Forster was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. I read The Machine Stops when I was 12 - a teacher knew I like to read sci fi and recommended it. This was 1960 when sci fi wasn't considered reputable. Never forgot it.
Best short story I ever read was Frost and Fire, by Ray Bradbury, from R is for Rocket. Blew my mind so much I became a reader and haven’t stopped. I wrote him a letter thanking him and got a nice note back. What a great man.
The first issue of MAD (the comic) contained a story called "Blobs", illustrated by the great Wally Wood. It was strongly influenced by/based on "The Machin Stops". But funnier.
Thanks! I am looking forward to listening to The Machine Stops on UA-cam! I used to read lots of SF short stories but have never heard this title mentioned. My two cents: Theodore Sturgeon (Favorite Short Story Writer), "Colony" by Philip K. Dick (Typical and fun stuff by the master of "What is real?" (Best short story title). "Fun with your new head" by Thomas M. Disch.
Light of Other Days by Bob Shaw is one of the classic short Science Fiction stories. It was first published in the 60's and it follows a couple on holiday in Scotland who come across a man working with "slow glass" a material that slows the speed of light so it takes years for light to pass through it. I won't say anything more about what happens but it's one of those short stories that once you've read it you don't ever forget it.
Edgar Pangborn really shines with the post-apocalyptic New England stories & novels. Night Winds was drawn from his themed short story collection 'Still I Persist in Wondering'. The other stories in that collection are similarly elegant & lyrical. You mentioned 'Davy' as his most famous work ... It's quite good, but my favorite is 'The Judgement of Eve'.
I try to read one short story in between each novel, and for variety within that system I am usually running two or three short story collections at once, for dipping into, each of different genres. Focusing on "Radium Age" SF for the last few years of course brought me to The Machine Stops by Forster as one of the key works. It was stunning to discover that sort of vision from 1909 - but like you say, one feels that way a lot reading early or even proto-SF. I forget exactly how I got onto Margaret St. Clair, even though it wasn't that long ago. I acquired a short story collection called The Hole in the Moon and Other Tales around the same time I also committed to her novel Sign of the Labrys. Sign of the Labrys did disappoint a little; apparently it was a book that inspired Dungeons & Dragons, or at least the original "dungeon crawl" aspect of the game...and that is what I felt I got: an interesting and weird post-apocalypse novel hampered by a "dungeon crawl" format. Recommended, with reservations. Meanwhile, I loved the variety of stories in Hole in the Moon, and her writing style. The story you talked about is not in that book, and did not ring a bell with me; I'm gonna have to track that one down! Anyway, keep an eye out for stories by Clare Winger Harris, and novels by Muriel Jaeger - more neglected women SF and Fantasy luminaries. Loved Davy, the novel, but my fave by Edgar Pangborn is still A Mirror for Observers. Not sure I've happened on any of his shorter work, yet.
I remember reading it the 1980s in junior high. The story had stuck with me though I had forgotten the name of the story. I rediscovered it in the last year thanks to BookTube.
Thank you man. I harp on this a lot on Booktube, but looking at science fiction short stories is essential to understanding the genre, and usually essential to understanding any author's longer works. You get a whole new level of perception about Philip k Dick's novels after working your way through one or two of those giant short story collections. To be fair, I've had to fight my way through a number of SF anthologies and collections looking for the gems. So many of them are hit-and-miss, so many of the stories seemed like they were tired in 1950, and some of them are just collecting paychecks. It can be really hard to sift through. So glad to hear that you're getting positive experiences from putting in the work and doing so.
It definitely feels a little bit like rummaging at a thrift store while reading middling anthologies. Normally I like that feeling but I think I will be more selective with them in the future. You’re right, there are certainly some gems scattered around.
The podcast Strange Studies of Strange Stories (formerly HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast) covered The Machine Stops not too long ago. I loved it so much I had to track down a copy. Love your work Matt.
I love"The Machine Stops." It really is one of the best short stories I've read. I first read it more than a couple decades ago, when the internet was still less dominated by big entities than it is now and my Motorola flip phone was the height of high tech cell phones. So much of what he described still felt more futuristic than it does now, and definitely felt like a warning. I really want to read it again now. It felt like something writhen in the future, not the past, which is something that most sci-fi struggles with, particularly the more it ages. E. M. Forster was remarkably prescient.
BP, would be interested to see a sample (quote) from one of your most respected authors novels that would be a good example of what you consider to be great prose. You mention it often so I thought it would be a good question to ask. Beyond that, I'm a huge SF anthology fan, and have many PB's from the 60's, 70's and 80's that contain some of the best stories I've ever read and covering the gamut of all the "best" authors, Bestor included. My favorite format by far. Thanks much for this excellent post and as always, the great content, production, quality and presentation you offer here. Cheers.
We have very similar tastes. I like that you defend your personal consciousness and opinions on literature. It's refreshing in a world where those who can, won't read at all.
I highly recommend Davy by Pangborn. Full of profundity. Every chapter I’d find myself pausing and contemplating a turn of phrase or sentence or two. Great reviews (again). Keep up the great work.
