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The Machine Stops and Other Stories
"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'. In 1973 it was also included in 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two'. The book is particularly notable for predicting new technologies such as instant messaging and the internet.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
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788 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Forster
698 books4,305 followersEdward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect".
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
September 28, 2010
"The Machine Stops," a classic piece of science fiction by E. M. Forster, is an ode to original thinking, to the expressiveness of the human body, and to the difficult work of articulating individual identity and the mechanics of insight. It is, at heart, the story of a mother and her son, Vashti and Kuno, who live in the age of the Machine, a time when humans have retreated to beehive-like structures below the surface of the earth, each person occupying a single room, which, by design, meets their every need.
Vashti is immersed in her culture. She communicates with “several thousand people” through a network of tubes that bring those anonymous voices into her room. If she is hungry, she presses a button and the Machine delivers food to her table. If she needs to sleep, she presses a button and a bed appears. If she needs the doctor, she presses a button and a mechanical one drops from the ceiling. Vashti is a music expert, delivering lectures to crowds of listeners, each tuning in from his own room, the communications system having made assemblage obsolete. She has the sense, constantly, that if she shuts out the voices she will miss something. She believes in life inside the Machine.
Kuno, in contrast, wants to know what exists beyond it, on the surface of the Earth, up in the “poisonous” air. The society’s rules forbid surface exploration without a permit; Kuno goes anyway. He asks questions. He has ideas. He suffers for them. As Forster’s story unfolds we recognize the degradation of human culture this new society has wrought, and we see the coming of the end. We feel, by the last paragraph, an odd elation at the ruin of these humans’ depersonalized, machine-driven existence.
The destruction of the Machine reads as a moment of triumph, but this triumph fades in the face of details that give us pause — the plethora of voices seeking constant contact with other voices; the anxiety Vashti feels when the stream is interrupted; her sense, away from it, that she has missed something wonderful. We learn that unmediated interaction creates a discomfort Vashti cannot abide. In time, the Machine debases her impulse to question, to create, to understand the relation of space to time, to discern original ideas. We pause at these details because we recognize in them analogs to the present — we understand Vashti’s rising anxiety, faced with a kind of information overload of our own; we identify with her desire for technology-mediated experience; we recognize our own discomfort with uncertainty and risk.
The Internet in concept, if not in physical execution (i.e. a collection of spaces connected by tubes), resembles Forster's Machine. The Pew Research Center found that in 2009 “over 99% of the stories linked to in blogs came from legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks. And just four — the BBC, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post accounted for fully 80% of all links.” Is the Internet an extended echo chamber in which to hear the reverberations of familiar ideas? If this is the way it’s tending, Forster's story offers a cautionary tale. If we settle for what has already been created, if we do not push ourselves to imagine new ideas, if we do not engage with our world, then, in the belly of the Machine, what is most beautiful about human beings will become as misshapen as Vashti herself, her body "a lump of flesh" and her face “as white as a fungus,” and will, eventually, self-destruct.
Vashti is immersed in her culture. She communicates with “several thousand people” through a network of tubes that bring those anonymous voices into her room. If she is hungry, she presses a button and the Machine delivers food to her table. If she needs to sleep, she presses a button and a bed appears. If she needs the doctor, she presses a button and a mechanical one drops from the ceiling. Vashti is a music expert, delivering lectures to crowds of listeners, each tuning in from his own room, the communications system having made assemblage obsolete. She has the sense, constantly, that if she shuts out the voices she will miss something. She believes in life inside the Machine.
Kuno, in contrast, wants to know what exists beyond it, on the surface of the Earth, up in the “poisonous” air. The society’s rules forbid surface exploration without a permit; Kuno goes anyway. He asks questions. He has ideas. He suffers for them. As Forster’s story unfolds we recognize the degradation of human culture this new society has wrought, and we see the coming of the end. We feel, by the last paragraph, an odd elation at the ruin of these humans’ depersonalized, machine-driven existence.
The destruction of the Machine reads as a moment of triumph, but this triumph fades in the face of details that give us pause — the plethora of voices seeking constant contact with other voices; the anxiety Vashti feels when the stream is interrupted; her sense, away from it, that she has missed something wonderful. We learn that unmediated interaction creates a discomfort Vashti cannot abide. In time, the Machine debases her impulse to question, to create, to understand the relation of space to time, to discern original ideas. We pause at these details because we recognize in them analogs to the present — we understand Vashti’s rising anxiety, faced with a kind of information overload of our own; we identify with her desire for technology-mediated experience; we recognize our own discomfort with uncertainty and risk.
“‘Beware of first-hand ideas!’ exclaimed one of the most advanced of [the lecturers]. ‘First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by love and fear, and on this gross foundation who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element — direct observation.’” —E. M. Forster, “The Machine Stops”
The Internet in concept, if not in physical execution (i.e. a collection of spaces connected by tubes), resembles Forster's Machine. The Pew Research Center found that in 2009 “over 99% of the stories linked to in blogs came from legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks. And just four — the BBC, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post accounted for fully 80% of all links.” Is the Internet an extended echo chamber in which to hear the reverberations of familiar ideas? If this is the way it’s tending, Forster's story offers a cautionary tale. If we settle for what has already been created, if we do not push ourselves to imagine new ideas, if we do not engage with our world, then, in the belly of the Machine, what is most beautiful about human beings will become as misshapen as Vashti herself, her body "a lump of flesh" and her face “as white as a fungus,” and will, eventually, self-destruct.
