Forster, ''The Machine Stops'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"We created the Machine to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It was robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it."
To borrow the title of Aldous Huxley's novel, the Machine definitely depicts a "brave new world." Though I am not an active reader of works of science fiction(as in I never read it on purpose or for entertainment) I have to say this was one of the better ones as far as the genre goes. At first, I thought Forster's story was scary and weird, but as I kept reading it caught my interest a little, especially when Kuno came into the picture. The whole scene in which he tells Vashti about his visit to the surface was so poignant, and it really spoke to me. That is why I chose the above quote as my reference. It made me think of the end of humanity as we know it and how our society could become very much like the one that lives during the reign of the Machine within the next century or two. It is a scary thought; to never walk the surface of the earth, to never experience love or friendship except through the Machine. It was like the people in Forster's story weren't even people; they themselves were just machines.
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