Author: Sebastian Lau

A few thoughts that I had while reading the passage that I might not touch on in depth later on:

• Everything being uniform/similar. “Rapid intercourse” (6) was mentioned where Shrewsbury and Pekin were so similar that there was no point in going from one place to the other. Seems to blame the fact that everything is so similar on the fact that there was so much ‘intercourse’ between them. Sounds like a commentary on how globalization makes the places that are part of the global network trend towards one template or model (e.g. globalized countries are arguably also becoming more Westernized)
• Ideas are scarce, and therefore commodified. Vashti has to consider whether certain images give her any ideas which would be a weird thing to think outside of her world’s context. Her friends ask her if she has had any ideas, as if it’s a noteworthy occasion.
• In my opinion the story is pretty blunt with what it’s trying to say. I’m going to assume that the person who wrote it was being intentionally blunt with their message. I think it works well in terms of making the reader feel somewhat uncomfortable. I would compare it to a movie called The Lobster, which, like the society in The Machine Stops, is very different than our society today. In the movie the dialogue is very stilted to emphasize the differences in our society and theirs. In terms of storytelling I don’t think The Machine Stops does a very good job of showing and not telling, but I guess one can assume that the heavy-handed descriptions are meant to hammer home how alien their society is.
• Mending worms captured Kuno who tried to escape and killed another person. Could be seen as the Machine trying to fix the society by pruning those who are deemed as undesirable or dangerous.

Although there are many things to take away from the story, the one that stuck out to me the most is how efficiency and control has changed humanity. I guess I would compare it to another movie, Wall-E where the people on the space ship have become helpless without machines. In both The Machine Stops and Wall-E the people have pretty much everything at their fingertips. This eradicates the need for them to ever use any effort. For the people in Wall-E this makes them obese to the point where they can’t even walk, in The Machine Stops not only are people physically weak (not to the extent of the Wall-E people) but strong people are euthanized apparently because they won’t be able to fully enjoy their life without nature. Control is also another aspect of life which has dramatically changed in The Machine Stops. Vashti has had control over pretty much everything in her life. When she gets her food, when she goes to sleep, when she wants complete silence or not. When she doesn’t have control over her situation, like the light streaming through her broken blinds, she gets scared and acts almost like an animal.

I think there a ton of things to take away from The Machine Stops. Given that the story was published in 1909 E.M Forster most likely did not write the story as a commentary on modern society’s reliance and fascination with technology and the efficiency and control it provides. However, I do believe that he presents a dystopia that has come about as a result of society’s (today and in the past) desire to become more like a machine: efficient and able to control everything. As a result, we make everything more efficient at the cost of personality. Communication is a lot more convenient now, we can call people across the world with ease, but it’s not the same as being with them in person. Our goal to become more like a machine has come at the cost of our own humanity.