Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
{3.5 stars}
"But Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine."
Teenage me would have adored this short story by EM Forster. I remember I went through a rather long dystopia phase in high school, reading all the great 20th century classics - Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, Rossum's Universal Robots, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, HG Wells, and into the more modern Scott Westerfield Uglies series, and so on, before I got depressed with all these grim future prospects and moved on to the all's well that ends well 19th century society novels phase (and in came Jane Austen, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Maria Edgeworth, Frances Burney and so on). I don't read much dystopia fic these days as it tends to be heavy and depressing, but this was chosen for a book club.
The Machine Stops is an interesting futurist dystopian tale of humans living under the auspices of an almighty Machine (with capital letters) which is a bit like the Internet, Facebook, Siri, Amazon, Alexa, Zoom, Roomba and a personal robot sort of all rolled into one.
Humans are left to do little more than eat, sleep and "have ideas" in their personal rooms, which they almost never leave. All experiences, friendships, work and relationships are virtual - or as virtual as a 1909 writer could have predicted. The Machine, and so technology by extension, is something to be revered and worshipped. No one does anything but have "ideas" - which sounds nice, but actually they just rehash what others before them have thought about a concept in which they know nothing. Lecturers who have never seen the sea base their lectures on other lecturers of a previous generation who have also never seen the sea and so forth. History lessons are given by lecturers who have no access to original content - to the point that they forget about facts and true historical events and imagine how their subject matter - the French Revolution is the event used in the book - would be if it happened during the time of the Machine.
Various committees (so 20th century) are supposed to care for people's wellbeing and Machine Maintenance. When problems occur, humans realise the Machine has evolved beyond them and "the Masters" who created the Machine are long dead and no one has bothered to learn how it works.
Humanity lives in individual rooms underground all over the earth - each room identical. Anyone who disobeys - such as the young man Kuno, who sneaks out to the Earth's surface - is threatened or punished with "Homelessness" - ie banishment to the Earth, which apparently means death.
It's a very interesting tale with a lot to unpack. The fear of the rise of technology - a widespread worry at the time - is very prevalent, and it is shown how too much dependance on the Machine / the Internet/technology can be our downfall. Original experiences are no more and humans are left to repeat what others have said before them. Physical touch and face-to-face relationships and experiences do not exist. The big bad uniformity is also problematic - no one thinks for themselves and therefore no one is motivated to evolve with the Machine and understand how it works.
Religion, too, is attacked. It was a turning point in history, when people started to realise the detrimental effect religion had on people (the "opium of the masses"!) and Forster also attacks it here - taking it away and then, when humans were quite literally weaker, throws it back at them, and tells them to worship technology. Even though they know it was created by man (like all religions), they pretend it is divine (like all religions).
Though short, it's not necessarily a quick read. It's definitely an interesting little story with a lot to discuss, though it certainly isn't an edge-of-your-seat kind of scifi.
"But Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine."
Teenage me would have adored this short story by EM Forster. I remember I went through a rather long dystopia phase in high school, reading all the great 20th century classics - Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, Rossum's Universal Robots, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, HG Wells, and into the more modern Scott Westerfield Uglies series, and so on, before I got depressed with all these grim future prospects and moved on to the all's well that ends well 19th century society novels phase (and in came Jane Austen, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Maria Edgeworth, Frances Burney and so on). I don't read much dystopia fic these days as it tends to be heavy and depressing, but this was chosen for a book club.
The Machine Stops is an interesting futurist dystopian tale of humans living under the auspices of an almighty Machine (with capital letters) which is a bit like the Internet, Facebook, Siri, Amazon, Alexa, Zoom, Roomba and a personal robot sort of all rolled into one.
Humans are left to do little more than eat, sleep and "have ideas" in their personal rooms, which they almost never leave. All experiences, friendships, work and relationships are virtual - or as virtual as a 1909 writer could have predicted. The Machine, and so technology by extension, is something to be revered and worshipped. No one does anything but have "ideas" - which sounds nice, but actually they just rehash what others before them have thought about a concept in which they know nothing. Lecturers who have never seen the sea base their lectures on other lecturers of a previous generation who have also never seen the sea and so forth. History lessons are given by lecturers who have no access to original content - to the point that they forget about facts and true historical events and imagine how their subject matter - the French Revolution is the event used in the book - would be if it happened during the time of the Machine.
Various committees (so 20th century) are supposed to care for people's wellbeing and Machine Maintenance. When problems occur, humans realise the Machine has evolved beyond them and "the Masters" who created the Machine are long dead and no one has bothered to learn how it works.
Humanity lives in individual rooms underground all over the earth - each room identical. Anyone who disobeys - such as the young man Kuno, who sneaks out to the Earth's surface - is threatened or punished with "Homelessness" - ie banishment to the Earth, which apparently means death.
It's a very interesting tale with a lot to unpack. The fear of the rise of technology - a widespread worry at the time - is very prevalent, and it is shown how too much dependance on the Machine / the Internet/technology can be our downfall. Original experiences are no more and humans are left to repeat what others have said before them. Physical touch and face-to-face relationships and experiences do not exist. The big bad uniformity is also problematic - no one thinks for themselves and therefore no one is motivated to evolve with the Machine and understand how it works.
Religion, too, is attacked. It was a turning point in history, when people started to realise the detrimental effect religion had on people (the "opium of the masses"!) and Forster also attacks it here - taking it away and then, when humans were quite literally weaker, throws it back at them, and tells them to worship technology. Even though they know it was created by man (like all religions), they pretend it is divine (like all religions).
Though short, it's not necessarily a quick read. It's definitely an interesting little story with a lot to discuss, though it certainly isn't an edge-of-your-seat kind of scifi.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Two thought-provoking short stories by Forster and remarkable to think they were written in the early 1900s as they are equally gripping and relevant today.
I hope all of humanity also dies except for the detached ones
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
More a short story than a novella but somehow very aposite for our current locked-down times.
Forster engages with a world controlled by machines, where the population are socially distant and maintain contact through a proto-internet as well as video-conferencing. Inevitably dated in parts (it was written 110 years ago...), but Forster manages to cram as many ideas into this brief story as Wells does into some of his longer works.
Forster engages with a world controlled by machines, where the population are socially distant and maintain contact through a proto-internet as well as video-conferencing. Inevitably dated in parts (it was written 110 years ago...), but Forster manages to cram as many ideas into this brief story as Wells does into some of his longer works.
Eerily familiar with today's questions being raised by digitalization (alienation, Dependance on digital services for friendships, deliveries...and, let's face it, remote work due to Corona