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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Everymannumber D-503 is just minding his own business. He does what all good numbers do. He gets up at the appointed time, goes to work at the appointed time, goes to bed at the appointed time, and even spends his one personal hour every day in his glassed-walled apartment doing OneState approved activities. He even has a girlfriend of sorts, the sweet and simple O-90, though of course he's no more attached to her than is appropriate for an obedient number, and she in turn is 'assigned' to other men as well. He works hard on the INTEGRAL, the spaceship that will soon carry the OneState's glorious ideas to faraway planets. Yes, D-503 is a veritable poster child for OneState's ultimate victory--the victory of happiness over its enemy: freedom. Then one day, D-503 meets the irresistible I-330, and everything changes. Torn between attraction and repulsion, he finds himself going places he shouldn't go, doing things he shouldn't do, and thinking things he definitely shouldn't think. This is his diary.
If this all sounds kind of familiar, it should. This is, in essence, the granddaddy dystopian novel--the novel from which all other dystopian novels evolved. The connection is most easily seen in Orwell's excellent Nineteen Eighty-Four, which he based on We, though other dystopian writers relied on Zamyatin as well. As well they should-- it's a great book (though my love of dystopian literature makes for less-than-unbiased assessment).
Where many dystopian writers give their characters names, Zamyatin identifies his only with letters and numbers (consonants and odd numbers for men; vowels and even numbers for women). The numerical/mathematical emphasis is a clever choice, possibly connected Zamyatin's sythesthesia--a condition where sensory information is confused ('hearing' colors, etc.). In Zamyatin's case, this meant that he perceived the shapes of letters as having colors or other qualities. His choice to identify his characters only by letters and numbers, then, lends a certain poignancy to the story, and fits well with D-503's own work as a mathematician. (Though for all his focus on math, D-503 could certainly crank out enough words.)
As with so many dystopian works, the antithesis of the totalitarian regime is, quite simply, sex. Specifically, illicit sex, since the numbers in We are permitted--even encouraged--to use one another for sex, provided that they do not commit the cardinal sin of jealousy. I'm not sure how I feel about illicit sex being the primary key to unlocking the 'soul,' but I suppose unbridled passion is perceived as the polar opposite of cold rationality and regimented uniformity, so it's not surprising that sex is presented as the 'cure' for an increasingly automatous citizenry.
Nor am I enamored of the 'heroine' who uses her sex appeal to arouse men into rebellion. (Especially compared to the cast-off and child-hungry--and much more sympathetic--O-90.) Where O-90 seems to genuinely care about D-503, I-330 is only interested in what he can offer the rebellion--that is, access to the soon-to-be-completed INTEGRAL. Hardly a sympathetic character. Her ultimate treatment of O-90 is slightly redemptive, but she is still one calculating cookie. (Side note: Zamyatin's treatment of gender would make for a fascinating article I am utterly unqualified to write. Suffice to say, I think this book reveals a lot more of Zamyatin's ideas about women than he may have intended. I just don't know exactly what those ideas are.)
Of particular note is Zamyakin's treatment of free will/freedom as antithetical to happiness. After all, it is true that, since the Fall, humans will, if left to their own devices, make choices that will spell their ruin and end their happiness. The contrast between God's solution to this problem (loving self-sacrifice) and that of the Benefactor (total domination and control) is quite striking.
A worthwhile and absorbing read. The journal-based style of the book can be a little hard to follow at times, particularly as D-503's thought process deteriorates over time. The overall book is still quite good, however. If you enjoy any of the other big dystopian novels (Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, etc.), you should definitely give this one a try.
If this all sounds kind of familiar, it should. This is, in essence, the granddaddy dystopian novel--the novel from which all other dystopian novels evolved. The connection is most easily seen in Orwell's excellent Nineteen Eighty-Four, which he based on We, though other dystopian writers relied on Zamyatin as well. As well they should-- it's a great book (though my love of dystopian literature makes for less-than-unbiased assessment).
Where many dystopian writers give their characters names, Zamyatin identifies his only with letters and numbers (consonants and odd numbers for men; vowels and even numbers for women). The numerical/mathematical emphasis is a clever choice, possibly connected Zamyatin's sythesthesia--a condition where sensory information is confused ('hearing' colors, etc.). In Zamyatin's case, this meant that he perceived the shapes of letters as having colors or other qualities. His choice to identify his characters only by letters and numbers, then, lends a certain poignancy to the story, and fits well with D-503's own work as a mathematician. (Though for all his focus on math, D-503 could certainly crank out enough words.)
As with so many dystopian works, the antithesis of the totalitarian regime is, quite simply, sex. Specifically, illicit sex, since the numbers in We are permitted--even encouraged--to use one another for sex, provided that they do not commit the cardinal sin of jealousy. I'm not sure how I feel about illicit sex being the primary key to unlocking the 'soul,' but I suppose unbridled passion is perceived as the polar opposite of cold rationality and regimented uniformity, so it's not surprising that sex is presented as the 'cure' for an increasingly automatous citizenry.
