We (Novel)

en.wikipedia.org

29 points·dredmorbius··6 comments

One of my favorite books, have read it multiple times, in two different translations. The book definitely had a stronger impact for me as the first time I read it, right as I was at the critical point of the work, the atrocities of Tiananmen happened. I have not yet read The Iron Heel by London but that is on my short list.

Looks like it's available at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Wes-sweggy

I've only skimmed through the "Plot" section because I might read this in the future and I don't want to be spoiled, but doesn't this sound a lot like 1984?

The Wikipedia article discusses the extensive similarities between the story and Aldus Huxley's Brave New World, another dystopian novel. Huxley claims not to have been familiar with We when he conceived of BNW.

Orwell himself made the claim that Huxley must've known of We, so yes, Orwell certainly knew the work. From TFA:

Orwell began Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) some eight months after he read We in a French translation and wrote a review of it.[28] Orwell is reported as "saying that he was taking it as the model for his next novel".

Yes, both novels derive from "We". In some sense "Brave New World" more so because despite being oppressive, the society of "We" isn't impoverished; everyone is materially well off and fed. But it does have the "love is inherently revolutionary" angle that "1984" uses.

Sooner or later we as society really should reassess this digital panopticon we are building/built.

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