A Story That Resonates: Reading Forster’s “The Machine Stops” Amidst the Pandemic

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to show how E.M. Forster’s short story, “The Machine Stops,” written more than a century ago resonates with contemporary readers, particularly in the current Covid pandemic period. Written in 1909, the dystopian future world that Forster imagined at the turn of the last century, appears to be already here. Adopting a close analytical reading of the story, the paper will discuss Forster’s critique of the techno-progress of the modern age, and the potential inversions it can cause to mankind with the growing and excessive reliance on Science. The story primarily explores the aspect of alienation and dehumanization that is characteristic of most techno-societies of the modern age. Forster asks pertinent questions on how we, as humans choose to live in space and time, and how we establish our relationships with the Other as well as the rest of the world mediated through technology.  Like most works of the Sci-fi genre, the story registers some of the major contradictions of its time.  It suggests Forster’s dreadful premonition that machines are supplanting humans and altering relational encounters. The story highlights how everyday technological interfaces can change the way we perceive the world and the possibility that with certain types of mediation there is a loss of connection with the Other.