Vashti’s “reverent” attitude toward the Book of the Machine, as she performs this “ritual” before looking up the air-ship schedule, shows the truth in her son’s claim that she “worships” the Machine as a god.
This passage confirms that Vashti and her son live on opposite ends of the world, though they both seem to live in the underground Machine. By complaining that the air-ship gives her “no ideas,” Vashti seems to mean that she only values logical and rational pursuits, while Kuno is more interested in emotional experiences. Kuno perhaps enjoys riding the air-ship because he, unlike his mother, appreciates the natural world, and this is one of the few places where he can experience it, albeit from a distance. Kuno likes riding aboard the air-ships and gets inspiration from them, while Vashti views them as horrible and boring. The differences between Vashti and Kuno’s characters are also revealed in their different attitudes toward the air-ships and the stars. Moreover, the fact that Vashti and Kuno live a two days’ trip apart means that although they both live in the Machine, they probably live on opposite sides of the world-which speaks to how vast the Machine is. This exchange reveals more details about the world of the story: the description of the “horrible brown earth” suggests that some kind of environmental disaster has stripped Earth of all or most vegetation, and the details about air-ships suggests that this futuristic society has a sophisticated transportation system.
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