Numbers
Evgienij Zamiatin in My novel quite efficiently creates a terrifying dystopia. Theoretically, it describes the ideal world. Citizens live in one country, they don’t know wars, they are all happy, and their lives are orderly and trouble-free. However, at every step you can clearly see how terrible this place is. Instead of names and units, people are just “numbers”. Citizens are subject to the worst possible surveillance – they live in glass houses, where the curtains can be lowered only for intimate contacts (their time and duration are of course strictly regulated by the state). As if that was not enough, there is a security service collecting denunciations and dealing with citizens who do not like the organization of the state.
The main character and narrator of the novel, ∆-503, lives in this terrifying place. When we get to know him, it is clearly visible that he is satisfied with his situation. It plays an important role in society and I am happy to submit myself to this order. However, over time, he will begin to notice that the world he knows is not as perfect as it seems.
Criticism of totalitarianism
While reading it is difficult not to draw attention to the piercing of My criticism of the totalitarian regime. Although many heroes do not necessarily realize how terrible their lives are, the reader sees it almost immediately. The literary heirs of Zamiatin can be noticed just as quickly. Books such as New Brave World , 1984 , or Zajdel’s novels convey the same ideas. We were the earliest of these few works, and it certainly influenced later writers. At the same time, it is worth emphasizing that Huxley, Orwell and Zajdel have created better and more interesting novels.
Zamiatin wrote his work in the years 1920-1921. During this period, he only knew a taste of what totalitarianisms later did to Europe. Despite this, he quite accurately described the numerous mechanisms that appeared in the following decades and which, unfortunately, are still visible here and there. His novel can therefore be treated as a warning and we regret that we did not listen to it.
Deficiencies
My is undoubtedly an important and good book. At present, however, there are some shortcomings in it. First of all, apart from the main character, the other characters are not well developed. The novel would certainly benefit if several other people important to the plot gained more than one dimension.
A certain disadvantage for the modern reader may also be the way of narrating. The novel reads quite slowly. It may not be boring, but at times it comes close to that limit. This is certainly influenced by the language, but also – and perhaps even above all – by the way ∆-503 describes events. This form, essentially a memoir, is not the most fascinating.
Impressions
There is a fairly in-depth analysis by a translator at the end of the book. Although it is a more difficult reading, it is worth breaking through. Adam Pomorski broadly describes both the situation in which the novel was written and its influence on later authors.
You have to do justice and to recognize Yevgen Zamiatinowi We as a great work of literature SF. It is not the best book that has ever been written, nor is it the most interesting of the anti-utopias that criticize totalitarianism, but it is nevertheless a valuable piece of reading that is good to know. One should also appreciate the insight of the author, who quite accurately extrapolated the world he knows and foresaw which directions the inappropriate government might take.
