Yevgeny Zamyatin — We [55]

As schoolchildren we all read (perhaps you have, too) that greatest literary monument to have come down to us from ancient days—“The Railway Guide.” But set it side by side with our Table, and it will be as graphite next to a diamond: both consist of the same element—carbon—yet how eternal, how transparent is the diamond, how it gleams! — Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, 55

Note

Elevating a railway timetable into scripture exposes the aestheticizing of totalitarian bureaucracy.