Appalling flatness

Contradictory notions about level surfaces, writes Barry H. Higman in Flatness, raise questions about our fundamental values as a species. On one hand, flatness appears to symbolize civilization: Consider even spaces such as asphalt roads, flat characters on flat paper, rugs and walls, books and bookshelves, level parking lots and flat screens, flat bellies. And yet, flatness is often disparaged as uninteresting in contrast, say to mountainous regions, sharp features,  dramatic distributions, or breathtaking hills. This tension between flatness and non-flatness hints at an underlying discomfort with progress as humans go about transforming a living breathing Earth.