Alice in Flatland is a poem written between 1991 and 1992

‘Alice in Flatland’ is a poem written between 1991 and 1992 by Jim Andrews. It is said ‘Alice in Flatland’ was one of his first poems. It is a serious and mathematics poem –it has not anything to do with his previous ‘pop-up poems’ which were written later in 1996.

‘Alice in Flatland’ is an example of hypertext poetry and is based on the well-known ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll. It is believed the Jim Andrews’ poem to contain a criticism.

Formal Structure

The main advantage of hypertext poetry is that you can begin to read wherever you like. It has no order, you can choose the order you are going to read. It is used links to access to the part you have chosen to read. So links are tools by which the different parts of the poem are connected.

‘Alice in Flatland’ has a very simple system to access to his different parts. Under the title there are letters ‘O’ in upper case, lower case and others with different symbols –accents-. There are 8 ‘O’ so the poem is divided into eight parts, each of them with changeable lengths. If we click over the first ‘O’ we will read the first part of the poem, if we click over the second, we will read the part two and so on…

Analysis

It is a very complicated poem because it is a mathematics text. Jim Andrews puts as a basis of the poem the well-known ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to make easier to understand and entertaining to the reader.

Part 1

The poem begins with the arrival of a child, Alice, to Flatland. She enters by means of a circle. She arrives to a new world where she is still the same. It is similar to the world she comes but the new has not heaven and with every step she takes her size makes smaller, it has not end:

I shrink by half each step I take
toward the edge so cannot make

the end of this strange world. Well let's
just see," she said, and took a step.

…

And in a way that I can't see
the change in size, the change in me.

Why should I think I shrink or grow?
Because the Riddler tells me so?

It doesn't matter to me, then,
that this world's small but does not end:

shrink or grow, I cannot see it.
This world's width could be infinite."

Part 2

In this part is told how Alice found a talking tree and she begins to talk with it:

“Alice!" the Tree said, calling her,
"What are you doing here little girl?"

It seems Alice is in a map because the Tree says that in Flatland there is only two dimensions: length and width. As she is in a map there is no height:

"Here we have just 'length' and 'width'.
And live inside a radius.

But in your world there's 'up' and 'down'
and Trees that grow into the ground.

Parts 3 & 4

These parts contain dialogs between Alice and the Tree. In the part 3 the Tree thinks they are in a book but Alice realises they are inside a computer file:

It gives me willies. It makes it look
like we're inside some kind of book.

…

Alice gasped. Hadn't heard the style.
Glimpsed in horror she was on file

on some 386 some place with
Word for Windows deep in cyberspace.

Part 5

Alice is talking to the Tree. There is a reference to the original tale in which is based when it is named Humpty Dumpty. The Tree knows about the existence of the book.

Alice says she doesn’t recall the book but she remembers all the adventures and travels. The tree cries because Alice has grown and she is not the same as she was in ‘Alice in Wonderland’- the Tree is fan of the book:

"Pardon me, I'm such a fan
of Alice, dear, from Wonderland."

"Thanks," said Alice and saw some tears
from five red eyes stream to his ears.

"Don't cry, poor Tree,"
she said, "It's me.

I'm much the same
though I have changed."

TV appears in the conversation but the tree has never heard of TV. Alice tells to it some examples of TV series:

No longer free--it sounds like you
have watched too much T.V."

"T.V.? T.V.?" screamed the Tree,
"I have never heard of T.V.!"

"Why Tree, I'm surprised. I thought you read a lot.
So you've never caught

The Ninja Turtles, Starsky and Hutch,
Nintendo games and The Brady Bunch?"

Part 6

Alice names McDonalds and she makes a criticism to the company:

Have you heard of McDonalds
and its leading bozo Ronald?"

"No I haven't," said the Tree,
"it sounds like a big company."

"Yes," said Alice smiling thinly,
"they are making lots of money.

...

They sell a dream that's black and white.
Go get your burger--there's your delight.

She defines Wonderland as a place of poetry:

What is Wonderland to me?
It is a place of poetry.

Part 7

Before the tree goes to sleep, Alice asks what was the book read by the Tree, as it said before. The tree asks it was ‘Alice in Wonderland’ but it has read so long time ago that has forgotten it:

But you'll excuse me I must sleep,
appointments in some dreams to keep,

…

"Oh Tree! Can I ask you
a question before you sleep?"

The Tree was drowsing, falling off
but woke up some and said, "Shoot, boss."

"What's the book you said you read
that said that I'd be here?"

"I should let you guess at that
the answer might appear."

Alice didn't need much time
she thought she knew already:

"It's Alice in Flatland, isn't it,"
she said, and felt a little heady.

"Yes," he said. "Predictable.
Let's hope it's not too boring.

I read it such a long time ago
I've
forgotten
all
of the story."

Part 8

The tree sleeps and Alice wanders off to see more of Flatland:

"Sweet dreams, sweet Tree," Alice crooned,
"You sing your love a happy tune.

…

"Thank you," said Alice to the Tree, bowed
as well as Flatland will allow,

and wandered off more of it to see.

All the passages are extracted from the web page:

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