We - Eugene Zamiatin

The things you find at a charity book sale at work. Zamiatin wrote this in the early 1920s, after having taken part in the Russian Revolution, then having seen what the Soviet Union was actually turning into. Maybe the most amazing thing is in the early 1930s, having been essentially blacklisted from work because of this story, Zamiatin wrote to Stalin requesting permission to leave, essentially expatriate himself, and he was allowed to do so. I kind of assumed Stalin's first through fifth response to any request or dilemma was, "kill them, plus fifty other people".

The book itself takes place in some far future, in the United State (singular), where total happiness has been achieved by the complete removal of freedom. All activities are strictly laid out by the Tables, all citizens live in glass apartments. The only time privacy is granted is if you have requested sexy time with another Number (no one has names), or they have requested time with you. Then you are allowed to lower curtains. I'm not sure what happens with the floor and ceiling. Maybe only the walls are transparent.

The story is written by D-503, Chief Builder of the Integral, the United State's first attempt at a rocket ship. D-503 is initially writing as a record of the perfection of the United State as an informational thing to whatever intelligent, but no doubt lesser, beings they will encounter on other worlds. Then he meets I-330, and finds himself completely infatuated and willing to deviate from the Tables and rules more and more.

The parts where he tries to describe his feelings towards I-330, his interactions with her, are a confusing jumble. Which is annoying when trying to read it, but it makes sense. What he's experiencing is entirely foreign to his frame of reference. He's raised in a society where having dreams is considered a sign of mental illness, that you have developed a soul, or "fancy". But they will soon have a way to treat that part of the brain, so don't worry.

It's not a cheery book, because you can see arguments made today in the book. That is a few people die testing the rockets because you couldn't bother to warn them to move first, well so what? 12 lives are inconsequential compared to the State, and the fact there was no need for anyone to die is not acknowledged. The idea that people were once allowed to vote in secret is ridiculed, and if people don't raise their hand to affirm the continued existence of the Well-Doer, they are considered to be disturbed individuals and therefore their votes don't count.

Total dissolution of the individual is happiness. Cruelty is the greatest form of love. The back of the book says We served as an inspiration for Orwell's 1984, which I can see it. Although I remember finishing 1984 and wanting to crawl under my bed for an hour, which didn't happen here. I'm more cynical now perhaps, or just more aware of history. I went in expecting a downer end, and that's mostly what you get. Looking at the long curve of history, it could turn out OK for them.

'This incident, insignificant in itself, had an especially good effect on me; it invigorated me, I should say. It is pleasant to feel that somebody's penetrating eye is watching you from behind your shoulder, lovingly guarding you from making the most minute mistake, from the most minute incorrect step. It may seem to you too sentimental, but I do see in all this the materialization of the dream of the ancients about a Guardian Angel. How many things, of which the ancients had only dreams, are materialized in our life!'