The Machine Stops

Forster, E. M. "The Machine Stops." Oxford and Cambridge Review 8 (Michaelmas term 1909): 83-122. Frequently rpt., including in Of Men and Machines, q.v. under Anthologies. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, IIB. Ben Bova, ed. New York: Avon, 1973. Science Fiction: The Future. Dick Allen, ed. 1st and 2d edns. New York: Harcourt, 1971, 1983. Man Unwept. Stephen V. Whaley and Stanley J. Cook, eds. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974. Science Fiction: The Science Fiction Research Association Anthology. Patricia S. Warrick et al., eds. New York: Harper, 1988.

The prototypical mechanical hive story. Brings together most of the relevant motifs developed by dystopian authors for the rest of the 20th c. See under Literary Criticism the CW essay by C. Elkins.[[1]] Among early literary works, cf. M. F. Crow, The World cited in this Category.

Note for world of isolated people exchanging information that does little to keep them actually in touch and connected.[2]

For figures of speech on a mechanized world as background for "The Machine Stops," see June Hee Chung's Henry James and the Media Arts of Modernity.

Rev. RDE 5Feb18, 16Jan20