Books: The Machine Stops

books/scifi/machine-stops.mdwn

+[[!meta title="The Machine Stops"]]
+
+[THE MACHINE STOPS ... E.M. Forster](http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html):
+
+    And of course 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!
+
+    [...]
+
+    Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth
+    was exactly alike all over. 
+
+    [...]
+
+    What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why
+    return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their
+    bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.
+
+    [...]
+
+    Beneath those corridors of shining tiles were rooms, tier below tier, reaching
+    far into the earth, and in each room there sat a human being, eating, or
+    sleeping, or producing ideas. And buried deep in the hive was her own room. 
+
+    [...]
+
+    "I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them. They are hiding in the midst and
+    the ferns until our civilization stops. Today they are the Homeless - tomorrow
+    ------ "