Coming Out of the Machine Roland Barphe, editor of ExcrEssences and head of media studies at the Polyvalente de Saint-Tite, replies to St. Clair Carr's review of "The Machine Stops". A link to another reply by S. Cosburn Mortimer follows the copyright notice at the end of this review.
"['The Machine Stops'] is well worth reading as an analysis of modern technology." What clearer statement could be made of the vacuity of bourgeois analysis? This is the epitome of bourgeois analysis, the reduction of the glories of human literature to an affair of technological development.
And St. Clair even got a glimmer of the true meaning of "The Machine Stops"! True to form, though, he dismissed it out of hand. He beat around the bush, babbling about Howard's End, putting off his moment of confrontation with the expression of Forster's soul until he had managed to repress any trace of the understanding of which he had caught a glimpse.
But let there be no doubt about this – "The Machine Stops" is not about technology. The story masquerades as science fiction to conceal greater truths about Forster's very being. "The Machine Stops" is about homosexuality, and more specifically about Forster's homosexuality.
Forster lived with his mother, from whom he concealed, or so he believed, his homosexuality. That is, he felt himself unable to communicate with his mother about his true nature. Kuno longs for more communication with his mother about his true nature. The story is organized around this central fact, the alienation of Kuno from Vashti.
And what does Kuno want to communicate about? Why, about coming out! Kuno wants to get out of The Machine, just as Forster wanted to come out of the comfortable upper middle class closet in which he spent his life.
And what happens when Kuno fails to come out? His world collapses, and he is reconciled with his mother. That is, he returns to the state in which Forster lived, of close relationship with his mother and of a catastrophic social life – Forster spent much of his life devoted to a bisexual married man who was devoted not only to his wife but also to his mistress.
Kuno is Forster. He sacrifices his hope of living free in order to please his mother. "The Machine Stops" is on one level a penetrating commentary on the social forms of bourgeois society and on another an anguished cry of despair.
Coming Out of the Machine © John FitzGerald, 1999, 2004
For S. Cosburn Mortimer's review, click here.
For links to more articles by Roland Barphe, visit our Commentary page.
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