When Evgeny Zamyatin wrote the novel “We,” the ideas of communism were just beginning to come to life—it was 1920. But the writer already saw then what utopian ideas about this political system could lead to - and created a dystopia. In it, he showed what would happen to society if these ideas did become reality. It is interesting that the work was created in revolutionary Russia - but after its author visited England, he saw “another life.”
Zamyatin’s novel “We” is interesting to read, although a little difficult, because the characters do not have names, instead they have “numbers”. Through the diary of an ordinary “number” from the future, the writer shows the ordinary life of people living in glass houses so that everyone can see each other, but at the same time fenced off from the world by the Green Wall. What is happening in the described world can be easily correlated with real communism: for example, the Tablet is a clear allusion to the “Code of the Builder of Communism”, etc.
Zamyatin’s novel “We” is useful to read online for one more reason: it is not just a warning to the builders of communism, it very clearly conveys the idea that happiness cannot be forced, and this idea is relevant for any time and for any system. The imagery of the novel, which today can be downloaded for free, is built on contrast: on the one hand, the characters do not have names, but on the other hand, their characters are clearly written out. This one is especially good artistic feature can be traced through the example of female heroes.
Zamyatin’s work is much broader than its era - it shows how dangerous any idea that grows without a critical look is - it completely absorbs society and turns people not even into slaves, because slaves are at least aware of their sad situation, but into obedient cogs of the system. When these cogs stop working, they are “repaired” or replaced with others - such an unenviable fate awaits not only the heroes of the novel “We”, but also everyone who is ready for weak-willed submission and is happy to accept it.
Year: 1920 Genre: novel, fantasy
In 1920, Zamyatin wrote the dystopian novel “We.” This work describes approximately the thirty-second century. The state adheres to totalitarian policies. People don't have names, only numbers. Even very personal moments in the life of each member of the state are under control. People have no right to choose in anything. For them only the line chosen by the Benefactor.
The main idea of the dystopian novel “We” is that Evgeny Zamyatin refracts I into We in order to emphasize the ruthless pressure of the totalitarian machine. The world is ruled not only by reason and all its derivatives. Spiritual values are no less important. Zamyatin emphasizes that technology cannot live separately without a moral component. It is important to remember that the main thing in a person for a person is the soul, the spiritual.
The reader is transported to the thirty-second century. On the first pages he meets the main character D-503. This is the builder of the Integral spacecraft. In addition to engineering, this man keeps a diary in which he talks about his life and life for future generations One State. His diary is named "We". With special emotions, he describes life, subject to the Tablet of Hours, pink coupons for sex.
One of the spring days, in which D-503 walks with his beloved to the march of the Music Factory. Suddenly, the annoying young lady I-330, who is able to read other people's thoughts, begins a conversation. D-503, against his will, became interested in her.
Some time passes and D-503, at the invitation of I-330, flies to the Ancient House. I-330 wants her new acquaintance to disrupt his rhythm of life, but he not only does not give in to her persuasion, but also decides to carry out a denunciation to the Guardian Bureau. But his plans are not destined to come true; tomorrow he hurries to the Medical Bureau because he is unwell. He was even released from work for a while. So let's say for health reasons.
The execution of a poet who dared to write poetry criticizing the ruler is also described. The Benefactor himself executes the unfortunate man using a ray blade. After the unfortunate poet, only a puddle of chemically pure blood remains. It was as if nothing had happened.
After some time, D-503 receives a letter that I-330 is registered on him. He meets with her and she smokes cigars, drinks liquor and during a kiss “seduces” the chosen one. All these things are strictly prohibited in the state. According to the law, D-503 must report his misconduct himself, but he cannot do this. He writes about split personality. At this moment, I begins to gradually refract into We.
He is attracted to a new acquaintance, but bad luck, she is nowhere to be found. Out of despair, he turns to the Medical Bureau and there they find out that D-503 is terminally ill - he has a soul... Therefore, he is dangerous, and he must be treated immediately in his own interests.
Then our hero again goes to the Ancient House, finds himself in an incomprehensible dungeon, and this is an incomprehensible clumsy world... D-503 does not understand anything at all. Everything is grinding, constantly changing. There is no usual measured way of life.
His former girlfriend 0-90 realizes that her boyfriend is in love with someone else. She meets with him and admits in a fit of despair that she wants to give birth to a child with him. D-503 fulfills her request. He does not even realize what he has done. After all, for sexual pleasures you need a pink coupon! And D-503 simply experiences pleasure, like a flash of lightning.
