Towards the Single State globalized ....

Leafing through an old anthology, "science fiction masters", unearthed at the bookshop on the corner, I discovered with astonishment the existence of a novel precursor of the major works of Aldous Huxley ("the best of the world") and George Orwell ("1984"), entitled "We," and written by a certain Eugene Zamyatin, which were inspired two British writers for their own dystopia ... Damn! How is that possible?!? The investigation begins ...

Eugene Zamyatin was born in Russia in 1884 and had a naval engineer training, making him a scientist before becoming a writer. His rebellious spirit worth him being imprisoned twice: by the Tsar in 1906, then by the Bolsheviks in 1922. He wrote "we," in 1923, but the book will be immediately banned from publication in the USSR. Victim of continual red tape, the writer then addressed Stalin in 1931 to ask for permission to emigrate abroad, he gets permission ... Zamyatin moved to Paris where he died in 1937 at the age of 53 years. The first French translation of his book in 1929.

The action of "we," takes place at the XXVI century, at a time when, after the war of 200 years reign on Earth for 1000 years the United State, totalitarian regime headed by the Benefactor which must obey the inhabitants become identified by their serial numbers (vowel for girls, for boys consonant). The narrator is so called D-503, it is the builder of the Integral spacecraft designed to "submit to the benevolent yoke of reason all unknown beings, inhabitants of other planets, which may still be found wild freedom "...

The numbers live transparent glass houses and eat synthetic food, the family has been abolished and reproduction is prohibited. Their daily schedule is governed strictly by the tables of the Hours, which also organize Sexual time through a registration and pink ticket system. The free time is occupied in close order to march to the sound of the anthem of the Single State played by the Music Factory .... Liberty has disappeared in favor of Happiness, because Liberty is criminal and "the only way to deliver man crime is to deliver the Liberty "... Any suspicious behavior should be terminated within 48 hours of the Guardians Office. Criminals are then arrested and interrogated by the Bell Pneumatics, then executed during ceremonies where after reciting poems in public, they are passed to the Machine. The numbers who feel "sick", have dreams or have incorrect thoughts, can of themselves to go to the Medical Office where they will experience the Great Operation designed to abolish the imagination. Everything goes well until one day the narrator D-503 meets I-330, a seductive and rebellious woman who learns that another world exists beyond the Green Wall ....

George Orwell reproached Huxley for writing a plagiarism "We others" with his novel "Brave New World", but the same complaint will be sent to Orwell, accused of having played with "1984" a simple English version of work of Zamyatin. If there is no doubt that the two British writers have read the book of their Russian counterpart before writing them, it also appears that they have not retained in the same aspects. Huxley will prove sensitive to the scientific nature of the organization of a hedonistic society, dedicated to the pursuit of happiness formatted, and will focus on biotechnology, cloning and genetic manipulation. In "We," the master to think D-503 is the inventor of Taylorism Taylor, while in "a perfect world" Bernard Marx refers to the car manufacturer Ford: Plagiarism or coincidence? Huxley also borrow Zamyatin to the idea of ​​an external world still living in the wild that exploit further. For his part, Orwell rather retain the totalitarian nature of the political organization of the United State. The Beneficent ad Big Brother and the Guardians Office prefigures the Ministry of Truth. Orwell also borrow the idea of ​​paradoxical discourse already present in the works of Zamyatin. "Freedom is crime" or "force is the source of law" will become in "1984" the famous formula: "Freedom is Slavery" and "Ignorance is strength."

"We," remains a book with coded writing, hard to read, full of color and poetry, but a disturbing poetry that offers a surreal vision of a world that we are not entirely unknown. The political evolution of the USSR show that fears Zamyatin were not unfounded and that in a global society that always grants more rights to goods and capital to individuals, they remain more than ever to news ...

Orwell said "barbarism can offer different faces." To which Huxley added "the ecstasy of the will to power can be achieved just as effectively by the spectacle of men and women conditioned to love their servitude as by the men and women forced into show obedience by fear "...

The United State is back and we do not even realize in!