Religion and culture

Here’s a clip from South Park on the subject of religion’s role in society. I think there are some interesting similarities between the view of Richard Dawkins (as expressed in the show) and that of the One State and D-503.

(Warning: the clip contains some salty language and probably isn’t safe for work.)

National Geographic brain widget

If you want to know what part of D-503’s brain is the seat of his imagination (and is in danger of being cut out) and other interesting grey-matter facts, check out National Geographic’s nifty interactive brain guide.

via Boing Boing

Sharpness

There seem to be a lot of references to sharp objects in descriptions especially in entry 13, though such descriptions are prevalent throughout the book.

"Finished. I was already late for work. I hated her. But I had to prove to her...
At the corner, through the white fog, blood-a slit, as with a sharp knife -- her lips."
"I silently stared at her lips. All women are lips, nothing but lips. Some pink, firmly round -- a ring, a tender protection against the whole world. But these: a second ago they did not exist, and now -- a knife slit -- and sweet blood will drip down."

"And a tiny man, the thinnest I had ever seen. All of him seemed cut out of paper, and no matter which way he turned, there was nothing but a profile, sharply honed: the nose a sharp blade, lips like scissors."

"We broke from the earth and floated away. And everything followed us: the rosy-golden fog, the sun, the finest blade of the doctor's profile, suddenly so dear. Formerly, everything had turned around the sun; now I knew -- everything was turning around me -- slowly, blissfully, with tightly closed eyes...."


There's a lot more but there's no point in listing them all. I was wondering what everyone thought the point of so many "sharp" references is? Surely, with so many references there must be a point. I was thinking that it represented the cutting away of D503's final defenses against the new world I330 is trying to open him up to because the end of this chapter is when they finally have sex in the ancient house. Also, earlier in the entry when they are walking to get a doctor's note, D503 writes " The entire world was a single unencompassable woman, and we were in its very womb, unborn, ripening joyfully. And it was clear to me-ineluctably clear-that the sun, the fog, the rose, and the gold were all for me..."

D-503 is HOT

D-503 is hot. I admit it. I have a thing for nerds. Some girls like a man who can speak French in their ear, but give me a man who can ramble off the first 50 digits of Pi. There’s nothing like a guy who can tell me the explanation for Fermat’s last theorem or who can justify his conjectures on the Sierpinski problem. I bet D-503 could do all these things and this makes D-503 hot.

D-503 is cute too. I don’t really know what he looks like but I think he is pretty adorable. I love how he is so vulnerable with us, sharing his life and his thoughts with us. Poor guy. He’s all torn up these days, struggling with his identity, struggling with “X”, struggling with his “soul.”

I know I’m being a little silly by saying that D-503 is cute and hot. I guess I was just trying to get your attention or maybe it was a way to be creative or something. I don’t know about you, but I can relate to D-503 and his struggle. It may be hard for us to see because we are inside of it, but we too live in a “One State.” This may sound a little extreme or kind of wacky, but I think our society forces us to think and be a certain way. I struggle with who I know myself to be and who society thinks I should be. I’m sure you struggle too.

MATH BLOOPERS TAKE II

To continue with Lucia’s valiant effort, I wanted to point out some other mathematical horrors from the novel. The simplification of math, trivializing it to the concepts of arithmetic and creating an entire society based on these basic mathematical principles is insulting and demeaning. Math goes beyond arithmetic, and this type of society is more so descriptive of one created by accountants.

I would like to now quote a line that was particularly ridiculous from a mathematical point of view: “the equation was very complex, with transcendental values.” Pg. 34 Firstly, I think it is important to note that a transcendental value is simply a number that is not a solution to any non-zero polynomial with rational coefficients. There are a few types of transcendental numbers that are known, amongst them the most popular (e and pi). However, almost all real numbers are transcendental – almost all is an actual mathematical term, by the way. Now that we have a better understanding of what a transcendental number is, we can actually look at an extremely complicated equation!

e ^ (i*pi) + 1 = 0. Not only does it have transcendental numbers, it even has an imaginary number, or as the book so elegantly puts it, the irrational number “i”. I know this doesn’t seem very complicated… it’s not.

