Gotta be "We" for me simply because I've read it in Russian (i know it's trite but so much is lost in translation) and it directly inspired both 1984 and Brave New World. It did it first, and it did it best IMHO.
" Gotta be "We" for me simply because I've read it in Russian (i know it's trite but so much is lost in translation) and it directly inspired both 1984 and Brave New World. It did it first, and it did it best IMHO. "
1984. Brave New World had a lot of holes in terms of the world created, while 1984 felt as if it was a cohesive world. Plus I have never been as emotionally connected to a character as I was to Winston Smith. The end of the novel left me speechless, and made me feel helpless. Simply amazing. Cat's Cradle is also a decent novel.
Brave New World is the most interesting but I feel that 1984 is a better novel. The Road is the best by a living author but I think it might not be considered "dystopian."
" Wow. I can't believe more than a few people here know about We.
@dudeglove: Zamyatin was a naval engineer. The book really seems to read like it was written by one. There's not an ounce of waisted space. I love the message of We. The perfect control is the control you can't even feel. "
It's awash with engineering references and math stuff, aye, what with their names being... well, letters and numbers. To be honest I thought the true message was about love: in that if you do love - they'll kill you, and if you don't - you're already dead. "
Uh. Really? Are you just poorly regurgitating something a teacher said? I don't think anything in the novel, especially I-133, backs up that message up very well at all. We seems to present a fairly binary world view in which love is viewed as a raw primal violent and incredibly traitorous emotion, which the state opposes with a holistic, smooth, safe, and fulfilling control. If anything offers death and real unhappiness in the novel, it's love. And that's not just the state killing those who do love. Love is explicitly linked with death and insanity by those who do love. I-133 is a manipulative fickle woman. It's just that state control is so destructive to the soul, which is defined in the novel as "everything leaving its mark in you forever." Only this violent gnashing unhappy love can "mark" you, so people want it. But people also want to be safe and fulfilled. Ultimately, I think the novel doesn't answer the question of which side it prefers. Which side it thinks is the ultimate destiny of man kind. If anything, I think Zamyatin makes it clear he doesn't know which is better, and I think that's what makes We great. It's so much better then its successors 1984 and a Brave New World because it's so much more honest, and so much more daring in challenging its own ideals. "If you do love - they'll kill you, if you don't - you're already dead" is the pamphleteering message of those later two novels. Zamyathin is really saying that in different ways you're "alive" and "dead" either way.
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