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4 - Concerning the Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

William F. Lindgren
Affiliation:
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Thomas F. Banchoff
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
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Summary

If our highly pointed Triangles of the Soldier class are formidable, it may be readily inferred that far more formidable are our Women. For if a Soldier is a wedge, a Woman is a needle; being, so to speak, all point, at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a Female in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.

But here, perhaps, some of my younger Readers may ask how a woman in Flatland can make herself invisible. This ought, I think, to be apparent without any explanation. However, a few words will make it clear to the most unreflecting.

Place a needle on a table. Then, with your eye on the level of the table, look at it side-ways, and you see the whole length of it; but look at it end-ways, and you see nothing but a point: it has become practically invisible. Just so is it with one of our Women. When her side is turned towards us, we see her as a straight line; when the end containing her eye or mouth – for with us these two organs are identical – is the part that meets our eye, then we see nothing but a highly lustrous point; but when the back is presented to our view, then – being only sub-lustrous, and, indeed, almost as dim as an inanimate object – her hinder extremity serves her as a kind of Invisible Cap.

Type
Chapter
Information
Flatland
An Edition with Notes and Commentary
, pp. 34 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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