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Page 23

I don’t wanna be left out, so, I first saw this on Keith’s site.

1. Grab the nearest book.


2. Open the book to page 23.


3. Find the fifth sentence.


4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

“The answer is threefold.”

A bit anti-climactic, eh? The quote is from Flatland a book written in the late 1800’s by a guy named Edwin A. Abbott. I’m almost done with it, and it’s definitely been the most interesting book from the 1800’s that I’ve ever read (probably the only book form the 1800’s I’ve ever read, actually). It’s a man that lives in a two-dimensional world who is shown the third dimension by someone from “Spaceland”. The citizens of “Flatland” (the two dimensional world) have a strict caste system, and some interesting views on women. Namely that they function purely on emotions and are incapable of any logical reasoning, which renders them mostly useless. Hahahah, hey, it was written in the 1800’s, plus it’s fiction. :)

Anyway, the caste system works like this: The people with the most sides are part of high-society. Since it’s a two-dimensional world, people are made up of shapes (squares, triangles, polygons, hexagons, etc). The isosceles triangles are the lowest form of society and are made up of criminals, bums, and soldiers. Equilateral triangles (all three sides the same length) are slightly above them and are considered workman if I remember correctly. Squares are tradesman, etc. All the way up to “The Circles” which are actually polygons with a very high number of sides, who are considered the Priests of the society. The women are straight lines, no matter their class. The citizens of Flatland equate intelligence with the regularity of angles that make up one’s body, as well as the amount of angles and sides that you have. This shows why the women are considered mostly useless, considering they have no real sides or angles at all, being only a straight line.

The book is actually extremely interesting, imaginative, and quite funny. The writing style reminds me vaguely of Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). If you are interested but don’t want to buy the book, you can read it online thanks to the Gutenburg Project, since the book’s copyright has expired.

I have this book, and started to read some of it, but it was kinda dry. Interesting, but quite a hard book to read. I think Ill have to pick it up again - you’ve inspired me to do so. :D

I didn’t find it hard to read at all… Different strokes for different folks I guess. :)