The Dot and the Line

One upon a time, there was a sensible straight line who was hopelessly in love... with a dot.

—Opening narration

The Dot and the Line: a Romance in Lower Mathematics is a short book written and illustrated in 1963 by Norton Juster (of The Phantom Tollbooth fame). Inspired by Flatland, It follows the story of a straight line who is hopelessly in love with 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.

In 1965, Juster wrote a screenplay and acclaimed animator Chuck Jones animated it. It won an Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

You can watch the cartoon in its entirety on You Tube here. (Ten minutes long.)

Tropes used in The Dot and the Line include:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The dot to the squiggle.
• All Work vs. All Play
• Animated Adaptation: The 1965 short.
• A Worldwide Punomenon: "But even allowing for his feelings, this was probably stretching a point.", and of course the moral (see Spoof Aesop, below).
• MGM Oneshot Cartoons
• One-Dimensional Thinking: Seems to be the dot's problem with the line.
• Spoof Aesop: "To the Vector Belong the Spoils"