diocesan boys' school ib english lit hl iop - symbolic architecture in we by yevgeny zamayatin

Symbolic Architecture

Chief Architect, One State

@ We  

@ We  

@ We  

Residential Zone

Prehistoric Museum + Ancient House

Auditoriums 1-1300

Auditoriums 1301-1500

Government facilities

Industrial Zone

The Cube

The Integral (under construction)

Accumulator

Marvels of the One State 1  

Cube Plaza. Sixty-six powerful concentric circles: the stands. And

sixty-six rows: quiet, bright faces and eyes reflecting… the radiance

of the One State. P. 41

Sixty-six rows

Sixty-six rows Name of Allah in Abjad numerals

Sixty-six rows Name of Allah in Abjad numerals

Cube-shaped All 12 sides of equal length, whole

Sixty-six rows Name of Allah in Abjad numerals

Cube-shaped All 12 sides of equal length, whole

Worship and execution Sense of fear towards the State and the Benefactor

“And, fluttering in an invisible wind, the criminal walked, slowly – a step up, and another, and then a pace, the last of his life – and he, with his face to the sky, his head thrown back, stood on his very own final plot.” P. 43

Height

Height Creating fear

Government buildings 2  

“A glass room, full of golden fog. Glass ceilings, colored bottles, jars. Wires. Bluish sparks inside tubes.” P. 64

“Bluish sparks”, “golden fog”, “colored bottles”… D 503’s rare experience with color, sense of misery

Propaganda in Action 3  

“All those who are able are required to create treatises, epics, manifestos, odes, or any other composition addressing the beauty and majesty of the One State. These works will be the first cargo of the Integral” P. 3

Spreading of propaganda through literature Internally: the ciphers Externally: where the Integral reaches

“The auditorium. An enormous, sun-saturated hemisphere of glass expanses. Circular rows of noble, spherical, smoothly sheared heads.”

P. 16

Glass structured The focus is on the entire state but not what is on the stage

Enclosed area for forced propaganda Ciphers are forced to listen to talks held in the auditoriums

Glass structured The focus is on the entire state but not what is on the stage

Enclosed area for forced propaganda Ciphers are forced to listen to talks held in the auditoriums

Glass structured The focus is on the entire state but not what is on the stage

Prison?

“At the end of the avenue, where the Accumulator Tower was sounding threateningly, we came upon a quadrilateral: guards at the front, behind and on the sides; three ciphers in unifs in the middle with their golden badges already removed – and everything was terrifyingly clear” P. 110

“At the end of the avenue, where the Accumulator Tower was sounding threateningly, we came upon a quadrilateral: guards at the front, behind and on the sides; three ciphers in unifs in the middle with their golden badges already removed – and everything was terrifyingly clear” P. 110

Detached

“At the end of the avenue, where the Accumulator Tower was sounding threateningly, we came upon a quadrilateral: guards at the front, behind and on the sides; three ciphers in unifs in the middle with their golden badges already removed – and everything was terrifyingly clear” P. 110

Symbol of power

Detached

“At the end of the avenue, where the Accumulator Tower was sounding threateningly, we came upon a quadrilateral: guards at the front, behind and on the sides; three ciphers in unifs in the middle with their golden badges already removed – and everything was terrifyingly clear” P. 110

Symbol of power

Symbol of fear

Detached

Cipher’s daily lives 4  

А  Б  В  Г  Д  

Е  Ё  Ж  З  И  Й  К  

Л  М  Н  О  П  

Т  У  Ф  Х  Ц  

Р  

С2  

С1  

Ч  Ш  

Щ  Ъ  Ы  Ь  Э  

Ю  Я  

Numbers on the door: 320, 326…330, yes! P. 192

А  Б  В  Г  Д  

Е  Ё  Ж  З  И  Й  К  

Л  М  Н  О  П  

Т  У  Ф  Х  Ц  

Р  

С2  

С1  

Ч  Ш  

Щ  Ъ  Ы  Ь  Э  

Ю  Я  

A  B  V  G  D  

Е  YO  ZH  Z  I  Y  K  

L  М  N  О  P  

T  U  F  KH  TS  

R  

S2  

S1  

CH  SH  

SHCH  -­‐  Y  ‘  E  

YU  YA  

“[R’s room] was as if – well, everything was exactly like mine: the Table, the glass of the

chairs, table, closet, and bed.” P. 38

Conformity

Equality

“The pipes of the Music Factory rang out the March harmoniously – the everyday March. What indescribable charm – this everydayness, repetitiveness, this reflectivity!” P. 123

Repetition

Repetition

Lack of creativity Over-reliance on logic and science

Cipher’s Personal Hours 5  

“I walked on foot along the X axis (Fifty-ninth avenue) and the origin of the coordinates. / […] I purposefully chose to walk, not along the hypotenuse, but along the two perpendiculars. And here I was on the second perpendicular: a section of the circular street at the foot of the Green Wall.” P. 82

Roads in straight lines Belief to mathematics

“Not long ago I had to calculate the curvature of a new model of street diaphragm (now these elegantly

decorated diaphragms are on every avenue, recording street conversations for the Bureau of Guardians). And I

remember: each was a concave, pink, quivering membrane; they were strange organisms, made up of

only one organ – an ear.” P. 48

Monitoring of the ciphers

“The glimmering of mirrors, gloomy closets, intolerably multi-colored sofas, a vast “fireplace”, and a mahogany bed. The only evidence of our contemporary, excellent, transparent, and eternal glass was in their pathetic, fragile, mini-quadrilateral windows.” P. 26

“Amid the multicolored noise that stifles the logical process of thought: the red, the green, the bronze-yellow, the white, the orange colors” P. 152

Colors are distracting to ciphers!

Colors are distracting to ciphers!

Rejection to the past Belief that the State’s way is the only correct way

Recap 6  

Demonstrate power and authority

Spread propaganda

Show conformity and allegiance

Rejection to nature & past

Reliance of mathematics

The End. Thanks!  

References  

Aichberger,  Markus.  “yellow  window…”.  Photograph.  Flickr.  Yahoo!,  10  Oct  2008.  Web.  1  Jan  2013.  <h}p://www.flickr.com/

photos/sliceoflife/2932452978/>  

Carver,  Jack.  “Street  life  2”.  Photograph.  Flickr.  Yahoo!,  12  Dec  2011.  Web.  1  Jan  2013.  <h}p://www.flickr.com/photos/

jackcarver/6512669801/>  

Leung,  Dennis.  “G11  Leaders  2012-­‐13  The  Serious  Part  (To  be  con�nued)”.  Photograph.  Facebook.  Facebook,  29  Sept  2012.  Web.  

1  Jan  2013.  <h}ps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?�id=10151177923697300&set=a.

10151176938842300.467744.738637299&type=3&theater>  

Liquid|||.  “Lab`s  Instruments”.  Photograph.  Flickr.  Yahoo!,  4  Aug  2009.  Web.  1  Jan  2013.  <h}p://www.flickr.com/photos/

liquidms/3789966959/>  

Powers,  Robert.  “Aerial  south  side”.  Photograph.  Flickr.  Yahoo!,  28  Dec  2008.  Web.  1  Jan  2013.  <h}p://www.flickr.com/photos/

repowers/3163617435/>  

Zamya�n,  Yevgeny.  We.  New  York:  The  Modern  Library.  2006.  Print.