I don’t want to get too intense, but I have one more point to make about the sentence. The word complex is also ill posed… it is an actual mathematical term and a complex equation with transcendental values is not necessarily complicated. I’m not sure what the author meant by the word complex. But Lucia has already taken care of the poor use of English in describing the math.

MATH BLOOPERS

Perhaps as glaring as a misspelled word or a grammatical error is to some, the misuse of mathematical terminology in this book is hard for me to overlook. My friend Ana and I are both math majors, and while we were at first excited to learn about the integration (haha) of mathematics into the novel, We, we are rather disappointed with the contrived and often incorrect allusions to mathematical concepts.

Partially in response to an earlier blog entry, and partially because it has been haunting us since page 39, I would like to mention that i is NOT irrational! Irrational numbers, as correctly described, are a subset of the Real Numbers. i is an Imaginary number, and thus, not a Real number. Imaginary and irrational numbers are different. Quod Erat Demonstrandum (QED).

Zamyatin could have used the square root of 2 instead of the square root of negative 1 . Maybe it was a mistake in translation. Or maybe, the word “irrational” was used in the purely English sense to mean either illogical or unreasonable. Let me point out that in a novel whose essence is derived from double entendres of words applicable in daily speech that also have mathematical significance, it is dangerous to use “irrational” or “complex” lightly.

For more math bloopers, please stay tuned for Ana’s blog!

The Gods Must Be Crazy

While I was reading the first 20 entries of the book I sometimes thought of the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” which is a movie that chronicles the disruption a simple soda bottle has on a tribal society. Everyone in the tribal society was “happy” or maybe a better word content with their lives until the soda bottle falls from the sky. All of a sudden there is something new in the society and there is only one so it can’t be shared like everything else was before the bottle appeared. The bottle introduces to the society the forbidden word of We “mine.”

The novel shows that for a future society to be successful all notion of ownership must be erased. One of the greatest conflicts that surfaces amongst the characters is related to this forbidden word. The insanity of D-503 is partially blind jealousy at R and S and any other man who has been with I and his love for her ruins what he has with dear O. The ancient idea of the form of possession one human being had over another seemed to D-503 to have been stamped out with the regulated sexual meetings, the little pink coupons. In this way everything was fair or so he thought. I is like the soda bottle from the gods. The soda bottle disrupts the tribal community and I will do the same in the triangle between O, R and D-503. Like the movie too when the bottle is caste from “end of the world” to stop the fighting I foresee an ominous future for I.

One State Vs. United States

From page one of the reading of We, I started comparing the One State to the United States. Clearly, I was reading We in a cultural context. Even though I had read the introduction, I had a difficult time contextualizing the novel’s ideas for the time it was written. Therefore, I applied its ideas to today’s society in the U.S.

A similarity between the One State and the U.S. is that the Benefactor wants to spread the One State ideology of totalitarianism and mathematics to neighboring cities while the U.S. is striving to spread its ideology of democracy and freedom to countries that are under a different form of government.

A difference between the One State and the U.S. is that the One State has regulated lives and major consequences for deviant behavior (i.e. liquefaction). In the U.S. however, citizens choose their particular lifestyle and have minor consequences for deviance.

Another difference is that dance is considered an un-free motion in the One State. "Why is dance beautiful? Answer: because it is unfree motion, because the whole profound meaning of dance lies precisely in absolute, esthetic subordination, in ideal unfreedom." (p.4) Dancing is considered a free motion in the U.S. With hip/hop, break dancing, and the like, dancing is a form of art (not mathematics).

Poetry in the One State is about math and logical ideas while poetry from the U.S. is about emotions and abstract ideas. "Today, poetry is no longer the idle, impudent whistling of a nightingale; poetry is civic service, poetry is useful." (p.68)

Pi is Exactly Three!

The environment that is established in the One State is one of absolute certainty. Every aspect of every day, minus the Personal Hours, is meticulously orchestrated to provide for maximum efficiency and fluidity. The collective good outweighs the rights of the citizens to such an extent that those who are deemed as a threat to society are eliminated. Knowing this, it seems as if D-503 is slowly but surely becoming a threat to the entity that is the One State. He "[can no longer fulfill his obligations to the One State]" because of his confused state of being, which can be directly linked to his relationship with I-330 (58). D-503's transformation from a state of self-assurance to one of utter denial illustrates the conflict that he has between his old self and new self. On one hand, he has always been a model citizen who has lived to serve the One State. However, his newfound 'soul' has lead to him to become rather uncertain in a 'world' of absolutes. The emergence of S, who "[follows D-503 everyday like a shadow]" also raises suspicion as to what is to come (86). The fact that D-503 is being monitored and that he is beginning to show signs of noncompliance and individuality makes me wonder what significant events are on the horizon. What will D-503 choose to believe and what will the end result of that decision be? Will he be like Professor Fink from The Simpsons and challenge the realm of mathematical absolutes? Only time will tell. Glayvin!