You should read (or re read, better said) Borges. Tlon, The Inmortal, The Aleph, The Circular ruins, etc. All among the best short stories ever written. I will try that Foster story, he is an extraordinary narrator and I didnt know he had written a dystopian tale
A few years ago I started to check out short stories, because I was getting tired of these 700-800 pages books. Sometimes I have to work a night shift, where I just sit around and have nothing to do. I first started reading Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft. And later I realized that scifi short stories are amazing as well. You drew my attention to CM Kornbluth, of whom I have never heard before in one of your earlier videos. I love his stuff now. Thanks for that!
"Adam and No Eve" was my first Bester as a very young lad. The other story was written around the magazine cover art which had already been painted, but I imagine you discovered that. Edgar P is class. Forster is seminal, re-read it every few years- both John Foxx and Hawkwind have recorded albums based on it in recent years, still relevant, great story.
I did see that, Bester wrote an intro for the story where he talked about how stupid he found the painting. It's my second time reading Machine Stops and I swear it doubled in quality since the first round.
yep i first read that story in the 70s adapted in a comic book. they wanted to do more bester but it got canceled. i still have all the issues. its marvel’s unknown worlds of sci fi.
In college in 1984, I took a class on dystopian fiction. We read 1984, Brave New World, Hard Times, We, Erewhon, and a couple of others I've forgotten. But I've never heard of The Machine Stops. Also, I'd say some of the best sf I've ever read has been short stuff, particularly the early stories that came out at the height of the magazine era. I don't think people pay much attention to short fiction anymore, but they definitely should.
Like you I'm more of a novel reader but sometimes nothing beats a really excellent short story, so thanks for these recommendations. Will be looking for that Forster. I have an anthology of James Tiptree's that I've been meaning to get started on, she's a bit of a blindspot for me given her relative lack of novels.
The Forster novel sounds amazing. I have just mentally thrown it on the TBR pile. Oh. Oh. Uh oh. AVALANCHE! ....Ohhh, I'm trapped under the Three Body Problem trilogy and the Leviathan Awakes books, what's the name of that cable show for this? OH NO, ITS THE WHEEL OF TIME, ITS ROLLING STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME, I WASN’T EVEN GOING TO READ IT I JUST SAID I WAS TO SHUT UP A FRIEND AUUUGGGHHHHH.....*
@@MrRiedemanJACC i hope book two and three of thre body are better than book one, because that was flat as a pancake and read like a young adult book. i'll read them, but not in a hurry.
In the late 70s, I picked up the book Still I Persist in Wondering, which is an anthology of Pangborn stories. I believe it was well reviewed by Spider Robinson in one of the SF magazines. This is a roundabout way of telling you I read The Night Wind in that book back then, and I still vividly remembered the story the minute you started talking about it…
The Machine Stops. The library near me has a copy. I'll pick it up tomorrow. "The Machine Stops is a counterblast to one of the heavens of H.G. Wells".
I love the short story, personally. Idea: Matt's 25 Favorite SF Short Stories. After all, Flowers for Algernon was originally in that form. I also remember liking one by Clarke called, I believe, "Transit of Earth". Oh, and Wells's "Country of the Blind" is top-grade IMHO, but is really a 'lost world' story, so ... not sci-fi?
bester’s adam and no eve was given the adult comic book treatment in marvel’s wonderful unknown worlds of scifi #2 in the 1970s - which is where i read it as a kid.
I must read the machine stops sounds just my kind of thing. Besters dark side of the earth is one to read If you see it grab it quick , brilliant . Great stuff again mate enjoyed this 👍🏻
the pros and cons of transparency and the ideas of glazed towers of modernist architecture is well explored in We. How much do you really want to be visible....read it a long time ago,
A surprisingly early dystopian novel is Richard Jefferies' After London from 1885. Jeffries was a Victorian nature essayist and the writing certainly reflects this. The passage of a "heavenly body" changes Earth's axial tilt with cataclysmic consequences. I just came across it randomly many years ago and it's probably hard to find but I see there is a Project Gutenberg e-book. In the context of this video I also get to mention that Alice Sheldon (a.k.a. James Tiptree Jr) is a fine short story author (and the source of my moniker - before Google mangled it). Just out of the blue. I'd like to mention a few oddities I still have fond memories of: The Godwhale by T.J. Bass, The Hole in the Zero by M.K. Joseph, The Very Slow Time Machine by Ian Watson, Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (mainstream author and made both harder and somehow more gripping to read by being written in a future dialect of English) and The Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney (not SF but imagining life in a 2-dimensional world).
The Machine Stops is a rite of passage for SF readers. Pleased to see you got there. My (very unpopular) opinion is that SF is a short form literature. An idea can be explored in a relatively short space of time. Novels are about people and relationships. Sure, there are many fine SF novels, but they usually tackle very large sociological ideas viz Le Guin.
