We

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Summary: A comfortable prison is still a prison.
Review: Where George Orwell's 1984 was an attack on Stalinism, We is an attack on Leninism. This makes it particularly uncomfortable to Communist apologists who like to blame the brutality of the Soviet Union on Stalin, while freeing Lenin of any respondsibility. Zamyatin contradicts any such whitewash; the "Welldoer" (Lenin), is still just a dictator. A prison, even a comfortable one, is still a prison. Individuality Zamyatin argues, is too high a price to pay for security. The writing is excellent, the story is timeless, and the novel is a triumph of both Science Fiction and political satire. This is the book that made "liquidation" a euphemism for murder

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Summary: A pretty Damn Good Book
Review: This book is so good a great Canadain band called the Tea Party wrote a whole album about it called "Transmission". Pick up the book and the CD. They both rock and are a mindasul

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Summary: Eternal change and freedom to choose.
Review: "We shall break down all the walls-to let the green wind blow free from end to end-across the earth."
No ordinary SF novel, "WE" questions the wisdom of 1920's Russian body politik, The Party. Banned and suppressed there, even today, Zamyatin's distopian nightmare demands of the reader a re-thinking of their rights to choose and the necessity of eternal change, r/evolution.
Earnest and beautiful, one man's personal diary of the events surrounding the legislation of mandatory brain operations within a hermetically enclosed city-state, is a subtle, terse and poetic examination of fear of, and need for freedom. I highly reccommended to anyone without hesitation. Zamyatin's philosophical enquiry is personal and lyrical

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Summary: The Mathmeticians Apocalyptic Vision
Review: Anyone who reads "We" and "Brave New World" will notice an astounding number of similarities, enough to make one wonder whether Huxley borrowed a little more than he should have. Nonetheless, this is a pretty good apocalyptic novel. I would rank it somewhere above the aformentioned "Brave New World" and below "1984". Perhaps the most interesting thing about the novel is the mathematical subtext. Zamyatin was a professional mathmetician and the names of his characters (which are numbers) supposedly are part of some master equation. Unfortunately, my Russian isn't up to reading the book in the original. Neither is my math, for that matter. But this is a quick read, very much a product of its time and location. It will probably take you an afternoon; and there are certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon.

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Summary: A nightmare vision of the future
Review: "We," by Yevgeny Zamyatin, has been translated into English by Clarence Brown. An author bio at the beginning of the book notes that Zamyatin (1884-1937) was exiled by both Tsarist Russia and the Communist regime, and that "We" was written in 1920/21.

This novel takes place 1,000 years after the earth has been dominated by the OneState. It is a world of total regimentation; there is virtually no privacy or freedom. The people have numbers rather than names. The story of this bizarre world is told in the first person by a builder assigned to construct a space ship. He offers a chilling view of the OneState.

"We" is an intriguing work of science fiction that is full of striking visual imagery. Zamyatin's prose, as translated by Brown, has a surreal, dreamlike quality. The book reminds me somewhat of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," although I found "We" to be less bitingly satiric.

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Summary: What am I like?
Review: First in the well known "Dystopian Triad", that further includes Brave New World (A. Huxley), and, 1984 (G. Orwell), where-within-which the reader is assaulted and ridiculed for believing in a "perfect society".Math100 commands the spaceship "Freedom", as his conquerous mission befells planet after planet, civilization after civilization, and the benign after the benign.WHO AM I?WHAT AM I LIKE?DO I HAVE A FATHER?Math100's compassion saves some, but it's his new, free, intellect that persuades others. Even in death.Very depressing. Be so lucky to advance our own civilization; tyranne the lessers; become the star of persuasion, introduce logic..... instead we regress, decompensate, and implode. I wonder why?Did Zamyitan (sp.?) forsee Hitler?How?"Those who forget the past, are doomed to repeat it", G. Santiana.Still! WHO AM I?

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Summary: A Dystopian Classic
Review: This precursor to George Orwell's 1984 is undoubtedly one of the finest works of science fiction produced to date. If you're a fan of dystopian SF, or have even only read 1984 and/or Huxley's Brave New World, the basic elements of the story will be familiar to you. This book is as good, if not better than those two works, which is high praise indeed. Zamyatin's writing style is breathtaking (though how much of it can be attributed to translator Brown I'm not sure - I haven't read Ginsburg's translation).

