Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

20 All Time Classic Sci Fi Novels - We (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

Reviews
 

"We" is a dystopian novel written in the same mould as "1984" and "Brave New World". However in my opinion these two books are superior to and much more readable than "We". The society in "We" is a sort of mind controlled, collectivist ,benevolent dictatorship whose goal is universal happiness for it's citizens. However that is achieved by stifling individual freedom and creativity and regulating and regimenting daily life to the nth degree, even with regards to copulation and procreation. The ultimate desire of this society is to perform a type of lobotomy on it's citizens , surgically removing their imaginations, ensuring docile happiness. One of this society's leading scientists, a keen supporter of this system called D-503, falls for a "wrong 'un" , a rebellious ,bohemian female who introduces him to emotions and passions he has kept repressed. He dumps his regular "shag buddy" (girlfriend or partner is too strong a term) in favour of this new woman and becomes embroiled in a rebellion against the totalitarian state he has hitherto supported. Can this personal and collective rebellion succeed or will it end , as in "1984" , in disappointment and betrayal ? I found "We" to be very much a work of literature and it has a stylised,poetic style of writing, however it was hard to follow at times, especially in the confusing final quarter of the book. Was D-503 dreaming these sequence of events ? I would hesitate at recommending this novel and would aver that the more "commercial" "1984" and "Brave New World" would make better reads. On a more general note, it is not inconceivable a society such as that found in "We" could evolve out of our own and I often think that much science fiction is inspired in some arcane,revelatory way by actual knowledge of the future.
L. Davidson

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This book's setting is very much like George Orwell's "1984" (only that it was written before "1984"). It's a society where everything, even people's private life, is under the total control of the state. Just like in "1984", the protagonist is a man who suddenly begins to have strange thoughts a loyal citizen is not supposed to have.

Though the book's idea is interesting, its implementation could be better. The political order and philosophy in this totalitarian state is largely built on mathematics. Unfortunately, Mr. Zamiatin's knowledge of mathematics is extremely limited. He clearly despises mathematics and tries to ridicule it in this book, but ends up merely exposing his own ridiculous ignorance. Not to mention that the story itself tends to get a little boring every once in a while.

Still, this book provides quite an original view on Totalitarianism.

Printul Noptilor

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The first 30 or so pages give you an introduction to what life is like in this dystopian society, set 1000 years in the future. D-503, the main character, has introduces you to what life is like for them.

Nobody has a name, just a number. Everything is done to a very strict schedule. Everyone lives in transparent quarters, so security can see in and make sure everyone is adherring to the rules etc. But he seems to love his life and laugh at "primitive" lives like ours.

From here on out, the book is brilliant. Stunning in parts. In fact, so much so, I'm going to type out one of my favourite paragraphs from it below. It won't give anything away about the actual story, but it's a nice little teaser.

D-503 (the main protaganist) thinks he's sick. He thinks he is developing what the ancients called a "soul" and that it's infected him by giving him imagination and making him feel *something* for a woman called I-330.




The quote:
I'm upstairs in my room. I-330 is sitting in the sprawling cup of the armchair. I'm on the floor, my arms around her legs, my head in her lap, and we're both quiet. Silence. My pulse. I'm a crystal, dissolving in her, in I-330. I feel with absolute clarity the way the polished facets that define me in space are melting, melting. I'm vanishing, dissolving in her lap, in her. I'm getting smaller and smaller, and at the same time wider, larger, off every scale. . . . Because she . . . she's no longer herself, she's the whole universe. And for one second I and this chair shot through with joy beside the bed- we are one; and the old woman with the marvelous smile at the gates of the Ancient House, and the wild wastes beyond the Green Wall, and the silver-on-black ruins that drowse like the old woman, and that door that just slammed somewhere, probably far away: All that is in me, with me, listening to the beating of my pulse and flying across the blessed second.

I try to tell her- in stupid, confused, drowned words- that I am a crystal, and that is why the door is in me, and why I can feel how happy the chair is. But such balled-up nonsense comes out that I stop, I'm ashamed, I . . . and suddenly I say, "I-330, darling, forgive me . . . I don't understand, I'm talking such nonsense. . . ."

