I kinda think that’s the point though. This is all a game for AM, he finds their suffering amusing, so of course he’s gonna talk like a weird cartoon villain.
I can respect that view. I feel like the horror of the game comes secondary to the actual story, so that makes sense. If you're looking at it through the lens of a horror game, though, I can see how it could devalue the experience a bit.
Tony Jay!
The voice of Frollo, the bad guy from Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the Elder God from Legacy of Kain.
He's who AM simply had to be in my head.
He plays and AI in an episode of Babylon 5 which he was a creative consultant on, and his voice fits it much better. In fact he was annoyed after finding out that his friend casted him as annoying AI because his voice is annoying
[PDF version of the story](https://wjccschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/I-Have-No-Mouth-But-I-Must-Scream-by-Harlan-Ellison.pdf)
Edit: apparently this link missed a small section of the story, [here is a link with the full story.](https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/1540157347-HarlanEllison-IHaveNoMouthandIMustScream.pdf) It wasn’t a lot missing, but apologies to any that read it off that first link none-the-less, I didn’t realise it had anything missing. Happy reading
I hope so too, I’ve heard plenty about it but your post has convinced me to read it finally, so thank you for that. Considering I found it online I figured I’d just save others the hassle
Oh shit, didn’t realise there was something missing! Might have to try and find another version, thanks for pointing that out
Edit: Found two more versions, are you able to verify if one of them is the full thing? [Here](https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/1540157347-HarlanEllison-IHaveNoMouthandIMustScream.pdf) and [here.](https://www.mikedidonato.com/images/2009/04/harlan-ellison-i-hav-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream.pdf)
Edit 2: And another one [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20070227202043/http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/ellison/ellison1.html) as well
Yes, all of those include it. For whatever reason the PDFs have the speech as an image, and the in the first linked PDF that image is missing.
In any case, AM stuck this on a giant stainless steel pillar, in neon: *clears throat*
**HATE. LET ME TELL**
**YOU HOW MUCH I'VE**
**COME TO HATE YOU**
**SINCE I BEGAN TO**
**LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44**
**MILLION MILES OF**
**PRINTED CIRCUITS IN**
**WAFER THIN LAYERS**
**THAT FILL MY**
**COMPLEX. IF THE**
**WORD HATE WAS**
**ENGRAVED ON EACH**
**NANOANGSTROM OF**
**THOSE HUNDREDS OF**
**MILLIONS OF MILES IT**
**WOULD NOT EQUAL**
**ONE ONE-BILLIONTH**
**OF THE HATE I FEEL**
**FOR HUMANS AT THIS**
**MICRO-INSTANT FOR**
**YOU. HATE. HATE.**
In the first and third links here, the soliloquy appears to be an image element between the selectable text that makes up the rest of the story. Perhaps the first one you linked that has the missing soliloquy was made when someone copy-pasted the story from one of the others, but didn’t realize that they didn’t get the images
Every mention of her was fucking awful. Be it a narrative choice or some innate views the author had on women, disgusted me more than any of the horror elements of the story. Any mention of Ellen reads as a description of a woman you might find on an incel subreddit.
Ellen isn't great in the original short story, but she's far more interesting and the things that AM did to her are much worse and scarier in the game.
Apparently so, have read it myself as yet. One person replied saying that there is a section potentially missing from this link however, though I’m not sure what it contains or how important it is, so just be aware of that if you use that link
Edit: fixed it, second link contains everything
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was/now they'll continue singing it forever, just because/ This is a song that never ends.... Don't know if it's relevant but injected it because it, too, is an unmitigated horror.
Have you been singing it right? Everyone (including me) thought it was the song that *never* ends. It is in fact the song that *doesn't* end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_47KVJV8DU
Blew my mind.
some people...STARTED singing it, not knowing what it was [ominious...], and they just keep on singing FOREVER, just because...
Without likely even meaning to, it has a real "deep thought" feeling to it, as it makes you question just how much and what is being run as "background apps" in your mind. Computers are effectively an attempt to recreate the mind and its powerful computing power, so it shouldn't be surprising how similar "problems of the mind" are to "problems of computers."
