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"The world is really so surreal these days that it's necessary for us to blunt it somehow in order to stay sane. The artist functions to short-circuit the buffering mechanism, so that people can occasionally perceive the weirdness of things as they are."
- William Gibson
 |
| Machine Music | ||
| Entertainment from the Great Machine. |
In this story, the Great Machine supplies the needs of humanity. It seems probable that the author refers to the idea of automated music production, rather than existing music being played by machines, or machines replaying the efforts of human musicians.
| "The Machine is stopping?" her friend replied. "What does that mean? The phrase conveys nothing to me."
"Nor to me." "He does not refer, I suppose, to the trouble there has been lately with the music?" "Oh no, of course not. Let us talk about music." "Have you complained to the authorities?" "Yes, and they say it wants mending, and referred me to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus. I complained of those curious gasping sighs that disfigure the symphonies of the Brisbane school. They sound like some one in pain. The Committee of the Mending Apparatus say that it shall be remedied shortly." Obscurely worried, she resumed her life. For one thing, the defect in the music irritated her. For another thing, she could not forget Kuno's speech. If he had known that the music was out of repair—he could not know it, for he detested music—if he had known that it was wrong, "the Machine stops" was exactly the venomous sort of remark he would have made. Of course he had made it at a venture, but the coincidence annoyed her, and she spoke with some petulance to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus. They replied, as before, that the defect would be set right shortly. "Shortly! At once!" she retorted. "Why should I be worried by imperfect music? Things are always put right at once. If you do not mend it at once, I shall complain to the Central Committee." |
| Technovelgy from The Machine Stops,
by E.M. Forster. Published by Oxford and Cambridge Review in 1909 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robot music described in The Robot God (1941) by Ray Cummings, the meloderge from Saboteur of Space (1944) by Robert Abernathy and the computer-created dub from Neuromancer by William Gibson.
See also the verse transcriber from Studio 5, The Stars, a 1971 short story by JG Ballard. Also, consider the Darkdawn city from Dying of the Light, a 1977 novel by George RR Martin.
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