“Cannot you see, cannot all your lecturers see, that it is we who are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine?”
What a great way to start off the year with this brilliant read! E.M Forster’s “The Machine Stops” is a short work that really has some timeless and very sophisticated commentary and thoughts. I almost think that the story works as equally if not even better to be read as an allegory or a metaphor rather than being taken more in a literal sense.
In this futuristic society, people who live underground the Earth are looked after by “the Machine”, a technology that seemingly gives humans all the necessities of life. Humans are dependent on “the machine” and, in fact, strongly discouraged by way of banishment from ever breaking from it. Society is given artificial forms of entertainment and ways of living via technology from this entity.
The two central characters are Vashti and Kuno, a mother and son, who sit on opposite spectrums of viewing their society. Vashti takes comforts in the Machine, living a blissfully artificial and superficial existence, giving lectures remotely where she elaborates on “ideas.” Keno, on the other hand, is a nonconformist and somewhat of a rebel who sees all the flaws in the current system, a life devoid of true and essential meaning. He wants to challenge this, and break this down, something he tries to articulate to his mother.
The story opens with Vashti getting communication from her son, Kuno. He says that he cannot say what he wants through the machine, and so, reluctantly, Vashti makes a trip to visit him. When she gets there, he reveals some startling revelations.
Thought-provoking read with so many timely and prophetic aspects to our society and depth in terms of relevant thematic issues embedded within the fabric of the plot, one of which is the ills of dependence on technology and breaking from it. There are many “what ifs” that this work readily addresses, and it is amazing how prophetic some of the things discussed or technological ideas explored have become similar aspects to our society. In many ways it reminded me quite a bit of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Very underrated and ponderous read!
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