Name: We: New Edition
Rating: 4.026315789473684 (19 reviews)

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Evgeniĭ Ivanovich Zami︠a︡tin

Evgenii Ivanovich Zamiatin

The narrator describes a state in which the individuals have given up their freedom for materialistic rewards, in this utopian satire

We: New Edition

Nathan Griffin

2017 Update:  This re-reads very well. I probably liked it more the second time. Still need to read 1984 again to compare.

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The original dystopian novel. Orwell was a fan and claimed it inspired him to write 1984.

I haven't read 1984 since high school, but what I appreciated about We more than 1984 was that it's less about an authoritarian government and more about a society that puts utility, rational behavior, and data as the ultimate means to advance society. The government in We is way less sinister than 1984 and you could really even argue that it's ultimate goal was the flourishing of the people under its rule. It's easy to denounce the overreach and crimes of Big Brother, but in a culture driven by rapidly advancing knowledge and sheer amounts of data, are we as willing to admit to ourselves that those will ultimately fail as our saviors as well?

Also, while it made parts of this book tough to follow, the jagged, frantic writing in parts really works well.

We: New Edition

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