If you enjoy dystopian SF, be sure to read this amazing book.

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Summary: "Everyone" and "I", a single "We" ...
Review: Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) wrote "We" in 1920, in an URSS that was just beginning to show its true nature. He was able to observe at first hand the consequences of the expansion of the State and the Party, and the corresponding erosion of the value of the individual. The author called "We" his "most jesting and most serious work", and I think the reader will be able to appreciate both aspects of this peculiar book.

This novel takes place in the future, where the One State is ruled by the great Benefactor, and separated from the rest of the world by a Great Wall, that doesn't allow the outside world to "contaminate" it. The citizens of the One State aren't persons but merely numbers. They have almost no privacy, due to the fact that most things are made of a material similar to glass but much more resistant. In any case that isn't a problem, because as everybody does the same things at the same time, nobody has much to hide.

The One State begins to build a spaceship, the "Integral", that will be used to conquer other worlds and show them to be happy, in the way the citizens of the One State are happy. But how exactly are they happy?. Well, they have a rational happiness that can be mathematically proved. To mantain that happiness, they must always follow some rules. For example, there is no place for spontaneity in the One State. Imagination is considered a disease, and all art and poetry must be at the service of the State. The function of poetry is clear: "Today, poetry is no longer the idle, impudent whistling of a nightingale; poetry is civic service, poetry is useful".

As if that weren't enough, almost all activities are organized according to the Table of Hours: "Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour and the same moment, we -millions of us- get up as one. At the same hour, in million-headed unison, we start work; and in million-headed unison we end it. And, fused into a single million-handed body, at the same second, designated by the Table, we lift our spoons to our mouths."

That main character in "We" is D-503, an important mathematician who is also a faithful follower of the great Benefactor, and a key participant in the building of the "Integral". He starts to write a journal, to allow other less fortunate societies to learn from the way things are done in the One State. This novel is that journal...

D-503 believes, at the beginning of this book, that the state of things in the One State is wonderful, and considers himself fortunate for being able to live in such enlightened times, where "¨everyone¨ and ¨I¨ are a single ¨We¨". But the unexpected happens when he starts to "fall in love" (an alien concept) with a number that has strange ideas, I-330. She makes D-503 start to question everything he had until then given for granted, and due to her he starts to develop a dangerous illness: a soul. As a consequence of that, D-503 cannot feel anymore as part of the whole, of "We", he cannot be merely a part of the whole...

D-503's inner turmoil is shown to us throughout the pages of his journal, and it is rather heartbreaking how much he suffers when he can't return to his previous state of certitude. If at the beginning of the story he was consistently logical, and used a lot of mathematical metaphores, as chapters go by the reader begins to notice a certain incoherence. That inconsistency probably has to do with the fact that D-503 no longer understands himself, because he has been deprived of certitudes that he considered essential in defining himself ("I have long ceased to understand who ¨They¨ are, who are ¨We¨ "). Before, he didn't exist as anything else that as a part of the State. After I-330's pernicious influence, he begins to suspect that things might not be so simple.

There are many themes present in "We", for example love, obsession, betrayal, freedom, the purpose of art and poetry, different kinds of revolutions, perfection, chaos... I haven't told you about many other interesting things I deem worth commenting about this book, but I think you will take greater advantage if you read "We" by yourself.

Zamyatin's book is a good science-fiction novel AND a dystopia. One of the many meaning of dystopia is a work that describes a state of things that is possible but not ideal. Its value lays, in my opinion, not in the likelihood that what it tells us will eventually happen, but rather in the fact that by deforming or satirizing reality it allows the reader to see it from another perspective. From my point of view, this novel is a classic, and has the distinct advantage of being both entertaining and easy to read. If you can, read it soon!!. I highly recommend it :)

Belen Alcat


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Summary: Chilling and underrated dystopia
Review: This little-known and stream-of-consciousness dystopia is actually called 'Yedinoye Gosudarstvo' in the original Russian (which can be translated as 'One State,' 'Single State,' or 'United State'). Calling it 'We' is more eye-catching and more fully gets across what all the book's about. This book is also very similar to 'Brave New World'; I wrote a paper in my Modern Russian Lit class, when we read this book, about those similarities.

