The Quill #3: Recommended Reads #2

We was first published in 1924. The author, Eugene Zamiatin, was a Russian citizen during the Russian Revolution. While he supported the equality aimed for in the Bolshevik Revolution and worked towards its realization, he disagreed with the censorship imposed on writers after the new government was in place. He requested permission to leave Russia so that he could write without censorship. But outside of Russia, he lost touch with his homeland and, with it, his primary source of inspiration. Because of this, We is his only major work. Some critics thought its portrayal of a technologically advanced Russia was too much of a stretch, considering how technologically unadvanced Russia was when the book was published. We has gained traction over the years and helped to inspire 1984 by George Orwell.We is generally considered a utopian novel, as it depicts a perfectly regulated society that has eliminated virtually all suffering. Citizens, known as numbers instead of people, are equal; there is no poverty or racism. Even jealousy has been eliminated — marriage and romantic relationships don’t exist, and sex is regulated by the government. But for me, because the society depicted in We eliminates so many things that make life good, it cannot be anything other than a dystopian novel. There are no families, no privacy, no proper literature or music or access to nature. Even the very ability to imagine comes under threat.

We tells the story of number D-503. He is an engineer working on the building of a spaceship meant to bring news of D-503’s society to any alien species that might exist elsewhere in the universe. D-503 begins writing an account of his life to illustrate the state of perfection his society has obtained. As he records mundane events to show off the benefits of his society, he accidentally ends up recording some of the most dramatic incidents in his entire life.

D-503 is content with his world. He likes his work, his lover, and his society. Then I-330 comes into his life, and he begins to question everything. She shows him the value of things lost to progress — creativity, individuality, and freedom, to name a few. But society does not stop progressing because one person stops believing in its mission. Can D-503, I-330, and their allies change the shape of the society they live in? Or will they be put back in their places as cogs in a machine?