3 things

1. "Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk - that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh - a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs."

http://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf

" The machine stops " is the only science / speculative fiction novel he ever wrote; as he's mainly known for his novels about social class differences or sexuality. The story occurs in a world in which humans have retreated under the earth and do evolve in a society where communication and information are at the centre of their lives. We get an insight into this hypothetic world through the lives of Kuno, who has a critical view on the society, and Vashti, his mother, who's a lecturer and an adorer of the machine. There's also an obsession amongst the people for " having ideas " and anything that doesn't bring any is considered as a lack of time. People live in some sort of bee cells, and so barely have any face to face contact. Into these cells there's a profusion of buttons that can provide humans with anything they need and enable them to communicate through a video conferencing system. At the beginning of the story, Kuno attempts to convince his mother to come to see him ( he lives on the opposite side of the world ). It is hard work as she doesn't show much enthusiam about the idea, as the direct experience of traveling raises some anxiety. Because of his reluctance to communicate through the speaking apparatus, she eventually ends up coming up. He informs her then that he went to visit the surface of earth without permission. The machine captured him again and threatened him with « homelessness ». He also talks about the way this experience has enabled him to reconsider his physicality. Vashti thinks Kuno has gone mad and she leaves him slightly irritated. Life inside the machine follows its course with two main evolvements : the « respirator », necessary to visit the surface of earth, is abolished and a sort of Machine worship religion is established. This evolving to the chaotic point where the machine on which this world depends does collapse. (sorry about that spoiler but keep in mind that my sum up isn't as good as the novel itself)
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