At the same time, I-330 appears. The young man asks questions that have been tormenting him and does not receive a definite answer to them. Now he understands almost nothing at all. He does not understand himself and cannot understand what is happening at all...
The Day of Unanimity (like Easter) is described - the election of the Benefactor, when everyone must vote “yes”. That's what happened this time. The head of state has been elected, and it does not matter that it is the same person.
D-503 with his chosen one is again in the Ancient House. They find themselves in a lower world, where everything is disconnected and ancient people live. Here everything is divided into halves and cannot be united.
Girl I-330 tells her chosen one about the Mefi plan - this means the capture of his ship Integral and its use as a weapon against the state during a test flight...
In the morning in the local newspaper the order is to destroy the fantasy. D-503 does not dare to hand over his beloved.
Suddenly there are screams on the street, the beginning of an operation to create soulless numbers. That is, the re-release of tractor-like robots. Suddenly D-503 woke up in some entrance along with 0-90. She fears for their unborn child.
And so the ship was sent on the flight that everyone had been waiting for. But this flight changed a lot... D-503 feels feelings he has never experienced, but this does not last long.
The next day, D-503 is called to the main thing in order to stifle all his impulses and instill in him the idea that he is simply an executor of other people's ideas. The following describes the chaos in the state. The copulations of numbers behind open curtains are described as a completely mechanical process. D-503 understands that something irreparable has happened.
D-503 decides to tell the ruler who the enemies of happiness are. The benefactor listens to him attentively, and suddenly at that moment a certain female individual is brought in. She reminds D-503 of someone, but he doesn’t understand who. She doesn't say or tell anything, although she should. Then she is brought under the Gas Bell, the air is pumped out from under it, but she is still silent. This procedure is repeated with the girl three times.
D-503 ends his diary this way: “A temporary wall of high-voltage waves has been constructed in the city. I'm sure we will win. Because reason must win."
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This work is not the very first among the dystopian genre, but the first in modern times - yes.
Moreover, Zamyatin inspired famous writers to create their dystopian works.
Including George Orwell with his famous "1984". George Orwell was not only inspired by Zamyatin, but he used exactly the same idea and storyline in his novel. All iconic moments are identical! Personally, I was a little annoyed by this...
So, in his work, Zamyatin describes the events of the distant future of an absolutely new society, the structure of which, it seemed, had reached the ideal. This world is absolutely understandable and logical for most residents. There's no place in this world lyrical digressions, everything in it is simple, explainable, mathematically. And the style of the main character D-503 corresponds to their way of life without emotions, without a soul - his thoughts are clear, abrupt, and again mathematical.
Zamyatin clearly wanted to show what the pursuit of an ideal social structure would lead to. And, in principle, he foresaw everything correctly. For which he was persecuted by the Soviet authorities.
Considering that Zamyatin wrote “We” back in 1920, when the world was just in the midst of technological progress, he did an excellent job describing the future. Apparently, wanting to make his work relevant for all times, he avoids concepts characteristic of that time and tries as much as possible to avoid descriptions that could give away the time the novel was written.
Orwell wrote “1984” almost 30 years later, but it seems like he stole everything from Zamyatin. Once again the life of society is as transparent as possible, again a woman pushes a man onto the wrong path (what is this? a reference to biblical story about Adam and Eve?), and again the system suppresses their rebellion, depriving us of a happy ending. The only thing is that Orwell seems to have polished his work more, embellishing it, adding more details and making the style “simpler” for the general reader.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from welcome.88 17.10.2018 17:14
The brain draws dummies when reading. Not like the book, but how the script will go.
Grade 4 out of 5 stars by Sir Shuriy 08/24/2018 19:22
For ardent fans of dystopias, the book is not bad. I read it, without much pleasure, at once.
martyn.anna 21.05.2017 20:13
I came here just to leave my opinion about the book. They advised me to read it before preparing for the Unified State Exam, but after quickly “swallowing” voluminous works like “ Quiet Don"It was difficult to force myself to read something, but I agreed. I sat down in the evening, and the next morning I didn’t notice how the book ended. Maybe, as some people say, the book is somehow “primitive,” but it absorbed me with head, deeply touched. Moreover, the year of its publishing surprised me, and I inadvertently remembered films like Equilibrium - essentially based on the plot of “We.” this work will stay with me until my last days in my little internal library :)
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from stalker 10/13/2016 21:25
An excellent, deep thing, please don't worry, you fools........
