It would be easy to read this cautionary tale as some sort of premonition. Although the story was published in 1909, Forster could easily be writing a response to contemporary dependence on technology. What I find interesting, however, is that he is expressing such parallel fears to some contemporary concerns in response to technologies that we think of as mundane. We have completely integrated improvements in transportation and communication that were novel in 1909; in a sense, some of what Forster wrote has become true. At the same time, the story still seems far off– we have not completely lost touch with the physical world, although many people fear that we’re headed in that direction. The fears raised by our current relationship to technology echoes those of 1909 culture.

Kuno’s statement that he wants to see Vashti “not through the machine” is not very different to contemporary wishes to tell people important news face to face, even though we have access to fairly realistic video chat. We experience something similar to the momentum-based continuation of airship service despite a declining need for it in our own dependence on cars and fossil fuels. Vashti’s “horror of direct experience” is mirrored by the anxiety many people feel when separated from cel phone or internet access. However, the line, “Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul,” suggests something similar to Ong’s assertion that as literate cultures rely less on speech for memory we have the luxury of creative thought.

An interesting moment occurs toward the last third of the story, when the text begins to mimic a pattern of speech that could either be a machine glitch or a reference to oral culture and patterns of poetry. Forster writes, “Our strong will suffer euthanasia, that the machine may progress, that the machine may progress, that the machine may progress eternally.”

Kuno clearly feels that reclaiming physical activity is a way of claiming independence from the machine. If this story were written today, would that still be the case? What will happen as “the machine” becomes smaller, is modified to fit us individually, and accompanies us into physical space as a ubiquitous presence?

One last question… what’s up with the worms? Why does the machine have animal minions?