![]() ![]() Vashti is perturbed when her son Kuno insists on physically coming over to visit her. "The Machine Stops" from "Out of the Unknown" 1966, BFI And the story also takes on a completely unexpected relevance in our current state where the world is largely in quarantine and lockdown from the coronavirus. ![]() Forster foresaw Skype, Zoom and email – hell, the entire internet – here. Everyone communicates with each other through telecommunications, they teach classes, go on tele-dates, send letters electronically to each other. The heroine, a woman in her 50s named Vashti, lives a comfortable existence, almost smug in her certainty that everything is fine. ![]() People all live underground in their own womb-like pod, pampered and kept safe by The Machine, in which they place all their faith. The novella, written back in 1909, takes place in a far future where an entire society lives in isolation and lockdown. ![]()
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