Tuesday, May 07, 2013
E.M. Forster on Skype
E.M. Forster (1879-1970), from "The Machine Stops," Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909):
Newer› ‹Older
"I want you to come and see me."Id.:
Vashti watched his face in the blue plate.
"But I can see you!" she exclaimed. "What more do you want?"
"I want to see you not through the Machine," said Kuno. "I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine."
"Oh, hush!" said his mother, vaguely shocked. "You mustn't say anything against the Machine."
"Why not?"
"One mustn't."
"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."
