It’s time to address a subject that I feel hasn’t really been talked about at large regarding Bill Cipher. That is, about his backstory and its connection to Flatland.

What is Flatland? For those unfamiliar, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a novella written by Edwin Abbott Abbott. It was published in 1884. It is written from the point of view of A. Square, who is, well, a literal square. The story takes place in a world called Flatland, which consists of only two dimensions and all the people are polygonal shapes. Imagine you lay out a flat piece of paper, and take cutouts of shapes and lay them on top, and move them around without ever lifting them from the paper. That is what the world is like for the people of Flatland. Only able to move left and right, forward and back. The concept of “up and down” is no different from “north and south” to them. The idea of being lifted above that two-dimensional world is literally beyond their comprehension. Just as we cannot conceptualize moving in any other direction but our three dimensions, the Flatlanders can’t imagine moving in any more than their two.

As you can imagine, life is fairly dull for them, but that’s all they know so I imagine they are content with it. They have a strict caste system based on shape. And that’s for the men. Women are perceived only as line segments. Well, they’re actually extremely thin isosceles triangles, but with far more length than width so for the purposes of this description, they’re lines. And apparently the number of degrees of your vertices corresponds to your intelligence, so by nature the women aren’t very bright. Some sexism in there too as you can see but considering the book was written as a commentary on Victorian culture, it’s understandable. And also not the focus of this post.

The men are regular polygons with functions assigned based on their shape. Isosceles triangles are soldiers and workmen (the pointier, the more likely to be a soldier), equilateral triangles are craftsmen, squares and pentagons are “gentlemen” and tend to be doctors, lawyers, etc., and hexagons are the lower tier of nobility. The noble lines from there up aren’t really described, but circles have obtained the rank of priesthood. The idea is that the more sides you have, the wider your vertices, and thus you are more intelligent, and so following this idea, infinite-sided circles must be geniuses.

As for irregular shapes, they are usually destroyed if they can’t be surgically altered to be regular. How bout that symbolism.

So what does all this have to do with Bill? Well, remember what he said to Ford? “You think those chains are tight? Imagine living in the second dimension. Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams.” If he isn’t referencing a place like Flatland I’ll eat my left shoe.

And as further evidence, when asked in the AMA about his origins, what did Bill respond? “EDWIN ABBOTT ABBOTT HAS A DECENT IDEA.” Oh look. It’s the author of the story we’re discussing.

So what does all this mean? I think Bill is a Flatlander. He was born into that world, indoctrinated in their ideas of two dimensions and expected to be content with the job that was practically forced on him, and discouraged from pursuing any other interests, perhaps even at the threat of punishment. But despite everything, he still manages to be one of the smartest damn triangles around. And he finds the memoir of A. Square and reads through it, and is inspired.



Flatland can be read in its entirety here: http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/

Warning, excessive math.

Bill learns this math, he figures out how a third dimension could possibly exist, and his pursuits lead to him being contacted by beings from that dimension, which is known as Spaceland. They’re able to pull him up out of his world and allow him to see things as they really are. He’s enlightened. From here he manages to go even further, work his way into other dimensions, obtain knowledge of the inner workings of the universe and even learn to control its energy (i.e. magic) and use it for his own profit. Maybe he does try to educate his people. But they refuse to understand, or at least, the high-ranking circles refuse to allow this radical idea to take hold, because it would destroy the very fabric of their society. So Bill, filled with bitterness and rage, liberates them by force.

That was the first and last time Flatlanders ever saw fire.

Having preserved himself through his magic, Bill, now immortal and god-like, possibly having absorbed the essence of everyone in his dimension, now must wander in limbo in the remnants of the world as it slowly decays into nothingness. Into a nightmare realm. He can’t physically leave it, only reach out into other dimensions through the minds of sentient beings in other worlds. But this is enough.

It’s enough for now.

Until after billions of years and eons of planning, he finds a human being of the third dimension who may just be smart enough to get him out for good.

He learns to control space, matter, and eventually, maybe he’ll even control time itself. And maybe, just maybe, the inhabitants of the third dimension will allow him to educate them. And if not? Then he’ll liberate them too.

Bill Cipher was finally going to be appreciated and feared. He has made new friends in other worlds, who all have equally horrible pasts, and he’s going to make sure everyone understands what they’re capable of. One way or another.

Destroying Flatland was a snap. What could possibly go wrong this time?

