The first modern dystopic novel

 

2-25 Thursday

 

Today’s topic

We will begin discussing the first modern dystopic novel and perhaps one of the most influential books of the 20^th century, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We. What does this novella tell us about the dawn of the Soviet project?

 

Poll: Who has already read We?

 

Course management

Your assignment SF definitions (part 2) is due by 5pm on W 3-3. Questions on this assignment? What does We add to our understanding of Suvin’s definition?

Let’s go over the quiz on We

1.  The main architectural building material in the One State is: (a) impenetrable steel; (b) thick stone mined from beyond the Green Wall; (c) glass; (d) wood.

2.  The One State controls the whole planet: true or false.

3.  The Integral is: (a) the One State’s main computer; (b) a spaceship; (c) the One State’s parliament; (d) the One State’s religion.

4.  D-503 works as: (a) an engineer; (b) a poet; (c) an overseer; (d) a secret-police agent.

5.  What happens to D-503 at the end of the novella? He undergoes the operation and changes.

Start-of-class discussion

1.  Materials on our Canvas page for Yevgeny Zamyatin.

2.  Esler, “Soviet SF in the 1920s.”

3.  Guide questions to the novella.

1.  What is the setting of the novella? What is the frame of the plot?

2.  What is the (non-traditional) form of the novella? In other words, how does the way in which Zamyatin chooses to present the futuristic society impact the reader? Would a more traditional novelistic form have a different impact?

3.  Can you identify and articulate two major themes in the novella?

4.  How does this work fit into Suvin’s framework for SF as cognitive estrangement?

Contributions?

Introductory quotes

 

“What Zamyatin seems to be aiming at is not any particular country but the implied aims of industrial civilization. [His book] is in effect a study of the Machine, the genie that man has thoughtlessly let out of its bottle and cannot put back again.” – George Orwell

 

We “conveys not only the horror and cruelty of Zamyatin’s future society, but also something of the terrible appeal of the dream underlying it—the appeal of sensing oneself part of a whole far greater than the mere sum of its parts.” – Chris Ferns, SF critic

The novel’s temporal setting

The far-distant future (32^nd century)

 

Characteristics of the society Zamyatin describes

A post-apocalyptic society, supposedly based on math and reason, called the One State. The Green Wall cuts it off from the rest of the world. Names are letters and numbers. The leaders are the Bureau of Guardians and the Benefactor.

The main characters

D-503, an engineer designing the Integral and the author of the diary. O-90, his lover.

R-13, a state poet.

I-330: a rebel who tempts D into sedition. The Benefactor.

 

How does the novel end?

D-503 undergoes the Great Operation.

The fate of the One State is, however, unclear.

The last chapter is rather famous, so let me read it out loud.

 

 

George Orwell’s famous review of the book

Orwell wrote his review in 1946.

He compared We to Aldous Huxley’s dystopia Brave New World (1932). Both are technological dystopias, both set hundreds of years in the future. Orwell claims that We is more relevant to 20^th-century humanity than BNW. He makes an interesting point about executions in the world of We.

He concludes by suggesting that the object of Zamyatin’s satire is not the Soviet project alone.

Texts for end-of-class discussion

1.  Taylorism and We: https://u.osu.edu/hubschman3eng4563/.

2.  Zamyatin on “Literature, Revolution, Evolution, and Other Matters.”

 

Your homework is on the week-by-week syllabus, but… work on your SF definitions (part 2) assignment!