We Book

Ask anyone to name the twentieth century's most defining dystopian novel, and they'll probably give you one of two answers: Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" or George Orwell's "1984". However, after reading "We" for the first time, I'm beginning to suspect that Huxley and Orwell may be mere pretenders to Yevgeny Zamyatin's throne.

Written in 1921 as a critique of the Russian society in which Zamyatin was born and raised, "We" was banned in the author's home country for many decades, and was so incendiary that it ultimately led to him being expelled from his motherland.

Set in a far future in which nameless human beings live in a conformist society that brands them only with a letter and number, the story revolves around D-503, an engineer working on a spaceship designed to export the rigorous logic and ordered, mathematical thinking of this future society to other planets and galaxies. However, D-503's worldview is soon challenged by a mysterious, alluring female known as I-330, whose appearance leads D-503 to challenge his views and ultimately those of society's enigmatic leader, the Benefactor.

Whilst this setup sounds fairly conventional, it's Zamyatin's writing that truly brings the book's world and its characters to life. D-503's narration (the book's text is purported to be his journal, which has been kept as an artefact to be sent on the rocketship) uses harsh, clipped, mechanical language to convey his ruthlessly logical and mathematical thought processes, often making use of engineering metaphors to convey the character's practical, grounded nature.

But as D-503's mind is expanded by his experiences with I-330, we see his sentence construction become less ordered and his prose become looser, until the book eventually dissolves into a virtually stream-of-consciousness narrative that requires a fair amount of work on the part of the reader to keep up.

For those that persevere, however, we're treated to some highly imaginative ideas and evocative descriptions of a future society that often bears an uncomfortable resemblance to our own. Zamyatin may have written his book before the advent of television, but aside from this omission, everything feels eerily familiar: his descriptions of steel-and-glass skyscrapers, surveillance culture, biological warfare, and the commoditisation of sex all ring uncannily true today, marking the book out as remarkably prescient given that it's almost a century old.

Most of all, though, it's the author's daring challenge to the cult of conformity and the rejection of state control that makes it such an effective critique of society (especially given the context in which it was originally written).

Yes, there are some occasional passages that mark the book out as dated. For example, a short trip into space now seems more quaint than it does exciting, whilst the sex scenes (of which there are quite a few) come off as slightly prudish and reserved where they might once have felt risqué.

Nevertheless, this doesn't stop the book from standing as one of the great dystopian satires, and doesn't restrict its influence over the wealth of dystopian literature that followed it. Not only do Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984" lift plot points and characters from the book wholesale, but other great works of dystopian fiction - such as Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451", Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano", as well as George Lucas's "THX-1138" movie - also owe Zamyatin's magnum opus a huge debt in terms of their tone and ideas.

For those readers who think science-fiction is a thoroughly modern innovation, this book will be a revelation; for those who think that dystopian fiction begins and ends with Huxley and Orwell, this book will open their eyes; and for those who have any interest in how the rules of society affect our lives, and to what extent we should let our existence be dictated by the will of others, this book will be a provocative, inspiring call to arms. I can't recommend it highly enough.

With an introduction by Will Self.  The citizens of the One State live in a condition of 'mathematically infallible happiness'. D-503 decides to keep a diary of his days working for the collective good in this clean, blue city state where nature, privacy and individual liberty have been eradicated. But over the course of his journal D-503 suddenly finds himself caught up in unthinkable and illegal activities - love and rebellion. Banned on its publication in Russia in1921, We is the first modern dystopian novel and a satire on state control that has once again become chillingly relevant.

The citizens of the One State live in a condition of 'mathematically infallible happiness'. D-503 keeps a diary of his days working for the collective good in this city state where nature, privacy and individual liberty have been eradicated.