"What makes you think nonsense is bad? If they'd nurtured and cared for human nonsense over the ages the way they did intelligence, it might have turned into something of special value."




This probably looks a bit odd on its own and out of context, but it really did blow me away. The whole book is just full of this amazing, creative, inspiring writing.

It's up there with Frankenstein as one of my favourite pieces of literature I've ever read. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Mr. Owen T. Hughes

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"We" is a powerful dystopian novel. Written in the 1920s, it is one of the first books that warns us, in an entertaining way, against the temptation of total control.

In certain ways, "We" is clearly an old-fashioned sci-fi novel. Set in the 26th Century, it feels strange that the main character seems to construct something resembling an old-fashioned moon rocket to reach the planets of our own solar system and that he writes his notes, to tell potential Venusians and Uranites about his world, on paper by hand. All our present worries about oil running out in the near future make it less credible that 26th C. food is made out of petroleum.

Zamyatin clearly is not a visionary as Leonardo Da Vinci or Jules Verne. But if you can look through this somewhat old-fashioned styled future, you will find some very powerful ideas. The persons in this ideal world of "OneState" are proud to be Numbers, minuscule parts of the great machinery. They are happy to be punished if they walk out of line. Put into words by a mathematician, the deregulatin love-story in the novel feel sometimes shaky, but still credulous. The main reason why everyone should read this, is that the line of thinking is at the heart of most antidemocratic tendencies. The system fails to be human, but still prevails. "We" is a warning for all times.
Luuk Sonnebloem

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Zamyatin's WE is the most important literary work on the future and the present and the past of the humanity. His work goes beyond the common conundrum on a collective, monotonous society. How it strives for a perfection in unity and seemingly achieves it and yet, has its proud citizens fallen into an apathy of search of the "corrcet" form of freedom.

The main hero is a brillinat mastermind of a scientist that has invested his very much so reasonable life to the service of the City State - the Integral - for its betterment, roughly speaking going from perfection to super-perfection. His scientific gist is to produce the one precise time and space breaking machine that will transport the society onto a state nearly divine and pure (for that's the aim of any state/law system)...The plot of the novel can be fully expressed with one question: Does the aim really justify the means? ...

From thenon the storyline revolves around not the existence of freedoms and rights themselves but rather the forms and mechanisms of their practice...The integral is to put time/space deadlines in a perfectly formatted manner on THE WAY to think, to be when exercising basic freedoms.

As a catalyst of the perfect integral, Zamyatin brings a parallel world into the story - a world of green, far-stretching-into-the-horizon forests and rivers and a society that lives there seemingly happily ever after, who have it all, including the luxury of spending their time to use their freedom anyway they wish.

The link between these two worlds is an Alice-in-the-Wonderland style vertycal corridor accessible from inside the scientist's non-state-appointed girlfriend's bedroom. Hi state-appointed-and-approved partner is merely in his life for reproductive purposes, whereas the girlfriend character is rather free-willed and a genius when it comes to understanding the scientist's most devoured thoughts, e.g. mathematical equations and theories on integrals.

While the two struggle to convert each other, their passion dies sometime in-between his loyalty to the Wise Man leading the City State and her urge of administering the free-living parallel society.

Zamyatin's tale is merely an expression of the struggle of two constant powers. Contrary to many sci-fi novels, he avoids labeling the struggle as "Good vs Bad" or "East vs West"...His writing is nearly a call of decency to every individual: when pointing at a king and shouting "the Emperor has no clothes", every individual has to be able to see that they, too, "have no clothes", for they were the ones electing the very same people they're chanting again...In short - there IS NO Them...The individuals, the families, the cities, the countries, the world, the universe, the universes - it's all pur and simply "WE". What makes We a WE is when every "ME" is "me" - a non-labelled, non-dependant element whose existence is built on one and only God-given freedom - the CHOICE...

Literally, enjoy reading every single line of this book... If after reading it, you encounter a difficulty to open and enjoy another book just as much, do not wonder why, go back to Zamyatin - the ultimate timeless classic (or choose not to).
Anna Abrahamyan

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