• OpenStars@piefed.social
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    15 days ago

    The author died >100 years ago, so the entire text is public domain if anyone wants to read it. https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Flatland

    I don’t like reading books on a screen but… it is hard to pass up free - then again, libraries also exist and THIS BOOK IS WORTHWHILE.

    I could barely put it down the entire time I read it, it just consumed me.

    Just a note, it is actually so offensive to a woman’s role in society that many (most? I have no idea) scholars think that it was so over-the-top that it must have been meant as a critique of the then-status-quo.

    This book has fucking VISION, even centuries into the future.

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    Hopefully it won’t remain so for millennia as well - bc of the thoughts finally becoming commonplace in society; but even then it would remain as a historical milestone towards that fantastic end.:-)

    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Your passion makes an excellent case on its own. You convinced me to give it a shot, I’ll look for it at the library. I hope they have it.

    • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      Just a note, it is actually so offensive to a woman’s role in society that many (most? I have no idea) scholars think that it was so over-the-top that it must have been meant as a critique of the then-status-quo.

      The author outright stated that it was meant as a critique in the 2nd edition, so there’s no need to guess :)

      • OpenStars@piefed.social
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        13 days ago

        Was that the actual author, or a statement added on their behalf? I thought I recalled reading it as the latter, where it seemed they were just guessing.

        Either way it could be a kind of trigger warning for someone who even knowing that wouldn’t want to read the text.

          • OpenStars@piefed.social
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            13 days ago

            Hehe. Thanks for sharing that.

            In fairness, there are a LOT of kinds of people in the world - e.g. I would have thought that someone advocating to block access to medically necessary abortions would surely have been satire but… nope.

            As with any form of message passing, the meaning depends on both the sender and the recipient - I would argue far more so the former, but some extremely selfish people would just as vehemently argue that the latter is all that matters to them.🤷