Section 02. Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
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Like in your world, we also have four points on our compass: North, South, East, and West.
Since we have no sun or other celestial bodies like you do, we can’t tell where North is in the way you do, but we have our own way.
Similar to your birds, we always know where South is, because for us, we are constantly being pulled in that direction. This pull is very light in our most northern countries, so light that even a reasonably healthy Woman can travel for several hundred yards Northward without difficulty.
But even at its lightest, we can still feel it, and can use this to tell which way is South. As an added bonus, the rain, which always falls on a predictable schedule, always comes from the North.
Because of this, when we are in a town or city, we can tell the direction from the way the houses are built – because the rain comes from the north, the solid roof faces north, so that the water can safely run off and down the sides without getting inside.
When you’re out in the countryside where there are no houses, you can use the trunks of the trees instead.
As you can see, it’s usually pretty easy for us to get our bearings.
But one problem is that when you are so far North that you can barely feel this pull, if you are walking in a deserted plain with no trees or houses in sight, I’ve sometimes gotten so turned around that I had to stand in place for hours straight, waiting for the rain to come so I’d know which way to go.
If you are ill or old, or a delicate Female, this pull to the South weighs heavier than on the healthy members of the Male Sex, so it’s considered polite that, if you meet a Lady in the street, you will move to the South and give her the North side to walk on.
This can be easier said than done in such short notice, if you are in a northern climate where it’s hard to tell which way is south, or if you’re feeling sick yourself.
Unlike your buildings, ours have no windows, because light comes to us everywhere equally, whether you’re inside or out, during the day or night, and where this light comes from, we don’t know.
A long time ago, philosophers and scholars used to ask each other “What is the origin of Light?” and debate the possible answers. Many people have tried to find the answer to this question, and the only result is that our lunatic asylums have precious space taken up by the people who’ve claimed to have solved it.
Our Government tried to persuade people to stop trying to solve this problem by forcing anyone who worked on it to pay heavy taxes, but when it kept being a problem, the Law Makers, not so long ago comparatively speaking, finally made it completely illegal to talk about.
And here I am, the only one in Flatland who knows the truth to where Light comes from. But I can’t explain it to my countrymen, and when I try, they just laugh at me – me! The only one in this World who understands that Light comes from the Third Dimension! They laugh at me like I’m the maddest of the mad.
But I’ve gotten off track and this is a painful topic, so let’s get back to talking about houses.
Most of our houses are five-sided shapes, or as they are commonly called, Pentagons.
Here is an illustration to help you understand:
[Image description start: A black and white digital illustration with the compass in the upper left corner, showing a pentagonal house in Flatland. Each of the five points of the pentagon are with a different letter, with “A” and “B” going left to right on the bottom line, and “R”, “O”, and “F” left to right on the top, with the two diagonal lines marked with their combined points, so that the top two diagonal lines spell out, “roof”. On the Western diagonal side is a large gap marked by a grey line labled, “Men’s door”. On the east is a much smaller gap labled, “Women’s door”. Image description end.]
The two Northern sides of a Pentagon house form the roof, and these normally don’t have any doors. On the eastern side, there is a small door for Women, and across from it on the Western side is a much larger door for Men. The Southern side, or floor, usually doesn’t have any doors.
Square and Triangular houses aren’t allowed, because their angles are much sharper than those of a Pentagon, and since the lines of inanimate objects, like houses, are dimmer than the lines of Men and Women, they are harder to see, so if someone wasn’t paying attention, they could get seriously hurt if they accidentally ran into the corner of a Square or Triangle shaped house.
As far back as the eleventh century of our era, Triangular houses have been illegal to build, with the only exceptions being for military structures like forts, ammunition stores, barracks, or other state buildings that most people aren't allowed to enter without special permission.
At that point in time, you were still allowed to build Square houses, but they were subject to special taxes to discourage people from building more of them.
Three hundred years after Triangular houses were outlawed, the Law finally decided that if a town’s population was above ten thousand, then the angle of a Pentagon was the smallest house-angle allowed to be built, in the interest of public safety.
The general community has common sense, and has agreed with this new law, so now, even out in the country on farms, almost all houses you can find will be pentagons. Now and then, though, in some very remote and poor farming district, an antiquarian might still find an ancient Square house.
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