August 15, 2024
3 1/2 ❤️
Machine stops- 4.5
Panic- 2.5
Hedge-3.5
Celestial omnibus- 4.0
Other kingdom- 3.5
The curates friend- 2.5
The road from Colonus- 3.0
The point of it- 3.5
Mr Andrew’s- 4.0
Co-ordination- 2.5
The story siren- 3.0
eternal- conflicted
Overall it was a nice read! It was interesting to read E.M Forster in short form. I say it fit well, I just wish there was a bit more going on in some of them. But some were amazing, machine, mr Andrew’s, celestial omnibus, the point of it and hedge. Some bangers here (amongst some mid ones)
Machine stops- 4.5
Panic- 2.5
Hedge-3.5
Celestial omnibus- 4.0
Other kingdom- 3.5
The curates friend- 2.5
The road from Colonus- 3.0
The point of it- 3.5
Mr Andrew’s- 4.0
Co-ordination- 2.5
The story siren- 3.0
eternal- conflicted
Overall it was a nice read! It was interesting to read E.M Forster in short form. I say it fit well, I just wish there was a bit more going on in some of them. But some were amazing, machine, mr Andrew’s, celestial omnibus, the point of it and hedge. Some bangers here (amongst some mid ones)
April 5, 2008
My rating was really on the strength of "The Machine Stops" which I first read many years ago in grade school, when it was on the high school English curriculum that my mother taught.
That story made such an impact on me then, even though at the time (circa 1967), PCs and the internet were unknown to us. Then, what impacted me was the vision of the flying "train" and monstrous cities underground, the Earth too toxic to live upon. I don't think that I even thought about WHEN the book was written and how unbelievable that vision of the future would have seemed at the turn of the last century, let alone how "speculative" it was to us in the late 1960s!
Certainly, we were living in the "Jet Age" and in the midst of some of the technology depicted in the book, albeit in it's high Victorian styling. Someone reading it for the first time, now, would have a different grasp of parts of it that I certainly couldn't, in the late 60ss.
My vision of the screens in which one could directly communicate with others, conduct and participate in lectures and concerts, speak directly with distant relations, was that of a glorified closed-circuit television system. A year or so later, the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) provided a much more contemporary and visual version of the technology described in "The Machine Stops". It may well have been the moment when the possible reality of the technology began to occur to me.
There were, of course, speculations on "video" phones and futuristic modes of televising but even they seemed far too "in the future" to be real.
I remembered the book, but certainly not the details of the story. The only vivid recollection, beyond the basic plot, was the journey by Vashti on the airship which was, to me, so vividly constructed.
Several years ago, I found I could order the book of short stories, and did so.
The other stories seemed to me more Victorian ... less visionary, than "The Machine..". They left me cold.
"The Machine...", on the other hand, was riveting.
Perhaps it is the older, more worldly me that was able to grasp more of the visionary brilliance that enabled Forster to create the "world" that surrounded Vashti. As well, I found the concept of the "trust in the machine" which was quite literally the world of the future but, in a sense, was very Victorian.
The Industrial Revolution brought about a love of the machine, a love of time-saving devices, technology which could free man (more specifically, the "upper" classes of Man) to involve themselves in expanding the mind and "better Mankind". It was the age of the patent. Machines and devices, fantastic and practical were being invented and the Victorians were mesmerized by them.
There were, of course, also movements away from the world of the machine. The Arts and Crafts movement began in reaction to the soullessness of the machine-made and sought to regain the Human-ness in art and design. While proponents weren't necessarily anti- machine or anti-industrialization. Some saw the machine as a device which could be used to relieve the worker and still allow him to produce works of quality. Others saw the machine as undermining creativity and individuality of products and of the craftsman.
As demonstrated in "The Machine...", total dependence on the machine and the perceived "freedoms" it allowed (the possibility of interaction of all users, the presentation of ideas on a world-wide scale, and the ability of the individual to be heard) actually inhibited human creativity and thought. Humans were reduced to solitary entities in a homogeneous society, discussing old ideas in physical isolation from each other.
It is difficult for the reader, now, not to see "The Machine" in action.
While elements of our "Machine" allow us as individuals to create and to present our creations on a world-wide scale, the world we live in is choosing to become that homogeneous society of the book.
As we open our world to each other, more and more societies are choosing to become more like "us", casting off the cultural works of their own, in order to seek out the machine-made society they see us to be.
In China, in order to appear more modern, traditional neighbourhoods called Hutongs are being torn down and replaced by "modern housing", their inhabitants evicted in order to "modernize". Three neighbourhoods are being preserved for posterity, but the traditional communities will be lost.
