History Literature / We

The entire book is [[FictionalDocument a fictional diary]] written by the protagonist, D-503, a citizen of the totalitarian One State. (Literally in Russian: "United State", "Unified State" or "Wholesome State".) It's ruled by a Big Brother-like figure known as the Benefactor. People are called "numbers" and lead a highly math- and logic-centered (read: StrawVulcan) existence. Everything is arranged via rigid timetables, down to sex -- and because sex is brought down to a purely logical activity, EternalSexualFreedom is the norm. "Every number", the Benefactor states, "belongs to every other number", and monogamy and irrational love are strongly discouraged as a result.

The entire book is [[FictionalDocument a fictional diary]] written by the protagonist, D-503, a citizen of the totalitarian One State. (Literally in Russian: "United State", "Unified State" or "Wholesome State".) It's ruled by a Big Brother-like figure known as the Benefactor. People are called "numbers" and lead [[StrawVulcan a highly math- and logic-centered]] existence. Everything is arranged via rigid timetables, down to sex -- and because sex is brought down to a purely logical activity, EternalSexualFreedom is the norm. "Every number", the Benefactor states, "belongs to every other number", and monogamy and irrational love are strongly discouraged as a result.

The entire book is [[FictionalDocument a fictional diary]] written by the protagonist, D-503, a citizen of the totalitarian One State. (Literally in Russian: "United State", "Unified State" or "Wholesome State".) It's ruled by a Big Brother-like figure known as the Benefactor. People are called "numbers" and lead a highly math- and logic-centered (read: StrawVulcan) existence. Everything is arranged via rigid timetables, down to sex -- and because sex is brought down to a purely logical activity, EternalSexualFreedom is the norm. "Every number", the Benefactor states, "belongs to every other number", and monogamy and irrational love are strongly discouraged as a result.

* FreeLoveFuture: Yes, "every number belongs to every other number," but everyone is issued only so many sex tickets based on their hormone levels, and sex without a ticket is outlawed. The worst of 2 opposite {{dystopian edict}}s!

* FreeLoveFuture: Yes, "every number belongs to every other number," but everyone is issued so many sex tickets based on their hormone levels, and sex without a ticket is outlawed. The worst of 2 opposite {{dystopian edict}}s!

* AbhorrentAdmirer: U, to D.

* CityInABottle
* LesCollaborateurs: [[spoiler: D-503 becomes one at the end.]]

* RageWithinTheMachine
* LaResistance: The Mephi.

The entire book is [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis a fictional diary]] written by the protagonist, D-503, a citizen of the totalitarian One State. (Literally in Russian: "United State", "Unified State" or "Wholesome State".) It's ruled by a Big Brother-like figure known as the Benefactor. People are called "numbers" and lead a highly math- and logic-centered (read: StrawVulcan) existence. Everything is arranged via rigid timetables, down to sex -- and because sex is brought down to a purely logical activity, EternalSexualFreedom is the norm. "Every number", the Benefactor states, "belongs to every other number", and monogamy and irrational love are strongly discouraged as a result.

* AfterTheEnd: D-503 states that the One State was established after a 200-year war caused by shortage of natural resources. (Bizarrely, it also makes food out of oil. Perhaps in Zamyatin's time, oil wasn't considered a resource that could ever come to shortage?)
** This could be just propaganda. The pristine wilderness outside the Green Wall doesn't fit a supposedly post-apocalyptic world. But of course, a totalitarian government would want its people to ''believe'' that it was their only hope of survival.

* MeaningfulName: The woman who rebels against a society where IndividualityIsIllegal is named '''I'''-330.

* TheSpock: D-503 in the beginning; [[spoiler: and he returns to this state in the end as well.]]

* StrawVulcan: The One State is apparently a PlanetOfHats of Straw Vulcans; D-503 experiences a LogicBomb in the form of the square root of -1, which he considers unfitting for a mathematically rigorous world.
** One should also consider that the use of (-1)^0.5 is not quite right when it comes to mathematics, though it will only be evident to (and matter for) people with at least a college education.
** Plus, as a mathematician, D-503 knows that if you multiply ''i'' by ''i'', then you result in the completely rational integer -1. Probably explains his CharacterDevelopment.

* RomanticismVsEnlightenment: Very romantic, as the novel presents a technocratic state that controls the populace by stifling human imagination and creativity.

Eight months after reading ''We'', Creator/GeorgeOrwell sat down and started writing ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' as a direct cultural translation of the story. Both Orwell and Creator/KurtVonnegut (who based ''Literature/PlayerPiano'' on ''We'') have accused AldousHuxley of stealing the plot of ''We'' for ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', although Huxley always denied it. Creator/AynRand's ''Literature/{{Anthem}}'' is uncannily similar to ''We''. Last but not least, ''We'' heavily influenced ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' in all its campy glory, so much that it could very well be considered an over-the-top ''We: TheMovie''.