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

I am not sure that I have ever been quite so alarmed while reading a book. As D-503 describes the One State more and more, this feeling of disgust rises within me. It is very strange as I am generally quite open-minded and even if I do not agree with something, I can usually understand where a person is coming from. I do understand somewhat of where the idea of the One State comes from and what would motivate people to create such a place, but perhaps it is the fact that it is an entire society on lock-down that bothers me. The way that the One State is governed is now widely accepted, but I am sure that when it was first formed, the ideas were only supported by a minority.

The book draws you into the One State so well, making it seem plausible that is the future for the Earth, which just makes it even more upsetting as it is something I refuse to accept for the future. Such concepts as only two hours of free time per day and only 15 minutes of intimate time with someone you are "registered to" just seems to go against all that I believe in and enjoy.

In any case, I suppose it is a good thing that I am so personally disturbed by this book as that is likely what the author intended, meaning she did her job quite well. It is just so hard for me to imagine eliminating anything from my life that was purely aesthetic or frivolous as they can sometimes be the most enjoyable aspects of life and save us from the monotony and stress of every day life.

Pink vs. Yellow

Throughout We, D503 describes different characters and objects as being a specific color, namely pink and yellow. In this novel, D believes there is an obvious conflict between the orderly and the chaotic. These two colors seem to illustrate how D feels about the observation.

The dawn sky is “rosy.” O-90 possesses “pink lips,” a “pink mouth,” a “circle of rosy arms,” and “pink attention.” D also describes her as “pink with pleasure.” At first meeting, S is depicted as having “pink wing-ears.” Even I-330 has her pink moments. In the Ancient House, D describes I’s breasts as “glowing pink.” D is pleased by all of these things. At the time, he is not made nervous by S’s presence, and though he finds I-330 annoying and questionably defiant, she still has some redeeming “pink” qualities. All of these observations relate to orderly qualities accepted by the One State.

In contrast, I-330, the Ancient House and the Green Wall bring about a lot of yellow images that make D uncomfortable. I’s “saffron-yellow dress,” is the first. Once D acknowledges that he is “ill,” he asserts that “all the days are one color-yellow,” a “parched” and “fiery” color. He sees a beast through the green wall with “yellow eyes.” Even the fence of the Ancient House is made up of “yellow teeth of ruined walls.” To us, yellow generally implies happiness and sunshine, but D sees the color and imperfect, perhaps the color of fire and anger or simply a discolored version of pure white.

O and D vs the One State

I find it interesting that O-90 and D-503 are both beginning to stray farther and farther from the society of One State. They both seem to, even though it is harder to see O's perspective, value the One State and want to be ideal members. It seems to me that emotional connections, or sexual connections, have an impact on how these two citizens of the One State move away from the beaten path. I-330 has a lot to do with D's regression while D has a lot to do with O's. O's connection with D has caused her to want to have a baby with D against the One States laws.

"But I want, I must have your child-give me a child and I will go..." (p. 112)

The fact that she knows D does not see her the way she sees him makes her want the baby to feel close to him. You get a sense of O's feelings for D when R says,

"With me, it is nothing, you know, merely a pink coupon, but with you..." (p.62)

Now, the way I has made D develop a soul, and caused him to break many of the One State laws, I think, is much more apparent, and there are examples throughout the book so far. I am not going to bother with siting any of them. It seems though, that O and D are both going down a path where one or both of them could be struck down by the mighty hand of the great Benefactor.

