CheraPupi

I think the fact that she's being asked for "new" ideas is all the more ironic given the fact that the ideas are all taken directly from older literature. Forster fools us by giving this concept that Vashti's a lecturer and making us think that there's still intellectual activity in the future, and by the end we realize that this completely not true. If we knew at the beginning that everyone's become a thoughtless automaton, we'd know their society's doomed and there wouldn't be much of a reason to continue reading the story.

Ohhh, I do understand a little better. But at the beginning, everyone's asking her if she has any new ideas. So are they asking her for ideas that she has put in a lecture? or new ideas for a lecture? I do understand what you're saying Matt. Thank you!

I wasn't so curious about ideas, but I was surprised that Vashti had no ideas when she looks out the window, especially given the vivid description Forster gives. I think I get it now, though, that she couldn't allow herself to gain first-hand emotions and ideas from the outside world, so she could gain nothing from it.

Matt, that's a great quote that you found. An excellent example of turning to the text to answer a peer's question.

Chera, does that answer satisfy you?

I think the "ideas" in the story are ones that have been passed down from previous generations. A little toward the end of the story, a lecturer says "Beware of first-hand ideas...Let your ideas be secondhand...for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element - direct observation." Everyone seems hesitant to think for themselves, so they term "ideas" as ideas which have already been accepted by their mass culture and made a part of everybody's lectures. The idea of experiencing anything directly scares them because they live up far away from the earth, so that's why Vashti looks down at geographical wonders like the Himalayas and says "No ideas here."