E. M. Forester. “The Machine Stops.” In The Eternal Moment and Other Stories. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1928.

E. M. FORESTER (1879-1970)

In this novella, Forster describes life directed entirely by “The Machine.”

“The Machine,” they exclaimed, “feeds us and clothes us and houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being. The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine.” At the end, the pressure to stop the machine is overcome by the machine itself and all is destroyed.