"A generation seraphically free from taint of personality"

Science fiction is rather important to me, as a genre of literature. I don't mean the campy, sell-by-the-millions fluff SciFi (although, to be fair, I'm not really sure how you would qualify that. Plenty of the good stuff has sold well. And I think we all enjoy some fluff, no matter the genre, every once in a while). In any event, I mean the SciFi novels that do justice to literature, and deserve to be called literature. Stories that look at society and create a commentary that makes you stop and think, or stories that stand the test of time in their applicability. Stories that predict or shape the world culture and development.

One such story that has recently quite impressed me, particularly in terms of its applicability, is E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops". It was written in 1909 - nigh on a hundred years ago - and some of the issues he deals with are just as, if not more so, relevant today as they were then. I won't spoil it, but I highly suggest you read it if you have a bit of time. Me, I'm going to go do some work. Enough screen-communication for now.