we

Besides being a pronoun, We is an ambient/dub/techno/club/electronica/hip-hop group started somewhere around 1992-1994 in New York City. We is Ignacio Platas (a.k.a. Once 11) Gregor Asch (a.k.a DJ Olive) and Rich Panciera (Lloop). You might have seen them as Lalalandia Entertainment Research Corporation or Multipolyomni, as they've done 'events' or 'multimedia installations' and parties under those names (and seperately or in pairs under many others). Oh - and they've worked as Liminal when with guitarist Danny Blume. We's first release was on Crooklyn Dub Consortium, Vol. 1. Their best known track is probably "3/10th of the Population" from released by Asphodel Records. For music from the same school, think DJ Spooky or Byzar.

An acronym (WE) for Women's Entertainment, a cable channel formerly known as Romance Classics. Puts a lot of floofy programming, including a lot of romantic films, on the air. Other sections, according to their web site (http://www.romanceclassics.com), include everyday elegance, travel, horoscopes and weddings.

On some level, this channel competes with HGTV, The Travel Channel, Lifetime, and Oxygen.

We is Zamyatin's masterpiece, an early dystopian novel which set the stage for both 1984 and Brave New World in many ways. It was written in 1921 and circulated in the form of typewritten copies made in secret. It was first published in 1924 in a translated English version. Copies of We in the original Russian began to appear in Eastern Europe in 1927, but the first official printing in Russian was not until 1952. Furthermore, it was not printed within Russia itself until 1988.

Spoiler warning: moderate spoilers ahead.

A number of important precedents for dystopian literature and film were set by We. The labelling of people as numbers appears in THX-1138. The reduction of human love to mere sex is apparent in Huxley's orgies in Brave New World. The Benefactor in We set forth the archetype for Big Brother.

Characters:

• D-503: he is the protagonist of the story. An engineer and mathematician, he is the designer of the Integral, a ship designed to establish the society of the Numbers upon other planets.
• I-330: she is seductive, independent, and devious. In sexually awakening D-503, and via her other actions, she brings about his separation from normal society and inclusion in the Mephi, a group of rebels.
• O-90: round and maternal, she is quite different from I-330. Essentially D-503's mate, she is a follower, but even she is unsatisfied with her life.
• S: Sinuous and snakelike, he appears to be a by-the-books agent of the establishment.
• The Benefactor: He is the leader of the Numbers, unanimously reelected every year by his followers. D-503 is shocked to think that elections in the past were held without knowing the outcome beforehand.

We is narrated by D-503 from a point in time towards the end of the events related by the novel. It follows him as he changes from a normal, conforming member of society, to a rebellious and free-thinking independent man. This change is catalyzed by I-330, who seduces him into a world of prohibited alcohol, nicotine, unregulated sex, and shattering the rules of the society he has always blindly obeyed. Free thought is anathema in We, and is repeatedly associated with the imagery of clouds. O-90's eyes are described as unclouded, and D-503 relates the Number's deeply ingrained preference for a pure blue sky early in the novel. The submersion of the self, the individual, the "I" into the society, the group, the "we" is a major theme of the book, thus the title.

Found poetry, from the San Francisco Public Library card catalog, c. 1991

We

I
We a baddDDD people. We accuse!

We adopted a daughter. We adopted three.
We adopted you, Benjamin Koo.

We agnostics. We all fall down.

We all grew up together. We all have our little faults. We all have something to say to each other.
We all live through it.
We all went to Paris.

We almost lost Detroit.

We always lie to strangers. We almost made it. We always treat women well. We always wore sailor suits.

We Americans. We and our children. We and our history.
We and our neighbors. We animals. We are.

We are Alaskans. We are all healers. We are all part of one another. We are all poets, really.

We are all POW's.

We are besieged.

We are betrayed.

We are called human.

II
We are cats.

We are Chicano. We are Chicanos.
We are everywhere. We are going to make the lousiest chop suey in town. We are having a baby. We are holding the President hostage. We are many.

We are not afraid. We are not alone.

We are not in this together. We are not the first.
We are observed. We are one! We are seven. We are still married. We are strong. We are talking about homes. We are ten. We are the children. We are the earthquake generation.

We are the fire. We are the little foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines. We are the world.
We are Thy children. We are your sisters. We are your sons.

We ask only a fair trial.
We band of brothers.
We be here when the morning comes. We become new. We belong together.
We bombed in New Haven.

We build together. We build, we fight! We built our own computers.
We buy old gold.

We call them criminals.
We called it culture. We called it music. We called them Indians.

We came from Vietnam.
We came in peace for all mankind.
We came rejoicing.
We came to America.
We came to help.

III
We can! We can begin again together. We can defend America.
We can do business with Russia. We can have better marriages if we really want them. We can have better schools.
We can still hear them clapping.

We can teach you to play hockey.
We can win this war.
We cannot live without our lives.
We can't all be heroes, you know. We can't breathe.
We can't let 'em fight with bare hands.

We caught spies. We charge genocide.
We Chinese women. We chose Cape Cod. We chose the islands. We chose to stay.
We come from the sea. We come to the river. We count in 1950.

