The Machine Stops: Difference between revisions
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"'''The Machine Stops'''" is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by [[E. M. Forster]]. After initial publication in ''The Oxford and Cambridge Review'' (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's ''The Eternal Moment and Other Stories'' in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology ''Modern Short Stories''.<ref>''Modern Short Stories'', S. H. Burton ed., Longman Heritage of Literature series, Longman Group Ltd, Great Britain, first published 1965, sixth impression 1970</ref> In 1973 it was also included in ''[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two]]''. The story is particularly notable for predicting new technologies such as [[instant messaging]] and the Internet. |
"'''The Machine Stops'''" is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by [[E. M. Forster]]. After initial publication in ''The Oxford and Cambridge Review'' (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's ''The Eternal Moment and Other Stories'' in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology ''Modern Short Stories''.<ref>''Modern Short Stories'', S. H. Burton ed., Longman Heritage of Literature series, Longman Group Ltd, Great Britain, first published 1965, sixth impression 1970</ref> |
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In 1973 it was also included in ''[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two]]''. The story is particularly notable for predicting new technologies such as [[instant messaging]] and the Internet. |
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The story is set in a post apocalyptic world where people are living underground because the surface is uninhabitable, and they rely on a giant machine to provide their needs. |
The story is set in a post apocalyptic world where people are living underground because the surface is uninhabitable, and they rely on a giant machine to provide their needs. |
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==Plot summary== |
==Plot summary== |
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The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation [[Underground city|below ground]] in a standard 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted but unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine called the "speaking apparatus", with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge. The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his cell. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world. He confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine. However, the Machine recaptured him, and he has been threatened with 'Homelessness', that is, expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death. Vashti, however, dismisses her son's concerns as dangerous madness and returns to her part of the world. |
The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation [[Underground city|below ground]] in a standard 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted but unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine called the "speaking apparatus", with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge. |
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The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his cell. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world. |
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He confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine. However, the Machine recaptured him, and he has been threatened with 'Homelessness', that is, expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death. Vashti, however, dismisses her son's concerns as dangerous madness and returns to her part of the world. |
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| ⚫ | As time passes, and Vashti continues the routine of her daily life, there are two important developments. First, the life support apparatus required to visit the outer world is abolished. Most welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience and of those who desire it. Secondly, a kind of religion is re-established, in which the Machine is the object of worship. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. |
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Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and threatened with Homelessness. The Mending Apparatus—the system charged with repairing defects that appear in the Machine proper—has also failed by this time, but concerns about this are dismissed in the context of the supposed omnipotence of the Machine itself. |
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During this time, Kuno is transferred to a cell near Vashti's. He comes to believe that the Machine is breaking down, and tells her cryptically "The Machine stops." Vashti continues with her life, but eventually defects begin to appear in the Machine. At first, humans accept the deteriorations as the whim of the Machine, to which they are now wholly subservient, but the situation continues to deteriorate, as the knowledge of how to repair the Machine has been lost. |
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| ⚫ | As time passes, and Vashti continues the routine of her daily life, there are two important developments. First, the life support apparatus required to visit the outer world is abolished. Most welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience and of those who desire it. Secondly, a kind of religion is re-established, in which the Machine is the object of worship. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. |
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Finally, the Machine [[apocalypse|apocalyptically]] collapses, bringing 'civilisation' down with it. Kuno comes to Vashti's ruined cell. Before they perish, they realise that Man and his connection to the natural world are what truly matter, and that it will fall to the surface-dwellers who still exist to rebuild the human race and to prevent the mistake of the Machine from being repeated. |
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==Themes== |
==Themes== |
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Revision as of 09:40, 28 March 2015
| "The Machine Stops" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by E. M. Forster | |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction short story |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Oxford and Cambridge Review |
| Publisher | Archibald Constable |
| Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) |
| Publication date | November 1909 |
"The Machine Stops" is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by E. M. Forster. After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories.[1]
In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two. The story is particularly notable for predicting new technologies such as instant messaging and the Internet.
The story is set in a post apocalyptic world where people are living underground because the surface is uninhabitable, and they rely on a giant machine to provide their needs.
