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WE (KEY THEMES, BOLSHEVIK RUSSIA 1920s, novel foresaw but underestimated…

- - - - later in the book chaos rumbles in, green wall starts to come down all power and control looks like a paper tiger
    - - To unbend the wild curve, to straighten it out to a tangent-to a straight line! (1.7)
        Power expressed in mathematical terms, like a lot of things in the One State and by D. And because it's a basic, fundamental concept—bending a curve into a straight line—it speaks to profound and mighty changes: something that could affect the fabric of the universe itself. impossible but one state can, ominpotent?
      - You looked about you like an inspired mythological god on the seventh day of creation. (2.13)
        I-330 compares D-503 to God here… a total no-no in a world where the State is supposed to be everything. More importantly, she seems to suggest that the divine is in the individual, rather than in the State as official doctrine suggests. In other words, individuals, not institutions, have the real power.
      - The Tables transformed each one of us, actually, into a six-wheeled steel hero of a great poem. (3.6)
        Contrast this with the earlier quote. There, the man acts as a God. Here, the Tables shape men. They're not even human beings: just machinery to be pushed around as the State wishes. D-503 thinks this is a good thing, and that belief itself gives the State power over him. Some cultish/relious undertones in relation to power, in the face of a god why try to revolt? He knows nothing else, for all he knows this is all he knows
      - i had to find a way of eating up, of crushing down that square root minus one
        Irrationality represents rebellion in this book, and rebellion is a form of power. This irrational equation has the strength to haunt him and disturb him. It's also a powerful reminder that every system has mysteries—even mathematics—and chaos will always exist no matter how many times the State tries to stamp it out.
      - A magnificent celebration of the victory of all over one, of the sum over the individual! (9.4)
        This quote pretty much cuts right to the chase: the collective has triumphed over the individual, and the power of the State is enough to erase many of the most basic concepts of identity.
      - Freedom and crime are so indissolubly connected to each other, like … well, like the movement of the aero and its velocity. When the velocity of the aero = 0, it doesn't move; when the freedom of a person = 0, he doesn't commit crime. This is clear. The sole means of ridding man of crime is to rid him of freedom. (7.21)
        Even the most autocratic regimes still need a justification to act, and in this case, power is justified by a logical equation. It fits in with the worship of mathematics and the belief that anything can eventually be reduced to purest simplicity.
      - Now poetry is no longer a brazen nightingale call. Poetry is a state service; poetry is purpose. (12.9)
        This presents a strong notion that power must be more than brute physical force to prevail. In this case, the State has seized the power to compose poetry—a powerful creative act—and ensures that only its ideas are expressed through the medium. Reflection of censorship in the media
      - The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox—the single most worthy path of the fearless mind … (20.11)
        Power here is represented in a tool, man's ability to shape his environment to his choosing. But the phrase also acknowledges that that power is two-fold and can sometimes turn on its owner.