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by Guest 09/30/2016 20:48
I couldn’t give a rating.)))) Probably the novel was good for its time and the time of the “great revelations”. Interesting idea, but the execution is quite primitive.
natpis_1964 30.08.2016 07:37
we need a good modern film adaptation, because in fact many American futuristic films are a parody of this work.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by Guest 05/29/2015 09:48
The book was a pleasure. Considering that the author wrote it in 1920, the scale of the thought is striking. You can’t help but wonder what the system of social order leads to when someone decides that this is the only right thing, and otherwise it’s wrong and harmful. And this is usually characteristic of our ruling clans: they recognize only their own truth, and if you think differently, at best they will not listen, and at worst, they will declare you an enemy (a separatist, an agent of influence, etc.).
Smart book.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from autooffer 07.02.2015 12:22
The book is strong
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Vladimir 08/31/2014 18:15
A unique piece! I recommend it. And interesting, and intellectual, and very unusual. Syllable - separate work of art! One of my most favorite books.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from vicna 20.08.2014 22:13
But Zamyatin looked well into the future. I think the book is worth the highest rating, because the thing is impressive, it makes you think, think, think and think again about what kind of future you really want.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from rrrrrrr 08/19/2014 19:03
There are different opinions regarding this book, but for me everything is clear. Zamyatin, as an intellectual, was against the coming of the communists to power, and, albeit in an exaggerated form, described the future of classical communism. Although, logically, communism in its highest form becomes anarchy - classical, when there is no need for a state - here we have a perverted, totalitarian version of socialization.
And Orwell, with his “1984” and “Animal Farm,” was clearly inspired, in part, by Zamyatin’s nightmare.
The book is... powerful. The syllable, although heavy, conveys the atmosphere perfectly.
A thousand years ago, the entire globe submitted to the power of the One State. Today in the State Newspaper they wrote that in 120 days the construction of the “Integral” will be completed, which should integrate the universe and bring mathematically infallible happiness to creatures on distant planets, as well as the works of poets about the beauty of the United State.
The line of the One State is a great, divine straight line. D-503, the builder of “Integral”, one of the mathematicians of the United State, is trying to write down in these notes what “we”, the happy residents of the United State, think.
Entry 2
O-90 came to D, round and pink. They spent their afternoon private hour on an extra walk. The numbers walk in rows of 4 to the March of the United State, performed by the Music Factory. While walking, D met a woman number I-330. She has white sharp teeth, she is thin, sharp, flexible, like a whip.
Entry 3
D explains for the reader the key concepts of civilization: Tablet of Hours, Personal Clock, Maternal Norm, Green Wall, Benefactor. Since the time of the Two Hundred Years' War, no one has been behind the glass Green Wall that separated the city from the forest. Roads between cities are destroyed.
The Tablet of Hours is like an icon, the heart and pulse of the United State. All city residents act simultaneously: millions get up, start and finish work, go to classrooms and lie down. Twice a day, from 16 to 17 and from 21 to 22, the rooms have their own hours. They might go for a walk, draw the curtains, or spend time at their desk.
Life is governed by a system of scientific ethics based on mathematical calculations. If occasionally there are failures in the system, there is an experienced eye and a heavy hand of the Guardians.
Entry 4
D received an assignment to auditorium 112. The phonolector remembered the musicians of the past who brought themselves to fits of inspiration. Example ancient music performed on the piano in ancient clothes I. Today anyone can write music based on mathematical patterns and formulas.
At 21:00 O came with a pink coupon.
Entry 5
D sets out the foundations of the existence of his world. In the Two Hundred Years' War between city and countryside, the State defeated famine. Bread remained only as poetry, its formula is unknown.
In the 35th year before the development of the United State, oil food was invented. Only 0.2% of the population survived. Then love was defeated. 300 years ago a formula arose: every number has the right to have sex with any number. You just need to make a statement that on sexy days the number wants to use a certain number, and receive a pink coupon book. Love has become a pleasant and useful function of the body.
Entry 6
At her personal hour, D called I, and they went together to the Ancient House. D is shocked by the chaos of the old apartment. He draws an analogy between the opaque apartments of the past and the human opaque head with window-like eyes. I changed into old clothes: a short yellow dress, black stockings and a hat. D notices that he should be in the auditorium in an hour. I invites him to get a certificate from the Medical Bureau from a doctor she knows that D was sick. D must report this to the Guardian Bureau.
Entry 7
I had a dream: the setting of an Ancient House, the copper Buddha opened his eyes, juice was oozing from all the objects. D woke up convinced that he was sick.