Plot summary
The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted but unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine called the "speaking apparatus", with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.
The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his cell. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world.
He confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine. However, the Machine recaptured him, and he has been threatened with 'Homelessness', that is, expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death. Vashti, however, dismisses her son's concerns as dangerous madness and returns to her part of the world.
As time passes, and Vashti continues the routine of her daily life, there are two important developments. First, the life support apparatus required to visit the outer world is abolished. Most welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience and of those who desire it. Secondly, a kind of religion is re-established, in which the Machine is the object of worship. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own.
Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and threatened with Homelessness. The Mending Apparatus—the system charged with repairing defects that appear in the Machine proper—has also failed by this time, but concerns about this are dismissed in the context of the supposed omnipotence of the Machine itself.
During this time, Kuno is transferred to a cell near Vashti's. He comes to believe that the Machine is breaking down, and tells her cryptically "The Machine stops." Vashti continues with her life, but eventually defects begin to appear in the Machine. At first, humans accept the deteriorations as the whim of the Machine, to which they are now wholly subservient, but the situation continues to deteriorate, as the knowledge of how to repair the Machine has been lost.
Finally, the Machine apocalyptically collapses, bringing 'civilisation' down with it. Kuno comes to Vashti's ruined cell. Before they perish, they realise that Man and his connection to the natural world are what truly matter, and that it will fall to the surface-dwellers who still exist to rebuild the human race and to prevent the mistake of the Machine from being repeated.
Themes
In the preface to his Collected Short Stories (1947), Forster wrote that "The Machine Stops is a reaction to one of the earlier heavens of H. G. Wells." Although not all Wells's stories were optimistic about the future, this implies Forster was concerned about human dependence on technology.
Adaptations
A television adaptation, directed by Philip Saville, was shown in the UK on 6 October 1966 as part of the British science-fiction anthology TV series Out of the Unknown.
Playwright Eric Coble's 2004 stage adaptation was broadcast on 16 November 2007 on WCPN 90.3 FM in Cleveland.[2]
BBC Radio 4 aired Gregory Norminton's adaptation as a radio play.[3]
TMS: The Machine Stops is a graphic novel series adaptation written by Michael Lent with art by Marc Rene, published by Alterna Comics in February, 2014.[4]
Mad Magazine #1 (Oct-Nov, 1952) had Blobs, a 7-pg story drawn by Wallace Wood where two inhabitants of 1,000,000 a.d. discuss the history of man and his evolution into "blobs" totally dependent on the Machine.[citation needed] The sudden breakdown of the Machine -and what results- perfectly reflect the 1909 story "The Machine Stops"[citation needed]
Derivative works
Stephen Baxter's story Glass Earth Inc., which refers explicitly to "The Machine Stops", is included in the book Phase Space.
The song "The Machine Stops" by the band Level 42 not only shares the same title with the story but also has lyrics that echo Kuno's thoughts.
Both George Lucas's film THX-1138 (1971), and the original novel version of Logan's Run (1967) by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, bear multiple similarities to "The Machine Stops".
References
- ^ Modern Short Stories, S. H. Burton ed., Longman Heritage of Literature series, Longman Group Ltd, Great Britain, first published 1965, sixth impression 1970
- ^ "WCPN Program Highlights". Retrieved 12 November 2007.
- ^ http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/bc4b6238a2e14c2084665f2a5ea85d4e
- ^ "The Machine Stops (mini-series)".
Further reading
- Seegert, Alf (2010), "Technology and the Fleshly Interface in E.M. Forster's 'The Machine Stops'", Journal of Ecocriticism 2: 1.
- Napier, Susan J. (November 2002). "When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain". Science Fiction Studies. 29 (88): 418–435. ISSN 00917729. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
- Pordzik, Ralph. 2010. Closet fantasies and the future of desire in E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops". English Literature in Transition 1880–1920 53, no. 1 (Winter): 54–74. doi:10.2487/elt.53.1(2010)0052
External links
- Listen to an audio recording of the story from Librivox
- Animated adaptation of the story by The Freise Brothers
- Adaptation of E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops which appeared on UK science fiction TV show Out of the Unknown on 1966-10-06. (50:38)
- The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster (1909) Online text