Yevgeny Zamyatin — We [360]

Their lyre encompasses the morning scraping of electric toothbrushes and the dread crackle of the sparks in the Benefactor’s Machine; the majestic echoes of the Hymn to the One State and the intimate tinkle of the gleaming crystal chamberpot; the exciting rustle of dropping shades, the merry voices of the latest cookbook, and the scarcely audible whisper of the listening membranes in the streets. — Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, 360

Note

The catalog of the mundane and the mechanical—from electric toothbrushes to crystal chamberpots—demonstrates a totalizing aesthetic where the sublime is systematically evacuated and replaced by sanitary administration.