Eight months after reading ''We'', Creator/GeorgeOrwell sat down and started writing ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' as a direct cultural translation of the story. Both Orwell and Creator/KurtVonnegut (who based ''PlayerPiano'' on ''We'') have accused AldousHuxley of stealing the plot of ''We'' for ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', although Huxley always denied it. Creator/AynRand's ''Literature/{{Anthem}}'' is uncannily similar to ''We''. Last but not least, ''We'' heavily influenced ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' in all its campy glory, so much that it could very well be considered an over-the-top ''We: TheMovie''.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: D-503 proudly reflects how an industrial accident got a score of people incinerated and none of their colleagues so much as flinched or hesitated for a moment.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: D-503 proudly reflects how an industrial accident got a score of people incinerated and none of their colleagues so much as flinched or hesitated for a moment.

* LaResistance: The Mephi.
* LesCollaborateurs: [[spoiler: D-503 becomes one at the end.]]

* ScienceMarchesOn: Latest researches describe people who actually lost or innately don't have fantasy. In fact, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia aphantasiacs]] don't behave as creepy zombie robots.

One of the earliest known {{Dystopia}} novels, written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1921 and predating ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' (1932), ''Literature/{{Anthem}}'' and ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' (1949), which it directly inspired. It's also notable for being the first work banned by [[MediaWatchdog Goskomizdat]], not published in the Soviet Union until 1988, and some part of the description of the One State read as frighteningly similar to Stalinism -- eight years before it began to take shape. (The Soviets especially didn't like the book's implication that theirs was not the ''final'', destined-for-success revolution.)

One of the earliest known {{Dystopia}} novels, written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1921 and predating both ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' (1932) and ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' (1949), which it directly inspired. It's also notable for being the first work banned by [[MediaWatchdog Goskomizdat]], not published in the Soviet Union until 1988, and some parts of the description of the One State read as frighteningly similar to Stalinism -- eight years before it began to take shape. (The Soviets especially didn't like the book's implication that theirs was not the ''final'', destined-for-success revolution.)

* BittersweetEnding or BolivianArmyEnding, depending on how you see the odds; [[spoiler: D-503 is basically gone as a person, but LaResistance may well win after all.]]

* FreeLoveFuture ''and'' NoSexAllowed: Yes, "every number belongs to every other number," but everyone is issued so many sex tickets based on their hormone levels, and sex without a ticket is outlawed. The worst of 2 opposite {{dystopian edict}}s!

Eight months after reading ''We'', Creator/GeorgeOrwell sat down and started writing ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' as a direct cultural translation of the story. Both Orwell and Creator/KurtVonnegut (who based ''PlayerPiano'' on ''We'') have accused AldousHuxley of stealing the plot of ''We'' for ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', although Huxley always denied it. Creator/AynRand's ''{{Anthem}}'' is uncannily similar to ''We''. Last but not least, ''We'' heavily influenced ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' in all its campy glory, so much that it could very well be considered an over-the-top ''We: TheMovie''.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Latest researches describe people who actually lost or innately don't have fantasy. In fact, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia aphantasiacs] don't behave as creepy zombie robots.

* {{Dystopia}}: One of the earliest known examples (although Creator/JackLondon's lesser-known ''Literature/TheIronHeel'' predates it by over a decade). It is widely considered to be one of three TropeCodifiers of the genre, alongside ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' and ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', both of which it predated, and the latter of which is acknowledged [[WordOfGod by its own author]] to be a direct cultural translation of this work for Western audiences. (Many literary scholars believe ''We'' to have influenced ''Brave New World'' as well).

* {{Dystopia}}: Possibly the TropeMaker.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: D-503 proudly reflects how an industrial accident got a score of people incinerated and none of their colleauges so much as flinched or hesitated for a moment.

One of the earliest known {{Dystopia}} novels, written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1921 and predating both ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' (1932) and ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' (1949), which it directly inspired. It's also notable for being the first work banned by [[MediaWatchdog Goskomizdat]], not published in the Soviet Union until 1988, and some parts of the description of the One State read as scaringly similar to Stalinism -- eight years before it began to take shape. (The Soviets especially didn't like the book's implication that theirs was not the ''final'', destined-for-success revolution.)

Zamyatin himself was, in turn, influenced primarily by HGWells, whose works he had previously edited in Russian.

Eight months after reading ''We'', Creator/GeorgeOrwell sat down and started writing ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' as a direct cultural translation of the story. Both Orwell and KurtVonnegut (who based ''PlayerPiano'' on ''We'') have accused AldousHuxley of stealing the plot of ''We'' for ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', although Huxley always denied it. Creator/AynRand's ''{{Anthem}}'' is uncannily similar to ''We''. Last but not least, ''We'' heavily influenced ''{{Equilibrium}}'' in all its campy glory, so much that it could very well be considered an over-the-top ''We: TheMovie''.