In the underground road on the way to the Integral, D met the double-curved, gimlet-eyed S-4711. He almost told him everything that happened in the Ancient House. I read in newspaper D that traces of an organization had been discovered that wanted to free itself from the benevolent yoke of the State.
Instead of going to the Guardian Bureau, D went to the Medical Bureau. In the evening D and O solved problems.
Entry 8
D remembered how he cried as a child when he learned about irrational numbers. He decided to pull out the irrational root from himself and went to the Bureau of Guardians to accomplish a feat, to betray his loved ones and himself to the altar of the United State. On the way, D met O and R-13, who had Negro splashing lips and the back of his head like a suitcase. Although O had a ticket to R, but, according to him, half an hour would be enough for them, so the three of them went to R and talked about what the poets were writing for Integral. For D, their triangle is family, the happiest arithmetic mean.
Entry 9
On a bright, solemn day on Cuba Square, children, women and men are gathered in 66 concentric circles of stands. This is similar to the worship of the ancients, a solemn liturgy of the One State, the victory of all over one.
The criminal, who wrote blasphemous poems about the Benefactor, stood at the foot of the steps of the cube with his hands symbolically tied with a red ribbon. At the top of the cube is the Machine. At a sign from the Benefactor, the State Poet read poetry. The second poet turned out to be R-13.
At a sign from the Benefactor, the criminal rose to the Machine. The benefactor pressed the lever - the criminal fell under the blow of hundreds of thousands of volts. His body turned into clean water, the dissociation of matter, the splitting of atoms, occurred.
Entry 10
In the lobby, controller Yu, an elderly woman who writes down the numbers of people entering, told D that he had a letter, which she, after reading (as required), gave to the tenant. The letter informed that the number I-330 had been registered with D. D decided to send O a copy of the notice.
Was white night. At a quarter to 21, D appeared to I. She reported that D was in her power, since he had not reported her to the Guardians within 48 hours. D realized that he was caught. I lowered the curtains and changed into an ancient yellow dress. She smoked, flicking the ashes onto a pink ticket, and drank liqueur. Nicotine and liquor are punishable by destruction. I was sure that D would not report her, and would even drink with her.
When D refused, I took the liquor into his mouth, kissed D, and poured it into it. I said that this poison was given to her by one of her doctors. D hugged her in a fit of jealousy, almost declaring his love, but it was already five minutes to 10:30 p.m., after which time you couldn’t go out. D managed to run home. He didn't sleep well.
Entry 11
D stopped believing in himself. R-13 came to him. He spoke about his poems for Integral: Adam and Eve chose freedom without happiness, modern people equal to God, they choose happiness without freedom. R discovered that O loved D and gave him his new book. D, jealous of R for I, realized that love and jealousy had destroyed their triangle.
Entry 12
D slept well. He hoped to recover, dreamed of the usual limited relationship with O. When he was traveling in the underground road, reading new book friend, a sonnet about the numbers of the multiplication table in love, he noticed that S was watching him. D again remembered the Guardians, who looked like angels. He thought about the role of useful poetry and the Institute of State Poets in the life of the United State.
Entry 13
At 11.45 D ran into his room. Suddenly I called and ordered to wait for her at the corner in 2 minutes. D decided to meet with I and explain that he is controlled not by her, but by the State. She showed up after 12, when D was already late for work. D hated her.
I called D a forgotten word You. She explained that only the rebellious can be loved. I took D to the medical office, where he received a certificate from a doctor he knew. They both flew to the Ancient House and loved each other without a pink ticket. Having already left the room, D decided to return, but did not find I in the room.
Entry 14
D took the right to curtains from the attendant: O was supposed to come in the evening. Upon entering, O immediately realized that D was no longer hers. She needs to talk to him about a lot. D began to kiss O as usual, but felt empty. O cried and ran away. D realized that I had taken R and O from him.
Entry 15
D came to the boathouse where Integral was being built. The Second Builder, whose face looks like a white earthenware plate, said that yesterday, when D was sick, an unnumbered man was caught in the boathouse. They want to extract information from those caught in the Operations Room under the leadership of the Benefactor himself with the help of the Gas Bell. The Second Builder broke the news: they had invented an operation for cutting out imagination. But D doesn’t want to get better.
Entry 16
D cannot live without I. He saw her on a walk with S and the doctor. I did not come on the day when she had a pink ticket to D. He went to I’s house, walked alone from 16 to 17, thrown out of the orderly rows of people walking. He missed his start time. A double-curved S appeared in front of him, advised him to go to the Medical Bureau and led him there himself. The most subtle doctor announced to D that he had formed a soul, and this was incurable. The doctor issued a certificate of illness for 2 days and advised us to take a walk to the Ancient House tomorrow.
