Forster, Lafferty, and Ellison

Some Additional Comments on the Readings (9/10)

Below are some important passages that make this short story an important work of science fiction. You probably already notice comparisons that you can make among other texts we've read, and, you'll probably make future connections to the readings to come. Time permitting, we'll go into more detail on the passages below, but we need to make sure we get to our other two short stories.

E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" (1909)

• p. 53: "the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression. It only gave a general idea of people....Something ‘good enough' had long since been accepted by our race."

• p. 56: "she had studied the civilization that had immediately preceded her own--the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!"

• p. 57: "...horror of direct experience..."

• p. 70: "First-hand ideas do not really exist....Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element--direct observation."

• p. 59: the human touch as barbaric

• p. 62: Bizarre take on eugenics--"these days it was a demerit to be muscular. Each infant was examined at birth, and all who promised undue strength were destroyed."

• p. 67: The Machine "robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralyzed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it."

• p. 71: "To attribute these two great developments [abolition of respirators and reestablishment of religion] to the Central Committee, is to take a very narrow view of civilization. The Central Committee announced the developments, it is true, but they were no more the cause of them than were the kings of the imperialistic period the cause of war. Rather did they yield to some invincible pressure, which came no one knew whither, and which, when gratified, was succeeded by some new pressure equally invincible. To such a state of affairs it is convenient to give the name of progress. No one confessed the Machine was out of hand."

• p. 77: "man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven. Century after century had he toiled, and here was his reward."

Harlan Ellison "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (1965)

Ellison's character, Harlequin, is a prankster, but he's also a saboteur. His name most likely is an allegory of Harlequin the servant in the Commedia dell'arte (Italian Theater in the 16th Century). He tries to throw citizens off the clock, so the government can't function properly. Everything in this projected world is arranged around time--very specific attention to time. Does Harlequin change the world? Below are a few places we should focus on in the text:

• p. 369: "He had become a personality, something they had filtered out of the system many decades before."

• p. 373: one day we no longer let time serve us, we serve time and we are slaves of the schedule."

• p. 376: After Harlequin's mischief at the mall, "the shopping cycle was thrown off by hours....The purchasing needs of the system were therefore falling behind."

• p. 378: "They sent him to Coventry. And in Coventry they worked him over" 1984 style.

• p. 378: Small changes introduce "noise" into the system. Can activism actually work?

Remember, they are many interpretations of these works possible. You should think of are discussions as a way or ways to discuss/interpret the literature and not THE way.

Marinetti had a timeframe for this movement: roughly 10 years, when the members turned 40 and "other younger and stronger men will probably throw us in the wastebasket like useless manuscripts." There are many influences on Marinetti's aesthetics, but the era with its industrialization and technological advancement were major influences on his movement.