Great to see you go nuts over The Machine Stops. I've been reading SF since the mid-70s and for some reason never got around to this story until maybe a decade ago - and I've re-read it since. I'm pretty sure I read it online - I strangely don't seem to have it in any anthology, and I have quite a few of those. I don't know if it's my favorite short story in the genre, and it certainly has competition in mainstream fiction - Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle might be my favorite, and then there's Kafka and Shirley Jackson and Hawthorne and Poe and... etc. I have read a fair amount of short fiction. But this is really a very special story any way you slice it, so absolutely CONTROLLED, just a perfect piece of writing, everything just-so. Makes me want to read some of the work Forster is better known for though I'm sure that's completely different. Haven't read the other four stories you mention but I did just recently read Bester's The Demolished Man, which I liked until the end - and the end I kind of loved. Overall pretty terrific. Will definitely read more from him.
@@Bookpilled it's absolutely essential, even more so than the machine stops. we had to read it in junior high, but to be fair i doubt thaty was typical, our teacher was a hippy scifi fan.
The best 'old school' short SF stories I've ever read are 'All you zombies' by Robert Heinlein and 'The last question' by Isaac Asimov ... for modern SF, the short stories of Ted Chiang are awesome (I love, in particular, 'Understand' and 'Stories of your life') ... finally, the absolute master of short-short SF stories (one-two pages long) is Fredric Brown ('Solipsist' and 'Answer', among many others, are great)
I read a lot of short stories. I"m kind of addicted to them. Ther'es something incredibly satisfying to me about reading a tight and well-made narrative in a single sitting. I personally feel that some of the best fiction is in this format. I read a Margaret St. Clair story recently, "Idris Pig", I believe it was called. It was quite fun. She also has a story in, i think, The Weird anthology (Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) that's a sort of sequel to a Dunsany piece. I'd like to read more as well. I first read "The Machine Stops" in 2020, during the height of coronatime. It was, let's just say, a pretty appropriate story to be reading at that time. I read it again this year and we talked about it on the Chrononauts podcast. It is definitely a very melancholic, well-written story, and the imagination on display is startling, and yes, prescient -- I do think the ending comes off just a little bit silly with all the "humanity had learned its lesson" kind of stuff, and it all feels just a little technophobic perhaps, but I get it -- and Forster is really in line with the other English modernists here and their general disdain for technological advancement.
I don't know. I think Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit" (a story in the collection) is not just one of the best science fiction stories ever written; it is one of the better overall short stories ever written. I am not alone in this opinion. In 1959, the story was also adapted as the teleplay "Murder and the Android." I have not seen it, but it is apparently available at The Paley Center for Media, so those in New York may wish to take advantage. Bester is also significant as a major inspiration for some of the characters and plot lines in the "Babylon Five" television series. I very much appreciate the E. M. Forster recommendation. Thank you.
Here are three writers who are best known for their short works: William Tenn, Cordwainer Smith, and James Tiptree, Jr. Each author is wonderful, each has written only one novel, and each has a unique voice. Highly recommended.
The Machine Stops never struck me as dystopian. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the definition or something but the people(cept that one guy) always seemed pretty contented and happy with their lives before the whole thing happens.
Machine Stops (wow, 1909?) sounds like Terrarium (1985), by Scott Russell Sanders, and a little like THX-1138. Also, The Man Who Awoke, by Laurence Manning (1933).
I have read the Machine Stops a few times over the decades. Each time it hit me harder. The "technologies" are almost quaint by modern standards. But Forster's forecasting of how human nature and technical/industrial progression would inevitably lead to disaster is chilling. edit: Have you read any of the Dangerous Visons trilogy? Harlan Ellison edited them with the first being published in 1967. All of the short stories were written for these collections. edit 2: The last Dangerous Visions has been in limbo for decades. I found this announcement; On May 2, 2022, J. Michael Straczynski, the executor of the Ellison estate, announced on Twitter[8] that The Last Dangerous Visions will be published in 2023 by Blackstone Publishers.
I don't know if you've read any Edith Wharton, but I'm pretty sure it's in "The Age of Innocence" that she mentions wireless phones (as something coming someday in the future, not that they had them). I can't find my copy right now, but when I run across it I can let you know what she wrote exactly if you want. Anyway, point being the idea of cell phones has been around almost since the telephone was invented.
Heinlein had cell phone or nearly cell phones in Space Cadet 1948 and Between Planets 1951. Similar 'telephone' probably exited in SF in the early 20th century , maybe in the 1930s . I am talking hand held phones, maybe not a small as modern cells. ( Gernsback had oversized ones back in the 1920s, I don't count those.) Roddenberry said , way back, in 1966, that all of Star Trek's world building and nomenclature came from the pages of Astounding Science Fiction 1940s and 1950s.
In this vid you said you should do "a run of utopian/dystopian books". . . yes, yes, yes . . . And, Professor (not meant snidely) is there a vid where you give your 'Introduction to SF' list of 10 or 20 books? I don't want an actual syllabus (bleh). Just the book list. Love all your vids, J
Well, I do not think you can set too high an expectation for "The Machine Stops"! Or any short stories from The Golden Age, which I consider 1939 to 1972, and many more later. I have around 80 anthologies now. Mostly from the 1940s thru 1990, but a few after that. I consider "Adam and No Eve" Bester at his peak ability. There are so many incredibly great short stories, hundreds, at least. And many more, never anthologized or not in a author collection.
