"The Machine Stops" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

(12,300 words) by

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

. 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 story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs, predicted technologies similar to

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and tri ...

and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

Plot summary

The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge. The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas'. Her son Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his room. There, he tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world. He confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine. However, the Machine recaptures him, and he is threatened with 'Homelessness': expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death. Vashti, however, dismisses her son's concerns as dangerous madness and returns to her part of the world. As time passes, and Vashti continues the routine of her daily life, there are two important developments. First, individuals are no longer permitted access to the respirators which are needed to visit the earth's surface. Most welcome this development, as they are sceptical and fearful of first-hand experience and of those who desire it. Secondly, "Technopoly", a kind of religion, is established, in which the Machine is the object of worship. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and threatened with Homelessness. The Mending Apparatus – the system charged with repairing defects that appear in the Machine proper – has also failed by this time, but concerns about this are dismissed in the context of the supposed omnipotence of the Machine itself. During this time, Kuno is transferred to a room near Vashti's. He comes to believe that the Machine is breaking down, and tells her cryptically "The Machine stops." Vashti continues with her life, but eventually defects begin to appear in the Machine. At first, humans accept the deteriorations as the whim of the Machine, to which they are now wholly subservient, but the situation continues to deteriorate as the knowledge of how to repair the Machine has been lost. Finally, the Machine collapses, bringing 'civilisation' down with it. Kuno comes to Vashti's ruined room. Before they both perish, they realise that humanity and its connection to the natural world are what truly matters, and that it will fall to the surface-dwellers who still exist to rebuild the human race and to prevent the mistake of the Machine from being repeated.

Themes

In the preface to his ''Collected Short Stories'' (1947), Forster wrote that "'The Machine Stops' is a reaction to one of the earlier heavens of H. G. Wells." In ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively for ...

'', Wells had pictured the childlike

Eloi The Eloi are one of the two fictional post-human races, along with the Morlocks, in H. G. Wells' 1895 novel ''The Time Machine''. In H. G. Wells' ''The Time Machine'' By the year AD 802,701, humanity has evolved into two separate species: t ...

living the life of leisure of Greek gods whilst the working

Morlock Morlocks are a fictional species created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel,'' The Time Machine'', and are the main antagonists. Since their creation by H. G. Wells, the Morlocks have appeared in many other works such as sequels, films, televi ...

s lived underground and kept their whole idyllic existence going. In contrast to Wells' political commentary, Forster points to the technology itself as the ultimate controlling force.

Critical reception

The ''Fantasy Book Review'' calls ''The Machine Stops'' "dystopic and quite brilliant," noting, "In such a short novel ''The Machine Stops'' holds more horror than any number of gothic ghost stories. Everybody should read it, and consider how far we may go ourselves down the road of technological ‘advancement’ and forget what it truly means to be alive;" rating the story as 10 out of 10. As well as Forster predicting globalisation, the Internet, video conferencing and other aspects of 21st-century reality, Will Gompertz, writing on the BBC website on 30 May 2020, observed, "'The Machine Stops' is not simply prescient; it is a jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly, breathtakingly accurate literary description of lockdown life in 2020." In 2021, ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

'' magazine's Randy Alfred wrote, "__1909: __ E.M. Forster publishes 'The Machine Stops,' a chilling tale of a futuristic information-oriented society that grinds to a bloody halt, literally. Some aspects of the story no longer seem so distant in the future." Alfred went on to note that a lecturer in the story provides, "a chilling premonition of the George W. Bush administration's derogation of 'the

reality-based community ''Reality-based community'' is a derisive term for people who base judgments on facts. It was first attributed to a senior official working for U.S. president George W. Bush by the reporter Ron Suskind in 2004. Many American liberals adopted ...

'".

Adaptations

* A television adaptation, directed by

Philip Saville Philip Saville (28 October 1927 – 22 December 2016) was a British director, screenwriter and former actor whose career lasted half a century. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website described Saville as "one of Britain's most prolif ...