Freedom is Un-freedom

What exactly is freedom? Is it something that is inherently human, or is it something that we are taught? In WE freedom is frowned upon. D-503 talks about how he despises the “free time” in the daily schedule. He can’t wait for the day when every one of the 86400 seconds of a day are scheduled. Now, does “freedom” of D-503 mean the same thing as “freedom” does for us, of course not. D sees “freedom” as chaos. D sees freedom as the worst thing in the world. D strives for the ultimate “unfreedom”, the ultimate rationality. At first this seems like a bit crazy. Then I got thinking would it really be. If one wanted to insure freedom of people to do anything they wanted and insure freedom of life then an intense amount of government overview would be necessary. This makes sense and this close control of the government is exactly what the guardians do in WE. So the more freedom one wanted in this “perfect” society, the more government control would be necessary. This constant escalation of freedom would eventually lead to WE’s unfreedom. A time when the power of the government is so great that they could tell the people what freedom is, what freedom they wanted, and that freedom is not freedom at all ( in the book’s case at least). So at what point does freedom become chaos and mathematical rationality become the perfection of society? When does a free choice become a demanded choice? I hope the book tells a bit more of the One State’s history so it can possibly deal with some of these questions.

Physical alterations/robot parts

This book has been somewhat hard to keep up with because I don't understand most of the ways these people think. I don't recall reading anywhere specific where R outright says whether or not they have robotic components to them. There are a couple of entries that have interesting descriptions on a couple of specific characters.

First, on page 43, when R is telling D that he had to versify a court sentence. R says, "I looked at his tightly locked little valise, thinking. What is he turning over there, in that little box of his?" Second example is on page 61, once again during a conversation between R and D: "He frowned and rubbed the back of his head--that little box of his with its strange baggage that I did not understand." Is he being literal in these descriptions? Or is he simply referring to R's mind as a box? I couldn't really answer these questions for myself.

Another description like this one in the book that makes me lean towards the conclusion that he's being literal is on page 46 during the court sentence. R is describing the Benefactor, "So with these heavy hands, still calmly reposing on the knees. And it was clear-they were stone, and the knees were barely able to support their weight." This makes me think that these people definitely have body parts that aren't their own.

The last example I've come across so far is when R is in the underground tunnels under the Ancient House on page 86, "Or suddenly I feel that I must glance back, but it's impossible, no matter how I try, my neck is rigid, locked." Is it locked and rigid because he's so afraid of being in the dark tunnels and doesn't know what's going on? Or is he physically incapable of turning his head because his neck is really locked?

It makes me think that if some of these people have physical abnormalities that have been imposed upon them by the One State, how long before it is a requirement for everyone? Or, even more drastically, how long before they replace all humans with robots who can actually be programmed to do as the One State pleases?

Overall, I was confused about whether or not these descriptions are being literal and these people have been physically altered by the State, or if they were simply descriptions (which I doubt because R is so technical and straight to the point--for the most part).

The Ascendancy of Man in We: Humanity's Quest for Control

History clearly displays humanity's persistent quest for control. From Adolf Hitler to Saddam Hussein, there are seemingly endless examples of leaders exploiting their power to control the people they lead and others. This quest can be observed on a macro level also by looking at the way man has pursued mathematical and scientific knowledge throughout history. These fields give man a sense of control over nature.

Why does man want control over his surroundings so badly? The things that he can control can't harm him. It is this fact that explains why the things that humans fear most are the things they have no control over: death, the unknown, tornadoes...

In We, this theme is by no means subtle. The One State is organized and governed for the most part by mathematical principles. In this society, man has "channeled all elemental forces--there can be no catastrophes"(23). All citizens live in glass houses. There are "Guardians" to keep watch on the happenings; they are to keep order. There is even a space ship (the Integral) being built for the purpose of integrating inhabitants of other planets into the controlled ways of the One Sate.

The citizens feel safe in the One State because everything around them is controlled. Although it is not controlled by them personally, it is controlled by an entity that they feel to be one with. It is apparent that D-503 values safety when he explains that "when man's freedom equals zero, he commits no crimes"(35). Protection from crimes is well worth giving up personal freedoms in D's mind. In fact, control and safety are so important to D that he can't stand the thought of i, the square root of -1. This is because it was "foreign, alien, terrifying. It devoured [him]--it was impossible to conceive, to render harmless, because it was outside the ratio"(39).

It is a sense of control, a feeling of safety, that sustains the "happiness" of the One State citizens. But it is only a matter of time before they realize that "[o]nly the unsubduable can be loved"(72).