We danced all night. We danced in Bloomsbury Square.
We dare not go a-hunting.

We dared the Andes. We defended Normandy.
We Dickinsons.
We didn't ask Utopia. We didn't have much, but we sure had plenty. We didn't have none of them fat funky angels in the wall of Heartbreak Hotel.
We didn't mean to go to sea.

IV
We die alone. We die at dawn. We die before we live. We die standing up.

V.
We dine at seven. We discover New England. We discover the Old Dominion.
We dissent.

We dive at dawn. We don't die. We don't know how.

We don't live here anymore. We don't look like our Mom and Dad. We don't want nobody sent.
We dream of honour.
We drink from our own wells.

We Europeans. We explore London. We explore the Great Lakes. We fell in love with Quebec. We few, we happy few.

We fight for oil.

VI.
We find Australia. We fished all night. We fly. We fly away. We follow the western trail. We followed our stars.
We forget because we must.

We gather together.
We gave you the electric toothbrush.
We give to conquer. We go a journey. We grew up in America. We hardly see each other any more.
We harness a river.

We have a donor. We have a future. We have a Pope.

VII.
We have AIDS.

We have all gone away.

VIII.
We have always lived in the castle. We have been friends together. We have been invaded by the 21st century. We have been there. We have come a long way.

We have come for your daughters.

We have eaten the forest.

We have given our hearts away.

IX.
We have just received the following important intelligence.... We have long since indeed lost the right names of things from amongst us. We have met the enemy. We have met the enemy, and they are partly right. We have overcome. We have recovered before! We have taken a city. We have this ministry. We have this moment received the following great and important intelligence from Capt. Stephen Lowater...

We have tomorrow.

We have with us tonight.

We haven't seen her lately.

We hold these truths.

X.
We interrupt this semester for an important bulletin.

We Irish. We Jews. We Jews and Jesus. We Jews and you Christians. We joined the navy. We jumped to fight.
We keep a light.
We kept mother single.

We knew Mary Baker Eddy.
We knew Stonewall Jackson.
We knew William Tecumseh Sherman.

We landed at dawn. We learned to ski.

XI.
We like bugs.
We like it wild.
We like the country.

We live again. We live but once. We live by faith. We live by the sun.

We live in Alaska. We live in Argentina. We live in Brazil. We live in Canada. We live in Chile. We live in China. We live in Denmark. We live in East Germany. We live in Egypt. We live in Greece. We live in Hong Kong. We live in India. We live in Indonesia. We live in Japan. We live in Kenya. We live in Malaysia & Singapore. We live in Mexico. We live in New Zealand. We live in Pakistan. We live in Saudi Arabia. We live in Spain. We live in Sweden.
We live in the Alaskan bush.
We live in Alaska. We live in the Arctic. We live in Asian U.S.S.R.. We live in the European U.S.S.R.. We live in the Philippines. We live in West Germany.

We live too short and die too long.

We lived as children. We lived in the Almont. We lived there too.

XII.
We look at the world. We love Glenda so much.

We made a mistake.

We mainline dreams.
We make freedom.
We moderns. We move in new directions. We moved to California.

XIII.
We murderers. We must be free. We must find a basis for peace. We must kill Toni.

We must make a kingdom of it.

XIV.
We must make haste-- slowly.

We must march my darlings. We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies. We must run while they walk. We need not fail.

We need to dream all this again. We Nehrus.

We never closed.

We never make mistakes.

XV.
We Northmen. We of Italy. We of Nagasaki. We of the Americas. We of the Never-Never. We only kill each other. We or they.
We owe it to the children. We own it.
We play to win!

We pledged allegiance. We promise one another. We proudly sang at the Met. We reach the moon.
We remained.
We remember Philip.

We retired to travel. We rode the wind. We sang for Ireland.

We saw her.
We saw him act. We saw him die.
We saw it through.
We saw South America.

We saw the sea.

---

This collection of alphabetical titles was inspired by a similar example of found poetry I came across in News That Stayed News: Ten Years of CoEvolution Quarterly. Alas, I can't remember the was who submitted it-- although David Bunn is known for this type of work, the CoEQ version would have been published in the late 1970s or early 1980s, before Bunn's appropriation of the Los Angeles Central Library's card catalog.

We (?), pron.; pl. of I. [Poss. Our (our) or Ours (); obj. Us (). See I.] [As. w; akin to OS. wi, OFries. & LG. wi, D. wij, G. wir, Icel. vr, Sw. & Dan. vi, Goth. weis, Skr. vayam. &root;190.]

The plural nominative case of the pronoun of the first person; the word with which a person in speaking or writing denotes a number or company of which he is one, as the subject of an action expressed by a verb.

⇒ We is frequently used to express men in general, including the speaker. We is also often used by individuals, as authors, editors, etc., in speaking of themselves, in order to avoid the appearance of egotism in the too frequent repetition of the pronoun I. The plural style is also in use among kings and other sovereigns, and is said to have been begun by King John of England. Before that time, monarchs used the singular number in their edicts. The German and the French sovereigns followed the example of King John in a. d. 1200.

 

© Webster 1913.