Didn’t appear in russia till 1988 because Soviet cultural authorities had a nose for heresy second only to the curia herself

The benefactor is a pretty transparentl stand-in for Joseph Stalin thus resulting in some fun publishing antics akin to The Gulag Archipelago

see also his essay on the infinity of revolution like numbers

kissing her then telling her about the beauty of the square, the cube, and the straight line. D-503 my goat

D-503 is a mathematician in the 26th century assigned to date O-90, but in love with I-33, friend/jealous of the poet R-13

Muses about how people lived in isolation before the 200 years war. Presumably they must have had tails.

3

Can't wait for everything to be set in the table of hours, looking forward to the rigidity of the table of seconds.

Refuses nuptials with O-90 because it's not the right day yet

4

People are numbers, not names. Not just that their names are numbers, but their very identities are these identifiers.

D-503 finds it ridiculous that government of One state (population 10 million) didn't proscribe life / sex. People lived like animals instead of by science

Respected numbers! Our archeologists have recently dug up a certain twentieth-century book in which the ironic author tells the story of a savage and a barometer. The savage noticed that every time the barometer indicated ‘rain/ it actually rained. And since he wanted it to rain, he picked out exactly enough mercury from the column to leave it at “rain.’” (On the screen—a savage, dressed in feathers, picking out the mercury. Laughter.) “You are laughing. But does it not seem to you that the European of that period was even more ridiculous? Like the savage, the European wanted ‘rain’—rain with a capital letter, algebraic rain. But all he did was stand before the barometer like a limp wet hen. The savage, at least, had more courage and energy and logic, if only primitive logic He had been able to discover that there was a connection between effect and cause. Picking out the mercury, he was able to take the first step on that great road along which …

5

Describes the One state's conquest first of hunger, the algebraic summit of existence, before attacking the next greatest foe: love – defeated via systemization.

Well. One of the ancient sages said a clever thing—accidentally, of course—“Love and Hunger rule the world.” Ergo: to conquer the world, man must conquer its rulers. Our forebears succeeded, at heavy cost, in conquering Hunger; I am speaking of the Great Two Hundred Years’ War—the war between the city and the village. The primitive peasants, prompted perhaps by religious prejudice, stubbornly clung to their “bread.” * But in the year 85 before the founding of the One State, our present food, a petroleum product, was developed. True, only 0.2 of the earth’s population survived the war. But, cleansed of its millennial filth, how radiant the face of the earth has become! And those two tenths survived to taste the heights of bliss in the shining palace of the One State.

6

the personal hour is set aside for unforeseen consequences (implied: not leisure).

Describes his aversion to communal living and jealousy of other's sex-day ticket.

7

Has an unscheduled encounter with I-330 where she says something about knowing the "real" him before disappearing from the apartment. He chalks this up to something similar to that ancient sickness of dreaming

9

Describes the execution of a poet who dared "blaspheme" (mildly) the One state:

Poet, mocker (laughter, he wrote, is the most devastating weapon), heretical fighter for freedom and independence in art and in life, Zamyatin was a consistent enemy of all canonized ideas, all coercion, all the purveyors of “compulsory salvation.” He mercilessly attacked and ridiculed the emerging totalitarianism, its fawning mediocrities, its reign of brutality, its violation and destruction of the free and creative human spirit He foresaw it all: the terror, the betrayals, the dehumanization; the ubiquitous “guardians”; the control of thought and action; the constant brainwashing which resulted either in unquestioning automatons or in hypocrites who lied for the sake of survival; the demand that everybody worship the Benefactor, with his huge hand that literally “liquidates,” reduces all who dissent, all who passionately want to be themselves to a puddle of clear water. He also foresaw the subjection of the arts. His hero boasts: “We have harnessed the once wild element of poetry. Today, poetry is no

R13 responsible for versifying the verdict of the execution of the man earlier

13

"all women are lips, nothing but lips"

There are two modes for D-503 the outward presenting one which praises the one-state and says shit like this^^ and then the interior human one which is less rational, more emotional. ironically, the emotional one gives way to these pangs of anger at women which then manifest outwardly as complaints about violations of order longer the idle, impudent whistling of a nightingale; poetry is civic service, poetry is useful.” And not only must the people (“numbers”) in this apocalyptic state of ritualized totalitarianism attend the gala ceremony of extermination of every heretic by the Benefactor, but a poet is obliged to recite an ode celebrating the wisdom and great justice of the executioner.

14

Hooks up with O (impregnating her), but lets something hurtful slip out about his preference for I-3300. Blames I for taking R-13 and O-90 away from him.

Things that are controlled are "clear" like the glass that everything is made out of. I-330, on the other hand, a mystery, is opaque.

15

He's working on a spaceship called the Integral

Generally writing for other planetary beings to be colonized by his ship (earlier he lamented the difficulty of not writing for the past or present audiences, but knew unknown ones)

The coital cubes are opaque – that's the only time privacy is permitted

ego = "I" = i = sqrt(-1), anethema to One state

16

finds his way into medical (thinking he might instead be caught up in operations for skipping work to bang I-330) and throws himself at a doctor saying something about dreams & insomnia. Dr says:

“You’re in a bad way! Apparently, you have developed a soul.”

22

"we" comes from God, "I" the devil.

At the normally unanimous elections, some few thousand people dissent against the reelection of the benefactor and insanity/a riot breaks out. D-503 sees R-13 carrying I-33 away, as well as O-90 (who is now pregnant with his child), getting just about trampled to death. He pursues I, hits R, and is somehow at peace with the disorder because at least he's clutcher her (I) to his chest.

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