Yevgeny Zamyatin, We — Liturgy—Iambus—The Cast-Iron Hand (1924)
“ Sixty-six imposing concentric circles—stands. Sixty-six rows of quiet, serene faces. Eyes reflecting the shining of the sky, or perhaps it is the shining of the United State. Red like blood are the flowers—the lips of the women. Like soft garlands the faces of the children in the first rows, nearest the place of action. ”
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We — Liturgy—Iambus—The Cast-Iron Hand (1924)
“ Their god gave them nothing but eternal, torturing seeking; our god gives us absolute truth—that is, he has rid us of any kind of doubt. Their god did not invent anything cleverer than sacrificing oneself, nobody knows what for; we bring to our god, the United State, a quiet, rational, carefully thought-out sacrifice. ”
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We — Liturgy—Iambus—The Cast-Iron Hand (1924)
“ Heavy, stony like fate, the Well-Doer went around the machine, put his enormous hand on the lever . . . . Not a whisper, not a breath around; all eyes were upon that hand. . . . What crushing, scorching power one must feel to be the tool, to be the resultant of hundreds of thousands of wills! How great his lot! Another second. The hand moved down, switching in the current. The lightning-sharp blade of the electric ray. . . . A faint crack like a shiver, in the tubes of the Machine. . . . The prone body, covered with a light phosphorescent smoke ”
