Line #4 Literature/TheDotAndTheLine


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dotlinesquiggle.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: [[ComesGreatResponsibility "Freedom is not a license for chaos."]]]]
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4	->''Once upon a time, there was a sensible straight line who was hopelessly in love... with a dot.''
5	-->-- '''OpeningMonologue'''
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7	''The Dot and the Line: a Romance in Lower Mathematics'' is a short book written and illustrated in 1963 by Norton Juster (of ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'' fame). Inspired by ''Literature/{{Flatland}}'', It follows the story of a straight line who is pining for a dot. The dot, however, is in love with a squiggle. The line learns how to manipulate himself and wins the heart of the dot.
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9	The book became the subject of a 1965 animated short by Creator/ChuckJones, his first after leaving Warner Bros., with a screenplay by Juster himself (which is mostly Juster's original story read verbatim). It won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Animated Short Film.
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11	[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_QhIVYlcmE You can watch the cartoon in its entirety on You Tube here]]. (Ten minutes long.)
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13	----
14	!!Tropes in this story:
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16	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: The Dot to the Squiggle, who is "wild and unkempt." However, she eventually realizes just how unappealing (not to mention unorganized) he is and ends up with the Line.
17	* AllWorkVsAllPlay: The serious logic of the Line versus the looseness of the Squiggle.
18	* AnimatedAdaptation: The 1965 short.
19	* ComesGreatResponsibility: Once the Line discovers his hidden ability to alter his shape, he gets all impulsive with it, creating a mess of jagged edges and angles, no different than the Squiggle. This is what prompts him to handle the ability more responsibly and practices making more eloquent shapes.
20	* GrayRainOfDepression: In the cartoon, raindrops are falling as the Line wanders across the frame after being rejected by the dot, ending in one drop falling on the Line and rolling down like a tear.
21	* HangoverSensitivity: The Line goes on a frenzy of making angles for half the night that is symbolic of a drinking binge. He gets up bent out of shape the next morning, as the narration says, "Oh, what a head!"
22	* HaveAGayOldTime: The Dot describes the Squiggle as "gay and free".
23	* HurricaneOfPuns: There's a host of shape puns, including the lovelorn Line being described as "thin and badly-drawn", and "But even allowing for his feelings, this was probably stretching a point," and of course the moral (see SpoofAesop).
24	* LimitedAnimation: The Chuck Jones short is a masterwork of minimalism.
25	* {{Narrator}}: Creator/RobertMorley reads the story in the cartoon.
26	* RacialFaceBlindness: One of the many jokes. The Line's friends, urging him to forget about the Dot, say "They all look alike!" Well, circles ''do'' all look alike.
27	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The Dot tells the Line off for being dull and stiff near the beginning of the story. After she sees the Line's HiddenDepths and realizes how superficial her attraction to the Squiggle was, she tells off the Squiggle for being sloppy and irresponsible.
28	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Following a montage of stills where The Line imagines himself interposed in a multitude of situations, he realizes that he can't just imagine himself in such positions. Hence his little, ahem, bender.
29	* SpoofAesop: "To the [[{{Pun}} Vector]] Belong the Spoils"
30	* VisualPun: In the cartoon, as the narration goes on about how besotted the Line is with the Dot and how "perfect" he thinks the Dot is, a compass appears and measures the Dot in three directions as having a diameter of 36". This 36-36-36 measurement is a joke alluding to 36-24-36 (or thereabouts) female measurements that are supposed by some to be a good figure.

Context Literature / TheDotAndTheLine