, was shown in the UK on 6 October 1966 as part of the second series of British science-fiction anthology TV series ''

Out of the Unknown ''Out of the Unknown'' is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Most episodes of the first three series were a dramatisation of a science fi ...

''. It is one of only four episodes known to exist from the show's second series. * In 2001,

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

aired

Gregory Norminton Gregory Norminton is a novelist born in Berkshire, England, in 1976. Educated at Wellington College, he read English at Regent's Park College, Oxford and studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is a Senior Lecturer ...

's adaptation as a radio play. Another radio adaptation, by

Philip Franks Philip Franks (born 2 February 1956) is an English actor and director, known to the public chiefly for his roles in English television series, such as '' The Darling Buds of May'' and '' Heartbeat''. Early life Franks was born on 2 February 19 ...

, aired on Radio 4 on 19 June 2022. * Playwright Eric Coble's 2004 stage adaptation was broadcast on 16 November 2007 on WCPN 90.3 FM in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

, Ohio. * ''TMS: The Machine Stops'' is a graphic novel series adaptation written by Michael Lent with art by Marc Rene, published by Alterna Comics in February 2014. * Playwright Neil Duffield's adaptation was staged at York Theatre Royal in May–June 2016.

Related works

* '' Mad'' #1 (Oct–Nov, 1952) featured " Blobs", a seven-page story drawn by Wallace Wood where two inhabitants of 1,000,000 AD discuss the history of man and his evolution into "blobs" totally dependent on the Machine. * Stephen Baxter's story "Glass Earth Inc.", which refers explicitly to "The Machine Stops", is included in the book ''

Phase Space In dynamical system theory, a phase space is a space in which all possible states of a system are represented, with each possible state corresponding to one unique point in the phase space. For mechanical systems, the phase space usuall ...

'', published in 2003. *

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

's second novel in the ''I, Robot'' Series, ''

The Naked Sun ''The Naked Sun'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his ''Robot'' series. Like its predecessor, '' The Caves of Steel'', this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after bein ...

'' (1957), takes place on a planet similar to the earth seen in this story. On the Planet Solaria human colonists live isolated from one another, only viewing each other through holograms, and only have interactions with their robot retinues. After several centuries the humans have become so dependent on this practice it has become taboo to even be in the presence of another human being. * The song "

The Machine Stops "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 Storie ...

" by the band

Level 42 Level 42 is an English jazz-funk band formed on the Isle of Wight in 1979. They had a number of UK and worldwide hits during the 1980s and 1990s. Their highest-charting single in the UK was " Lessons in Love", which reached number three on th ...

not only shares the same title with the story but also has lyrics that echo Kuno's thoughts. * The band

A Hope for Home A Hope for Home (commonly abbreviated to AHFH) is a post-metal band based in Portland, Oregon that formed in 2006. They have five studio albums, three of which were released on Facedown Records and Strike First (the imprint label of Facedown Rec ...

based their song, The Machine Stops, on their album

Realis A realis mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most ...

on this story by Forster. * Both George Lucas's film '' THX 1138'' (1971) and the original novel version of '' Logan's Run'' (1967) by

William F. Nolan William Francis Nolan (March 6, 1928 – July 15, 2021) was an American author who wrote hundreds of stories in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, and crime fiction genres.Jason V. Brock, "Finding Sanctuary: Running from the Zone to Logan" i ...

and George Clayton Johnson bear similarities to "The Machine Stops". * The space rock band

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

released a concept album titled '' The Machine Stops'' in 2016 based on the story by Forster. * Paul Kingsnorth's 2021 essay "Intermission: The Machine Stops" opens with a quote from Forster's novella.

References

External links

* *

Online text
The Machine Stop and other stories by E. M. Forster, Rod Mengham
Online text {{DEFAULTSORT:Machine Stops, The Dystopian literature Plays by Eric Coble 1909 short stories Religion in science fiction Short stories by E. M. Forster Science fiction short stories Works originally published in British magazines Works originally published in literary magazines Constable & Co. books Fictional computers