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Kuno
The flight attendant, whom Vashti interacts with while traveling on an air-ship to visit Kuno, is one of the few characters described in the story who lives a substantial amount of her life above-ground and outside of the direct control of the Machine (although the air-ships themselves are incorporated into the Machine’s system). Although she seems to accept her society’s values, the flight attendant’s unusual profession has nonetheless led to mannerisms that, in Vashti’s eyes, are quite strange—she feels comfortable talking to people directly, and even touches Vashti, which is a great taboo in this society. Vashti’s perceptions of the flight attendant—whose behavior seems entirely normal to the reader, but is seen as unusual and even rude to Vashti—highlights just how differently human behavior and customs have become due to the influence of the Machine.
The Flight Attendant Quotes in The Machine Stops
The The Machine Stops quotes below are all either spoken by The Flight Attendant or refer to The Flight Attendant. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1: The Air-Ship Quotes
And, as often happens on clear nights, [the stars] seemed now to be in perspective, now on a plane; now piled tier beyond tier into the infinite heavens, now concealing infinity, a roof limiting for ever the visions of men. In either case they seemed intolerable. “Are we to travel in the dark?” called the passengers angrily, and the attendant, who had been careless, generated the light, and pulled down the blinds of pliable metal. When the air-ships had been built, the desire to look direct at things still lingered in the world. Hence the extraordinary number of skylights and windows, and the proportionate discomfort to those who were civilized and refined.
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Part 2: The Mending Apparatus Quotes
She might well declare that the visit was superfluous. The buttons, the knobs, the reading-desk with the Book, the temperature, the atmosphere, the illumination—all were exactly the same. And if Kuno himself, flesh of her flesh, stood close beside her at last, what profit was there in that? She was too well-bred to shake him by the hand.
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The Flight Attendant Character Timeline in The Machine Stops
The timeline below shows where the character The Flight Attendant appears in The Machine Stops. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: The Air-Ship
Vashti’s anxiety increases as she boards the air-ship: there is a female flight attendant whom she will have to talk to if she wants anything during the trip, and...
(full context)
...looks at the stars, which she finds “intolerable.” The passengers are angry at the careless flight attendant , who forgets at first to lower the blinds and turn on the light. When...
(full context)
...horrified at the prospect of being hit by the direct sunlight and calls for the flight attendant . The attendant is also horrified, but she cannot fix the blind, and she advises...
(full context)
The flight attendant is a bit unusual compared to other people in this society, who are mostly all...
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The flight attendant tells Vashti they are flying over Asia and shows her the Himalayas. The attendant says...
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