“[Zamyatin’s] intuitive grasp of the irrational side of totalitarianism— human sacrifice, cruelty as an end in itself—makes [We] superior to Huxley’s [Brave New World].”—George Orwell
Translated by Natasha Randall • Foreword by Bruce Sterling
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.
Definitely better than 1984, though Zamyatin's influence on Orwell is pretty clear. I-330 is a way more interesting female character than Julia. I thought it was interesting how complacent everyone seemed to be to live in a totalitarian society - the narrator explains at so many points how the loss of freedom is actually a great thing, and he seems to truly believe it. However, there were some things I questioned. Firstly, the totalitarian state seems... kind of feeble? There's no sense of being watched constantly despite the fact that everything is made of glass. The narrator manages to get away with a lot of shady business for a very long time, and there's never any true sense of urgency about being discovered. Some of the fanciful, excited narration seems to belie our protagonist's belief in the supremacy of a purely mathematical society. There were also some really weird quirks, such as the fixation with people's lips. It's hard to evaluate this novel nearly a hundred years after its publication, because it obviously would have been entirely unprecedented in 1924. However, sitting in 2019 having read a lot of the classics of dystopian literature, I found it really promising but not entirely satisfying.