Entry 17
In the Ancient House, D did not find I. Fleeing from S, D hid in the closet, and suddenly the floor shook under his feet. D, having lost consciousness for a second, flew down for a long time, then walked along the corridor illuminated by light bulbs for about 20 minutes. The doctor opened the iron door for him. He called I. D told him that he had an incurable soul. I took D out into the courtyard of the Ancient House and made an appointment the day after tomorrow at 10.
Entry 18
D had a dream that he was connecting with I, dressed in pink dress, behind the mirrored door of her closet. D woke up before the bell rang and tried to mathematically understand what the soul is and why it is a disease.
In the afternoon D walked alone along empty avenues for two hours, following the doctor’s orders. At sunset, Yu gave him a letter from O, who confessed her love to D. She realized that he didn’t need anyone except I, so she decided to take off her record with D.
Entry 19
D is proud that today the Integral engine was idled for the first time. During the test, several numbers died, but the work did not stop for a second, because individual numbers are so insignificant.
Instead of I, an unfamiliar male number came to D and gave him a letter with a pink coupon, in which I asked that, at the appointed time, D lower the curtains and pretend that I was with him.
At a lecture on childcare, they showed a live baby who accidentally moved to the edge of the table. Then O picked him up, kissed him and moved him to the middle of the table.
On the way home, D noticed that S was following him. At home, O was waiting for him, who asked D to leave her the child. This is punishable by execution in the Benefactor's Machine, but O is ready to make the sacrifice.
D took the pink ticket to I to the duty officer and rudely connected with O.
Entry 20
D is ready to die in the Machine. If O in the Operations Room calls his name, he will be killed. The United State will perform divine justice if it kills O's illegal mother.
Entry 21
Yesterday, on my day, I did not come again, and D wrote his notes behind closed curtains. He flew to the Ancient House. D was not found in house I.
He was met by S, who advised him to be careful: there were 10-12 aero Guardians above the Wall.
In the evening, elderly Yu came with cheeks like gills. She complained that at the Children's Educational Plant children drew a caricature of her in the form of a fish. Yu is about to sign up for D. He understands that this is an honor for him.
That night D dreamed that he was having sex with a chair.
Entry 22
During the walk, when everyone was walking in rows of four, as on Assyrian monuments, three criminals in custody came across. One of the three, a young man, stopped when he noticed someone in the orderly ranks. The guard kept hitting him with an electric whip, and he squealed. The figure of a woman separated from the orderly rows, which D mistook for I and ran towards her. By the time he discovered his mistake, he had already been captured. S testified that D was sick, and he was released.
Entry 23
D is happy that I came. She loves D even more for yesterday’s stupidity, but did not come to test him. D wants to tell her about everything, including his childhood years, about the fact that he gave O a child. I hopes that D will not forget her and will not be afraid to follow her wherever she leads him.
Entry 24
The Day of Unanimity is the day of the annual election of the Benefactor, for whom they vote unanimously, like the ancient united church, and if any numbers were wrong, then the Guardians would save the numbers from errors, and the united State from these numbers.
D would like to be at the party with I, but she refuses.
Entry 25
At the beginning of the holiday, everyone sang the anthem. A new Jehovah descended from the sky in an aeroplane and sat down in the center of the concentric circles of the stands in white robes. A benefactor is like a wise spider who has connected everyone with a web of happiness.
D noticed that in the stands there were many Guardians giving signs to each other. Overcome with jealousy, he saw I next to R.
Everyone voted for it, and only I voted against it. There was a commotion. D saw far below O, who was blocking her stomach with her hands, red R, who was carrying I in a bloody torn tunic. D caught up with R, shouted that he would not allow I to be carried, and hit R on the head. R gave I D.
Entry 26
In the morning D was surprised that the familiar world still existed. It was written in the United State Newspaper that the Benefactor was elected unanimously for the 48th time, and the enemies of happiness could not overshadow the triumph.
When D was walking along the avenue, he saw a piece of paper “Mephi” pasted on the wall, which S unsuccessfully tried to tear off, but he was not tall enough. D helped him. He met these sheets of paper both in the subway and under the dome of the boathouse.
Entry 27
D and I agreed to meet at 16 o'clock at that same opaque door. I took him beyond the Green Wall. In the clearing D saw people covered with short hair. The females had their faces and chests exposed, the males had only their faces. I told the audience that Integral would fly to the stars together with her like-minded people, because the builder of Integral was with them.
