Comments on: Flatland the Movie

Flatland the Movie

tracy_the_astonishing — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:09:32 -0800

Yesterday I discovered that the book Flatland by Edwin Abbot had been made into a movie in 1962. You can see a trailer of it on Google video. A remake of the movie narrated by Martin Sheen is set to be released this year. There also appears to be a rival remake.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:16:44 -0800

Neat! What is the plan for distribution of the film(s)?

By: mkb

mkb — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:18:09 -0800

IMDb puts the first adaptation in 1965, with a second from 1982. The new adaptation also has Kristen Bell, and William Wallace as the King of Lineland.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:31:42 -0800

I first learned these concepts from Ouspensky, who presented them in a much more stark fashion but also tied them in to perception in a more meaningful way.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:02:08 -0800

Mister_A: If you go to the "store" section of the official site, it says that it will be released on DVD in spring 2007. Kristen Bell is going to be the hottest hexagon ever.

By: Hogshead

Hogshead — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:09:54 -0800

Just last week I had a great discussion with a 10-year old (started by him) about the nature of dimensional space, and was wondering if Flatland (the book) would be too dry for him to appreciate. Problem solved, and I know this will blow his mind.

By: tombola

tombola — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:13:16 -0800

I didn't realise that Flatland is a term in skateboarding, so you there were links alongside that trailer for things like "Rodney Mullen A sick Flatland video"

By: ba

ba — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:15:33 -0800

I was shown the 1962 version in 6th grade. Blew my mind. Lincolnwood School Dist #74 rules!

By: pax digita

pax digita — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:16:56 -0800

If you liked Flatland, you may also enjoy a sequel of sorts called Flatterland.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:28:35 -0800

I want to see it, but man, that trailer seriously looks like some awful new age/What the Bleep Do We Know? stuff. Someone hire them an art director.

By: designbot

designbot — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:42:26 -0800

These are all wayyy too cutesy. That Martin sheen movie doesn't even really try to depict a two-dimensional world. They have cars driving above roads, the houses look like fronts of houses on the ground, and of course, you can't see the innards of any of the characters. At least the MySpace guy is trying, at least until the horrible 3-D crap shows up. My introduction to the concept of Flatland was A.K. Dewdney's Planiverse, which I can't recommend enough. If you're not going to meaningfully carry out the thought experiment, what's the point?

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:04:50 -0800

Seconding the Planiverse book. Its Flatland done right. Its also the right book to give to that precocious 10-yr old.

By: tracy_the_astonishing

tracy_the_astonishing — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:59:35 -0800

I'm with you on the cars designbot. WTF??? It's just plain wrong, wrong, wrong. I wonder what's up with the guy on MySpace. I think I'll write him a note.

By: rajbot

rajbot — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:14:15 -0800

If you haven't read Flatland yet, high-resolution scans have just been posted to the Internet Archive. Direct links to Ajax-y FlipBook and 12MB PDF. (semi-self-link)

By: yeolcoatl

yeolcoatl — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:26:14 -0800

Kristen Bell is going to be the hottest hexagon ever.

er... hexagons are male.

By: skyscraper

skyscraper — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:39:02 -0800

Those who have not yet encountered Flatland should be warned that its take on gender roles is somewhat ... antiquated, shall we say.

By: purple_frogs

purple_frogs — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:58:42 -0800

It looks like the females in the movie will be actual shapes as well... e.g. Kristen Bell as a hexagon. I guess the book's serious gender issues have been avoided here. In the book, shapes are valued more highly in society the more sides they have... a hexagon is of higher rank than a pentagon; circles are of the highest rank, and triangles are the lowest. All females, however, are straight lines - only two sides. IIRC they even have to make noises and swing from side to side so no one immolates themselves against their almost-invisible sharp end. This must say a lot about what Abbot thought about women, but I don't recall that it addressed the obvious question of how a one-dimensional figure is supposed to bear a child.

By: SBMike

SBMike — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:12:59 -0800

This must say a lot about what Abbot thought about women, but I don't recall that it addressed the obvious question of how a one-dimensional figure is supposed to bear a child. Or how two-dimensional figures eat. The food has to come into the body and leave it without tearing you in two.

By: XMLicious

XMLicious — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:01:16 -0800

I zoned out of an entire year of Pre-calculus because I read that book. (No really, that's the only reason I zoned out ;^)

By: the Real Dan

the Real Dan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:23:14 -0800

The Flatland discussion put me in mind of a Sesame Street animation, involving a jazzy triangle and a square square. Youtube has it!

By: memexikon

memexikon — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:28:19 -0800

Let's not forget the other Flatland written early in 1906. An Episode on Flatland: Or How a Plain Folk Discovered the Third Dimension by Charles Howard Hinton. & dittos on Planiverse, I still remember being absorbed by it in high school.

By: The Great Big Mulp

The Great Big Mulp — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:12:36 -0800

I hear all the female characters are pretty one dimensional.

By: A Thousand Baited Hooks

A Thousand Baited Hooks — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:57:11 -0800

Another pseudo-sequel is Sphereland, which was published in 1965 and has less social comment and more geometry.

By: toma

toma — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:13:29 -0800

I loved Sphereland. Dionys Burger.

By: ook

ook — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:52:15 -0800

Thirding Planiverse. It comes up with a plausible answer to SBMike's question, for example.

By: ook

ook — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:56:28 -0800

(And I personally found Flatterland really irritating -- it replaces the dated gender issues from the original with a chirpy, way-too-gushy style that I suspect will look just as dated in a few decades.)

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:53:40 -0800

Oh, wow! The screenwriter for the rival version is my high school creative writing instructor.

By: tracy_the_astonishing

tracy_the_astonishing — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:05:05 -0800

The version from the Myspace page has a website here flatland the FILM