Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Reading the following book at the moment:
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0380633132
It was written in Russian in 1921 but was not allowed to be published in Russia so it came out first in English in 1924 in New York.
It is a dystopian science fiction that had a strong influence on Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World.
It interestingly shows the over-sedentarised future of a single state that clearly marks it territory against the countryside. It aims for perfect mechanisation and rationalising human behaviour using Taylorian industrial concepts.
Freedom is seen as the source of unhappiness so in a logical progression from nomadism to civilisation, they have given up all freedom and choice to embrace full happiness in an ordered nation-state. I'm finding this short novel even more inspiring than 1984 that I just read two months ago.