Nor am I enamored of the 'heroine' who uses her sex appeal to arouse men into rebellion. (Especially compared to the cast-off and child-hungry--and much more sympathetic--O-90.) Where O-90 seems to genuinely care about D-503, I-330 is only interested in what he can offer the rebellion--that is, access to the soon-to-be-completed INTEGRAL. Hardly a sympathetic character. Her ultimate treatment of O-90 is slightly redemptive, but she is still one calculating cookie. (Side note: Zamyatin's treatment of gender would make for a fascinating article I am utterly unqualified to write. Suffice to say, I think this book reveals a lot more of Zamyatin's ideas about women than he may have intended. I just don't know exactly what those ideas are.)
Of particular note is Zamyakin's treatment of free will/freedom as antithetical to happiness. After all, it is true that, since the Fall, humans will, if left to their own devices, make choices that will spell their ruin and end their happiness. The contrast between God's solution to this problem (loving self-sacrifice) and that of the Benefactor (total domination and control) is quite striking.
A worthwhile and absorbing read. The journal-based style of the book can be a little hard to follow at times, particularly as D-503's thought process deteriorates over time. The overall book is still quite good, however. If you enjoy any of the other big dystopian novels (Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, etc.), you should definitely give this one a try.
The first example of dystopian literature and granddaddy to the mighty works of Brave New World and 1984. One can see it, feel it, in the pages. As I read, the scenes brought to mind moments from Aeon Flux; Love, Death, and Robots; and The Island. I also enjoyed contrasting it to the fiction works by Ayn Rand — out of the same era and culture. Loved the book.
shoutout to circles gotta be one of my favorite symbols of the fundamental ontological tension between differentiation and integration that manifests itself in in-dividuals and societies re-presenting the quest of humanity seeking knowledge of God inaccessible to them like how computers seek knowledge of humanity, getting ever so close just as a polygon with an increasing number of sides approximates a circle or pixels approach an organic shape as an opposition to the boxed rigidity of high modernist architecture and the taxonomically top down frameworks and sharp distinctions cutting into organic yet synthetic skin
This is an amazing book.
It’s exhilarating, it’s extremely powerful, it’s influence on Orwell is transparent in the text and it paints a significantly vivid picture of this dystopian nightmare that is sold by the main character throughout most of the book as being the only just way of organising society.
It’s essential reading and has not aged a bit.
It’s exhilarating, it’s extremely powerful, it’s influence on Orwell is transparent in the text and it paints a significantly vivid picture of this dystopian nightmare that is sold by the main character throughout most of the book as being the only just way of organising society.
It’s essential reading and has not aged a bit.
From my blog, which features a link to the free copy of the book: https://readlikedoc.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/doc-reviews-we-by-yevgeniy-zamyatin/
It’s not often that you can grab a book free (legally so) from the Information Superhighway that is famous for having influenced Aldous Huxley, Ayn Rand, Ursula K. LeGuin, George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, and Kurt Vonnegut. But you can – the magnificent “We” by Yevgeniy Zamyatin, an early 20th century dystopian novel that seems to spell out the road to post-Soviet Russia. It’s a pretty great read.
The book differs greatly from “1984” and “Brave New World” because it addresses its topics with a rather wry sense of humor. I hope Zamyatin had a good time writing this novel and inserting his inside jokes and nodding winks to the readers in the know, because the novel very well may have led to his ruin. It certainly was the impetus for his downfall in Russian literary society and his subsequent deracination to Paris, with the gentle assistance of Maksim Gorky.
“We” takes place in a world ruled by OneState, a thousand years after that body conquered every country on the entire planet. Everyone is assigned an alphanumeric designator, rather than a name, and our narrator, D-503, matter-of-factly points out the differences between his world and what we have come to know as our own. He brings up his world’s history and its unique style of government not because he is writing for an audience in the past (us), but because he is providing his account for the future readers – his journal will accompany the spaceship Integral (which D-503 is helping to develop) to other planets, which OneState plans to conquer.
D-503’s girlfriend (for lack of a better term), O-90, has been assigned to him by OneState to serve as his lover. Sex nights are pre-assigned affairs, largely passionless events which are viewed for the most part as a citizen’s duty. D-503 shares O-90 with another OneState citizen, R-13, who is a poet. R-13 performs his verse at public executions. A charming trio, these three.
Enter the mysterious I-330. I-330 is a female who appears to work very hard at flirting with D-503. She also engages in illegal activities – smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and possibly worst of all, invading D-503’s dreams (dreams are viewed as a sign of mental inferiority, so for obvious reasons, D-503 is mum on that account). We soon learn that I-330 is actually recruiting, as she is part of a revolutionary group hoping to overthrow OneState and re-introduce passion and humanity to OneState’s citizens. She leads D-503 to a city outside the Green Wall, which surrounds OneState, and introduces him to her organization, the Mephi.