The book is told in the form of D-503's notes, notes he originally began taking on government orders to write or create something celebrating OneState once his precious creation, the spaceship INTEGRAL, blasts off into space and colonises other worlds and brainwashes them with their own brand of totalitarianism and forced conformity. Since he is a mathematician, he intends it to be a mathematical poem, until he meets I-330. Up till then, he had been in love with the sweet O-90 (who looks like her name, a round little O-shaped woman who still has baby fat on her), whom he and his best friend R-13 have been sexually sharing for at least three years, though O-90 doesn't feel any love for R-13 when they're together. At first he is repelled and horrified by I-330's nonconformist ways, like wearing forbidden clothing, smoking, drinking, lying to authorities, hanging out in the Ancient House a lot, going behind the Green Wall (which is like the "savage reservation" in BNW), and being very sexually liberated. As time goes on she gets to him more and more, though he never stops supporting OneState and the Benefactor. He even starts to go along with her plan to lock up the factory workers when they're at lunch so they can use the INTEGRAL for good instead of evil, and begins to have dreams and an imagination, things which had been stamped out for hundreds of years. D-503 also resists getting a new imagination-removing operation done on the day that everyone was supposed to get it done.

This is probably the most un-Russian Russian book I can think of; there is no mention of where they are in Russia, obviously no one has Russian names or any names at all apart from numbers and letters (women have vowels, men have consonants), there's no Russian food, history, or culture mentioned, nothing which would tell the reader that this was a Russian novel apart from the writer's name and the original language. The closest we get to Russian aspects are the old woman who guards the Ancient House and U, the guardian of D-503's house and who has a bizarre, laughable, and decidedly nonmutual crush on him; one might say they are like stereotypical old Russian grandmother-figures. There is also a bust of Pushkin in the Ancient House and a brief discussion on him. And it doesn't really matter where this takes place; there is no identifying national culture here because individuality has been crushed and the masses have surrendered to a collective state which controls every single part of one's life, right down to how many bites to take when chewing a morsel of food or what one has to do at nearly every single second of the day.

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Summary: Join D-503 on his journey into "illness"
Review: Other reviewers have had plenty to say about the significance of this book to political and literary history. As an English teacher who regularly teaches an elective in Dystopian Literature, I can't help but agree with their comments.

However, something has been lost in many of the reviews that I've read here. Much of our difficulty in reading and understanding We arises from Zamyatin's ability to effectively adopt his main character's voice and concerns. It is a product of his literary success, not of any clumsiness or mistakes.

We is written in an eccentric voice: the voice of a mathematician and scientist of the twenty-sixth century, D-503, who is gradually confronted with the irrationality of his own self. As the book opens, he is self-assured and composed. He dazzles us with his mathematical metaphors for the beauty of OneState and his praise for its hyperrational society.

As the book progresses, however, D-503 becomes gradually more confused, conflicted, and, in his own words, "ill." He begins to enjoy irrational things (like "ancient" music), to want irrational things (like sex outside of the prescribed Sex Days), and to avoid rational behaviors (like turning in I-330 when he realizes what she is up to).

Since We is written in the first person, it only makes sense that as D-503 struggles to understand what is happening to him, we too should struggle. The simple, mathematical prose with which D-503 opens the book gives way to an increasingly confused jumble of thoughts. Zamyatin intentionally includes us in D-503's psychological journey. Not until the last chapter, when D-503's conflict is resolved, is clarity of voice reestablished.

Following someone's deepest internal struggles, by examining both what is said and what is left unsaid, is one of our most challenging reading experiences. That difficulty, however, doesn't betray Zamyatin's weakness as an author but rather his sensitivity to the character he created.

As a work of literature, We doesn't need to be defended. For those who are willing to invest the time, D-503 is anything but flat. He comes alive as a character caught between a society he admires and his own irrational urges. Whether you have read 1984, Brave New World, or any other dystopias, We is well worth your reading and rereading.