Live from the Days of the Machine: E.M. Forster: In the D...

Live from the Days of the Machine: E.M. Forster: In the Days of the Machine: "'Do not learn anything about this subject of mine ��� the French Revolution...

...Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought Lafcadio Hearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution. Through the medium of these ten great minds, the blood that was shed at Paris and the windows that were broken at Versailles will be clarified to an idea which you may employ most profitably in your daily lives. But be sure that the intermediates are many and varied, for in history one authority exists to counteract another. Urizen must counteract the scepticism of Ho-Yung and Enicharmon, I must myself counteract the impetuosity of Gutch. You who listen to me are in a better position to judge about the French Revolution than I am. Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time��� ��� his voice rose ��� ���there will come a generation that has got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation seraphically free from taint of personality, which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine���...

John Holbo: Lafcadio Hearn In The Days Of The Machine: "Obviously I���m rereading this because it���s Utopia/Dystopia week in my SF and Philosophy module, per my previous post...

...Forster kind of predicted the internet, and some of its pathologies. But he didn���t predict the popularity of cat memes. So last time I lectured about the story ��� not this time around ��� I summarized some of its main story elements and themes with help from memegenerator...