LITERATURE: Flatland – Symbolism

I’m determined to finish this novel today and then maybe take a break from reading.

It seems that there is much that Abbott gives the reader to consider though the symbolism in his written world can mostly relate rather obviously.  There are a few questions in this reader’s mind however that point to less evident trails and this is where I always wonder whether the author was clever enough to consider them or whether indeed, a student of Barthes just steamrolls his own way through.

As our two-dimensional Square first comes upon Lineland, his confusion is clear:

It seemed that this poor ignorant Monarch–as he called himself–was persuaded that the Straight Line which he called his Kingdom, and in which he passed his existence, constituted the whole of his world, and indeed the whole of Space. (p. 45)

The people here are all lines, standing in a straight line end to end with the Monarch at its center, therefore, even with an eye at each end, he sees only a point in each direction.  Also, these folks don’t move–except for sex and that’s another oddity (I’m sure that’s one thought that most readers have wondered about even in dual dimensionality from page 1:  how do they, you know, do it?).

What then does this limited view of the world represent?  And yet they seem to know each other well–if no one and nothing outside of this line.  They depend upon voice, which would make sense, since if they cannot move out of formation (there being in their minds no existence of space left or right).  To procreate, once a week they shimmy in place and raise their voices until a male finds two females in harmony and the trio consummates the marriage in the sound.

So what is the importance of sound in this land?  The humming or Peace Cry was something Flatland females were required to make as a means of protecting other forms (male) by warning them of their proximity.  That, together with a wavering of their needle-sharp rear ends kept the world safe–unless a devious Woman felt particularly nasty, being loaded with emotion and little sense.

The forms take on a question of their own.  My first thought would have been that the straight line represented the male and the circle the female.  But then, I live in a seventeen-dimensional world.