Individual vs Society

Our conflict was between the individual and society.

Curious, most curious...of course, unless you have some special reasons to...(page 90)

"Listen," I said. "You know that everyone who poisons himself with nicotine is ruthlessly destroyed...quick destruction of a few is more sensible than giving many the opportunity to ruin themselves. (Page 55)

The belief of everyone in the one state is that the interests of the society should come before the interests of the individual. D-503 begins to be conflicted as the development of his soul leads him to think more about his individual welfare. ...and class is over.

Ideas of conflict as seen in We

From this last reading we found many types of conflict! The main conflicts we found were

D-503 vs. 0-90: as seen in the 18 & 19th entries; How they feel different about each other with D-503 being very rude!
D-503 vs. Himself: as seen in the 17th entry; There are many times in the story where he constantly contradicts himslef.
I-330 vs. One State: 10th entry; I-330 was rebeloling against the One State by drinking and smoking.
D-503 vs. O-90 & R-13: 8th entry; D-503 is starting to look alienated from there little triangle of sort!

Order, reason, knowledge: underlying conflicts

During our group discussion, these were a few of the underlying conflicts that we discovered in the book:

1. freedom v. order

• page 28, paragraph 1: "I felt trapped, imprisoned in that primitive cage, caught by the savage whirlwind of the ancient life."
• page 28, paragraph 7: "To be original is to be in some way distinct from others. Hence, to be original is to violate equality."
• page 35, paragraph 4: "Freedom and crime are linked as indivisibl as...well, as the motion of the aero and its speed: when its speed equals zero, it does not move; when man's freedom equals zero, he commits no crimes...The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom."

2. emotion v. reason

• page 87, paragraphs 2 and 3: Instead of D joining the rest of the numbers during their march, he is looking for I, wandering the streets alone. He wants to tell her he can't live without her even though he knows he's breaking the rules, his emotions are taking over his reason.

3. unknowable v. knowledge

• page 39, paragraph 1: "This irrational number had grown into me like something foreign, alien, terrifying. It devoured me-it was impossible to conceive, to render harmless, because it was outside ration."
  

D-503 "values":

good /bad

regulated happiness / envy (bliss and envy as the numerator and denominator in equation of happiness; envy is the result of unregulated happiness) p. 21

transparency / privacy p. 7, 62, 63 (his and her eyes as windows into thoughts, glass walls )

yolk of reason / primitive condition of freedom (piano music, math , and ancient house p. 28)
(straight line / curve) pg. 2 aesthetic vs efficiency

society / individual (vices are bad) p.55

mathematical composition / inspired work (in reaction to savage piano music) p.16-17

Conflicts of We

There are many conflicts in We. One of the most prevelant is D-503's struggle with himself. When talking to R-13, D realizes that, "the real I said to I seized the other, the wild shaggy,panting one, by the scruff of his neck." Later, the doctor informs D that his "illness" is in fact a soul. D is terrified and as he "clung even more violently to the thin hand," and was "terrified of losing the lifeline." D realizes that he is different than everyone else, but is afraid to admit it.

Conflicts in We

The conflicts we found in the book during this exercise were D503 vs. X (piano scene pg. 17, ancient house pg. 26-27), D503's conflict between wanting I330 or O (he seems to be more interested in I330 though he still seems to care somewhat for 0), D503's conflict of whether or not to turn in I330 (pg.30), transparency vs. privacy (during sex).

D503 vs. X: The reason he is confused is he is comfortable with solid solutions but he can't seem to figure out what X is.

Turn in I330 or not: He seems to care about I330 enough not to turn her in despite the fact that it is what he should do. This confuses him because he has always done what the One State expects from him.

Transparency vs. privacy: The One State is all about transparency and D503 wants to go by the rules but he seems to have an urge for more privacy -- especially in the scene with I330 when the shades are drawn.

Blogging 101

The point of the blog is to continue our in-class discussions about the course readings and the ideas suggested by those readings and other course materials. However, in order to get to that level of discussion, there has to be some basic understanding of the technical aspects of blogging. The goal of this post is to provide you with the basic tools necessary to blog using the Blogger platform by walking you through the posting process and providing guidelines on how to format your posts.

Posting at Blogger
When you go to your Blogger home page or to the blog, you can click on the “new post” link to start drafting a new entry to the blog.