Bushmen youth, exposed to television and MTV, want the latest sneakers, ball caps, and Hip Hop gear.
We vie for individuality by becoming more and more alike.
In "The Machine...", Vashti struggles with her dependence on the machine, her perception of herself as an individual, and her realization that, though she thought of herself as an individual, she was indistinguishable from the mass of humanity, despite her physical isolation. And yet, it was her son, who had been so completely out of touch who still valued her as the individual... as his mother.
It is the bond of motherhood that enables her to finally struggle free of "The Machine"; though at what cost, and, ultimately, whose benefit?
That story made such an impact on me then, even though at the time (circa 1967), PCs and the internet were unknown to us. Then, what impacted me was the vision of the flying "train" and monstrous cities underground, the Earth too toxic to live upon. I don't think that I even thought about WHEN the book was written and how unbelievable that vision of the future would have seemed at the turn of the last century, let alone how "speculative" it was to us in the late 1960s!
Certainly, we were living in the "Jet Age" and in the midst of some of the technology depicted in the book, albeit in it's high Victorian styling. Someone reading it for the first time, now, would have a different grasp of parts of it that I certainly couldn't, in the late 60ss.
My vision of the screens in which one could directly communicate with others, conduct and participate in lectures and concerts, speak directly with distant relations, was that of a glorified closed-circuit television system. A year or so later, the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) provided a much more contemporary and visual version of the technology described in "The Machine Stops". It may well have been the moment when the possible reality of the technology began to occur to me.
There were, of course, speculations on "video" phones and futuristic modes of televising but even they seemed far too "in the future" to be real.
I remembered the book, but certainly not the details of the story. The only vivid recollection, beyond the basic plot, was the journey by Vashti on the airship which was, to me, so vividly constructed.
Several years ago, I found I could order the book of short stories, and did so.
The other stories seemed to me more Victorian ... less visionary, than "The Machine..". They left me cold.
"The Machine...", on the other hand, was riveting.
Perhaps it is the older, more worldly me that was able to grasp more of the visionary brilliance that enabled Forster to create the "world" that surrounded Vashti. As well, I found the concept of the "trust in the machine" which was quite literally the world of the future but, in a sense, was very Victorian.
The Industrial Revolution brought about a love of the machine, a love of time-saving devices, technology which could free man (more specifically, the "upper" classes of Man) to involve themselves in expanding the mind and "better Mankind". It was the age of the patent. Machines and devices, fantastic and practical were being invented and the Victorians were mesmerized by them.
There were, of course, also movements away from the world of the machine. The Arts and Crafts movement began in reaction to the soullessness of the machine-made and sought to regain the Human-ness in art and design. While proponents weren't necessarily anti- machine or anti-industrialization. Some saw the machine as a device which could be used to relieve the worker and still allow him to produce works of quality. Others saw the machine as undermining creativity and individuality of products and of the craftsman.
As demonstrated in "The Machine...", total dependence on the machine and the perceived "freedoms" it allowed (the possibility of interaction of all users, the presentation of ideas on a world-wide scale, and the ability of the individual to be heard) actually inhibited human creativity and thought. Humans were reduced to solitary entities in a homogeneous society, discussing old ideas in physical isolation from each other.
It is difficult for the reader, now, not to see "The Machine" in action.
While elements of our "Machine" allow us as individuals to create and to present our creations on a world-wide scale, the world we live in is choosing to become that homogeneous society of the book.
As we open our world to each other, more and more societies are choosing to become more like "us", casting off the cultural works of their own, in order to seek out the machine-made society they see us to be.
In China, in order to appear more modern, traditional neighbourhoods called Hutongs are being torn down and replaced by "modern housing", their inhabitants evicted in order to "modernize". Three neighbourhoods are being preserved for posterity, but the traditional communities will be lost.
Bushmen youth, exposed to television and MTV, want the latest sneakers, ball caps, and Hip Hop gear.
We vie for individuality by becoming more and more alike.
In "The Machine...", Vashti struggles with her dependence on the machine, her perception of herself as an individual, and her realization that, though she thought of herself as an individual, she was indistinguishable from the mass of humanity, despite her physical isolation. And yet, it was her son, who had been so completely out of touch who still valued her as the individual... as his mother.
It is the bond of motherhood that enables her to finally struggle free of "The Machine"; though at what cost, and, ultimately, whose benefit?
April 8, 2025
Bit of a mixed bag. A lot of sci-fi that is so different to his novels which was interesting. The titular story is great but some of the others didn't really land.
not-finished
August 8, 2018I checked this book out because I specifically wanted to read The Machine Stops. I skipped ahead to the story and was not disappointed. For a story first published in 1909, it seems like it could have been written today. I really liked the story- a bit dark and a bit hopeful.
I will give some of his other stories a shot- will update review again later.
I will give some of his other stories a shot- will update review again later.
