Connect any of the stories we’ve read this semester to the current global crisis. How does the story help us understand our time? How do current events affect how we understand the story?
Reading through this prompt my mind immediately jumps to The Machine. Even before this prompt, I was thinking about how we’re all going to turn into the humans from Wall-E. Currently, everyone is stuck at home. Illinois (and multiple other states) have a “stay-at-home” order. Non-essential businesses and all restaurants are closed with most people working at home and every student at home. All of this is likely to happen for the next few weeks. It feels like an apocalypse so of course, this situation would relate most to post-apocalyptic short stories.
Of all the post-apocalyptic fiction we’ve read our situation is the most similar to “The Machine”. In "The Machine", most humans live underground in connected tubes/rooms. Everyone stays in their room with little to no physical contact with other people. People connect to each other through screens. Even though The Machine was written in 1909 (over 110 years ago!) it feels more and more current. Around the world people are asked (and in some cases forced) to stay in their homes with their human-to-human contact being limited to computer and phone screens.
However, by comparing our situation to “The Machine” we can see some key differences. Within the society of “The Machine” every is happy to stay inside in their chairs and become immobile. Being active and physically connecting with people is taboo. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic I think people are trying to connect more to people and enjoy the outdoors. It seems to me that more people are walking their dogs and riding their bikes. It’s like people want to spend more time outdoors. Also, families are now being forced to spend a lot more time together which is positive and negative. The greatest difference is that everyone is disappointed to stay at home and wants to talk to people. So although physically we’re limited like the humans in “The Machine”, mentally we’re dealing with the situation differently.
I also think that the lock-down makes us understand how the society in “The Machine” is unrealistic. Humans would not be able to be locked away in rooms for their entire lifetimes. People would want to get up and talk to each other. So the humans in “The Machine” are unrealistic because it’s in our nature to be social and active. I think we start to see that in Kuno who wants to explore outside. It’s also at that point where Kuno could be declared “homeless” and basically die. Also, humans have been bred to stay indoors so the society of “The Machine” has been bred to be immobile. However, I think if humans were bred to live indoor and immobile and unsocial then we would lose a fundamental part of being human.
Please be safe inside!
Reading through this prompt my mind immediately jumps to The Machine. Even before this prompt, I was thinking about how we’re all going to turn into the humans from Wall-E. Currently, everyone is stuck at home. Illinois (and multiple other states) have a “stay-at-home” order. Non-essential businesses and all restaurants are closed with most people working at home and every student at home. All of this is likely to happen for the next few weeks. It feels like an apocalypse so of course, this situation would relate most to post-apocalyptic short stories.
Of all the post-apocalyptic fiction we’ve read our situation is the most similar to “The Machine”. In "The Machine", most humans live underground in connected tubes/rooms. Everyone stays in their room with little to no physical contact with other people. People connect to each other through screens. Even though The Machine was written in 1909 (over 110 years ago!) it feels more and more current. Around the world people are asked (and in some cases forced) to stay in their homes with their human-to-human contact being limited to computer and phone screens.
However, by comparing our situation to “The Machine” we can see some key differences. Within the society of “The Machine” every is happy to stay inside in their chairs and become immobile. Being active and physically connecting with people is taboo. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic I think people are trying to connect more to people and enjoy the outdoors. It seems to me that more people are walking their dogs and riding their bikes. It’s like people want to spend more time outdoors. Also, families are now being forced to spend a lot more time together which is positive and negative. The greatest difference is that everyone is disappointed to stay at home and wants to talk to people. So although physically we’re limited like the humans in “The Machine”, mentally we’re dealing with the situation differently.
I also think that the lock-down makes us understand how the society in “The Machine” is unrealistic. Humans would not be able to be locked away in rooms for their entire lifetimes. People would want to get up and talk to each other. So the humans in “The Machine” are unrealistic because it’s in our nature to be social and active. I think we start to see that in Kuno who wants to explore outside. It’s also at that point where Kuno could be declared “homeless” and basically die. Also, humans have been bred to stay indoors so the society of “The Machine” has been bred to be immobile. However, I think if humans were bred to live indoor and immobile and unsocial then we would lose a fundamental part of being human.
Please be safe inside!
Thanks for this blog post! I've also been thinking a lot about how our current situation compares to the society in "The Machine Stops"--in some ways, it feels eerily similar. But I agree that our dislike of the current situation is an important difference that differentiates our experience from that of the characters in the story. While they resent and avoid in-person contact, we long for it and seek it out where we still can with our immediate families and access to the outdoors. I hope we're able to leave the Machine-like world of virtual contact and simulacra and resume "normal" life soon, before we've become accustomed to this inferior substitute. :)
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DeleteThis is an interesting point you bring up. I think since we are very aware of what life where we can hang out is like we want to get back to what is normal to us. However, it will be interesting as we start to form a new normal with Covid-19 to see if that will bring us farther or closer to the machine.
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