There are three places to enter information in this interface: the blog title, the body of your post, and labels or tags. All of your blog entries must have a title and a body, and I expect that they will all have tags as well.

Titles
When choosing a title, try to make it original and descriptive of the content of your post. Titles like “Week 2 post” or “My thoughts about ‘We’” aren’t very descriptive or original, especially since they could describe the post of almost anyone in the class. Instead, choose a title that describes, or at least hints at, the argument you are trying to make in your post. Because I don’t expect you to spend a lot of time planning your blog entries, it is likely that you won’t have a good idea of what you are going to “say” with your post when you start writing it. For that reason, it is a good idea to wait to write your post’s title after you have completed the body of the post.

Blog entries
Even though I don’t expect these posts to be as polished as you papers, remember that, because other people will be reading your posts, it is a good idea for you to do some basic proof-reading of what you write before you post it.

When formatting your posts, do your best to keep entries legible. Because it can be difficult to indent the first line of paragraphs in html the way you would in a regular paper, separate your paragraphs with line breaks like I have in this post, in order to make them easier to read.

If you want to include links to other documents on the web, you can do so using the insert link button in the toolbar. For your links, simply copy and paste the URL of the page you want to link to in the box and, after Blogger has generated the link code, type the linked text between the two tags.

Finally, if you want to include a large quote from some other source—where “large” usually means more than 2–3 lines—it is customary to use the blockquote tag, which sets off your quote

like this.

Blogger will automatically insert this tag for you if you click on the “ button in the toolbar above the editing window. There are also buttons for italicizing and bolding your text on this toolbar.


Images
If you want to add an image to your post, click on the image button in the toolbar. This will open a separate window which will walk you through the process of adding an image, giving you options for the size of the image and its placement in your post.

When adding images created by others, be careful that you don’t violate someone else’s copyright. Because this is an educational blog, you have some rights to add images under the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law. However, Fair Use will generally only cover a small portion of someone else’s images; you do not have the right to post multiple images that don’t belong to you. If you want to reference a group of images, include only one or two, then link back to the source.

Finally, be sure to only post images to the course blog that pertain to the course and to the subject of your post. As a rule of thumb, only include images that you will explicitly reference in your post, or which you will be analyzing as part of the post.

Tags
Tags are a means of categorizing your post so that other people can more easily find out what it is about (if you want to read about the history of tagging, click here). When writing your posts, it is a good idea to include 4 or more descriptive tags that will give the reader some idea of what the post is about. While about half of those tags should be broad or general—if you are posting about We, include it as a tag; that way, it will be easier for you and your classmates to find all of the blog entries that are about We later in the semester—and half should be more specific to the post. For example, if you write a post about D-503’s desire to be rational, you might include the general tags We, D-503, and character along with the more specific tags logic, rationality, and soul.

Blogger separates tags using commas: "We D-503" would be one tag while "We, D-503" would be two.

You can access tags that other users have created in the tag widget on the right of the blog interface. Tags that are used most often will appear in a larger, darker font than tags that are used less often.

A number that, when squared, is equal to minus one

At the beginning of the eight entry of We, D-503 describes learning about i when he was young. He recalls being distressed due to it "being outside of the ratio". This made me wonder about the history of i. As we know it, the irrationals are a subset of the reals, which themselves are a subset of the complex numbers... which is where i first shows up. I tried to imagine i as being "outside the ratio", but found it very difficult.
Also, I find it amusing that even in Zamyatin's wildest futuristic dreams, people still use ink pens (I'm writing this on my phone)

Sci-Fi is about ideas

Clive Thompson has an editorial in Wired Magazine on science fiction’s role in the world of ideas that I thought was an interesting coda to our conversation in class today.

From where I sit, traditional “literary fiction” has dropped the ball. I studied literature in college, and throughout my twenties I voraciously read contemporary fiction. Then, eight or nine years ago, I found myself getting—well—bored.

Why? I think it's because I was reading novel after novel about the real world. And there are, at the risk of sounding superweird, only so many ways to describe reality. After I'd read my 189th novel about someone living in a city, working in a basically realistic job and having a realistic relationship and a realistically fraught family, I was like, “OK. Cool. I see how today’s world works.” I also started to feel like I’d been reading the same book over and over again.

via Boing Boing