When Kuno is telling his mother Vashti about his (unapproved) trip to the earth’s surface, he goes on a short rant about the harmful nature of the Machine. During this rant, he uses both a metaphor and an allusion, as seen in the following quote:
“The Machine develops—but not on our lives. The Machine proceeds—but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die. Oh, I have no remedy—or, at least, only one—to tell men again and again that I have seen the hills of Wessex as Aelfrid saw them when he overthrew the Danes.”
The metaphor here—in which Kuno equates humans with “blood corpuscles” (or blood cells) that “course through [the Machine’s] arteries”—communicates his disdain for the Machine’s power and reach. In his mind, humans have come to exist in service of the Machine rather than the Machine existing in service of humans, as its creators originally intended.
The allusion comes in the final line of the passage when Kuno states that the only “remedy” for this reversal of power is for people to hear his story of reaching the earth’s surface, which he compares to Aelfrid seeing “the hills of Wessex […] when he overthrew the Danes.” Aelfrid (also known as Alfred the Great) was the king of an ancient kingdom in England whose victory against the conquering Danes earned him great praise and a nearly mythological status. This allusion helps readers to understand how Kuno sees the Machine as a violent force attempting to conquer humankind (and nature) and how escaping its reach is the only option for true freedom. If people hear his story, he believes, they will feel inspired to join in his crusade against this harmful technology.
When giving a talk on the danger of first-hand ideas, one of the underground city’s academic lecturers alludes to the French Revolution, as seen in the following passage:
“You who listen to me are in a better position to judge about the French Revolution than I am. Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time”—his voice rose— “there will come a generation that has got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine.”
The French Revolution was a radical movement against social and economic inequality in France that started in 1789 and led to the abolition of the monarchy and establishment of democracy. Most scholars agree that it was a pivotal moment in world history as nations across the globe had to decide how to respond to these radical developments and the effects of such a victory on their own populations.
The lecturer’s declaration that the people living in the underground city are “in a better position to judge about the French Revolution” than he is thus a comically absurd statement. This is one of the moments in the story in which Forster is satirizing so-called intellectuals who pay little attention to research or facts and care more about their own context and worldview. The lecturer’s logic is obviously flawed here—how could it possibly be positive for people to go “beyond facts” and “see the French Revolution not as it happened […] but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine”? This satirical moment cements Forster’s point that technological advancement can distort reality to a hyperbolic degree.