Short in the Chest by Idris Seabright (Margaret St. Clair) - I wonder, I wonder... There was a very weird sci-fi story I read ages ago and have always wanted to re-read. It had women being made up as 'pollys' or other prototypes and put on a carousel.. and there was a memory erasing pill... There was definitely a military element and I wonder if this might be it...
i’m reading the best of r.a. lafferty short stories now. holy mackeral nobody writes like that guy. really loopy and unique. lots of funny parody too, ie. nor limestone islands. its quite a treet. 🎉
@@Bookpilled That story title invariably reminds me of "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" the Nebula Award winning novelette by Zelazny, published a couple years before Ellison's story.
I just downloaded the PDF of "The Machine Stops" and read the first five pages. It's already a banger! There's an "app" for "Google" and everything. How someone saw this over a hundred years ago is proof of a time machine or something.
Great Channel ! Hope all is well. I have a question maybe you can help me or anyone else. The SciFI book I am looking for was a story based on California, Oregon and Wash state seperating from the US and recycleing was a theme? Also there was a war between US and those states. I cant remember the Title and it could also be out of print . I have been watching your channel and miss reading Scifi with my Dad. Appreciate it !
I'm curious if you have read "Who Goes There?" By John W. Campbell as Don A. Stuart? I read this some time ago and i must say i was surprised at how good it was for the time of writing., Of course this is the novella that The Thing" (movie) was based on.
Alastair Reynolds has a fantastic collection of short stories compiled under the title Beyond the Aquila Rift (with a story by the same name). Check it out dude!
I read "Tiger, Tiger" at your suggestion. I found it not only hard to read, non-compelling reading, but also pretty thin on plot. I'm just not a fan of Alfred Bester. Again, my experience of sci-fi has been basically from my pre-teen years of reading. I really want to read "Neuromancer" when my reading schedule next lets me enjoy sci-fi.
For years -- way back in the day -- I would look forward to each new issue of F&SF, buy it, and not read any of the stories all the way through. Nowadays, I love the reviews and discussions here and elsewhere -- mainly Scott Bradfield -- but I have almost zero interest in actually reading any SF. Just sharing.....
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![A Cold Blooded Anti-SF Masterpiece [100 Book Challenge #68-70]](/img/tr.png)
Forster was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. I read The Machine Stops when I was 12 - a teacher knew I like to read sci fi and recommended it. This was 1960 when sci fi wasn't considered reputable. Never forgot it.
Best short story I ever read was Frost and Fire, by Ray Bradbury, from R is for Rocket. Blew my mind so much I became a reader and haven’t stopped. I wrote him a letter thanking him and got a nice note back. What a great man.
So glad people are reading the Forster story. I read it 30 years ago and still have some of those images in my mind.
The first issue of MAD (the comic) contained a story called "Blobs", illustrated by the great Wally Wood.
It was strongly influenced by/based on "The Machin Stops". But funnier.
Thanks! I am looking forward to listening to The Machine Stops on UA-cam! I used to read lots of SF short stories but have never heard this title mentioned. My two cents: Theodore Sturgeon (Favorite Short Story Writer), "Colony" by Philip K. Dick (Typical and fun stuff by the master of "What is real?" (Best short story title). "Fun with your new head" by Thomas M. Disch.
The Machine Stops is one of the few stories (Sci-Fi or otherwise) that has stuck with me over the years and is one of the only ones I have reread.
Light of Other Days by Bob Shaw is one of the classic short Science Fiction stories. It was first published in the 60's and it follows a couple on holiday in Scotland who come across a man working with "slow glass" a material that slows the speed of light so it takes years for light to pass through it. I won't say anything more about what happens but it's one of those short stories that once you've read it you don't ever forget it.
It’s great, read it in Other Days, Other Eyes
There were, in fact, a number of "slow glass" stories by Shaw.
absolutely, its a favorite. i first read it as a kid when it was adapted in a comic book in the 1970s, which i still have.
Edgar Pangborn really shines with the post-apocalyptic New England stories & novels. Night Winds was drawn from his themed short story collection 'Still I Persist in Wondering'. The other stories in that collection are similarly elegant & lyrical. You mentioned 'Davy' as his most famous work ...
It's quite good, but my favorite is 'The Judgement of Eve'.
I try to read one short story in between each novel, and for variety within that system I am usually running two or three short story collections at once, for dipping into, each of different genres.
Focusing on "Radium Age" SF for the last few years of course brought me to The Machine Stops by Forster as one of the key works. It was stunning to discover that sort of vision from 1909 - but like you say, one feels that way a lot reading early or even proto-SF.
I forget exactly how I got onto Margaret St. Clair, even though it wasn't that long ago. I acquired a short story collection called The Hole in the Moon and Other Tales around the same time I also committed to her novel Sign of the Labrys. Sign of the Labrys did disappoint a little; apparently it was a book that inspired Dungeons & Dragons, or at least the original "dungeon crawl" aspect of the game...and that is what I felt I got: an interesting and weird post-apocalypse novel hampered by a "dungeon crawl" format. Recommended, with reservations. Meanwhile, I loved the variety of stories in Hole in the Moon, and her writing style. The story you talked about is not in that book, and did not ring a bell with me; I'm gonna have to track that one down! Anyway, keep an eye out for stories by Clare Winger Harris, and novels by Muriel Jaeger - more neglected women SF and Fantasy luminaries.