September 2, 2008
If I was to go by the book blurb, I'd never have read this book--obviously I don't believe in paganism. However, a young English Lit. major I work with, Chara, told me about the story, The Machine Stops which to my chagrin I had never read. Groan! The booklady's pride kicks in again--yet another classical gap in her reading education. Ha!
So I read The Machine Stops. And that is probably all I will read from this collection of stories. TMS is, however, intriguing and well-worth reading. I do not agree with the premise that machines cause us to lose our free will, nor that machines will ever take over the world. I'm sure there are people who are 'addicted' to computer games and other things to do with computers and/or the Internet, and I know it is very easy to fall under their spell. The value in stories like "The Machine Stops" is that they can be used to raise awareness of the dangers of allowing oneself -- or one's children/grandchildren -- to become obsessed with screens and little boxes. There is no doubt computers affect human cognitive abilities; it's not that we don't think while operating a machine but we do think differently. Forster looked at turn of the century British society, saw its burgeoning dependence on mechanized industry and projected a bleak future of more machinery and less intelligence. Indeed, some of his insights are eerily prophetic, but others are a bit far-fetched. All-in-all a thought provoking and insightful read.
So I read The Machine Stops. And that is probably all I will read from this collection of stories. TMS is, however, intriguing and well-worth reading. I do not agree with the premise that machines cause us to lose our free will, nor that machines will ever take over the world. I'm sure there are people who are 'addicted' to computer games and other things to do with computers and/or the Internet, and I know it is very easy to fall under their spell. The value in stories like "The Machine Stops" is that they can be used to raise awareness of the dangers of allowing oneself -- or one's children/grandchildren -- to become obsessed with screens and little boxes. There is no doubt computers affect human cognitive abilities; it's not that we don't think while operating a machine but we do think differently. Forster looked at turn of the century British society, saw its burgeoning dependence on mechanized industry and projected a bleak future of more machinery and less intelligence. Indeed, some of his insights are eerily prophetic, but others are a bit far-fetched. All-in-all a thought provoking and insightful read.
March 2, 2015
When I think E.M. Forster, science fiction and fantasy is not the genre that springs to mind. Yet this collection of twelve short stories is very much fantasy and science fiction, along with a heavy dose of the occult and spiritualism.
I didn’t love any of these stories – and I do think they have to be read as a whole to truly appreciate them – but they were thought provoking and creative. The collection is most famous for its titular work, “The Machine Stops,” which has gotten some attention in recent years because of its prescient, eerie commentary on modern technology. But the entire collection is interesting. Out of the other stories, “The Celestial Omnibus” lingered in my head the longest, due to its premise and arc.
The collection is a relatively quick read, doubly so since the twelve stories make it easy to pick up at a reader’s leisure. Recommended.
I didn’t love any of these stories – and I do think they have to be read as a whole to truly appreciate them – but they were thought provoking and creative. The collection is most famous for its titular work, “The Machine Stops,” which has gotten some attention in recent years because of its prescient, eerie commentary on modern technology. But the entire collection is interesting. Out of the other stories, “The Celestial Omnibus” lingered in my head the longest, due to its premise and arc.
The collection is a relatively quick read, doubly so since the twelve stories make it easy to pick up at a reader’s leisure. Recommended.
January 27, 2022
Edward Morgan Forster, nel suo stile elegante e immaginifico, potrebbe scrivere, per quanto mi riguarda, su qualunque cosa e lo farebbe bene. Soprattutto col primo racconto di fantascienza - "La macchina si ferma" -, Forster ci regala un esempio di buona fantascienza distopica e anti-tecnologica interessante da diversi punti di vista, oltre che colto nelle riflessioni e nelle sollecitazioni a cui conduce.
February 14, 2021
Un grande autore, una raccolta di racconti di notevolissimo livello, alcuni veramente geniali, altri molto lontani dalle mie corde.
July 18, 2024
I was intrigued by this as I'd never read Forster, and it's certainly not a name I'd associate with sci-fi. The first story in this collection, the titular The Machine Stops, is definitely dystopian sci-fi. It depicts a world where humans can no longer survive on the surface because of changes in the environment. They spend most of their time isolated in underground rooms, only communicating with each other via round screens, with a system called the Machine supplying all their physiological needs. The Machine is treated with an almost religious reverence. Vashti is a woman who lectures about music, and doesn't question her life. We see her anxiety when she has to leave her room and journey to see her son, who is dangerously curious about the world beyond the Machine. Considering it was written in 1909, it feels very prescient and I liked it.
The remaining 11 stories are not sci-fi. It's an interesting mix. The second story - The Story of a Panic - reminded me of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Other stories/allegories refer to fantasy worlds, fauns, death, the afterlife, famous historical figures rewarding from the heavens, class etiquette, and class differences. They feel more how I imagine Forster's writing to be. The blurb on the back does mention the mix of content, but it leads with the sci-fi description of The Machine Stops. Despite the good title story and lovely cover, I think it might be misleading to find this collection in sci-fi. So interesting read but not really what I expected.
