We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Natasha Randall; Bruce Sterling

Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin; Natasha Randall; Bruce Sterling
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Literature, 20th Century, European Literature, Science Fiction, v.5, Amazon.com, Retail, Russia
ISBN: 9780812974621
Publisher: Modern Library
Published: 1952-01-01T15:00:00+00:00

RECORD TWENTY

KEYWORDS: A Discharge. The Material of an Idea. The Cli f of Zero.

It was a discharge—that’s the most suitable word for it. Now I see that it had been just like an electrical discharge. Over the last few days my pulse had been getting drier, quicker, and more strained as the poles drew toward each other. There was a dry crackle. Another millimeter later: an explosion. And then, silence.

I am now very quiet and empty inside like a building after everyone has left, and you are lying alone, sick, and you can hear the distinct metallic rapping of your thoughts so clearly.

It may be that this “discharge” has finally cured me of my torturous “soul” and that I have become one of us again. At the very least, without all that sickliness, I can now mentally picture O on the steps of the Cube, I can picture her inside the Gas Bell Jar. And if she names my name, there, in the Operation Room, let her. In my final moment I will piously and gratefully kiss the punishing hand of the Benefactor. I have the right to receive punishment according to my relationship to the One State—and I will not cede this right. None of us ciphers should ever dare to refuse this, our single, only—and, as such, valuable—right.

… Thoughts rapping quietly, metallically, distinctly: a mysterious aero carries me to the blue heights of my favorite abstractions. And here in this cleanest sharp air, I see my rationale about my “rights” burst with a light pop, like a pneumatic tire. And I can see clearly that these ideas about “rights” were merely a throwback from a ridiculous superstition of the Ancients.

There are clay ideas and there are ideas that have been carved out of gold or out of our precious glass over the ages. And in order to determine the material of an idea, you need only drip strong-acting acid on it. Even the Ancients knew one such acid: reductio ad finem. That is what they called it, apparently. But they were afraid of this poison and they preferred to see anything, be it a clay sky or a toy sky, rather than a blue nothing. We—may the Benefactor bless us—are adults, and don’t need toys.

So, take the idea of “rights” and drip some acid on it. Even the most adult of the Ancients knew: the source of a right is power, a right is a function of power. Take two trays of a weighing scale: put a gram on one, and on the other, put a ton. On one side is the “I,” on the other is the “WE,” the One State. Isn’t it clear? Assuming that “I” has the same “rights” compared to the State is exactly the same thing as assuming that a gram can counterbalance a ton. Here is the distribution: a ton has rights, a gram has duties. And this is the natural path from insignificance to greatness: forget that you are a gram,

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