The Machine Stops

A world in which all humans live underground. Each person in their own bubble. a small room where everything happens for them.The central character of the story gives lectures to remotely located students and "attends" lectures herself. Remotely communicating with her son and others.

A prescient parable of our pandemically-challenged times? Perhaps but, astonishingly, The Machine Stops is a short story by E. M. Forster, written in...1909.

As well as communication, feeding, sleeping, air conditioning and other necessary aspects of daily life are controlled by the Machine. A world-wide inter-connected, all-embracing functional controller.

Technology innovation in 1909 consisted of bakelite, cellophane, lipstick and disposable razor blades. Although Alexander Graham Bell had developed the telephone 30 years earlier it wasn't until the 1930s that phones in homes became a thing; Forster may have had some awareness of the device in 1909 but probably no experience. So how could he have imagined the world of Skype, the Internet, Zoom and WhatsApp? Amazing.

This is not the fantasy fiction of The Time Machine or The Invisible Man (no offence Herbert George Wells; I have enjoyed your books immensely) but rather science/technology/sociology fiction.

Nor is this Orwell's 1984 control freakery; citizens of this story are allowed, but not encouraged, to do certain things such as travel. So it's not about fascism or demagoguery. It is essentially about the dangers of technological development and the inexorable trend towards machine control. The Machine is clearly a benign object to the world's citizens; some of them even begin to worship it:

"The Machine", they exclaimed, "feeds us and clothes us and houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being. The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition; the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine."

The Machine is doing a great job for the citizens of Earth. It supplies all their bodily and spiritual needs.

Until. It. Breaks. Down.

The. Machine Stops.

In my never-satisfied search for more knowledge, I came across a 2016 album of the same name by the space-rock band Hawkwind. There is an introductory narrative track All hail The Machine, with a background of weird machiney and spacey sounds:

The Machine feeds us & clothes us & houses us

Through the Machine, we speak to one another, in it we have our being

The Machine is the friend of ideas & the enemy of superstition

The Machine is omnipotent, eternal

Blessed is The Machine

Blessed is The Machine

All this talk is as if a god made the machine

But you must remember that men made The Machine

Great men but men all the same

The Machine is much but it is not everything

There is something like you on the screen but you are not seen

There is something that sounds like you but you are not heard

In time, because of The Machine, there will come a generation that has got beyond facts

Beyond impressions

A generation absolutely colourless

A generation seraphically free from the taint of personality

All hail The Machine!

All hail The Machine!

At last on track 2 (The Machine) we get music!

Oh to reach the surface once again

And feel the sun

I thought a later track Living on Earth might give some of E. M. Forster enlightenment but sadly the lyrics - and the music - typify the album's deterioration into the mundane (Maybe that's a metaphor for The Machine Stops).

I didn't know, no one told me of this

That living on Earth is no life of bliss

Those halcyon days when time slips away

Our love won't exist

I'm sorry Hawkwind, you don't make it onto my Spotify favourites list but it was good to know you.

What's your plan for tomorrow...

...is the first line of a song Take Back The Power by a band called The Interrupters. One of the great joys of blogging, at least my style of it, is expanding your own knowledge and, hopefully, that of your readers. I came across this song as the theme music for a Sky Documentaries' show "Hillary", about Hillary Rodham Clinton, as she calls herself. The first lines of the song are an apt introduction to the subject of the documentary:

What's your plan for tomorrow

Are you a leader or will you follow

Are you a fighter or will you cower

It's our time take back the power

I have never heard of The Interrupters. It turns out they a ska punk band. I have absolutely no idea what that means but it bears investigation, even sounds fun. I certainly enjoy the song and add it to a Spotify playlist. It has drive, energy, noise and raises the heart beat. 

I learn that ska punk is a "fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock. So says Wikipedia but I reckon even I could have figured that out. I still have to find out what ska music is and it turns to be of Jamaican origin, pre reggae. It has a walking bass line (I know what that is from listening to Oscar Peterson in my youth) with accents on the off beats (as you get with reggae). And lots more that I won't burden you with - check it out if you want to know more or, better, listen to the song.

Anyway, the documentary is fascinating. I have one episode of the four to go but I get the gist. Does it tell me more about Hillary Clinton than I already know? Yes, it does. As far as I can judge, it is a fair assessment of her life and work. Like all of us, and particularly people in positions of power, there are good things and bad. Successes and failures.  I didn't have any preconceptions (well not too many) about her going into the programme and I think I have a sense of when I am being "had", of a biased product placement. I don't think that was the case. It is true that the majority of those interviewed were well disposed towards her but that's because these were the people who knew her well, so I accept that. It's definitely not hagiography.

There is a great deal of face to face interviews with her. The questions are more like prompts, because she seems like she relishes getting everything out there, feels the need to explain herself, and you only need to prompt her about an episode in her life and she's off, streams of consciousness. Can I tell whether she is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? No, but could I with most politicians?

The song's chorus is:

We don't need to run and hide

We won't be pushed off to the side

I think that sums Hillary Clinton up. If you can find it, it's worth watching. 

The Cold Blooded Hearts

How many football managers are rock stars? Or even look like rock stars? There are plenty who fancy themselves as style icons but not so many with rugged rock star hair, hairy chest and smoldering looks (think Rod Stewart). So all hail Gareth Ainsworth, long-serving manager of the mighty Wycombe Wanderers, aka the Chairboys. He is the longest serving manager, at 7½ years, in the top four divisions of English football (the average tenure is about 20 minutes).