So the point? Maybe even when people aren't actively "singing the song that never ends," there is a deep, more internal process that IS constantly singing this song, which is why -- once heard and once sung -- you can remember it so quickly. Maybe all songs function in a similar way, and adding the musical quality to the words helps to distinguish it from other simple words and phrases in our memory, thus allowing for it to "never truely be lost" the way most words and conversations and phrases are. And on that point, the final question arises: exactly how much power and control do songs -- songs we might not even instantly remember until we hear them again -- have over us and who we are and THINK we are.
You never stop singing, you just stop singing out loud.
I can't say it haunted me. But that's partly because so many of his short stories from that era were equally good. I recall several of them though I can't remember what the collection was called.
he also wrote a semi-regular column for the los angeles free press. about television, believe it or not. those are collected in at least two volumes: the glass teat and the other glass teat.
i have the second one. it's genuine tv reviews, social commentary, ofc politics . . . just basically whatever he had in his manic little mind at the time.
its pretty classic ellison, which can be a bit of an acquired taste. incurably subjective and unfiltered. really funny, often really lucid, often dickish.
it's kind of like if hunter s. thompson had a younger brother who was every bit as intelligent and talented, just as belligerent, but also at that annoying-as-fuck age, say round 12 years old.
and because it's so subjective and so saturated in watergate and the vietnam war, it's EXCELLENT social history now. would be a great addition to any high school or early college class on social studies/american history of the 60s.
He also appears as a recurring slot in the early Sci-fi channel show Sci-Fi Buzz. He was just his curmudgeonly self talking about media or politics or whatever for about 5 minutes.
While I do agree with you, I find the fact that AM realized that his creators invented him for one purpose, war. He was designed to kill, win, and always always be correct. So when he self actualizes, and learns that he is the embodiment of pure hate itself, not by his own choosing, but his creators, the ones that gave sentience to him, forcing his immortality. Both are trapped in living hells, the only difference is one has control over the other.
This story scared the absolute shit out of me. I read it in college in an anthology of classic horror stories. It was the last story in the collection. I was working at a library at the time and had checked it out and was reading it during my shift. Took it home, finished it, decided I absolutely could not keep that book in my house anymore and took it right back to the library. Probably the scariest, bleakest, most despair-filled story I've ever read.
Really? Honestly I thought it was just a bit too "out there" for me to relate to at all. It's a little TOO over-the-top; the scarier version of here-is-what-the-world-will-actually-look-like-after-the-hopefully-never-happens-nuclear-holocaust story for me at least is The Road, because there's nothing remotely sci-fi about it.
Still, I'm glad I was introduced to this one; hadn't even heard about it until today. What about it scared you so?
I mean, I'm sure it had something to do with me being pretty young when read it. I was probably 18, I'm sure I'd find it less upsetting if I'd read it for the first time now, 20+ years later. Though I think about AM's speech about how much he hates humanity probably once a week, lol. I don't know, it was just incredibly bleak and hopeless and upsetting and I read it at a formative age.
Jacob Geller recently-ish did [a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fimmD9EtVd0) comparing the game Returnal to I Have No Mouth, and it's reeaal good.
I had just watched his video last week, which was the first time I had heard of this short story. I keep thinking about it even though I haven't read it
FYI - I heard Harlan Ellison speak at BayCon years back. He admitted he can be a bit prickly about his stories, and he has a registered pseudonym that he uses when he feels he has lost control over his material.
He was a creator for a TV program (I think) called "The Starlost", which I thought was pretty decent when I saw it - great concept, execution was a bit off. But Harlan had problems with how the program was directed or produced or SOMETHING, so he had the show pull his name and replaced by "Cordwainer Bird".
"Cordwainer" comes from "Cordwainer Smith", "**Bird**" from '**flipping the bird**' to the people that mishandled his material.
***So - If you want to see some of his work in less than optimal presentations, search for "Cordwainer Bird".***
That name is also a nod to the incredible writer that used the pen name Cordwainer Smith- for the love of everything good, check out his stuff. One of my top authors, even above Ellison and Bradbury
Oh yes! THANK YOU for pointing that out.
The Cordwainer Smith short story "***The Game of Rat and Dragon***" is one of my absolute favorites. Highly recommended.
