"We"

[MsAmerica]

Any of you ever read "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin? If so, what's your opinion? This has me really curious.

The Century-Old Russian Novel Said to Have Inspired ‘1984’
Zamyatin, and Orwell for that matter, was a committed socialist and, most important, a wickedly fun writer...
Set 1,000 years in the future, “We” transports us to an authoritarian society called the One State that is governed by technological efficiency and an enforced suppression of individual identity. The novel is the diary of D-503 (citizens of the One State have numbers, not names), lead engineer of a spaceship called Integral set to travel into outer space to rescue “unfamiliar beings on alien planets who may yet live in savage states of freedom.”

www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/books/review/yevgeny-zamyatin-we.html

Yes I have. I thought it was really well done. I read it before 1984 and could see synergy. I also thought it was hugely insightful given it was published before Stalin. His essays are worth a read too.

I'll keep that in mind, but I'm likelier to start with the fiction.

I read it recently as I got a bundle of dystopian novels on my Kindle. I have to admit I found it a bit of a slog but it was interesting to see the parallels with the more famous novels like 1984.