How does E.M. Forster’s, The Machine Stops , fit into the science fiction genre, and how does it compare to longer pieces of literature in the same genre? The science-fiction nature of E. M. Forster’s, The Machine Stops , is evident almost as soon as the story begins. Dropped in the middle of a picturesque scene of the protagonist's daily life, readers come to the understanding that Forster has created a dystopian universe in his short story. Dystopian universes are often a subset of the larger genre of Science Fiction, as dystopian worlds are just the futuristic version of a science fiction one, and Forster's story is just that. He portrays a dystopian world in which all humans are confined to individual hexagonal housing spaces, as the outside world has bec ome unsafe and too overwhelming for anyone to live. The eminent themes of dystopian society provide both positive and negative renditions of what living within “The Machine” is like. The Machine is this story's version...