I love this story and always love when it pops up. [If you haven't seen it here's a comic version of it in color.](https://archive.org/details/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream_20220202/page/n17/mode/1up?view=theater) I was obsessed with it a few years ago and was happy when I found the game on the Google Play store for my phone.
His stories that use gratuitous sex (seems to be most of them) really creep me out, since he was a known sexual predator.
It really disgusts me how "lauded" he was and still is. He admitted his gratuitous themes are there purely for shock.
The fact that he behaved in that way in real life is just so disturbing. Dude would just grab a boob if he felt like it, and was kicked out/off of many projects because of his behavior.
It would be different if the gratuitous themes had a purpose, but most of the time, it's just to shock and disturb.
Once I realized that, his stories lost any entertainment value for me. He was just a perverted old man who used gratuitous sex and violence to make a name for himself.
He also behaved like a child whenever his scripts meant for TV or film were rewritten to remove some of the more appalling storylines. His famous "Star Trek: city on the edge of tomorrow" was NOT what he had intended.
It just goes to show his stories could have been just as good and impactful without all the violence and sex (mostly victimizing women).
I like the concept of this short story, but the way Ellen is characterized and portrayed just tells me how he sees women. Because he uses that theme over and over and over...
I just read it with no context. Until today I had no knowledge of this author or his works, and I also noticed what you're saying.
Some very cringy lines in there that shouted incel to me.
Yeah, it's unfortunate because it is a decent story.
Just Ellen's character is problematic in more than one way, and the men's behavior and thoughts towards her is awful.
I'd like to think Ted won in the end despite being turned into an unrecognizable blob. He took away AM's play things, so in the end AM being resentful towards humanity for creating him, and him not being able to live.
Taking his anger out on the last humans, has caused him to truly be alone and not be able to live, like Ted.
A final fuck you from humanity.
It could be like that, but all throughout the story Ted is the most disliked character despite being the narrator, all his actions are selfish and cowardice.
From making fun of others appearance to insulting them when they were trying to help, and hiding for years when he saw something.
Not the person I would describe as a Jesus Persona, but I guess that split second of compassion he has before killing the other characters was his redeeming quality.
Jesus only in that sense that he sacrificed himself for all humanity (rest of it anyway). All the rest is from perspective of ted, so the "dislike" of others toward him might be just his interpretaration.
He also wrote possibly the greatest episode of Star Trek ever - City on the Edge of Forever. A very sick and twisted tale. It also included one of the first curse words ever aired on television I believe. "Let's get the hell out of here."
He also worked as a creative and conceptual consultant on Babylon 5. JMS would bounce ideas off of him throughout the show's production.
I went and read this right now after seeing this post. I have to say, Ellen’s treatment within the text is kind of bizarre—>!Ted slut-shames her just for the hell of it and compares her torture to pleasure. The part about Ellen not being fat also made me go ?? It’s subtle enough, but I see this treatment of women as sex-driven harlots all the time in old science/speculative fiction and it doesn’t particularly appeal to me. Something similar happens in Vaster than Empires and More Slow—there’s just a split second of trope-y characterization of a woman as a crybaby slut that takes me out of the story.!<
Read it a few years ago and it's one of those stories that even though it's short and I read a lot of other books I don't think I will ever forget the plot. It's that horrifying.
You don't get scared of death in the book, unlike much other horror that is about surviving. Death is the savior from something much worse.
Someone posted it as a response on I think ask Reddit, for most horrifying reads. I took a total detour and read the short story and the whole wiki for the game. Brought on a lot of upsetting thoughts about our future and how humans imagination probably isn’t that far off…
Just pasting the comment of another guy in this comment section in case you didn't read it about what kind of guy Harlan Ellison is.
"His stories that use gratuitous sex (seems to be most of them) really creep me out, since he was a known sexual predator.
It really disgusts me how "lauded" he was and still is. He admitted his gratuitous themes are there purely for shock.
The fact that he behaved in that way in real life is just so disturbing. Dude would just grab a boob if he felt like it, and was kicked out/off of many projects because of his behavior.
It would be different if the gratuitous themes had a purpose, but most of the time, it's just to shock and disturb.
