Episode 223: “Best of” The Literary Life – “The Machine Stops” by E. M. Forster, Ep. 99

The Literary Life Podcast

This week on The Literary Life, we bring you another episode in our “Best of” series with a throwback to one of our 2021 Summer of the Short Story shows. In this episode, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas talk about E. M. Forster’s short story “The Machine Stops.” If you are interested in more E. M. Forster chat, you can go listen to our hosts discuss “The Celestial Omnibus” in Episode 17. Angelina points out how this story made her think of Dante. Thomas and Cindy share their personal reactions to reading “The Machine Stops.” They marvel at how prescient Forster was to imagine a world that comes so close to our current reality. They also discuss how to stay human in an increasingly de-humanizing world.

Past events mentioned in this episode replay:

Back to School 2021 Conference: Awakening

Cindy’s new edition of Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love

Cindy’s Charlotte Mason podcast The New Mason Jar

Commonplace Quotes:

Imagination, in its earthbound quest,

Seeks in the infinite its finite rest.

Walter de la Mare (from “Books”) from “The Hollow Men”

by T. S. Eliot

This is the dead land This is cactus land Here the stone images Are raised, here they receive The supplication of a dead man’s hand Under the twinkle of a fading star. Is it like this In death’s other kingdom Waking alone At the hour when we are Trembling with tenderness Lips that would kiss Form prayers to broken stone.

The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms In this last of meeting places We grope together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river Sightless, unless The eyes reappear As the perpetual star Multifoliate rose Of death’s twilight kingdom The hope only Of empty men.

Book List:

Two Stories and a Memory by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Howards End by E. M. Forster

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison

1984 by George Orwell

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You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

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