'"For life is practically a battle. To all intents and purposes a battle. Except for a few lucky fellows who can read books, and so avoid the realities."' - Other Kingdom - EM Forster
The remaining 11 stories are not sci-fi. It's an interesting mix. The second story - The Story of a Panic - reminded me of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Other stories/allegories refer to fantasy worlds, fauns, death, the afterlife, famous historical figures rewarding from the heavens, class etiquette, and class differences. They feel more how I imagine Forster's writing to be. The blurb on the back does mention the mix of content, but it leads with the sci-fi description of The Machine Stops. Despite the good title story and lovely cover, I think it might be misleading to find this collection in sci-fi. So interesting read but not really what I expected.
'"For life is practically a battle. To all intents and purposes a battle. Except for a few lucky fellows who can read books, and so avoid the realities."' - Other Kingdom - EM Forster
April 6, 2021
This small volume with some interesting notes gives a reader a full taste of the author, E. M. Forster. There is a classic story in which an upper class gentleman withdraws from his female companion in horror and embarrassment because she has spoken intimately with an Italian of a lower class. She had disgraced herself and all other members of her class. There are several stories about the approach of death as mature individuals experience death or wonder about it. But the story that is most astonishing is the title story, “The Machine Stops”. This story, written about 1910, foretells life in 2020 in some astonishing ways. In the story, which takes place after an apocalyptic event makes the surface of the earth uninhabitable, everyone lives underground in small cells. The Machine provides everything: food, water, light, communication with the world and everything is mediated through a screen. Direct experience is no longer valued. The main character, a mature woman named Vashti, knows that highways were once built to take people to other places so they could get things. Now highways are the means by which things come to her.
A San Francisco theater company, Z Space did a word-for-word production of the story with wonderful actors saying the words for Vashti and her rebellious son, Zuno. The soundscape was amazing. If you can find it, hear it. But reading it is fascinating in itself.
A San Francisco theater company, Z Space did a word-for-word production of the story with wonderful actors saying the words for Vashti and her rebellious son, Zuno. The soundscape was amazing. If you can find it, hear it. But reading it is fascinating in itself.
March 20, 2018
Oct 25th
p.87-p.119 The Machine Stops
I wanted to read The Machine Stops because of having read The Little Paris Bookshop. It was mentioned within the novel itself and also suggested as one to read at the back of the book in the appendix 'literary apothecary'
November 19 ( realizing I've had this book in my possession since April 28, 2017 ... Now November)
The reason to read a book or story is to get to the point in which the name of the story in mentioned. On p. 112 The Machine does indeed begin to stop.
Took a while to get through this very slow paced story. ( initially this section was deleted somehow after I has typed it out so take 2...)
Once getting to the second part however it's more fast-paced. With just a focus on the deterioration of the machine and Vashti's disapproval becoming ambivalence - we see how the machine has taken over the cognizant ways of thought within this society.
Interestingly many focus on the Reilly's aspects of the story - like the attributions to the book being that of such fervor that history that they try to avoid from thousands of years earlier gets repeated by zealots towards the word of the book acting the same way. There's also the component of reliance of technology which is what makes this novel applicable regardless of how long it's been since it was written. Although from the early 1900s there was a thought of what the future may be with a technological revolution, Forster imagined a world way far off in which interpersonal human connection becomes obsolete .
I once read a text called The Decline and Fall of Personality by Kenneth Gergen in which he laments that the photocopier will be the end of the written era. In this text, if you change the word photocopier to any other technological item that 'plagues' the modern zeitgeist ; it applies perfectly.
Pages of interest
Part 3 p.109 there's an interesting idea suggested here that first hand knowledge is to be considered untrustworthy of unreliable because it doesn't relate to the world of those living within the machine. Instead of reading historical first person accounts of events going beyond second and even tenth-hand makes for a better version. This is someone's interpretation of a interpretation made by an interpretation and so on. This is better because you will be able to tell your children your version after 10+ other people have gone through it and your future generations will therefore be better off for having had many previous minds consider what had at one time been considered new. To those relying on the machine, this is better because why focus on the history of the past when It is not relevant to the machine. Better to interpret how the event would have happened , or likely not happened - thanks to the machine.
P.112 - only concerned with the breaking of the amenities within the machine (and even growing used to these new changes) people refuse to see the error in the machine. It is all good and all knowing as written in the book and so even upon failure we shouldn't judge it, for it can do no wrong and has done only wonders for us in the last hundreds of years. Wen the omnipresent mending apparatus breaks - what fixes the fixer.
I have to say this story didnt bring me joy to read - more that I did it because I was I intrigued. No regret in reading it and I would suggest it as a "primary resource" if someone were to be doing an english paper on our technological societal reliance. Some good quotes in there that can be well integrated as support for a stance in a argumentative essay form.
As a story on its own it works as a cautionary tale of sorts. As it was written in a different time and society it's interesting in a similar way that the Jetsons cartoon looked at the future or that Back to the Future hoped our technology would have advanced by 2017. As a story on its own dont expecting dystopian fiction nerds of the modern day to be impressed. (He's not even allowed to procreate since he isn't considered optimal for the future of the machine - so there certainly isn't a love triangle to speak of). It's a man who's perceived as crazy for thinking and wanting for more beyond the world he's always known and those around him assume to be true and for that reason it's seamless and timeless with the dystopian fiction stories of today.
