Flatland (1965)

[Music] I call our world flat land to make its nature clearer to you who are privileged to live in space imagine a vast plane on which lines triangles and other figures move at will yet without the power to sink into or rise above the surface you will at once see that in such a country nothing is or can be visible to us except straight lines should the person approach his line becomes larger if he Retreats it dwindles you see yet Circle or Square a straight line he looks and nothing else now our women our women are straight line our soldiers and lowest classes of workmen are isoceles triangles isoceles triangles which also have at their vertices a very sharp and formidable angle our middle class consists of equilateral triangles and squares to which class I myself belong our gentlemen are five-sided figures or pentagons when the number of sides become so numerous that the figures cannot be distinguished from a circle they are included in the circular or Priestly order and this of course is the highest class of all irregularity of figure means the same with us as a combination of moral degeneracy and criminality with you in spaceand when the irregular comes of age he presents himself for his flection if he is found to exceed the fixed margin of deviation he's either destroyed or else immured in the government office at a Clark of the seventh class how shall I make clear to you the extreme difficulty which we in flatland experience in recognizing one another to be sure our hearing is one simple means of recognition but we cannot allog together trust to this method a second method is there most important feeling now you see the sense of touch enables us to distinguish angles with great precision and it's the critical test of recognition not only between strangers but as to the class for instance ah Mr winst it permit me to ask you to feel and be felt by Mr spra girls you see it's quite simple right you see I'm trying to explain to you how I came to be in my present absurd position you see it was all a misunderstanding it really was you see it was the um what was it now the last day but one of the 1999 year of our era and I was sitting in the company of my dear wife discussing geometry and arithmetic with my youngest grandson a most promising young hexagon oh grandpaa if a moving point constructs a line and a moving line constructs a square what does a moving Square construct nothing at all nothing at all you see for geometry is only two Dimensions grandpaa uh if then may picture the number three squared as a square how many one picture three cubed I've already explained it to you you stupid hexagon the boy is not a fool three cubed has an obvious geometrical meaning how comes this woman here what makes you think this stranger is a woman feeling is believing no permit me Madam to feel and be felt by ow ow ow oh lord it's not a woman it's not a woman woman in can it be that I have so misbehaved to A Perfect Circle I am indeed in a certain sensor Circle I am many circles in one I'm terribly sorry I never out for a minute have you felt me enough this time oh she was right most most illustrious sir please excuse my indiscretion do oh would you D to satisfy the Curiosity of one who would know uh whence his visitor came from space from space sir whence else def find Space uh right um space my Lord is length and breadth indefinitely prolonged you think it is of two Dimensions only but I have come to announce a third height height height what northward no no not North W upward out of flat land all together I still do not comprehend when I come through your plane I make a section which you rightly see as a circle now I will rise out of your plane and my circle will become smaller and smaller until it dwindles to a point and vanishes now watch there monster why will you refuse to listen to reason then meet your fate out of your plane you go into the land of three dimensions once twice Thrice is [Music] done impossible my countrymen I see they're inside either this is madness or it is hell it is neither it is knowledge it is three dimensions follow me now I must introduce you to solids behold this multitude of able Square carves see I put one on another I'm building up a solid now the solid is complete and we call it a cube pardon me my Lord me thinks I see no solid but only an irregular figure true it appears to you a plain because you are not accustomed to shade and perspective but in reality it is a solid Pardon Me Oh thou whom I must no longer address as the uh Perfection of all Beauty what Mar Lord your own wisdom has taught me to Aspire to one even more great one above you who conf findes many spheres in one supreme existence take me now on the second journey into the Blessed region of the fourth dimension there is no such land the very idea is utterly inconceivable oh and in that blessed region of the fourth dimension shall we Linger on the threshold of the fifth and not enter therein oh no oh no indeed let us s to the sixth the seventh the eighth and even [Music] the oh there you are now you Scamp now um uh yesterday you were trying to make me believe a square made by some motion upward produce another figure a sort of um extra Square in three dimensions uh would you say that again you young rasal oh dear grandpaa that was only my fun I don't think I said anything about the third dimension how silly it is oh you you scam no it's not at all silly you see I take the square let's get this and I move it you see not uh not northward but I mve it uh up up you see not northward I just uh I'll move it uh up nonsense what do you mean by those words I suppose well I suppose it's your way saying northward and southw ah not so not so indeed there is another motion exhibit it to me then if you please this motion you're charged with seditious and heretical actions arising from the profession of a belief in and attempted preaching to others of the third dimension can you perhaps indicate the direction which you mean when you use the words upward not northward I take this Square get this and I move it you see not uh not nor nor but I move it uh up up you see not northward I just uh I move it uh up my lords I can say nothing more in that case I have no choice but to sentence you to Perpetual [Music] imprisonment not northward 7 years have elapsed and I am still a prisoner even my brother whom I se in weekly interviews has not yet grasped the nature of the third dimension even now I cannot honestly say that I am confident as to the exact shape of a cube and there are moments when even this hard ball that bars me for my freedom and all the substantial realities of flat land itself appear no better than the baseless fabric of a dream [Music]