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7 April 2009

Forgotten Stories: THE MACHINE STOPS, E.M. Forster


This is by way of being a contribution to a special edition of Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books devoted to forgotten stories.

I've chosen E. M. Forster's THE MACHINE STOPS, published 1909, which was included in a short story anthology I studied at school back in 1960. That I even remember it is a tribute to the quality of the story.
It is science fiction, not crime fiction, so it comes from the time before my tastes narrowed to what they are today.
A bit of a plot summary courtesy Wikipedia:
The story describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth, and most of the human population lives below ground. Each individual lives in isolation in a standard 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted but unpopular and rarely necessary.

Read more about the plot.

You can read a full text version on the E.M.Forster site. Interesting to note that this year is the 100th year anniversary of its publication. Do you think it has stood the test of time?

You can download an audio version at Librivox.
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2 comments:

  1. Maxine Clarke7 April 2009 at 17:24

    I remember enjoying this story. Maybe I read it at school, too?! But I have read a lot of E. M. Forster's stories and I think all or most of his novels, so it is a bit hard to remember.

    ReplyDelete
  2. pattinase (abbott)11 April 2009 at 00:26

    A very fine choice. And well read in my husband's classes.

    ReplyDelete

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