E.M. Forster, The Machine Stops

Citation: Forster, E.M. “The Machine Stops.” The Oxford and Cambridge Review, 1909. Print.

Summary: 

“The Machine Stops” is an ominous short story that illustrates the downfall of a future dystopia. Civilization is located under the earth, and is one in which humans reside in isolation in hexagonal-shaped rooms, where everything of concern—which isn’t much—is at their disposal at the press of a button. Everything in this world is controlled by and revolves around the omnipresent Machine, including the cycle of night and day and the very air they all breath. This is the story of something rare within this world—a dissenter—named Kuno, who finds his own individual way (considered heresy) to venture to the surface of the Earth, and thereafter predicts the downfall of the Machine to his mother, who like everyone else, is an oblivious worshipper of this man-made contrivance that eventually malfunctions and brings about the demise of civilization. This demise is what in reality will pave the way for the start of a new and more pure humanity, a heaven of sorts, exemplified as Kuno claims “ ‘I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them. They are hiding in the midst and the ferns until our civilization stops. Today they are the Homeless [meaning the deceased]- Tomorrow…’”  

 

Response:

First off, I was surprised that I had never read or even heard about this short story until now…it is something that everyone in my generation should be paying attention to…not to mention it would make a terrific movie if done effectively. Secondly, I thought this story was a great dovetail to all the theory and criticism we have been recently been reading about technology. It is rather prophetic in the sense that although it was written before everything we have read about technology thus far, it creatively illustrates all the fears and hesitancies theorized in the other readings that were all written in the past 30 years: the fear of obsolescence, the absence of direct experience, the inability to formulate original ideas…in a sense, the loss of what it means to be truly fulfilled as a human. This story references something that was brought up in Carr’s The Shallows: “You know that we have lost the sense of space. We say space is annihilated, but we have annihilated not space, but the sense thereof. We have lost part of ourselves.” I have already ranted about this fear of obsolescence and the loss of sensitivity to even realize what we have lost in exchange for what we have created, and although I am not going to rant about it again I will just say that it is something that I find very compelling, very unnerving, and something that’s worth a great deal of investigation.