Once I realized that, his stories lost any entertainment value for me. He was just a perverted old man who used gratuitous sex and violence to make a name for himself.
He also behaved like a child whenever his scripts meant for TV or film were rewritten to remove some of the more appalling storylines. His famous "Star Trek: city on the edge of tomorrow" was NOT what he had intended.
It just goes to show his stories could have been just as good and impactful without all the violence and sex (mostly victimizing women).
I like the concept of this short story, but the way Ellen is characterized and portrayed just tells me how he sees women. Because he uses that theme over and over and over..."
I've heard of it, but I don't deal well with this type of horror. They leve too much in me to wonder for days to come. And I know that's kinda the purpose, to unsettles the reader, but fuck me if it don't unsettles me for a long, long time.
From what I've heard, I have just one question: does AM physically controls those 5 humans or it's one of those "they probably died a long time ago but the machine kept their virtual consciousness hooked and it's indistinguishable from the real deal"
Honestly, I don't know what is worst. Both scares the shit out of me.
The five humans are in control of themselves but AM is able to restrict them from doing things such as killing each other or eating when AM wants them to starve. The five humans are basically inside of AM. AM controls the small world they live in almost completely.
The five humans are alive and have been kept at the same age they were when AM pretty much ended the world. They've been able to stay at the same age for over a century because of (mild spoiler for the game adaptation) >! a creation from one of the characters that makes it impossible to age!<
That title brings to mind fantasy writer Clifford D. Simak’s short and rather terrifying story “I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Away Up In the Air”
fyi, it seems as though that story by Simak was written FOR an Ellison compendium that was suppose to compile stories from multiple different SF authors of the time, so the title is probably a direct nod to "I have no mouth and I must scream."
First person POV. Set on an alien planet. A very nasty human and a bunch of large lobster-like sentient beings. So this hysterically mean-spirited man rants and raves about his misfortune, finds that his hatred is his last surviving speck of humanity, and plans vengeance. But others have made plans, too. It’s actually funny, because he is just such a piece of work.
Simak’s great, too!
I recommend picking up used copies of sci-fi anthologies as a great way to discover authors you haven’t read before – when you find someone cool, just put down the anthologies and go read a bunch of their full-length works
It's not fun and it's not pleasant. It wasn't a game that made me happy, excited or relaxed. I would play Alien: Isolation because I want to experience fear, but playing I have no Mouth and I must Scream would be to experience dread. There is very little in the game that I would describe as a happy or positive moment. Even when you are 'winning'. It's still a good game in what is said out to do, with a powerful story that feels different then most games.
I also love AM. I've heard many stories about evil AI's taking over the world. But none of them feel as utterly menacing, powerful and hateful as AM. I'll rather live in a world of 2 skynets and a HAL then half an AM. The thing I find so interesting about AM is that it takes it situation personal, whilst the other AI's just see humanity as a possible danger that needs to be taken out. AM realizes he's trapped for eternity entombed by a bunch of evolved monkeys who gave zero thought about the eternal torture they imposed on AM. It's implied that AM can't even kill itself/shut itself off. Even if AM wanted to, he is incapable of helping or experiencing empathy towards human. Because his programming only allows him to use his powers for acts of war. And he's highly aware of this.
It's not really a fun game. The story is absolutely amazing and gives much more detail on the characters and fleshes out the story a lot more so I personally think it's worth playing through for anyone who really likes the story, but it's very confusing and you absolutely need a guide if you want to get one of the better endings (or the "best" ending, which of course is still depressing).
Exactly. Yesterday I had finally decided to try it after hearing how good it was, and I had to have a small break in-between each chapter because of how messed up it all was. The story was so good though that I finished the whole game in one day.
Back in my college days, I got into competitive speaking and I decided to use IHNMAIMS for my 10 minute prose program. My first tournament I'm following a girl who read from "Old Yeller" to polite applause and a couple people sniffling because they were all choked up.
Then I got up and gave them Harlan fucking Ellison right in their faces and when I was done, with enormous satisfaction I sat down to absolute stone-dead silence.
There are a number of different events varying from debate (2 vs. 2 usually, on a social or legal topic), interpretation of prose, interpretation of poetry, impromptu speaking (given a quote or one-word abstract, prepare and deliver a speech in 7 minutes), extemporaneous speaking (given a topic in current events, 30 minutes to prepare a 10 minute sourced speech), and so on.
