatland?
Women’s rights in Flatland: Square says that women in Flatland have no brains (being lines). Is this true? How do his other references to women support or contradict this? Could women rule Flatland?
Education in Flatland: What subjects are studied by children in Flatland? Are these subjects appropriate? What role do triangles play in the schoolroom? Do you agree with how education is done in Flatland?
There are some similar controversial issues in our society and in Flatland. For one of the following topics, discuss the issues in our society and compare them to the issues in Flatland.
Freewill versus determinism
Popular culture dumbs down society (i.e., TV rots kids’ brains)
Nature versus nurture
Cannibalism in Flatland
Is
Mathematical topics
When the sphere entered Flatland, it appeared to Square as a circle that got bigger and then smaller. The orientation of the sphere had no change on this cross-section.
What if a different three dimensional shape visited Flatland, for example, a cube, a cylinder or any other shape? What would Square have seen? Are there alternative views if the shape was tilted when it entered Flatland? You may want to model your shape with Play-Doh and slice cross-sections of it. Be sure to include illustrations in your paper (ala E. A. Abbott).
Symmetry in Flatland figures: Discuss the types and numbers of symmetries found in each of the different figures in Flatland. How does symmetry affect social order?
How would a 4-dimensional being appear to us? Give specific examples that correlate with the analogies in Flatland.
FYI: a 2-dimensional representation of a 4-dimensional hypercube can be found at