Maria Bustillos – Writing: So Easy, You Just Tell the Truth!

We, the mindblowing 1921 novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin, was reviewed by George Orwell in glowing terms in 1946; we'll examine how deeply this book affected his own 1984 (spoiler: a lot).
 
In our own times, as in all human times, even the smartest people protect their own illusions (and, often as not, their own status and perquisites) by turning language on its head in the very manner Zamyatin, and later Orwell, would predict so chillingly. One does this oneself, without knowing, having absorbed so many lessons unquestioned, from the racist textbooks to the visions of wealth and gluttony in fairy tales. You never know you're saying harmful things, things no sane person could believe; one can never understand that one is oneself O'Brien, whose character is the true subject of 1984.
 
But there is a way to fight the O'Brien within ourselves and without; the truth is real, and thus accuracy of language can rescue us—ourselves and each other—from our worst impulses. Free and truthful language is the sine qua non of a free society. As Masha Gessen wrote in the NYRB: "Using words to cover up lies, however subtly, destroys language... this is about the basic survival of the public sphere." 
 
Maria Bustillos is an editor, journalist and information activist, and the founder of Popula, a magazine of global news and culture. Her work has appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a fantasy novel.