We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Feb. 23rd, 2008 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Written in 1921, We is set in the One State, where all live for the collective good and individual freedom does not exist. The novel takes the form of the diary of mathematician D-503, who, to his shock, experiences the most disruptive emotion imaginable: love. At once satirical and sobering - and now available in a powerful new translation - We is both a rediscovered classic and a work of tremendous relevance to our own times.
Set in a future where people are known as Ciphers and everyone lives in vast glass and steel Panopticon-style cities, We is a book that's clearly influenced others writing in the SF genre (most notably, George Orwell's 1984).
It describes a strange dystopian society - each Cipher has a name designation consisting of letters and numbers and all live their lives open to the view of others, the only exception being when they engage in pink ticket permitted sexual activities. The main protagonist, D-503, is in charge of building a vast glass and steel space rocket, which the One State under the control of its Benefactor, plans to use to export their society's ideals to other planets.
D-503 is a man who lives for numbers and his love of the One State and the book is structured around his journals (each chapter being termed a 'Record'), which he's produced at the bequest of the One State, and which he hopes will be put into the rocket. Through these journals, we discover his sexual infatuation with I-390, a woman who introduces him to pleasures forbidden by the One State such as smoking and drinking and who puts on the strange dresses of the Ancients (people who died out in a 200 year war that led to the creation of the One State) and who D-503 gradually learns is involved with a resistance group determined to overthrow the One State.
Much of the text is devoted to D-503's inner turmoil as he struggles to come to grips with feelings that he's never experienced before and his terror at having his imagination and his desires stimulated by I-390. We also see the impact this has on his 'happy' triangular relationship with the poet R-13 and the woman, O-90, who loves him and wants only to have D-503's child.
I found it a difficult book to read. Zamyatin's engineering background means that maths plays a large part of D-503's thinking and is also one of the main devices used to structure the One State and for me, this was difficult to engage with. Zamyatin also makes use of the social techniques that were new and exciting at the time of writing, most notably Taylorism, which the One State puts to use in structuring its workforce and delineating their daily routine. Stylistically, I also found it to be frustrating, particularly in the way in which no-one seems capable of finishing a line of dialogue (mostly the characters end with ellipses). However, there are some genuinely chilling moments - most notably in the ceremonies that Zamyatin describes that bind the society together, e.g. the way in which people recite poetry before executions, the Bell Jar torture device and the bureaucracy around which the One State is built.
From the point of view of this being an important foundation stone within the SF genre, I think that this is an important book to read, albeit not one that people will necessarily find easy to enjoy.
The Verdict:
One for serious students of SF and its history, more than for those looking for an easy read. Still, if you want to know where Orwell got the idea for 1984, it's definitely worth a look.
Written in 1921, We is set in the One State, where all live for the collective good and individual freedom does not exist. The novel takes the form of the diary of mathematician D-503, who, to his shock, experiences the most disruptive emotion imaginable: love. At once satirical and sobering - and now available in a powerful new translation - We is both a rediscovered classic and a work of tremendous relevance to our own times.
Set in a future where people are known as Ciphers and everyone lives in vast glass and steel Panopticon-style cities, We is a book that's clearly influenced others writing in the SF genre (most notably, George Orwell's 1984).
It describes a strange dystopian society - each Cipher has a name designation consisting of letters and numbers and all live their lives open to the view of others, the only exception being when they engage in pink ticket permitted sexual activities. The main protagonist, D-503, is in charge of building a vast glass and steel space rocket, which the One State under the control of its Benefactor, plans to use to export their society's ideals to other planets.
D-503 is a man who lives for numbers and his love of the One State and the book is structured around his journals (each chapter being termed a 'Record'), which he's produced at the bequest of the One State, and which he hopes will be put into the rocket. Through these journals, we discover his sexual infatuation with I-390, a woman who introduces him to pleasures forbidden by the One State such as smoking and drinking and who puts on the strange dresses of the Ancients (people who died out in a 200 year war that led to the creation of the One State) and who D-503 gradually learns is involved with a resistance group determined to overthrow the One State.
Much of the text is devoted to D-503's inner turmoil as he struggles to come to grips with feelings that he's never experienced before and his terror at having his imagination and his desires stimulated by I-390. We also see the impact this has on his 'happy' triangular relationship with the poet R-13 and the woman, O-90, who loves him and wants only to have D-503's child.
I found it a difficult book to read. Zamyatin's engineering background means that maths plays a large part of D-503's thinking and is also one of the main devices used to structure the One State and for me, this was difficult to engage with. Zamyatin also makes use of the social techniques that were new and exciting at the time of writing, most notably Taylorism, which the One State puts to use in structuring its workforce and delineating their daily routine. Stylistically, I also found it to be frustrating, particularly in the way in which no-one seems capable of finishing a line of dialogue (mostly the characters end with ellipses). However, there are some genuinely chilling moments - most notably in the ceremonies that Zamyatin describes that bind the society together, e.g. the way in which people recite poetry before executions, the Bell Jar torture device and the bureaucracy around which the One State is built.
From the point of view of this being an important foundation stone within the SF genre, I think that this is an important book to read, albeit not one that people will necessarily find easy to enjoy.
The Verdict:
One for serious students of SF and its history, more than for those looking for an easy read. Still, if you want to know where Orwell got the idea for 1984, it's definitely worth a look.