Loved Davy, the novel, but my fave by Edgar Pangborn is still A Mirror for Observers. Not sure I've happened on any of his shorter work, yet.
The Machine Stops changed my brain when I read it as a teenager 50 years ago. I frequently refer people to it. Brilliant.
I remember reading it the 1980s in junior high. The story had stuck with me though I had forgotten the name of the story. I rediscovered it in the last year thanks to BookTube.
absloutely. its pretty modern cool, especially for 1905 i think. you can read it as a pdf online.
Thank you man. I harp on this a lot on Booktube, but looking at science fiction short stories is essential to understanding the genre, and usually essential to understanding any author's longer works. You get a whole new level of perception about Philip k Dick's novels after working your way through one or two of those giant short story collections.
To be fair, I've had to fight my way through a number of SF anthologies and collections looking for the gems. So many of them are hit-and-miss, so many of the stories seemed like they were tired in 1950, and some of them are just collecting paychecks. It can be really hard to sift through.
So glad to hear that you're getting positive experiences from putting in the work and doing so.
It definitely feels a little bit like rummaging at a thrift store while reading middling anthologies. Normally I like that feeling but I think I will be more selective with them in the future. You’re right, there are certainly some gems scattered around.
The podcast Strange Studies of Strange Stories (formerly HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast) covered The Machine Stops not too long ago. I loved it so much I had to track down a copy. Love your work Matt.
I love"The Machine Stops." It really is one of the best short stories I've read. I first read it more than a couple decades ago, when the internet was still less dominated by big entities than it is now and my Motorola flip phone was the height of high tech cell phones. So much of what he described still felt more futuristic than it does now, and definitely felt like a warning. I really want to read it again now. It felt like something writhen in the future, not the past, which is something that most sci-fi struggles with, particularly the more it ages. E. M. Forster was remarkably prescient.
BP, would be interested to see a sample (quote) from one of your most respected authors novels that would be a good example of what you consider to be great prose. You mention it often so I thought it would be a good question to ask. Beyond that, I'm a huge SF anthology fan, and have many PB's from the 60's, 70's and 80's that contain some of the best stories I've ever read and covering the gamut of all the "best" authors, Bestor included. My favorite format by far. Thanks much for this excellent post and as always, the great content, production, quality and presentation you offer here. Cheers.
We have very similar tastes. I like that you defend your personal consciousness and opinions on literature. It's refreshing in a world where those who can, won't read
at all.
Heinlein in one of his juveniles had a young man - it may have been Space Cadet - use a cell phone. Written in early 50's.
I highly recommend Davy by Pangborn. Full of profundity. Every chapter I’d find myself pausing and contemplating a turn of phrase or sentence or two. Great reviews (again). Keep up the great work.
Davy is a magnificent novel, one of my all time favorites.
You should read (or re read, better said) Borges. Tlon, The Inmortal, The Aleph, The Circular ruins, etc. All among the best short stories ever written. I will try that Foster story, he is an extraordinary narrator and I didnt know he had written a dystopian tale
A few years ago I started to check out short stories, because I was getting tired of these 700-800 pages books. Sometimes I have to work a night shift, where I just sit around and have nothing to do. I first started reading Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft. And later I realized that scifi short stories are amazing as well. You drew my attention to CM Kornbluth, of whom I have never heard before in one of your earlier videos. I love his stuff now. Thanks for that!
Kornbluth is amazing.
"Adam and No Eve" was my first Bester as a very young lad. The other story was written around the magazine cover art which had already been painted, but I imagine you discovered that. Edgar P is class. Forster is seminal, re-read it every few years- both John Foxx and Hawkwind have recorded albums based on it in recent years, still relevant, great story.
I did see that, Bester wrote an intro for the story where he talked about how stupid he found the painting. It's my second time reading Machine Stops and I swear it doubled in quality since the first round.
yep i first read that story in the 70s adapted in a comic book. they wanted to do more bester but it got canceled. i still have all the issues. its marvel’s unknown worlds of sci fi.
@@meesalikeu -I read the Bester first in that comic too.
What a great companion piece to today's @outlawbookseller video !
In college in 1984, I took a class on dystopian fiction. We read 1984, Brave New World, Hard Times, We, Erewhon, and a couple of others I've forgotten. But I've never heard of The Machine Stops. Also, I'd say some of the best sf I've ever read has been short stuff, particularly the early stories that came out at the height of the magazine era. I don't think people pay much attention to short fiction anymore, but they definitely should.
A Pangborn novel which is worthwhile is A Mirror for Observers!
More things to add to my TBR list. Thanks, Matt.
Seabright/StClair was born in a town not far from where I live; Hutchinson, Kansas!
Thank you for suggesting The Machine Stops!
Like you I'm more of a novel reader but sometimes nothing beats a really excellent short story, so thanks for these recommendations. Will be looking for that Forster. I have an anthology of James Tiptree's that I've been meaning to get started on, she's a bit of a blindspot for me given her relative lack of novels.
Tiptree is definitely a short story writer. She has written only one novel, and that is not among her best works (in my opinion, of course).