Then the whole congregation drank something from a wooden bowl. For a moment D thought he saw S, and he told I about this. But I objected that the people behind the wall did not know about the existence of this world.
Entry 28
Yu and I came to D together. Yu decided that her duty was to protect D like a child, because I was pursuing his own selfish goals. D kicked Yu out.
I said that for some reason medical tables are being prepared in the auditoriums. She revealed to the hero the secret of his hairy hands: women from the city sometimes loved people from the forest. These are people who survived the Bicentennial War. They grew fur, but retained their hot blood. And the townspeople are overgrown with numbers that crawl over them like lice.
The one who brought D notes from I came running and said that the Guardians were coming here, S with them. D hid dangerous last sheets manuscripts for yourself. S read the non-hazardous sheets.
Entry 29
Autumn came and brought thin invisible threads from behind the wall. D went on a date with I past the Green Wall and met O, who was all round. She said she was happy, full to the brim. D reminded her that after the birth of the child, death awaits her. He felt sorry for O and offered to go to I together to save her. But O chose death.
Entry 30
On the date, I said that the day after tomorrow the first test flight of the Integral was scheduled, during which Mefi would capture it. To do this, I suggested that at 12, when everyone would go to dinner, lock everyone in the dining room. "Integral" will become a weapon in the hands of Mefi.
Entry 31
In the morning D read with joy in the State Newspaper that the State is forever ready to make people perfect, ridding them of fantasy. It turns out that the center of fantasy is a brain nodule that is easy to remove. This will make a person machine-like, one hundred percent happy. The Great Operation will be carried out in auditoriums.
D called I and shared his joy. The receiver was silent for a long time, then I made an appointment for D after 16. On the street, through the transparent walls of the auditorium, the numbers monitored the Operation. D realized that he must see I before the Operation.
In the boathouse, the Second Builder said that due to the Operation, the test flight was canceled until the day after tomorrow. D is glad that he won’t have to betray Integral.
At home, D found Yu waiting at his desk. She told how she took all her students to the operation, how they had to be tied up. Yu is sure that love should be merciless.
At 16 D I came to I. I offered a choice: surgery and one hundred percent happiness, or her. D chose I, who agreed to meet at 12 the day after tomorrow. D realized that he did not want happiness.
Entry 32
On the avenue, a crowd of the first to be operated on, stretched out in a chain, drove people into the auditoriums. Some, including D, ran away. At some entrance, D caught up with O. She agrees that D take her to I, she does not want to be cured, because then she will not be able to love the child, she will have nothing to live with. On the way to I, S followed them, he kept an eye on D. D brought O to him, wrote a note to I and sent O to her.
Entry 33
D read in the Newspaper that tomorrow all work will be suspended so that all numbers appear for the Operation. Those who do not show up will end up in the Benefactor's Machine.
Entry 34
"Integral" was ready for testing. He rose into the air and left the earth's atmosphere. In the radiotelephone room D found I and two others. I told that I helped O go beyond the wall, O will live.
At 12 o'clock everyone had to go to the wardroom for lunch. But one number, whom D thought was also Mephi, turned out to be the Guardian. He thwarted the revolution in order to complete the test. I am sure that they were betrayed by D. D realized that it was Yu in his room, while she was waiting for him, she read the pages of notes.
Then D gave the order to stop the engines and abort the test. But the Second Builder pushed D and took the reins into his own hands.
Entry 35
D decided to kill Yu so that I would believe him. He went downstairs, but Yu was not there because it was the day of the operation. D wanted to take the subway to the school where Yu worked, but there were no trains. In the subway, D heard I's voice. A raid began, but D ran home.
Yu came to him herself. To prevent the neighbor from seeing the murder, D lowered the curtains. Yu thought that D wanted to connect with her and took off her unif. D laughed. This laughter powerful weapon, killed Yu.
At that moment the Benefactor called and immediately called D.
Entry 36
The benefactor assured the naive 32-year-old D that Mefi needed him only as the builder of Integral, and urged him to reveal the names of the conspirators.
When D dared to raise his eyes from the cast-iron hands of the Benefactor, he saw in front of him a man with beads of sweat on his bald head. D ran away laughing. He ran to the Benefactor's Machine, imagining how I was ascending to it. For the first time, D regretted that he did not have a mother.
Entry 37
During breakfast, some noise was heard in the dining room. Everyone jumped up randomly from their seats. It turned out that the Wall had been blown up. Many of Mefi's supporters followed those who had undergone surgery to the site of the explosion.
