book: WE , Yevgeny Zamyatin
WE is one of the Original authoritarian Utopias, written in the 1920s, predating 1984 and Brave New World. The book is a short, masterful piece that did not go down very well with the Soviets.
The main character, Δ-503 (in my translation) or D-503, serves as a narrator who has grown up generations-deep in the One State, a regime which tightly controls as much of human life as it can. society is encapsulated within the Green Wall and greatly regimented. the philosophy is that each person is a component of a machine (Taylor's ideas of industrial efficiency), and the whole thing could be compromised by one dysfunctional component. Individuality is subsumed. Δ- narrates from this point of view, describing a deeply alien world from his deeply alien perspective. It's difficult to parse at times, in a great way.
the micromanaging authoritarian cosmology of the One State is, of course, a blunt critique of authoritarianism (e.g. Soviet Russia). this always feels relevant.
On the side, though, there is an interesting dynamic of what it's like for Δ- to encounter the unpredictable outside world. Δ- is overwhelmed, distressed, ill, unsteady, poisoned. it reminds me a lot of how "anti-woke" types begin losing their mind at the glimpse of a rainbow, and also how the mainstream continues to flatten very complex "we-don't-know-for-sure" situations (like climate change) into nice little packages. It speaks volumes to an aversion to the unfamiliar and unknown, a mindset which is being purposefully cultivated by many dynamics, which of course makes authoritarian regimes/systems all the more appealing. They give a Clear Answer, after all, which is better than remaining free but unsure.
I think I need to re-read it while checking the translator's notes more thoroughly.
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