(November 26th)
When I was once and for all finished with this book last week, I ended up giving it a once over quick skim through again. Now reading through the whole thing and not pausing I saw it differently and took down some comments.
-We hide what scares us behind the metal blinds for they don't give us ideas. (These ideas must be in relation to life within the confines of the Machine and so travel and seeing different countries above the ground do not provide opportunity for ways to better serve the machine.)
-People don't touch anymore - touching has been made obsolete thanks to the the machine. To touch someone is considered rude.
Old geography is irrelevant as people trying to race the setting sun by flying west as the earth spun faster to the east: this was eventually considered wrong and futile. However travel is still exceptionally fast if archaic.
-Sunlight is terrifying and things like snow are not understood because there is no need to for it.
People only travel if they must ; like if they were called to propagate the population : hardly ever leaving their hexagonal rooms with buttons for everything by choice.
-There is a chance people live above the earth but the society of the machine must end. There is no risk of it being turned back on- because people have learned their lesson and the state in which the world created the machine initially does not exist, and must not be allowed to exist, again in order for human life to move onward.
Read this book slowly over the course of months - taking pauses in between. But as a whole enjoyable though slightly tedious. The second speed through read actually proved useful as I understood better what was going on and the intention.
Would recommend to the intellectual sort intrigued by the ideas that fears of the past are the same as those now - computers ruling us.
p.87-p.119 The Machine Stops
I wanted to read The Machine Stops because of having read The Little Paris Bookshop. It was mentioned within the novel itself and also suggested as one to read at the back of the book in the appendix 'literary apothecary'
November 19 ( realizing I've had this book in my possession since April 28, 2017 ... Now November)
The reason to read a book or story is to get to the point in which the name of the story in mentioned. On p. 112 The Machine does indeed begin to stop.
Took a while to get through this very slow paced story. ( initially this section was deleted somehow after I has typed it out so take 2...)
Once getting to the second part however it's more fast-paced. With just a focus on the deterioration of the machine and Vashti's disapproval becoming ambivalence - we see how the machine has taken over the cognizant ways of thought within this society.
Interestingly many focus on the Reilly's aspects of the story - like the attributions to the book being that of such fervor that history that they try to avoid from thousands of years earlier gets repeated by zealots towards the word of the book acting the same way. There's also the component of reliance of technology which is what makes this novel applicable regardless of how long it's been since it was written. Although from the early 1900s there was a thought of what the future may be with a technological revolution, Forster imagined a world way far off in which interpersonal human connection becomes obsolete .
I once read a text called The Decline and Fall of Personality by Kenneth Gergen in which he laments that the photocopier will be the end of the written era. In this text, if you change the word photocopier to any other technological item that 'plagues' the modern zeitgeist ; it applies perfectly.
Pages of interest
Part 3 p.109 there's an interesting idea suggested here that first hand knowledge is to be considered untrustworthy of unreliable because it doesn't relate to the world of those living within the machine. Instead of reading historical first person accounts of events going beyond second and even tenth-hand makes for a better version. This is someone's interpretation of a interpretation made by an interpretation and so on. This is better because you will be able to tell your children your version after 10+ other people have gone through it and your future generations will therefore be better off for having had many previous minds consider what had at one time been considered new. To those relying on the machine, this is better because why focus on the history of the past when It is not relevant to the machine. Better to interpret how the event would have happened , or likely not happened - thanks to the machine.
P.112 - only concerned with the breaking of the amenities within the machine (and even growing used to these new changes) people refuse to see the error in the machine. It is all good and all knowing as written in the book and so even upon failure we shouldn't judge it, for it can do no wrong and has done only wonders for us in the last hundreds of years. Wen the omnipresent mending apparatus breaks - what fixes the fixer.
I have to say this story didnt bring me joy to read - more that I did it because I was I intrigued. No regret in reading it and I would suggest it as a "primary resource" if someone were to be doing an english paper on our technological societal reliance. Some good quotes in there that can be well integrated as support for a stance in a argumentative essay form.
As a story on its own it works as a cautionary tale of sorts. As it was written in a different time and society it's interesting in a similar way that the Jetsons cartoon looked at the future or that Back to the Future hoped our technology would have advanced by 2017. As a story on its own dont expecting dystopian fiction nerds of the modern day to be impressed. (He's not even allowed to procreate since he isn't considered optimal for the future of the machine - so there certainly isn't a love triangle to speak of). It's a man who's perceived as crazy for thinking and wanting for more beyond the world he's always known and those around him assume to be true and for that reason it's seamless and timeless with the dystopian fiction stories of today.
(November 26th)
When I was once and for all finished with this book last week, I ended up giving it a once over quick skim through again. Now reading through the whole thing and not pausing I saw it differently and took down some comments.
