Synthesized answer
The narrator calls his world Flatland "to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space" [1, 3]. He explains that Flatland is a vast, level surface, like a sheet of paper, where figures such as Lines, Triangles, Squares, and other polygons move about without the ability to rise above or sink below this plane [3]. In this world, inhabitants can only see straight lines [3].
The term "Flatland" is not what the inhabitants themselves call their world, but rather a descriptive term used by the narrator for the benefit of those in Space who can perceive more dimensions [1, 3].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
n of the Chromatic Sedition Section 11 Concerning our Priests Section 12 Of the Doctrine of our Priests PART II. OTHER WORLDS Section 13 How I had a Vision of Lineland Section 14 How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland Section 15 Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland Section 16 How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland Section 17 How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds Section 18 How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there Section 19 How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries of…
atement of facts followed by ocular demonstration ought to suffice. —Now, Sir; listen to me. You are living on a Plane. What you style Flatland is the vast level surface of what I may call a fluid, or in, the top of which you and your countrymen move about, without rising above or falling below it. I am not a plane Figure, but a Solid. You call me a Circle; but in reality I am not a Circle, but an infinite number of Circles, of size varying from a Point to a Circle of thirteen inches in diameter, one placed on the top of the other. When I cut through your plane as I am now doing, I…
t because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space. Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows—only hard with luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said “my universe:” but now my mind has been…
[Illustration] Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions With Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE _“Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk!”_ 1884 To The Inhabitance of SPACE IN GENERAL And H.C. IN PARTICULAR This Work is Dedicated By a Humble Native of Flatland In the Hope that Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries Of THREE Dimensions Having been previously conversant With ONLY TWO So the Citizens of that Celestial Region May aspire yet higher and higher To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE or EVEN SIX Dimensions Thereby contributing To the…
he now desires to disavow the Circular or aristocratic tendencies with which some critics have naturally credited him. While doing justice to the intellectual power with which a few Circles have for many generations maintained their supremacy over immense multitudes of their countrymen, he believes that the facts of Flatland, speaking for themselves without comment on his part, declare that Revolutions cannot always be suppressed by slaughter, and that Nature, in sentencing the Circles to infecundity, has condemned them to ultimate failure—“and herein,” he says, “I see a fulfilment of…