Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

The short story selection is The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster.

Oh I love this thread. Thank you.

You're welcome, Catherine.

I read this story earlier in the year and found it an intriguing story, and quite a change from his other books.

It definitely is! It's going to be fun discussing this book.

I have this as an audiobook and will be listening to it later this week.

Oh that's interesting, it may be more dramatic in audio!🤔

Just a suggestion - the version The Machine Stops and Other Stories can be read for free on Goodreads (online or download).

Thanks Trisha

I found a copy and I’ll read it very soon. Can’t wait!

Read it in its original version so i struggled to figure out the scenery. Short to read it is interesting to see how it is not so irrealistic. Lots of people look for comfort and are ready to pay the price. Reminds me of wall-e.

Having read only the first pages I had to reascertain that the story was indeed written more than 100 years ago. It is so prophetic on modern communication and the readiness of people replacing personal interaction with emails, instant messaging and skype/facetime and the likes.

I noticed that when I read it too. Wells seemed to foresee our society of instant communication but no real face to face interaction.

Rosemarie wrote: "... Wells seemed to foresee ...."

Did you mean E.M. Forster? Only now I realized that he is the same author who wrote "Howards End" or "Passage to India".

Yes, this work is completely divergent from his others. Having said that, he seems to be a visionary, atleast as far as the perils of the gadgets are concerned.

Peter wrote: "Rosemarie wrote: "... Wells seemed to foresee ...."

Did you mean E.M. Forster? Only now I realized that he is the same author who wrote "Howards End" or "Passage to India"."

Rosemarie has read this and commented on the story in a Goodreads group. She knows it's Forster and not Wells. She also referred to how different it is from his other work in Message 3. Her 'Wellsian' slip is funny because, if I didn't know this book and was asked a trivia choice of Wells or Foster as the author of a novel with this plot, I'd be 99% sure it was Wells.

I did mean Forster. 🙀 My mind has been melting due to the heat wave. 🌞

I read this today, & agree it’s difficult to believe it was written so long ago. Instant communication via a form of tablet? Tube travel? The ideas must have seemed weird at the time. But did I misunderstand? - I got the impression by the end that some people wanted to return to a simpler lifestyle with less control by the Machine.

I think they worshipped the Machine and were so dependent on it, that their survival is questionable without it. They were unable to do anything for themselves. However, there were a few who went to the surface, but we don't know how many there are.

Kuno, was the only one whose name is mentioned, but he did see a whole lot of people hiding on the surface, waiting to come out, when humanity is restored, and free from the clutches of the Machine.
His mother Vashti, seemed to be part of the former group. She actually kissed the book, and prayed to it, to restore order again!

Quoting Kuno, "The Machine is much, but it is not everything.I see something like you in this plate,but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you."

Re: Her 'Wellsian' slip is funny …. Is it also a Freudian slip?


I note that the real Vashti was
Queen of Persia and the first wife of Persian King Ahasuerus (mentioned in the Book of Esther). Is this significant?

Bernard, both British, both with two initials before the last name. Is that a coincidence.
But seriously, I have read almost all of Forster's novels so I will just go stand in the corner and meditate.

This was my comment in another Goodreads group after reading this short story:

This story combines a dystopian authoritarian outlook, as exists in other books, with a dystopian social communication outlook, which is its more intriguing and remarkable perspective. I waver between 3 and 4 stars on this one. If 3 stars, it's primarily because, as mentioned by others, this could have used a few more pages, at least to true novella size, to provide more insights and answers.

NOTE: I ultimately gave it 4 stars, giving precedence to it's early and unique dystopian social communications perspective.

Ha,ha.This is hilarious. British Bernard! But sadly, it doesn't seem to be relevant here..
Rosemarie, as the former queen of slips, Freudian or otherwise,I understand your pain.I think you can safely come out of the corner now.It's perfectly ok!🤗

Thank you, Catherine.

😊 Anytime

Wells was certainly the giant of British SF, but there were other writers at that time.

I am 75% done reading and cannot close my eyes to the similarities of the adoration of the Machine to the Catholic church, the handling and reading from the Book (in capital letters), the touching of buttons (like touching of icons or relics, the description of the Machine as "omnipotent, eternal", "the ritual swell into a complicated system of praise and prayer" (liturgy), each would pray to his / her favourite feature and "ask it to intercede for him with the Machine as a whole" (saints). Only that the ruling body is not called synod, but "Central Committee" (did Forster also foresee communism?). I wonder whether this is just an analogy to show that people did not change after all or critizing the church being mechanistic and detached from people.

Even though I thought they treated the Machine as a god, I didn't see the connection to the Church. The comparison makes sense to me. The organized Church may have forgotten its original function, just as the original function of the Machine was to serve, not control.

So what do WE believe in the end? Will there always people to restart the Machine or has humanity learnt its lesson?

I see those who made it to the surface and survived as rebels. That generation would not restart the Machine, but if they have descendants.....who knows?

I just finished the story and felt like it was written far later than it was (1909). It was amazing how Forster portrayed humans isolating themselves and only communicating through a machine.

Kathy wrote: "I just finished the story and felt like it was written far later than it was (1909). It was amazing how Forster portrayed humans isolating themselves and only communicating through a machine."

I agree - he was very creative to write this so long ago.

Peter wrote: "I am 75% done reading and cannot close my eyes to the similarities of the adoration of the Machine to the Catholic church, the handling and reading from the Book (in capital letters), the touching ..."
I think the book alludes more to people being a slave to modern technology than it was about the dogmas of the church. Although a few scenes do depict ritualistic behaviour.
Having said that, Rosemarie, I hope no descendants restart the machine. Assuming they haven't already! :)

I just started the story. After reading the scene of Vashti and Kuno video chatting, I wonder how mind-boggling Forster would find my reading his science fiction on an electronic tablet.

Forster was clearly ahead of his time in writing this story. We have evolved from people going to houses to communicate face-to-face to simply talking over the phone to now texting someone instead of any direct communication. Even nonverbal correspondence has shifted from writing letters to emails to, again, texting. Our communication is becoming less and less personal with more reliance on technology in our daily lives than past generations likely ever thought possible. Are we really that far away from not physically seeing people in our everyday world unless we must? Vashti was anxious ever seeing a person in real life. That is what social anxiety could maybe become, if we continue down this path.

To answer your question Peter, I think people would always eventually go back to technology, or the machine, but it might would take a long time. After several generations pass, the stories of the disastrous experiment with life under the machine would fade and possibly be thought of as myth. Then, people may try the machine again to make life easier. At a certain point, however, technology could make life TOO easy and impersonal.

It’s really intriguing how a lot of classic sci-fi novels predict technological advancements of the future. The machine in this story reminded me a lot of the internet and Skype.