Ainsworth is lead singer and songwriter of The Cold Blooded Hearts. Their latest effort The Wanderer is available on Spotify. It's cheesy country and western stuff. Great for a night out in High Wycombe (ask my sons about that).

Everyone has a nickname in football. His is Wild Thing.

Adebayo Akinfenwa is another wild thing. Also, like Ainsworth, a cult figure. He is Wycombe's centre forward (the modern usage "striker" might be a bit of a misnomer for him) and the word "figure" is apt; he weighs in at 16 stone (101 Kg), so says the purveyor of truth known as Wikipedia, and can bench press (whatever that means) 200 Kg. He roams around the football field like King Kong. Sprinting is not his thing but frightening opposing defenders (and sometimes his own teammates) definitely is. You have to play the ball to his feet. Do not expect him to jump. Do not expect him to run in behind defenders. Get the ball onto his chest and he will hold it up until teammates arrive to help him out i.e. take the ball from him and plonk it in the net. Don't expect him to run to the corner flag to join in the celebrations. But when his team scored the decisive goal tonight, even he was part of a huge scrum of flailing Wycombe bodies. I pitied whoever was underneath him; they may not be ready for next Monday's final.

Wycombe Wanderers are in League One and tonight  they fought their way through to the Play Off Final at Wembley Stadium. In normal times I'd definitely be up for the trip there. Unfortunately fans are not allowed at the moment. Boris, could you make an exception?

Somehow The Chairboys (High Wycombe is a furniture town) seems a rather feeble moniker for this burly group of lads. We really need something more gritty. Suggestions?

Lockdown serendipity

Music is therapeutic and the discovery of new (to me) music, and re-discovering old favourites, has been a boon during my self-isolation.

I was watching an episode of the Star Trek-lite TV show The Orville and heard the lead character playing a song whilst piloting a small spacecraft - a shuttle really. His dark matter cartographer co-pilot (who later turns out to be an undercover Krill soldier - don't ask) asked what is was and he explained it was Billy Joel. I think it was She's Always A Woman.

I really enjoyed the clip and I decided to investigate Billy Joel on Spotify. I don't recall ever having heard a Billy Joel song and it was a revelation to listen to Piano Man, such a refreshing, cheerful and foot-tapping number. It is now a staple of my listening, if I need to cheer myself up, or to stop myself worrying about viruses, the R number and how to keep safe whilst meeting a friend.

I often come across music I didn't know as a result of reading an article, hearing music in TV shows or seeing a Spotify recommendation (even in TV adverts!), and I eagerly add those I enjoy most to one of my playlists. One of my all-time favourites is the rendering of O Holy Night by Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews playing amazing trumpet riffs) and his pals in a Christmas episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as a post-Katrina tribute to New Orleans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etflv7R6NKA

This burst of musical exploration has reminded me that I have rather lapsed in listening to music. So a lot of my lockdown listening has been re-uniting myself with old favourites. They all have emotional effects which enable me to keep balanced.

The calming murmurings of the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th symphony, the sheer elation and majesty of the climax of the same composer's Resurrection symphony and Anne Hathaway's immensely moving I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables all offer me something which I need. John Lennon's anarchic ramblings in Imagine give me hope.

I am an emotional person and music can really affect me, often by its simplicity, but deeply powerful music such as Mahler symphonies or Wagner operas offer panoramic pictures of life itself which remind me of my own life and, even in these difficult times, how blessed I have been and how much I still have to look forward to.

Spotify

I often wonder whether I'm getting good value from my £9.99 pm Spotify subscription. I listen to so little music but I do so, like everything else, in fits and starts.

Maybe I should have symphonic nights as well as my movie nights.

I am a fan of Mahler's symphonies and could easily binge listen to them in sequence. I am definitely interested in Bruckner's symphonies. I'm pretty sure I haven't heard them all but I couldn't say which I have.

I could list the tracks on my Spotify playlists but that would be very embarrassing. On the other hand....

OK, this is playlist Nigel1:

* I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables (film version) - Anne Hathaway

* Send in the Clowns from Stephen Sindheim's A Little Night Music - Judy Collins

* I Have A Dream from Mamma Mia - Amanda Seyfried

(Oh my goodness, this really IS embarrassing - but if you blog you probably have to be prepared to be embarrassed)

* Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
(that's more like it)

* A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Annie Lennox

* Baba Yetu - The Soweto Gospel Choir
(that will get you all Googling)

* Imagine  - John Lennon

* Pinball Wizard - The Who

* Nessun Dorma - Luciano Pavarotti

* We Are The Champions - Queen

* Dido's Lament "When I am Laid In Earth" (Purcell) - Sally Stapleton

* Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony - Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra

* Adagio for Strings (Samuel Barber) - Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic

* All I Do Is Dream Of You - Faultline

* Fanfare for the Common Man - Aaron Copland, London Symphony Orchestra

 * Lacrimosa from Requiem (Mozart) - Stephen Cleobury, Academy Of Ancient Music

* Summertime from Porgy and Bess - Miles Davis

That's quite eclectic, now I think about it. Pretty sure Trevor will chastise me for listening on my Amazon Alexa but that's what I am doing now as a I write this.

I also have more stuff in my Spotify library: Bach, Wagner, Wynton Marsalis, Ariana Grande, Prokofiev and of course more Mahler. So maybe a tenner a month is OK for value.

I enjoyed writing this, re-listening to previous choices and now thinking about new playlists. Thank you for reading!