Things become hectic in the final act, with O-90’s desire to become pregnant with D-503’s baby (another illegal activity, as O-90 is deemed too short and, therefore, unfit to carry a new OneState citizen) is fulfilled. A frantic effort to remove O-90 to the Mephi is undertaken, with D-503 at odds with his conscience, which tells him that the protection of OneState is the single constant in his life that he can rely on. Does he turn his back on O-90 and I-330? Does he rat the Mephi out to OneState? I’m not going to spoil the fun by revealing that – it’s worth picking up the book yourself and giving it a go.
Zamyatin seemed to be itching for a fight by writing this book. One would suppose that he felt the brand new Soviet Union’s leaders had a fanatic edge to them, hoping that they too could overthrow the rest of the world with their vision of a Metropolis-like worker state, but without the other side of Metropolis, the elite that are authorized access to the outside world. I enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons; in spite of its age, it seemed fresh (certainly, there are some rather clumsy translations out there that will sound awkward to the 21st century reader’s ear, but at times that can be part of the book’s charm).
Since Doc’s a translator himself, he would be remiss in not mentioning the translation of this work. I read a recent translation (2011) by Grover Gardner, who does just an excellent job turning the dialogue and gritty descriptions in this book into something fresh and fun. He explains in his preface that there are some serious differences between his choices of words and those of his predecessors who translated the book before him. Of note is his decision to name the Big Brother-like government OneState, rather than what had been used up to this point – United State. He felt that this was too close to United States (in fact, he rightly pointed out that, in reading the older versions, the mind fills in the last missing “s”), something that Gardner feels is not in keeping with the spirit of Zamyatin’s original text. Mistaking the Big Brother for the United States, rather than the intended Soviet Union, would be a disservice to his memory. There may be truth to this; all I know is that the book was translated with a level of grace and elegance that the book demanded.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a filthy diaper in a rest-stop parking lot, and 10 being a diamond tiara, Doc gives this awesome read a solid A-.
It’s not often that you can grab a book free (legally so) from the Information Superhighway that is famous for having influenced Aldous Huxley, Ayn Rand, Ursula K. LeGuin, George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, and Kurt Vonnegut. But you can – the magnificent “We” by Yevgeniy Zamyatin, an early 20th century dystopian novel that seems to spell out the road to post-Soviet Russia. It’s a pretty great read.
The book differs greatly from “1984” and “Brave New World” because it addresses its topics with a rather wry sense of humor. I hope Zamyatin had a good time writing this novel and inserting his inside jokes and nodding winks to the readers in the know, because the novel very well may have led to his ruin. It certainly was the impetus for his downfall in Russian literary society and his subsequent deracination to Paris, with the gentle assistance of Maksim Gorky.
“We” takes place in a world ruled by OneState, a thousand years after that body conquered every country on the entire planet. Everyone is assigned an alphanumeric designator, rather than a name, and our narrator, D-503, matter-of-factly points out the differences between his world and what we have come to know as our own. He brings up his world’s history and its unique style of government not because he is writing for an audience in the past (us), but because he is providing his account for the future readers – his journal will accompany the spaceship Integral (which D-503 is helping to develop) to other planets, which OneState plans to conquer.
D-503’s girlfriend (for lack of a better term), O-90, has been assigned to him by OneState to serve as his lover. Sex nights are pre-assigned affairs, largely passionless events which are viewed for the most part as a citizen’s duty. D-503 shares O-90 with another OneState citizen, R-13, who is a poet. R-13 performs his verse at public executions. A charming trio, these three.
Enter the mysterious I-330. I-330 is a female who appears to work very hard at flirting with D-503. She also engages in illegal activities – smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and possibly worst of all, invading D-503’s dreams (dreams are viewed as a sign of mental inferiority, so for obvious reasons, D-503 is mum on that account). We soon learn that I-330 is actually recruiting, as she is part of a revolutionary group hoping to overthrow OneState and re-introduce passion and humanity to OneState’s citizens. She leads D-503 to a city outside the Green Wall, which surrounds OneState, and introduces him to her organization, the Mephi.
Things become hectic in the final act, with O-90’s desire to become pregnant with D-503’s baby (another illegal activity, as O-90 is deemed too short and, therefore, unfit to carry a new OneState citizen) is fulfilled. A frantic effort to remove O-90 to the Mephi is undertaken, with D-503 at odds with his conscience, which tells him that the protection of OneState is the single constant in his life that he can rely on. Does he turn his back on O-90 and I-330? Does he rat the Mephi out to OneState? I’m not going to spoil the fun by revealing that – it’s worth picking up the book yourself and giving it a go.
