⋙ Libro Gratis We Yevgeny Zamyatin Clarence Brown 9780140185850 Books

We Yevgeny Zamyatin Clarence Brown 9780140185850 Books

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We Yevgeny Zamyatin Clarence Brown 9780140185850 Books

My all-time favorite dystopian novel. I've read it many times, recommended it to friends and hated when it was out of print for a long time. I purchased this book as a gift. My only complaint is that the editors of this newer edition felt obligated to make the writing more accessible and in doing so, took away some of its literary strength. For example, they note in the chapter where the hero leaves the protected area for the wilds of the untamed Ancients, that they speak in the language of the older ones, using a Latin vernacular. So instead of hearing the hero being addressed as "thou", we simply hear "you". Hearing the old language is a key part of his getting the feel of this previously undiscovered place where such alien concepts as love, jealousy and passion still exist. hen he hears her say, "Thou loveth fog, dost thou?", the reader experiences the chill that the hero feels as he begins his journey away from safe and sterile. It's a beautiful story- as written. Dumbing it down, even if it seems like helpful edits, takes away from the novel.


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We Yevgeny Zamyatin Clarence Brown 9780140185850 Books Reviews

Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We is not as well known as George Orwell’s 1984, but it served as inspiration for Orwell’s novel. Both concern totalitarian societies ruled by iron-handed leaders. For We, this is “One State” ruled by the “Benefactor.” For 1984, it is “Oceania” ruled by “Big Brother.” In both, the citizen is under the ever-watchful eye of the state. In 1984, this is because of pervasive video technology. In We, it is because all buildings are made of transparent glass. And in both novels, the protagonist becomes momentarily free because of love for a woman, only to be dragged back into line by the state at the end.

Zamyatin was Russian, and he wrote We in the early years of the Soviet Union, though it was first published in England in 1924. In fact, Soviet authorities didn’t allow it to be published there officially until 1988. To an extent, therefore, it can be read as a critique of Soviet totalitarianism. Soviet authorities harassed Zamyatin sufficiently that he requested permission to leave the country and went into exile in 1931. He died in 1935.

And yet, as translator Clarence Brown makes clear in his Introduction, the setting could just as well be England’s industrialized north, where Zamyatin had spent two years building ice-breaker ships during World War I. In both England and the USSR, the time-and-motion studies of Frederick Winslow Taylor were in vogue. Taylor taught that industrial workers use of time and their bodily movements on the shop floor should be calculated precisely for the most efficient production. In that sense, human workers were just parts in an industrial machine, a theme that pervades We. Indeed, the novel explicitly mentions “Taylorism.” Every activity of the day is rigidly outlined in the “Table of Hours.” The depersonalization of human beings is so thorough that the novel refers to them as “Numbers.” The narrator and protagonist of the story is D-503, for example.

Of course, persons—as opposed to Numbers—are bound by what C. S. Lewis called “the tether and pang of the particular.” They long for love and personal intimacy. They form families. They make babies. Not for nothing, then, marriage is proscribed by OneState. Sexual access to any other Numbers is guaranteed by the state. One simply has to apply for a ticket. Reproduction is carefully controlled. What upsets this control in D-503’s case is his love for I-330, which surprises even him. And he is further surprised by O-90’s love for him, so strong that she desires to have his baby without OneState’s permission. Love, marriage, and family, it seems, are always a threat to totalitarians because it creates an identity and allegiance that supersedes the state’s authority.

Moreover, OneState is opposed to independent thinking by individuals. This is why I-330 is such an intriguing character. She dresses as she wants, plays music that she likes, and leads an organization (“Mephi”) that desires freedom from OneState. This kind of independent thinking is why OneState eventually forces all Numbers to undergo lobotomies to remove their “imagination.”

In the end, OneState wins, at least in D-503’s case, just as Winston Smith returns to—or is returned to—
the fold in 1984. While I think 1984 reads better, I enjoyed We too. Or perhaps enjoyed isn’t the right word. I learned from it. The human person is not a machine and cannot be perfected through scientific management by all-powerful experts. The tether and pang of the particular is too strong.
Banned by the Soviets!
One thousand years after the One State has conquered the world, the survivors live in a city of glass and steele, enclosed behind a giant Green Wall, and outside the wall is destruction from the Two-hundred Years War, an unknown, wild and forbidden place. The city is designed for mass surveillance of the citizens, and the Bureau of Guardians (secret police) watch everything. Logic controls society completely, and an individual’s behavior is based on formulas and equations created by the One State - thus ensuring security and happiness for all citizens. (Sound familiar to another novel?)

A man called D-503 (everyone is a number, no proper names) is a scientist heading the creation of the spacecraft Integral, which will allow the One State to invade and conquer the other planets. His lover, O-90, has been assigned to D-503, and they have Sexy-time on scheduled nights. O-90 cannot have children and this makes her deeply sad.

But one day D-503 meets another woman, I-330, and is attracted to her. I-330 smokes cigarettes, drinks alcohol, and flirts with D-503, and all of this is highly illegal. But D-503 becomes obsessed with the new woman, his strange dreams confuse him. I-330 reveals to him that a secret society is planning a revolt, and she wants D-503 to assist because of his his position while building the Integral spacecraft.

No more from me, I’d just be giving spoilers. But this short novel was excellent, and both George Orwell and Aldous Huxley were obviously taken with it. Totalitarian government mixed with in-the-future Science Fiction - what’s not to love?
My all-time favorite dystopian novel. I've read it many times, recommended it to friends and hated when it was out of print for a long time. I purchased this book as a gift. My only complaint is that the editors of this newer edition felt obligated to make the writing more accessible and in doing so, took away some of its literary strength. For example, they note in the chapter where the hero leaves the protected area for the wilds of the untamed Ancients, that they speak in the language of the older ones, using a Latin vernacular. So instead of hearing the hero being addressed as "thou", we simply hear "you". Hearing the old language is a key part of his getting the feel of this previously undiscovered place where such alien concepts as love, jealousy and passion still exist. hen he hears her say, "Thou loveth fog, dost thou?", the reader experiences the chill that the hero feels as he begins his journey away from safe and sterile. It's a beautiful story- as written. Dumbing it down, even if it seems like helpful edits, takes away from the novel.