The elevator in building I did not work. D ran into her room. Everything was upside down, pink coupons were lying on the floor. D did not wait for I and returned home at dusk.
Entry 38
D woke up and saw I in his room. She lowered the curtains, saying that she had 15 minutes, they were waiting for her downstairs. D told her about the conversation with the Benefactor and asked if that was what she came for.
Entry 39
There was no call that day. There were birds and crowds of people on the streets, D found R’s corpse, but simply stepped over it. D entered the Guardian Bureau and told S everything that he had described in his notes. S noticed that D had not told him that he had glimpsed S behind the wall.
It became clear to D that S was also one of them. D ran away and ended up in one of the public restrooms of the subway. The neighbor on the left told him about his calculations: there is no infinity. D had a question: what is where the finite universe ends?
Entry 40
D feels healthy. He smiles. That evening D, his neighbor and everyone who was with them were subjected to the Great Operation. The next day D told the Benefactor everything he knew about the enemies of happiness. That evening D sat with the Benefactor in the Gas Room. He watched as the woman was brought under the Gas Bell and the air was pumped out three times, but she was silent, and the others began to speak. The next day they are to be killed by the Benefactor Machine.
D is sure that the numbers will win, because the mind must win.
Evgeniy Ivanovich Zamyatin
Entry 1
Abstract:
Announcement. The wisest of lines. Poem
I am simply copying - word for word - what was published today in the State Newspaper:
“In 120 days, the construction of INTEGRAL will be completed. The great, historical hour is near, when the first INTEGRAL will soar into world space. A thousand years ago, your heroic ancestors conquered the entire globe to the power of the One State. You have an even more glorious feat ahead of you: to integrate the infinite equation of the Universe with a glass, electric, fire-breathing INTEGRAL. You will have to subjugate, under the beneficent yoke of reason, unknown creatures living on other planets - perhaps still in a wild state of freedom. If they do not understand that we bring them mathematically infallible happiness, it is our duty to make them happy. But before weapons we will test the word.
On behalf of the Benefactor it is announced to all numbers of the United State:
Anyone who feels able is obliged to compose treatises, poems, manifestos, odes or other writings about the beauty and greatness of the United State.
This will be the first load that INTEGRAL will carry.
Long live the United State, long live the numbers, long live the Benefactor!”
I write this and feel my cheeks burning. Yes: integrate the grand universal equation. Yes: disperse the wild curve, straighten it along a tangent - an asymptote - in a straight line. Because the line of the United State is straight. The great, divine, precise, wise straight line is the wisest of lines...
I, D-503, the builder of Integral, am only one of the mathematicians of the United State. My pen, accustomed to numbers, is unable to create music of assonance and rhyme. I will just try to write down what I see, what I think - more precisely, what we think (that’s right: we, and let this “WE” be the title of my notes). But this will be a derivative of our life, from the mathematically perfect life of the One State, and if so, then won’t it be in itself, against my will, a poem? It will happen - I believe and know.
I write this and feel my cheeks burning. This is probably similar to what a woman experiences when she first hears the pulse of a new, tiny, blind person within herself. This is me and at the same time not me. And for many months it will be necessary to feed it with your juice, your blood, and then, with pain, tear it away from yourself and lay it at the feet of the United State.
But I'm ready, just like everyone, or almost every one of us. I'm ready.
Entry 2
Abstract:
Ballet. Square harmony. X
Spring. From behind the Green Wall, from the wild invisible plains, the wind carries yellow honey dust of some flowers. This sweet dust makes your lips dry - you run your tongue over them every minute - and all the women you meet must have sweet lips (and men too, of course). This makes it somewhat difficult to think logically.
But the sky! Blue, not spoiled by a single cloud (how wild were the tastes of the ancients, if their poets could be inspired by these absurd, careless, stupidly jostling heaps of steam). I love - I’m sure I won’t be mistaken if I say: we love only this, sterile, immaculate sky. On such days, the whole world is cast from the same unshakable, eternal glass, like the Green Wall, like all our buildings. On such days you see the deepest depths of things, some hitherto unknown, amazing equations - you see them in something so familiar, everyday.
Well, at least this. This morning I was on the boathouse where Integral is being built, and suddenly I saw machines: with closed eyes, selflessly, the balls of regulators were spinning; the bloodworms, sparkling, bent to the right and left; the balance beam proudly shook its shoulders; the chisel of the slotting machine squatted to the beat of inaudible music. I suddenly saw all the beauty of this grandiose machine ballet, bathed in light blue sun.