-We hide what scares us behind the metal blinds for they don't give us ideas. (These ideas must be in relation to life within the confines of the Machine and so travel and seeing different countries above the ground do not provide opportunity for ways to better serve the machine.)
-People don't touch anymore - touching has been made obsolete thanks to the the machine. To touch someone is considered rude.
Old geography is irrelevant as people trying to race the setting sun by flying west as the earth spun faster to the east: this was eventually considered wrong and futile. However travel is still exceptionally fast if archaic.
-Sunlight is terrifying and things like snow are not understood because there is no need to for it.
People only travel if they must ; like if they were called to propagate the population : hardly ever leaving their hexagonal rooms with buttons for everything by choice.
-There is a chance people live above the earth but the society of the machine must end. There is no risk of it being turned back on- because people have learned their lesson and the state in which the world created the machine initially does not exist, and must not be allowed to exist, again in order for human life to move onward.
Read this book slowly over the course of months - taking pauses in between. But as a whole enjoyable though slightly tedious. The second speed through read actually proved useful as I understood better what was going on and the intention.
Would recommend to the intellectual sort intrigued by the ideas that fears of the past are the same as those now - computers ruling us.
December 16, 2021
Titelnovellen är en egenartad SF-novell, mycket mörk dystopi, nästan profetisk, människan är 'förslavad' under rädsla och maskinen kan vara symbol för hur vi hypnotiserats av dator och smartphone. Så visst är det oroande att läsa.
Även övriga noveller uttrycker tankar som både förtrollar och oroar, klasskillnader och kulturmöten, och gammal folklore som möter den 'nya tiden'. Spännande är också mer symboliska tankar kring liv och död, sagolikt återgivet, som maratonloppet intill häcken in till paradiset, eller det stelt likgiltiga Himmelriket jämfört med världsjälen. Älskar slutmeningen i 'Mr Andrews', där en muslim och en kristen dött och nått Sankte Pers grind vid himmelriket och under uppstigandet fattat medlidande för sin medresenär, och mer om nåd för varandra, eftersom de trodde att den andre redan skulle vara fördömd. Båda släpps in, men blir så besvikna att de lämnar himlen för att låta sig uppslukas av 'Världssjälen' "...and all the experience they had gained, and all the love and wisdom they had generated, passed into it, and made it better."
Forster är alltid läsvärd.
Även övriga noveller uttrycker tankar som både förtrollar och oroar, klasskillnader och kulturmöten, och gammal folklore som möter den 'nya tiden'. Spännande är också mer symboliska tankar kring liv och död, sagolikt återgivet, som maratonloppet intill häcken in till paradiset, eller det stelt likgiltiga Himmelriket jämfört med världsjälen. Älskar slutmeningen i 'Mr Andrews', där en muslim och en kristen dött och nått Sankte Pers grind vid himmelriket och under uppstigandet fattat medlidande för sin medresenär, och mer om nåd för varandra, eftersom de trodde att den andre redan skulle vara fördömd. Båda släpps in, men blir så besvikna att de lämnar himlen för att låta sig uppslukas av 'Världssjälen' "...and all the experience they had gained, and all the love and wisdom they had generated, passed into it, and made it better."
Forster är alltid läsvärd.
September 26, 2025
Want to give it 3.5 stars. Interesting short story, that gets to the heart of our current disembodied culture of communication. We lose each other, we lose our sense of self and without the body, we are losing our capacity of creating new ideas.
The machine as a symbol for both religion and AI functions better than as a symbol for totalitarian systems.
While at some points hyperbolic, the phrases “Beware of first-hands ideas” and “first-hand ideas do not really exist” are just scarily reminiscent of the rise of regurgitated slop due to AI usage. The end signifies the return to embodied intersubjectivity and while I wish to share the sentiment of Kuno, it seems to be in line with his utopian thinking.
Quick read but nothing spectacular!
The machine as a symbol for both religion and AI functions better than as a symbol for totalitarian systems.
While at some points hyperbolic, the phrases “Beware of first-hands ideas” and “first-hand ideas do not really exist” are just scarily reminiscent of the rise of regurgitated slop due to AI usage. The end signifies the return to embodied intersubjectivity and while I wish to share the sentiment of Kuno, it seems to be in line with his utopian thinking.
Quick read but nothing spectacular!
January 11, 2025
The Machine Stops is a haunting, fantastic story and it's absolutely terrifying to read one of the first dystopian science fiction stories and see such an obvious parallel of our current times. This story is one of the most indicative stories of some of the problems facing our world today and I fear it may be a timeless notion. The Machine Stops itself would be rated 4 stars, some of the other stories in the collection weren't of the same standard but all were enjoyable nonetheless. A particular standout was The Point of It which was a beautiful, reflective tale.
June 16, 2025
The eponymous story "The Machine Stops" is of course amazing, a sci-fi classic that is an eerily precise reflection of our modern way of life as it was enabled by technology. This is definitely a must-read. Unfortunately most of the other stories collected here do not stand up to its quality and intrigue. "The Story of a Panic" and "The Other Side of the Hedge" almost made me quit reading the book, but some others are in turn very interesting and witty, for instance "The Celestial Omnibus" and "Mr. Andrews".
