Published: 23 Dec 2025
We
- Release date: 1924
- Genre: Fiction, Classics, Science-Fiction, Dystopian
- Themes/Moods: Medium-paced, Challenging, Dark, Reflective
- Rating: 4/5
- Originally written: ~2022
The setting though is fascinating, the glass panopticon One State, run on mathematical principles, running a seemingly perfect society than functions due to the elimination of almost all individual freedom (expect for a few hours per day, dedicated to ‘personal activities’).
The Taylorization of human society is certainly prescient given the time it was written, and the conclusion of that there can never be any “final revolution” also.
The writing style is certainly unique, with the story being told in a series of diary entries, with lots of broken dialogue to let the reader infer, and some very poetic uses of mathematics as imagery. On the other hand, some bizarre descriptions of people in writing, and perhaps that, along with said totalitarian society feeling like it was brought down a little too easily, knock my enjoyment a bit (the G. Zilboorg translation is I read also felt a little rough, but neither here nor there).
I really should just read 1984, and Brave New World, and all the other books this inevitably inspired to compare and contrast, but We itself feels like a book that is very solid, consise and worthwhile artefact to seek out.
