Yevgeny Zamyatin: Difference between revisions

''We'' has often been discussed as a [[political satire]] aimed at the [[police state]] of the [[Soviet Union]]. There are many other dimensions, however. It may variously be examined as (1) a polemic against the optimistic scientific socialism of [[H. G. Wells]], whose works Zamyatin had previously published, and with the heroic verses of the (Russian) [[Proletarian Poets]], (2) as an example of Expressionist theory, and (3) as an illustration of the archetype theories of [[Carl Jung]] as applied to literature.

[[George Orwell]] believed that [[Aldous Huxley]]'s ''[[Brave New World]]'' (1932) must be partly derived from ''We''.<ref>Orwell (1946).</ref> However, in a 1962 letter to [[Christopher Collins]], Huxley says that he wrote ''Brave New World'' as a reaction to H.G. Wells' utopias long before he had heard of ''We''.<ref name="Russell, p. 13">Russell, p. 13.</ref><ref name="NR1">{{cite news |url=http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/08/18 |publisher=WNYC |title=Leonard Lopate Show |date=18 August 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822151248/http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/08/18 |archive-date=22 August 2006 }} (radio interview with ''We'' translator Natasha Randall)</ref> [[Kurt Vonnegut]] said that in writing ''[[Player Piano (novel)|Player Piano]]'' (1952) he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of ''Brave New World'', whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's ''We''."<ref>[[Playboy]] [http://www.playboy.com/magazine/interview_archive/kurt-vonnegut/kurt-vonnegut.html interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210155908/http://www.playboy.com/magazine/interview_archive/kurt-vonnegut/kurt-vonnegut.html |date=10 February 2009 }}, July 1973.</ref>

In 1994, ''We'' received a [[Prometheus Award]] in the [[Libertarian Futurist Society]]'s "Hall of Fame" category.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lfs.org/awards.htm |title=Libertarian Futurist Society: Prometheus Awards |access-date=22 March 2011}}</ref>