We
I shall simply copy, word for word, the proclamation that appeared today in the One State Gazette...
We is a dystopian novel. I've been wanting to read it for almost as long as I've been blogging.
What did I think of We?
I found the novel interesting but not necessarily comprehensible. I struggled to make sense of this one. (I think I followed about a third of it.) I'm sure I missed much of what was going on simply because I was trying to make sense of this world, this society. Could the problem--for me--be this society's emphasis on math and logic?
The narrator of We is a state mathematician named D-503. (I did figure out that men have a consonant and an odd number; women have a vowel and an even number). Everything is calculated and precise and governed or regulated. Even intimate relationships. D-503 has two registered partners--O-90 and I330. O-90 desperately wants a child, a dream that isn't likely to come true. And I330 is a big, big tease who manipulates men in oh-so-many ways. Perhaps because D-503 cannot understand her at all, cannot predict anything about her, she fascinates him, enslaves him.
So one of D-503's projects is working on the spaceship, Integral. One State has plans to conquer the universe. Perhaps because of what he does, I-330 sees an opportunity to use him to get what she wants...
A human being is like a novel: until the last page you don't know how it will end. Or it wouldn't be worth reading... (162)
Read We
- If you are looking for a literary quality to your science fiction
- If you enjoy a challenge as you read; if you enjoy complexity
- If you are looking to read a science fiction classic
- If you are interested in Russian literature from this time period
© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Category Article 1921, 1924, 1972, adult fiction, Adult Science Fiction, book I bought, Books Reviewed in 2012, classics, science fiction