December 8, 2025
"We created the machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it."
Breathtaking. Feels like a premonition about the future society is barrelling towards. Calling a piece of science fiction "prescient" is beyond tired, but my god, is it appropriate here.
May 11, 2022
Such amazing stories, strange and filled with Greek mythology to the brim! I have really enjoyed most of them. I started reading for the most popular one 'The machine stops' which was definitely insightful and depicting surprisingly accurate modern technologies. But my favourite one was 'The celestial omnibus', such a nuanced and fascinating story. Forster is definetly becoming one of my favourites writers.
November 23, 2024
I bought this on a whim primarily for The Machine Stops, which was prophetic, thought-provoking and excellent - I enjoyed particularly Vashti's "horror of direct experience"; the other stories were a mixed bunch, with some coming so much from a world steeped in classical literature that I was left scratching my head and wondering what the story had been all about. So 5 stars for The Machine Stops, 3 for the collection as a whole.
March 7, 2025
The Machine Stops - precursor and influence on The Matrix? Also several Star Trek original stories where Kirk and Spock battle computers.
Followed by numerous other short stories. With several the theme seemed to be incompletion - getting to the end of the story without a satisfying end, leaving the mind to mull over what happened next. Not my usual type of literature, but enjoyed them nevertheless.
Followed by numerous other short stories. With several the theme seemed to be incompletion - getting to the end of the story without a satisfying end, leaving the mind to mull over what happened next. Not my usual type of literature, but enjoyed them nevertheless.
May 1, 2025
Well what an interesting and good mix of stories by E M Forster. Being short stories there are some books that miss the mark, mainly because the stories are too short to really judge.
Having initially read A Passage to India and A Room with a View, I have given this book a 4 Star Rating because it really shows the versatility of E M Forster and his writing style; especially for the futuristic dystopian books.
Having initially read A Passage to India and A Room with a View, I have given this book a 4 Star Rating because it really shows the versatility of E M Forster and his writing style; especially for the futuristic dystopian books.
June 9, 2025
The Machine Stops was an extraordinary story. Unbelievably prophetic - it is dystopian, but major elements of it can be clearly seen in our present society. Reading it in 人定湖, I went for a walk after. The Machine really does hold all of our attention.
The other books are also good - a mix of dreamy, aristocratic, 奇怪。 Incisive lines pop out of the pages on occasion. I really liked ‘The other side of the hedge’, ‘the point of it’
The other books are also good - a mix of dreamy, aristocratic, 奇怪。 Incisive lines pop out of the pages on occasion. I really liked ‘The other side of the hedge’, ‘the point of it’
May 22, 2018
Not the type of stories I expected to see from EM Forster! My bad for not realizing he also wrote fantasy/sci-fi. Mostly very enjoyable. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for my rating, but ended up on the higher side because nearly all the stories in this collection were well-crafted and thought-provoking.
August 21, 2018
To be honest, I haven't read a collection of short stories in years, but in the spirit of the #readharder challenge this is the book I chose for "A Classic of Genre Fiction." The stories were a collection of writings to make us think on deeply philosophical terms. They centered around the afterlife, fantasy, scifi and dsytopia. It made for a nice, light read on the bus :)
September 16, 2024
Mrs Harbottle, who, like most people, was always right, had warned me against him;
I’ve read The Machine Stops before and The Story of the Siren seemed familiar, but the other stories were new to me. I like the mythological themes that pervade this collection, while my least favourite was The Eternal Moment, as Miss Raby made such a fool of herself.
I’ve read The Machine Stops before and The Story of the Siren seemed familiar, but the other stories were new to me. I like the mythological themes that pervade this collection, while my least favourite was The Eternal Moment, as Miss Raby made such a fool of herself.
June 3, 2025
It was hard to rate this book of short stories. The story I bought it for ‘The Machine Stops’ is a 5* story and there are a handful of others which are also 4* or 5* and invite you to enter into some really interesting ideas. Then the rest have not stood the test of time so well. So a 4* overall because the stories that are good are really good.
September 28, 2025
This collection of short stories reveal a whole different side of E.M. Forster. The titular The Machine Stops is an excellent sci-fi dystopia, featuring technologies that we today take for granted. The story is easily the strongest piece in the collection.
The other stories feature myths, paganism, allegorical trials and an unexpected ending. But I also liked The Eternal Moment for its familiar sentiments and conscience.
The other stories feature myths, paganism, allegorical trials and an unexpected ending. But I also liked The Eternal Moment for its familiar sentiments and conscience.
February 6, 2025
Forster's lesser known ventures into speculative fiction. The titular story is a very good science fiction short story apt for contemporary concerns about the impact of social media. Other stories vary, but have many of Forster's habitual concerns with human relations and Englishness.
April 4, 2025
The titular story was wonderful and very much worth the read. The rest of the stories didn’t leave much of an impression on me. Some I thought were clever, others felt too much like moralistic fables for my taste, and a handful I just didn’t really get.
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