The Forster novel sounds amazing. I have just mentally thrown it on the TBR pile. Oh. Oh. Uh oh. AVALANCHE! ....Ohhh, I'm trapped under the Three Body Problem trilogy and the Leviathan Awakes books, what's the name of that cable show for this? OH NO, ITS THE WHEEL OF TIME, ITS ROLLING STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME, I WASN’T EVEN GOING TO READ IT I JUST SAID I WAS TO SHUT UP A FRIEND AUUUGGGHHHHH.....*
Pick up the three body problem trilogy and read those. Very worthwhile read. And I live when you can see a writer developing their style.
i think we all know this feel.
@@MrRiedemanJACC i hope book two and three of thre body are better than book one, because that was flat as a pancake and read like a young adult book. i'll read them, but not in a hurry.
@meesalikeu Book 3 was my favorite of the trilogy.
In the late 70s, I picked up the book Still I Persist in Wondering, which is an anthology of Pangborn stories. I believe it was well reviewed by Spider Robinson in one of the SF magazines. This is a roundabout way of telling you I read The Night Wind in that book back then, and I still vividly remembered the story the minute you started talking about it…
"Writing of this quality lasts forever." Indeed! But it doesn't keep the printing presses busy.
The Machine Stops. The library near me has a copy. I'll pick it up tomorrow.
"The Machine Stops is a counterblast to one of the heavens of H.G. Wells".
I love the short story, personally. Idea: Matt's 25 Favorite SF Short Stories. After all, Flowers for Algernon was originally in that form. I also remember liking one by Clarke called, I believe, "Transit of Earth". Oh, and Wells's "Country of the Blind" is top-grade IMHO, but is really a 'lost world' story, so ... not sci-fi?
Bester's two main novels are amazing. Must reads.
Absolutely agree
bester’s adam and no eve was given the adult comic book treatment in marvel’s wonderful unknown worlds of scifi #2 in the 1970s - which is where i read it as a kid.
I must read the machine stops sounds just my kind of thing. Besters dark side of the earth is one to read If you see it grab it quick , brilliant . Great stuff again mate enjoyed this 👍🏻
I too would be interested in a review of utopian stories. Great idea.
THE MACHINE STOPS IS EFFING ESSENTIAL!!
(Especially for UA-camrs!)
As far as dystopian novels, very few ever mention "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Another precursor to the genre.
the pros and cons of transparency and the ideas of glazed towers of modernist architecture is well explored in We. How much do you really want to be visible....read it a long time ago,
actually i have always seen plenty of copies of that book around used scifi racks. i knew it was a classic, but never read it.
A surprisingly early dystopian novel is Richard Jefferies' After London from 1885. Jeffries was a Victorian nature essayist and the writing certainly reflects this. The passage of a "heavenly body" changes Earth's axial tilt with cataclysmic consequences. I just came across it randomly many years ago and it's probably hard to find but I see there is a Project Gutenberg e-book.
In the context of this video I also get to mention that Alice Sheldon (a.k.a. James Tiptree Jr) is a fine short story author (and the source of my moniker - before Google mangled it).
Just out of the blue. I'd like to mention a few oddities I still have fond memories of: The Godwhale by T.J. Bass, The Hole in the Zero by M.K. Joseph, The Very Slow Time Machine by Ian Watson, Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (mainstream author and made both harder and somehow more gripping to read by being written in a future dialect of English) and The Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney (not SF but imagining life in a 2-dimensional world).
Pengborn's story sounds like the plot of "The Village". It seems to be in the same universe as Silverberg's "The World Inside."
The Machine Stops is a rite of passage for SF readers. Pleased to see you got there.
My (very unpopular) opinion is that SF is a short form literature. An idea can be explored in a relatively short space of time. Novels are about people and relationships. Sure, there are many fine SF novels, but they usually tackle very large sociological ideas viz Le Guin.
I read the Machine Stops during the lockdown - creepily prescient.
Perfect way to read it
I had no idea EM Forster wrote Sci-Fi
If you’re a London fan, The Red One is a must.
Great to see you go nuts over The Machine Stops. I've been reading SF since the mid-70s and for some reason never got around to this story until maybe a decade ago - and I've re-read it since. I'm pretty sure I read it online - I strangely don't seem to have it in any anthology, and I have quite a few of those. I don't know if it's my favorite short story in the genre, and it certainly has competition in mainstream fiction - Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle might be my favorite, and then there's Kafka and Shirley Jackson and Hawthorne and Poe and... etc. I have read a fair amount of short fiction. But this is really a very special story any way you slice it, so absolutely CONTROLLED, just a perfect piece of writing, everything just-so. Makes me want to read some of the work Forster is better known for though I'm sure that's completely different.
Haven't read the other four stories you mention but I did just recently read Bester's The Demolished Man, which I liked until the end - and the end I kind of loved. Overall pretty terrific. Will definitely read more from him.
Really nobody can touch Kafka's short stories.
I read _The Machine Stops_ as a part of my English Literature O-level ( o-levels dont exist now) It stayed in my head.
I forgot you were a Jack London guy. Everyone should be a Jack London guy (or gal).
