Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We"

It is often stated that one ought not fit theories to their beliefs, but beliefs to their theories; a logical sentiment. The truth is concrete; it cannot be formulated falsely. The truth can be covered, hidden, or distorted, but the truth will always remain verily so regardless of one's beliefs. If a person creates truths to fit their beliefs instead fitting beliefs around the truth, all forms of foolishness might ensue. This is found evident in Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We", as the protagonist, D-503, attempts to formulate all brands of equations to support the most comforting beliefs his twisting mind generates. Example: D-503 attempts to create a formula to explain love, a concept he had yet to explore in his life. His entire perception of the world hinges upon the uselessness, meaninglessness, and downright harrowing dangerousness of love. D-503 does not understand his newfound emotions, love inclusive, and therefore attempts to dismiss them. If they are illogical they could not possibly fit into his exact, cold, concrete mathematical world, as such existences as OneState could never harbor irrationality. So instead of understanding this frightening love and crystalizing beliefs to it, he wildly attempts to create a formula expressing love as the end-all equivalent of death, a theory he constructs to support his beliefs.

My favorite passage from Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" would be:  "Every three seconds the mighty tail of the INTEGRAL will spew out flame and gasses into cosmic space, and then off it will fly, the fiery Tamerlane of happiness...." I, personally, felt specific affinity toward this passage due to the hypocriticism of this statement. The protagonist, D-503, progresses the novel repeating and professing his belief that past societies, and all the peoples encompassed within them, were savage and pathetic, yet he compares the INTEGRAL, his entire life's work and his society's greatest achievement, to an ancient conqueror, one who existed within those savage, primeval, and forthright pathetic times. One can understand the meaning of his statement, that the INTEGRAL will take to space and conquer all peoples and places with the happiness it brings, but regardless, he is actually either acknowledging the greatness of some parts of the ancient world or he is tearing down all that his society has worked for. Either way, D-503 is contradicting all of his past monologues (a statement toward either madness or major character development), and is equating his beloved and all-important, perfect society to the savage, pathetic ancient ones passed.

I did not personally like this novel because I felt it was very unrelatable, often referencing important objects or ideas in the society, but generally refusing to explain them until much further into the novel; I felt the protagonist, D-503, was far too erratic, which although it aided in creating his character's descent into madness and paranoia, it was often distracting from the actual plot and made his thoughts and monologues intermittently discernable at best.