"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Continuing along my quest to read a number of dystopian novels this month, I recently finished re-reading George Orwell's 1984 . Next on my list was a re-read of We by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin.

According to my book lists, I first read the novel in 2014. I searched my PC for a copy of the mobi file to upload to my Kindle with no luck. I wasn't surprised at not finding a copy - my PC had crashed last year and I upgraded my operating system. Some files were saved in the process, others weren't. After searching the internet for a replacement, I located the novel at Project Gutenberg.

In a number of places online, I read that George Orwell had made the claim that Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was derived from We ,which Huxley denied. In 2014 in addition to reading We, I re-read Brave New World to see for myself if Orwell had been correct. As I mentioned in a blog post at the time, I didn't see an obvious connection between the two novels.

After the recent re-reading of We, I concluded that, if anyone had used the novel as a guide, it was Orwell with 1984. I find too many similarities between the two for it to be coincidence. This article, written in 2015 further supports my thoughts on this.

In 1984, Winston Smith has memories of past events which contradict the official history of Oceania. Upon reading We this second time, I was experiencing the same sort of confusion as Winston Smith when faced with contradictory memories. Immediately, as I read the novel, I told myself that it was all completely new to me. I could not remember having read anything I came upon in the novel. According to my posted book list, I had read the novel in 2014, yet nothing in this novel seemed at all familiar.

Upon further investigation, I discover that the 2014 reading was from a ebook downloaded from Amazon.com - a modern translation by Natasha Randall. The Project Gutenberg copy was in the original 1924 translation by Gregory Zilboorg. Perhaps the answer could lie in the differences in the two translations. I was able to download a copy of the Natasha Randall translation to my Kindle. I don't intend to read this translation again soon, but I did read enough to notice some slight differences. There doesn't appear to be such a difference as to cause this confusion.

Without giving away too much, the mental state of the character D-503 makes following the plot of the story a little confusing. I believe it is the confusion in his diary that has lead to my forgetting so much of the novel.

According to a wikipedia article:
"Along with Jack London's The Iron Heel, We is generally considered to be the grandfather of the satirical futuristic dystopia genre".  

We is a definite must read for anyone interested in the dystopia genre. I was unaware of The Iron Heel when I posted my list of dystopian novels to read this month. I have since downloaded a copy and have placed it in the queue.