Utopian novels vs modern Solar Punk would be nice. Can't imagine what you'd think of Becky Chambers and books like 'The Mimicking of Known Sucesses'.
Ever tried The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Le Guin? One of the best short stories I have ever read!
Haven't read that one
@@Bookpilled it's absolutely essential, even more so than the machine stops. we had to read it in junior high, but to be fair i doubt thaty was typical, our teacher was a hippy scifi fan.
Do you write yourself, Matt? You're incredibly eloquent
Agreed 💯 %
Don't be silly!
I was about to post this!
I haven't read The Machine Stops but from your description is sounds like it could have been the inspiration for THX1138.
The best 'old school' short SF stories I've ever read are 'All you zombies' by Robert Heinlein and 'The last question' by Isaac Asimov ... for modern SF, the short stories of Ted Chiang are awesome (I love, in particular, 'Understand' and 'Stories of your life') ... finally, the absolute master of short-short SF stories (one-two pages long) is Fredric Brown ('Solipsist' and 'Answer', among many others, are great)
I'm curious about Brown, the people who've read him all seem to love him.
you gotta do ellison’s deathbird stories for us. since we’re talking short stories that is. in a word its - crushing.
Deathbird Stories is one of my favorite collections.
I read a lot of short stories. I"m kind of addicted to them. Ther'es something incredibly satisfying to me about reading a tight and well-made narrative in a single sitting. I personally feel that some of the best fiction is in this format.
I read a Margaret St. Clair story recently, "Idris Pig", I believe it was called. It was quite fun. She also has a story in, i think, The Weird anthology (Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) that's a sort of sequel to a Dunsany piece. I'd like to read more as well.
I first read "The Machine Stops" in 2020, during the height of coronatime. It was, let's just say, a pretty appropriate story to be reading at that time. I read it again this year and we talked about it on the Chrononauts podcast. It is definitely a very melancholic, well-written story, and the imagination on display is startling, and yes, prescient -- I do think the ending comes off just a little bit silly with all the "humanity had learned its lesson" kind of stuff, and it all feels just a little technophobic perhaps, but I get it -- and Forster is really in line with the other English modernists here and their general disdain for technological advancement.
I don't know. I think Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit" (a story in the collection) is not just one of the best science fiction stories ever written; it is one of the better overall short stories ever written. I am not alone in this opinion. In 1959, the story was also adapted as the teleplay "Murder and the Android." I have not seen it, but it is apparently available at The Paley Center for Media, so those in New York may wish to take advantage. Bester is also significant as a major inspiration for some of the characters and plot lines in the "Babylon Five" television series. I very much appreciate the E. M. Forster recommendation. Thank you.
Here are three writers who are best known for their short works: William Tenn, Cordwainer Smith, and James Tiptree, Jr. Each author is wonderful, each has written only one novel, and each has a unique voice. Highly recommended.
My favorite Tiptree story is A Momentary Taste of Being. It blew me away when I read it way back when.
Another author known more for his short stories is Harlan Ellison. I’m a huge fan of his works.
The Machine Stops never struck me as dystopian. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the definition or something but the people(cept that one guy) always seemed pretty contented and happy with their lives before the whole thing happens.
Adam And No Eve I read as a teen in Danish translation in an anthology edited by my dad, and it really had a huge impact on me.
But in its way, a very hopeful story.
Machine Stops (wow, 1909?) sounds like Terrarium (1985), by Scott Russell Sanders, and a little like THX-1138. Also, The Man Who Awoke, by Laurence Manning (1933).
You beat me to it. By 8 hours.
@@tarico4436 All 3, or a specific title?
@@christopherwoods5150 Mentioning "THX1138." I started reading "The Machine Stops" earlier this AM, and boy howdy is it ever amazing for 1909.
I have read the Machine Stops a few times over the decades. Each time it hit me harder. The "technologies" are almost quaint by modern standards. But Forster's forecasting of how human nature and technical/industrial progression would inevitably lead to disaster is chilling.
edit: Have you read any of the Dangerous Visons trilogy? Harlan Ellison edited them with the first being published in 1967. All of the short stories were written for these collections.
edit 2: The last Dangerous Visions has been in limbo for decades. I found this announcement;
On May 2, 2022, J. Michael Straczynski, the executor of the Ellison estate, announced on Twitter[8] that The Last Dangerous Visions will be published in 2023 by Blackstone Publishers.
I have a copy of the first one in storage. Will get to it eventually.
I don't know if you've read any Edith Wharton, but I'm pretty sure it's in "The Age of Innocence" that she mentions wireless phones (as something coming someday in the future, not that they had them). I can't find my copy right now, but when I run across it I can let you know what she wrote exactly if you want. Anyway, point being the idea of cell phones has been around almost since the telephone was invented.
Long time sf reader I recommend trying John Varley if you have not.
Heinlein had cell phone or nearly cell phones in Space Cadet 1948 and Between Planets 1951. Similar 'telephone' probably exited in SF in the early 20th century , maybe in the 1930s . I am talking hand held phones, maybe not a small as modern cells. ( Gernsback had oversized ones back in the 1920s, I don't count those.)
Roddenberry said , way back, in 1966, that all of Star Trek's world building and nomenclature came from the pages of Astounding Science Fiction 1940s and 1950s.