And then with myself: why is it beautiful? Why is dance beautiful? Answer: because it is not a free movement, because the whole deep meaning dance precisely in absolute, aesthetic subordination, ideal lack of freedom. And if it is true that our ancestors gave themselves over to dance at the most inspired moments of their lives (religious mysteries, military parades), then this means only one thing: the instinct of unfreedom has been organically inherent in man since ancient times, and in our present life we do so only consciously...
You'll have to finish later: the numberer clicked. I look up: O-90, of course. And in half a minute she herself will be here: following me for a walk.
Darling Oh! - it always seemed to me - that she looked like her name: 10 centimeters below the Motherly Norm - and that’s why she was all round, and her pink O - mouth - was open to meet my every word. And one more thing: a round, plump fold on the wrist - these happen in children.
When she came in, the logical flywheel was still humming inside me, and by inertia I started talking about the formula I had just established, which included all of us, the machines, and the dance.
- Wonderful. Isn't it true? – I asked.
- Yes, wonderful. “Spring,” O-90 smiled at me pinkly.
Well, wouldn’t you like it: spring... It’s about spring. Women... I fell silent.
Down. The avenue is full: in this weather, we usually spend our afternoon private hour on an extra walk. As always, the Music Factory sang the March of the United State with all its trumpets. In measured rows, four at a time, enthusiastically beating time, there were numbers - hundreds, thousands of numbers, in bluish unifs, with gold plaques on the chest - the state number of each and every one. And I—we four—are one of the countless waves in this mighty stream. To my left is O-90 (if one of my hairy ancestors had written this a thousand years ago, he would probably have called it this funny word"my"); on the right are two unfamiliar numbers, female and male.
A blissfully blue sky, tiny childish suns in each of the plaques, faces not overshadowed by the madness of thoughts... The rays - you understand: everything is made of some single, radiant, smiling matter. And the brass bars: “Tra-ta-ta-tam.” Tra-ta-ta-tam,” these copper steps sparkling in the sun, and with each step you rise higher, into the dizzying blue...
And so, just as it was in the morning, on the boathouse, I saw again, as if only now for the first time in my life, I saw everything: the immutable straight streets, the glass of the pavements splashing with rays, the divine parallelepipeds of transparent dwellings, the square harmony of gray-blue ranks. And so: as if not whole generations, but I – it was I – who defeated the old God and the old life, it was I who created all this, and I’m like a tower, I’m afraid to move my elbow so that fragments of walls, domes, cars don’t fall down...
And then a moment - a leap through centuries, from + to -. I remembered (obviously an association by contrast) - I suddenly remembered a picture in the museum: their then, twentieth-century avenue, a deafeningly colorful, confused crowd of people, wheels, animals, posters, trees, paints, birds... And after all, they say, it actually happened – it could have happened. It seemed so implausible to me, so ridiculous, that I could not stand it and suddenly burst out laughing.
And immediately an echo - laughter - on the right. He turned around: into my eyes - white - unusually white and sharp teeth, an unfamiliar female face.
“Forgive me,” she said, “but you looked at everything with such inspiration, like some mythical god on the seventh day of creation.” It seems to me that you are sure that you created me, and not anyone else. I'm very flattered...
All this without a smile, I would even say, with some respect (maybe she knows that I am the builder of Integral). But I don’t know - there’s some strange annoying X in the eyes or eyebrows, and I just can’t catch it, give it a digital expression.
For some reason I was embarrassed and, slightly confused, began to logically motivate my laughter. It is absolutely clear that this contrast, this impassable gap between today and then...
- But why is it impassable? (What white teeth!) You can build a bridge over the abyss. Just imagine: a drum, battalions, ranks - after all, this also happened - and therefore...
- Well, yes: clear! – she shouted (it was an amazing intersection of thoughts: she – in almost my own words – was what I wrote down before the walk). – You see: even thoughts. This is because no one is “one,” but “one of.” We are so alike...
-Are you sure?
I saw eyebrows raised at a sharp angle to the temples - like the sharp horns of an X, for some reason I lost my way again; looked to the right, to the left - and...
To my right is she, thin, sharp, stubbornly flexible, like a whip, I-330 (I see her number now); to the left - Oh, completely different, all made of circles, with a childish fold on her hand; and on the edge of our four - a male number unknown to me - some kind of double curved like the letter S. We were all different...
This one, on the right, I-330, apparently caught my confused glance - and with a sigh:
- Yes... Alas!
In fact, this “alas” was completely appropriate. But again there’s something on her face or in her voice...