Читаем без скачивания Человеческая природа в литературной утопии. «Мы» Замятина - Бретт Кук

this and he therefore automatically becomes an accomplice in it. Gradually he realized that he is falling ill of the disease called „love" which is treated at some length in the ancient books of the XXth century. Things are complicated by the fact that D-503 has had relations with another woman 0-90. And here we learn that JEALOUSY is still a reality and not simply the worn out theses of XX-th century novels. 0-90 is jealous of Y-330. Worse still she wishes to have a child by D-503 although she has no right to do so because she does not come up to the State health standard for mothers. In a moment of unpardonable weakness and despair D-503 agrees to give her this child and the „Benefaction Machine" will soon punish O-90’s crime…

The Benefactor is the head of the state and he is elected every year. He executes all criminals personally. One of the execution is shown, that of a poet who has dared to write ironic verses about the Benefactor….The execution is carried out by means of a dis-association of the body matter taking less than a second, of the human being nothing remains but a little heap of cinders and a small pool of pure water.

However, meetings between D-503 and the mysterious Y-330 continue. One of these meetings takes place in an old house which has been retained as a museum of the XX-th century. Y-330 receives D-503 in a XX-th century period dress instead of the ordinary uniform. She asks to turn his back while she changes into her uniform in front of an antique wardrobe which a mirror door. He hears the squeak of the wardrobe door and turns to take Y-330 into his arms but she has suddenly disappeared in the most inexplicable fashion.

For several days he hunts for her sadly, wishing beyond everything to see her again. In the meantime the rocket has been finished and is being tested out at the factory. There is a dramatic meeting between 0-90 who is expecting her child and D-503. Overcome with misery D-503 goes back to the room in the XX-th century museum where Y-330 had so mysteriously disappeared. He opens the door of the wardrobe and suddenly the floor beneth his feet gives away so that he finds himself in an underground room. He presumes that it must have formed part of the old XX-th century underground railway system but all of a sudden he notices that it is lighted by electricity and must therefore be inhabited. He goes to a door from which the noise of voices comes, he knocks and a doctor comes out – the same whom D-503 had recently consulted with regard to his „Love" disease. The doctor, without explanation leads him back by a secret way into the courtyard of the museum. Finally the great day of the Benefactor’s election arrives. The day ends with a scandal unprecedented in the history of the new humanity: instead of the purely formal ceremony of voting in which the ballots have always been unanimous the election is impeded by an opposition vote. A small section of the public votes against the candidate. In the midst of the resulting panic, D-503 again meets his love Y-330. She promises to explain everything to him and a few days afterwards he again descends with her into the same underground room where he had met the doctor.

At the other end of the underground room there is a long passage ending in a door which gives entry to the other world outside the „green Wall“ It is a tumultuous elemental world, inhabited by birds and thickly clad in vegetation. Here too, to the great surprise of D-503 live men who have existed for centuries independent of the mechanical civilization on the other side of the „Green Wall“…

The inhabitants of this other world are always happy and good humored. They enjoy life. They eat the ancient „bread and drink“ wine and they wear no clothes but are covered with a thick coat of shiny hair rather like that of the horse and very beautiful to behold.

Y-330 conceives of a perfect human happiness in the synthesis of this elemental life with that of the mecanised civilisation behind the „Green Wall“. She tells D-503 of a conspiracy which she has organised with the idea of undermining the power of the „Benefactor“. The conspirators hope to gain possession of the interplanetary rocket while it is on a trial flight in the stratosphere in order to use it as a weapon with which to fight the mecanised state. D-503 cannot bring himself to denounce the conspirators for Y-330 would certainly be the first to be condemned to death…

The rocket flight takes place. Y-330 is on board in the capacity of radio-operator but at the very moment when the conspirators are about to seize the rocket their plot is discovered and the machine remains in the hands of the state. Y-330 naturally believes that D-503 has betrayed them and he realizes that she is probably lost to him for ever. And indeed he has, quite unwittingly been the cause of the plots failure for he has recorded the various exciting events of the last few days in his diary…

The next day the State Newspaper published the discovery of the plot and also the details of the „Major Operation“: one of the State scientists has discovered a method of destroying the imagination in mens minds by exposing certain brain centres to X rays. Once the imagination is destroyed men will never again attempt to liberate themselves from the great one hundred per cent mecanical happiness. And they will therefore be truly happy. It is announced that every single inhabitant of the mechanised state must undergo this operation and force will be applied to those who resist in order that they shall be happy even against their wish.

However it turns out that not everyone wishes to be