Birthday Reviews: E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”
Most days in 2018, I’ll be selecting an author whose birthday is celebrated on that date and reviewing a speculative fiction story written by that author. To kick off the series, let’s wish a happy 139th birthday to an author not known specifically for his science fiction: E.M. Forster.
E.M. (Edward Morgan) Forster was born on January 1, 1879 and died on June 7, 1970. Not generally thought of as a science fiction author, he was active writing before science fiction was codified as a genre and some of his writing can be classified as falling under the genre’s rubric. Best known for novels that explore the class differences in British society such as A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India, Forster also wrote the future satire “The Machine Stops” published in November, 1909 in the Oxford and Cambridge Review. Forster included the story in his short story collection The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928, and James Gunn included it in the second volume of his history of science fiction, The Road to Science Fiction: From Wells to Heinlein. The story has been adapted for television, stage, radio, and graphic novel. The story also inspired a concept album of the same name for the band Hawkwind. In 2012, “The Machine Stops” was inducted into the Libertarian Futurist Society Hall of Fame.
From the very beginning, “The Machine Stops” has a very contemporary feel. A woman is sitting in an almost empty room which could have been designed by Apple. Everything is white with light and music coming from invisible sources, but both of which respond to her voice commands. Her son calls her on a tablet in order to convince her to come visit him, while she doesn’t see the point in leaving her home since she has everything she needs, either virtually or in reality, within easy reach. The lecture series described could easily be a series of TED Talks.
Vashti is perfectly happy in her self-contained world, not needing to interact with anybody or experience anything directly, and that is the way most people feel. She is jostled from her bliss by her son, Kuno, who insists that she visit him, not virtually, as a normal person would, but physically. She eventually makes the arduous journey via air-ship, forcing herself to breath unfiltered air, interact with rude stewards who don’t have the decency to avoid speaking to her, and eventually visits her son. He tells her that he expects to be made homeless, evicted from the self-contained world and forced to live on the surface. Even more unsettling to Vashti is that Kuno doesn’t necessarily consider this punishment the end of the world.
With another year’s worth of Fantasia reviews now finished, I thought I’d take the time once again to look back at what I saw and write a general overview of the films as a whole. Doing so this year, though, leads to thoughts about film on a slightly larger scale than just Fantasia alone.
After the Fantasia festival had officially concluded I still had three movies to watch. During the festival I’d requested links to view screening copies of three films I couldn’t see in theatres due to schedule conflicts, but it wasn’t until Fantasia ended that I had time to sit down and watch them. These movies were a Japanese comedy-drama called Japanese Girls Never Die (also released under the English title Haruko Azumi Is Missing, in romanised Japanese Azumi Haruko wa yukue fumei); a Thai historical martial-arts movie called Broken Sword Hero (also Legend of the Broken Sword Hero, from the romanised original Thong Dee Fun Khao); and a Chinese blockbuster historical war movie called God of War (Dang kou feng yun, now on Netflix). They made for an interesting mix.
On the last day of the 2017 Fantasia film festival I planned to watch three movies. First, at the De Sève Theatre, Indiana: a movie about a pair of ghost-breakers in the Midwest who may or may not deal with actual paranormal events. Second, I’d go to the festival’s screening room, where I’d see a dark psychological thriller called Fashionista. Finally, I’d close out the festival with a screening of a restored version of Dario Argento’s classic 1977 horror film Suspiria.
Tuesday, August 1, was the next-to-last day of Fantasia. I had three films I wanted to see as the festival raced to its end, all at the De Sève Theatre. Lu Over the Wall (Yoake Tsugeru Lu no uta) was an animated young person’s adventure about indie rock and mermaids, from the mind of Masaaki Yuasa. Spoor (Pokot) was a Polish-Czech co-production of a mystery-horror film about animals that may or may not be turning against human beings. And Nomad (Göçebe) was a Turkish science-fiction/fantasy film that promised mythic overtones.