"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forester - Jan 2020

[Jim]

Our short story to start 2020 is The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. It is short, just 12K words, first published in 1909. It's free in multiple formats.

The online text includes a link to the Wikipedia article.

Here is a Librivox recording.

An hour plus long Youtube version is here & a shorter version is available here.

[Ed]

I'm eager to read this. I've heard about it for years.

This story strikes a chord with many people, so there have been many adaptations.

The British SF show "Out of the Unknown" did an adaptation, but it is only available if you buy a 7-DVD set and it only plays in "region 2" (Europe).

Online I've found excerpts from two separate opera versions, if that's your thing: Robert Taylor, Patrick McGraw and Steven Webb or John Lake.

And there is a prog-rock album by Hawkwind, inspired by the story. (Available on several streaming services.)

[Peter]

My writeup is here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Read many times, over the years.

[Rosemarie]

I read this a couple of years ago. It is a thought provoking story.

[Jim]

Written in 1909, as I read this I couldn't help but thinking of the recent texting fad.


Even more horrifying than Bradbury's TV room in Fahrenheit 451, people live in their own room in a hive. They connect only through something very much like the Internet & are tended by The Machine. What incredible insight Forster had! Let's hope he's wrong.

[Ed]

Jim wrote: "Written in 1909, as I read this I couldn't help but thinking of the recent texting fad...."

I'm not much of a texter, but e-mail is a life-saver for me. I hate making phone calls, but it is less stressful to send an e-mail or text.

I've read part 1. The chairs remind me of the film "Wall-E", which probably is not an accident.

The airship with windows and skylights that the people all want to close seems really true-to-life to me. When I fly, I always watch the ground below. It is the only good part about flying. Others often want the window closed so they can watch their movies without sunlight. I don't get it. The real world below is so much more interesting! People will take a vacation to the Grand Canyon, but when flying over it, which is the best view, they don't even glance out the window.

The idea that the user manual for the Machine, including the airplane schedule, is in a printed book felt odd. Surely the airline schedule should be online. But, still, Forester was ahead of his time in thinking about the Machine.

[Phil]

There's a free version to download in multiple formats on manybooks.net.

https://manybooks.net/titles/forstere...#

[Rosemarie]

Thanks, Phil.

[Jim]

I agree completely with everything you just wrote, Ed. I can't believe how fast my kids & others of their age can type texts. They do it faster than I can type on a keyboard. It takes me forever to reply "OK", "No", or "Call", my 3 typical responses.

[Ed]

Phil wrote: "There's a free version to download in multiple formats on manybooks.net. "

Thanks! There are many other treasures on that site! It requires a (free) registration.

[Phil]

Finished.

What a great story. I'm amazed I've never heard of it. Forster wrote it right at the dawn of science fiction.

The concept of academia watering down history by passing it through too many filters struck a chord with me.

When I taught American history some years ago, my class was provided with a textbook that omitted the words "Republican" and "Democrat." Much like Forster's lecturers, the goal was to filter out personality and leave the most inoffensive "ideas."

[Jim]

Wow! That's scary, Phil. I can easily believe it, though. I got a bunch of messed up history in school & so did my kids.

[Shant]

Did anyone else felt the "lectures" were oddly similar to TED talks? They were around 10 minutes and about an "idea". They also felt shallow and without much original content.

[Jim]

I had not made that connection, but it's a good one.

[Ed]

Shant wrote: "Did anyone else felt the "lectures" were oddly similar to TED talks? They were around 10 minutes and about an "idea". "

I didn't think of that. They felt to me a bit more like vlogging. I never really understood what Forster meant when he had the main character say "no ideas there" all the time. Like when she sees the mountains from an airplane.

Anyway, I really liked it. It feels overly simplistic to me that a machine spanning the planet could work with so few problems and that so few people would try to change the status quo. But it wasn't supposed to be a literal prediction, so I just accept it and move on.

I kept being reminded of other stories, two in particular: Logan's Run, and Wool Omnibus. In both, people live in controlled environments with population maintained at a steady level and are told that the world outside is toxic. Naturally this one is much older.

[Ed]

I found it interesting that the main character was a woman of color. So many of the early SF stories were about white men.

On the other hand, the recent Hawkwind album based on this story has a white man on the cover.

[Buck]

What a strange story; way ahead of it's time. I had no idea that Forster wrote this kind of stuff.

[Gregg]

Ed wrote: "Shant wrote: "Did anyone else felt the "lectures" were oddly similar to TED talks? They were around 10 minutes and about an "idea". "

I didn't think of that. They felt to me a bit more like vloggi..."

Mirrorshades has one of those stories, too. Netflix produced a great series along these lines and then cancelled it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascensi...

[Gregg]

Actually it was a CBC/SyFy production.

[Gregg]

Orbital 9 ain't bad either.

[Ryan]

Can anyone explain what happened in the end? It went by fast and was confusing.

[Rosemarie]

I haven't read this for a while, but if I get a chance to reread it, I'll comment then, Ryan. I think he managed to get out in time.