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« on: February 01, 2021, 04:42:39 AM »
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
Many spoilers ahead.
First published in 1924, We is a story of a niceguy stemlord who lives in a dystopian society purely based on fAcTs aNd LoGiC (~500 years or so into the future). Our protagonist, D-503 (OneState is too rational for regular names), would also be a nerdvirigin incel if it weren't for the fact big brother assigns people to bang each other on a schedule. Everything has a schedule. D-503 spends most of his time fellating his rational mind by thinking about numbers and equations. He is also the builder of a rocket ship that is going to carry their great society to pacify any potential savages that may exist beyond earth. He has been tasked with keeping a journal so if they encounter any aliens, said aliens will quickly come to understand why OneState is the best state (and will force them to comply with lasers & shit if needed). D bumps into a girl other than his banging partner and accidentally discovers feelings. He does a bunch of dumb shit to impress a woman who probably won't ever really love him. Something to note is that OneState typically executes anyone doing dumb shit.
This text was the inspiration for Brave New World and 1984, and it is easy to see how those works were derived from We. Although this is a bit of a pseudo poem. The prose gets lengthy and flowery once D discovers he may have a soul after he gets shitfaced drunk one night (alcohol and tobacco also punishable by death). Like a dipshit moron in love, D keeps all of his transgressions documented in his journal for literally anyone to read. The prose mostly laments the knuckle-dragging history of mankind. A lot of complaining about Christianity but also implying it was hella right.
Anyway, there is a secret rebellion being plotted against OneState. Unlike 1984, this is actually a real rebellion, not just a honeypot. D gets caught up in the mix and it looks like they are going to topple OneState, but then big brother pulls the rug out. Also unlike 1984, We skips all lengthy brainwashing to make our hero love big brother. OneState has a procedure where they cut out the part of the brain responsible for imagination, which is apparently the root of the problem with the defectors. D gets this brainjob in the last couple pages and is back to usual logical self, compartmentalizing all those dumb feelings he recently had (which occupied ~200 pages of this 225 page novel). The rest of the rebel scum that scammed him into helping them are tortured and executed by OneState while D watches on happily. The end.
Mixing math/science with poetry was a bad experiment and people shouldn't do it.
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