Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven.

This was a powerful novelette. In 1909, Forster outlined a future world where the human race has moved underground. Each person lives alone, breathing artificial air, eating artificial food, and given everything they want or need by The Machine. Their only interactions with the world or other human beings are through “cinematophotes” (essentially TVs) and fuzzy videoconferencing (like Skype). In the story, Forster seems to ask: What happens to man when he becomes dependent on the technology he creates, and what happens if, as the title suggests, The Machine stops?

I really enjoyed this story even though I’m not usually a fan of science fiction, especially early 20th century science fiction. Forster does an excellent job sketching out this world for the reader. He also brings up so many good points. Early on, I was struck with the uncanny similarity of their world to ours today. I mean, of course we don’t live underground and breathe artificial air, but we are so dependent on technology. We have artificial food (of a sort). We are all growing fat with our dependency on machines to take care of us. Instead of going out, more often we are stay right in our comfortable place at home and talk to people online.

I don’t personally think technology is a wholly bad thing. I think in some ways, Forster and other writers like him were just paranoid and frightened of change. The technology we have expanded in the last 100 years has done amazing things for our society, even if it has hurt us in some ways. I think about all the friends I have made through blogging, for instance, people who I connect with more than I’ve connected with anyone in years, and I can’t think the internet is a bad or dangerous thing. It is a wonderful thing, to connect with so many people in so many places. I honestly believe it brings us all closer together, even if we don’t have to leave our living rooms in order to connect. For example, I can talk over Skype with my sister in Palestine or my in-laws in Wisconsin, which wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago.

And sometimes, every once in awhile, we do get to leave our living rooms and connect in person. I met 4 different bloggers in person for the first time in the last 6 months, and I hope to meet more this coming May. In 2007, I met up with tons of different friends I’d made on myspace when I traveled twice to NYC. It was a wonderful experience. I think sometimes those people so scared of technology were afraid that we would take it and no longer need anything else, and I think that fear is unfounded. Nevertheless, it still was eerie to read his predictions, especially when they tended towards a Wall-E like society. One character, for instance, expressed how strong he’d made himself by exercising in his room. His proof: he could hold his pillow up in front of him for 10 seconds. !!!

Moving on. Forster also made really interesting points about religion, which had been abolished as superstition by the culture who moved underground. The thing about humans, though, is they tend to like to worship, and when one god is destroyed, they invent another. They worship the thing that gives them life, and in this case, that’s The Machine. Unfortunately, The Machine is just a machine, and a man-made one at that, so it’s not infallible. And if you believe it’s a god, then how are you going to react as it slowly deteriorates (I’m having Ella Minnow Pea flashbacks here)? When it is such an enormous part of your life, how are you going to escape its destruction?

The story is not without its flaws, flaws that seem to be common in turn of the century science fiction (from my experience anyway). There is a lot of telling when I would have preferred showing. There is heavy emphasis on specific aspects of the technology without any clarification of how they worked. Little things. But for the most part, the story was gorgeously written and really made me think. Since I was a little disappointed in reading Forster’s A Passage to India last fall, this has renewed my faith in him. Must go read Howard’s End or A Room With a View now.