Personality in "The Machine Stops"

“And in time” – his voice rose– “there will come a generation that had got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colorless, a generation

‘seraphically free

From taint of personality,’

which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine” (Forster, 70).

I decided to write about this sentence from E. M. Forster’s 1909 short story “The Machine Stops” because I think it really illuminates the mindset and ideology of the people living in a Machine-dominated world. This quote is from an incredibly well-received speech given by a lecturer after respirators, and by extension the only real way of interacting with the world outside the Machine, are banned. Humanity has become so internalized to the point where they explicitly forbid anything new from the outside, and no one cares (except for a few lecturers who quickly give in). The stated goal is for the next generation to be even less human than the previous. 

The lecturer quotes “The Lark Ascending” by George Meredith in the italicized lines. Here is slightly more context for these lines, which come from a long descriptive poem about a lark: 

“The song seraphically free 

Of taint of personality, 

So pure that it salutes the suns 

The voice of one for millions, 

In whom the millions rejoice 

For giving their one spirit voice” (Meredith 93-98).

Throughout the poem, the lark is described as playful and lively, and its song fills human hearts with a sort of celestial wonder, behavior which is the exact opposite of how people function with the Machine. I don’t want to go too much into the poem, but it supports the idea that the Machine has taken the place of the lark, or nature and other people’s companionship, in society, since people look to the Machine for comfort and every other feeling. The lark being free from personality in the poem is supposed to be a good thing because people can project their individual voices onto it. However, the Machine, instead of being a clean slate people can project their human characteristics upon like a utopian society might have, forces blank conformity onto the society. I think it’s also interesting that the lecturer uses a quote describing freedom from personality as seraphic, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary means “Resembling a seraph [an angel], either in beauty or in fervour of exalted devotion.” This speaks to how holy (especially later as the Machine actually becomes the society’s religion) following the ideology of the Machine is considered. 

I also picked this sentence because the part about “a generation [...] which will see the French Revolution [...] as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine” really stood out to me. I thought this bit was especially laughable and ironic because the French Revolution couldn’t and wouldn’t have happened in the days of the Machine. The people in this time don’t have the agency, teamwork, ideals, or corruption to pull it off. To see the French Revolution as it would have happened with the Machine is unimaginable and goes against so many of our present day ideals about the accurate recording of history and facts. Although, I do think how much present philosophy should affect interpretations of the past is an interesting question for people interested in history. 

In relation to their dependence on this vague idea of “ideas”: their concept of an idea is really strange because there’s such a weird combination of non-original (old history, old science, other people's' ideas, etc) and original thinking (making it palatable to the current audience) involved. All the ideas we hear about in the story are either scientific, historical, or Kuno’s vague description of a constellation. This sentence is a very good example of how ideas work throughout the society. They’re formed and shared in a culture of sort of monolithic suppression. Anything too radical is threatened with Homelessness. It’s very ironic: everyone is constantly asking to hear a new idea, but no one wants an actual new idea that challenges their preconceived notions. 

Works Cited

Forster, E M. “The Machine Stops.” 

"seraphic, adj. and n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2021, www.oed.com/view/Entry/176344. Accessed 24 January 2022. 

        “The Lark Ascending by George Meredith.” By George Meredith - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry, https://allpoetry.com/The-Lark-Ascending.