Just picked up the machine stops. Along with a fire upon the deep and hothouse. Still can’t find a reasonably priced star of the unborn 😂.
In this vid you said you should do "a run of utopian/dystopian books". . . yes, yes, yes . . . And, Professor (not meant snidely) is there a vid where you give your 'Introduction to SF' list of 10 or 20 books? I don't want an actual syllabus (bleh). Just the book list. Love all your vids, J
Well, I do not think you can set too high an expectation for "The Machine Stops"! Or any short stories from The Golden Age, which I consider 1939 to 1972, and many more later.
I have around 80 anthologies now. Mostly from the 1940s thru 1990, but a few after that. I consider "Adam and No Eve" Bester at his peak ability. There are so many incredibly great short stories, hundreds, at least. And many more, never anthologized or not in a author collection.
Also a perfect Hardcover copy of Tau Zero for $2 at a Thrift store.
You love to see it
Fondly Fahrenheit!
Matt, I just scored at Hardcover Midworld by Foster for $1.46 Cdn lol
Great video! I have a question though. What is the name of the Robert Silverberg short story about a psychic lobster?
Homefaring
The Machine Stops reminds me of Gurren Lagann, only no screens.
You mentioned Jack London. Anyone interested in short stories should also read Anton Chekhov.
Short in the Chest by Idris Seabright (Margaret St. Clair) - I wonder, I wonder...
There was a very weird sci-fi story I read ages ago and have always wanted to re-read. It had women being made up as 'pollys' or other prototypes and put on a carousel.. and there was a memory erasing pill...
There was definitely a military element and I wonder if this might be it...
i’m reading the best of r.a. lafferty short stories now. holy mackeral nobody writes like that guy. really loopy and unique. lots of funny parody too, ie. nor limestone islands. its quite a treet. 🎉
I've read very few SF short stories, but I do love The Hanging Stranger by PKD and The Nine Billion Names of God by Clarke.
Haven't read those
Have you read Bester's Starburst collection? It's a good read.
I owned it at one point but haven't read it
I read "Adam and No Eve" and really didn't get it at all. I thought it wasn't any good. I need to read it again
Have you read Harlan Ellison's short stories?
Couple of them, yeah
@@Bookpilled liked them? I'm half way through his Essensial collection and I'm having such pleasure in reading
@@jakubskonieczny5750 the one I remember is I Have No Mouth, which is great
@@Bookpilled That story title invariably reminds me of "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" the Nebula Award winning novelette by Zelazny, published a couple years before Ellison's story.
"The Machine Stops" sounds like "THX1138."
I just downloaded the PDF of "The Machine Stops" and read the first five pages. It's already a banger! There's an "app" for "Google" and everything. How someone saw this over a hundred years ago is proof of a time machine or something.
It is, but THX is even more like 'We' by Zamyatin.
Downloaded "machine stops" for a re-read. Been too long.
Great Channel ! Hope all is well. I have a question maybe you can help me or anyone else. The SciFI book I am looking for was a story based on California, Oregon and Wash state seperating from the US and recycleing was a theme? Also there was a war between US and those states. I cant remember the Title and it could also be out of print . I have been watching your channel and miss reading Scifi with my Dad. Appreciate it !
It's titled Ecotopia. Bizarre little piece of synchronicity - I was just reading the synopsis a few minutes ago.
@@Bookpilled So Great !!! Thank you so so much !! Thanks for making my day !!
I appreciate your expertise
Thanks. I don’t consider myself an expert.
Well said!
@@Bookpilled
Thanks!
I miss the fireplace.
I'm curious if you have read "Who Goes There?" By John W. Campbell as Don A. Stuart? I read this some time ago and i must say i was surprised at how good it was for the time of writing., Of course this is the novella that The Thing" (movie) was based on.
Yeah, it was one of the things that got me hooked on science fiction
@@Bookpilled Oh, okay. Cool. I loved that story! Have a great day!!
Love your reviews so much. They're like bullets - they're real. For as long as you have targets I hope you have ammunition.
Alastair Reynolds has a fantastic collection of short stories compiled under the title Beyond the Aquila Rift (with a story by the same name). Check it out dude!
I read "Tiger, Tiger" at your suggestion. I found it not only hard to read, non-compelling reading, but also pretty thin on plot. I'm just not a fan of Alfred Bester. Again, my experience of sci-fi has been basically from my pre-teen years of reading. I really want to read "Neuromancer" when my reading schedule next lets me enjoy sci-fi.
The Last Answer, by Asimov
The Machine Stops = THX 1138 ?
That's what people say. I haven't seen it.
@@Bookpilled Robert Duvall is great, but apart from that I'm sure the book has better special effects.
For years -- way back in the day -- I would look forward to each new issue of F&SF, buy it, and not read any of the stories all the way through. Nowadays, I love the reviews and discussions here and elsewhere -- mainly Scott Bradfield -- but I have almost zero interest in actually reading any SF. Just sharing.....
Scott’s great
🚀🚀
I can’t read.
Well, your writing looks promising. You correctly placed your contraction, which puts you in the upper 70th percentile. Not too shabby.