Zamyatin seemed to be itching for a fight by writing this book. One would suppose that he felt the brand new Soviet Union’s leaders had a fanatic edge to them, hoping that they too could overthrow the rest of the world with their vision of a Metropolis-like worker state, but without the other side of Metropolis, the elite that are authorized access to the outside world. I enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons; in spite of its age, it seemed fresh (certainly, there are some rather clumsy translations out there that will sound awkward to the 21st century reader’s ear, but at times that can be part of the book’s charm).
Since Doc’s a translator himself, he would be remiss in not mentioning the translation of this work. I read a recent translation (2011) by Grover Gardner, who does just an excellent job turning the dialogue and gritty descriptions in this book into something fresh and fun. He explains in his preface that there are some serious differences between his choices of words and those of his predecessors who translated the book before him. Of note is his decision to name the Big Brother-like government OneState, rather than what had been used up to this point – United State. He felt that this was too close to United States (in fact, he rightly pointed out that, in reading the older versions, the mind fills in the last missing “s”), something that Gardner feels is not in keeping with the spirit of Zamyatin’s original text. Mistaking the Big Brother for the United States, rather than the intended Soviet Union, would be a disservice to his memory. There may be truth to this; all I know is that the book was translated with a level of grace and elegance that the book demanded.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a filthy diaper in a rest-stop parking lot, and 10 being a diamond tiara, Doc gives this awesome read a solid A-.
3 stars because of the overall story and the importance of this book to the genre of dystopia.
I couldn't follow along very well. I see I'm not alone in that. The main reason for me was the cutting off of thoughts mid-sentence and overall incomplete thought processes and events. Maybe I'm just not bright enough to 'get it' and to read between the lines. I understood the broad, loose plot but I wouldn't be able to say this or that specifically happened or what impact it had on the plot. The short of it for me? I need more world building. I need to visualize the environment through the writing. Maybe that's my own lack of an imagination. I'm not sure, but I sure felt lost throughout the whole book.
I couldn't follow along very well. I see I'm not alone in that. The main reason for me was the cutting off of thoughts mid-sentence and overall incomplete thought processes and events. Maybe I'm just not bright enough to 'get it' and to read between the lines. I understood the broad, loose plot but I wouldn't be able to say this or that specifically happened or what impact it had on the plot. The short of it for me? I need more world building. I need to visualize the environment through the writing. Maybe that's my own lack of an imagination. I'm not sure, but I sure felt lost throughout the whole book.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
the best and most romantic book I’ve read in a long time
As every review mentions, We, written in 1921 and 1922 influenced Orwell's 1984. There sure were a lot of similarities.
Set 1,000 years in the future, the novel is set in the totalitarian city-state One State where the citizens live in glass houses and are constantly monitored. One State is ruled by a dictator referred to as Benefactor. There was a great war which wiped out the world outside the walls of One State, and nature has taken hold of the outside world. Individual names consist of a letter and numbers and the protagonist, D-503, is a scientist who works on the city-state's great creation - the starship Integral which will allow mankind to explore the universe. Well, like in 1984, the main character meets someone who doesn't quite toe the party line and the plot takes off from there.
Knowing the history of this novel and its importance in the science fiction genre I was really looking forward to reading this. I really slogged through the first half. I don't know if it was the translation or me (it was probably me) but at times I just couldn't follow the narrative at all. The writing just seemed muddled overall, and maybe too poetic for me in places. I don't know. About half-way through D-503 has a major revelation which piqued my interest but soon after I fell back in to what felt like a confusing slog. It just lost me in spots.
I really liked the different characters and what they represented, the interesting world Zamyatin created, and the dark dystopian feel of the novel. The ending was something else. But getting there was hard for me. 2.5 stars.
Set 1,000 years in the future, the novel is set in the totalitarian city-state One State where the citizens live in glass houses and are constantly monitored. One State is ruled by a dictator referred to as Benefactor. There was a great war which wiped out the world outside the walls of One State, and nature has taken hold of the outside world. Individual names consist of a letter and numbers and the protagonist, D-503, is a scientist who works on the city-state's great creation - the starship Integral which will allow mankind to explore the universe. Well, like in 1984, the main character meets someone who doesn't quite toe the party line and the plot takes off from there.
Knowing the history of this novel and its importance in the science fiction genre I was really looking forward to reading this. I really slogged through the first half. I don't know if it was the translation or me (it was probably me) but at times I just couldn't follow the narrative at all. The writing just seemed muddled overall, and maybe too poetic for me in places. I don't know. About half-way through D-503 has a major revelation which piqued my interest but soon after I fell back in to what felt like a confusing slog. It just lost me in spots.
I really liked the different characters and what they represented, the interesting world Zamyatin created, and the dark dystopian feel of the novel. The ending was something else. But getting there was hard for me. 2.5 stars.