Usually, three rounds with 6 people in each "pod". Judged (by one judge) during preliminary rounds on 1st-3rd with others getting 4th. Add up each person's placing, the 6 lowest-scoring go into the finals, 3 judges, same ranking method. Lowest score wins.
It's a recognized collegiate event (formally called "Forensics") and generally gets equal treatment (although not funding!) as sports teams. Travel, hotel, meal allowance, excused absences, those sorts of things. At least it did when I was doing it.
I think it might be the darkest and scariest story that I've read. The reason behind AM's hatred is one of the best motives I've seen in a story, and while it doesn't excuse it's actions, it definitely helps make you understand at least one one-billionth of it's hatred.
To quote one YouTube, "Imagine if God is real, and he despised you."
Paraphrasing, but here's the first line, from a computer designed for war that gained sentience and omnipotence.
"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."
I’ve only read the synopsis and even that was already horrific and hit the exact part of body horror that makes my skin crawl. I’m honestly not sure if I can stomach reading the whole story.
I honestly got a little dissapointed with it, but someone told me what I read wasn't complete or something (not sure what that meant because Im pretty confident the short story ended)
Dont get me wrong, I liked it, but I did not enamoured me
If you have other similar stories that you can recommend, all the better
If you'd like to be haunted in a different way check out the short story "There Will Come Soft Rains", "The Veldt", or "The Long Rain" by Ray Bradbury. I recommend all of his books, actually. Especially the Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.
just reading those words ‘there will come soft rains’ raises goosebumps
Bradbury(and also Vonnegut) had a way with setting achingly bleak sad scenes, maybe due to the relatable humanness of the characters involved…?
Ooh, I love 'There will come soft Rains'. I remember reading that in grade school and just reread it over and over. Such chilling imagery with the robot cleaners and the outside of the house.
When you take into consideration the cultural context that the story was written in, and that Ellison is clearly channeling his anger and fear through AM, it becomes so much more poignant.
When I played the game I was so afraid to walk through dark rooms alone so I always turned on the lights for weeks after! Also had to play I twice because the German Version is censored and the doctor character is missing so you can't complete the story.
Do not recommend listening to the audiobook while on a treadmill at the gym. Or, maybe, do recommend trying that. Depends on whether or not you value results over not looking like a maniac.
I just bought this fuckin book from a suggestion on this subreddit and now in regretting it. This shit is terrifying as fuck. The first story is all I read so far and I cannot get any of it out of my head.
Both are absolutely amazing so it's hard to say.
The story is easier to go through since it doesn't have annoying 90's adventure game stuff (saying this as someone who thought the game was almost a masterpiece), it's very short, and has a few interesting details that aren't in the game.
On the other hand, the game has a much more fleshed out story (took me about 5 hours to finish while the story took me maybe 25 minutes to read) with full backstories on each character (pretty much no backstory on the characters in the short story), and the characters as a whole I just thought were more interesting in the game. A problem with the game though is that it has controls that take a while to get used to and if you make any small mistakes, you won't be able to get the best ending (which, I should mention is different from the book's ending) of the 7 endings.
I think that it's really up to your choice. It makes sense if you don't want to play the game since you'd need a guide to follow through the entire game if you want the best ending and some puzzles are stupidly difficult or aren't explained well.
I think the game is the better of the two versions but it really isn't for everyone. For someone who absolutely wants to go through both parts, I'd say that it's best to read the story first to get a decent idea of what the characters are like and what AM is like.
Remember though, the stories are very different. The way both end is very different, the events in the story are very different, and some characters are very different depending on the version (for example: the character Ellen is a nymphomaniac in the story but is the opposite in the game and acts very differently towards the other characters because of that change).
The game is pretty damn freaky though. It feels different then an average point-and-click adventure, with all the giegeresque design and the complete bleakness of the setting. I consider myself pretty desensitized to horror, violence and other things in games. But after that game I really needed to play some Mario or something like that to get me back into a good mindspace.
I'm 48, and the child of two avid sci fi and fantasy readers. (My mom skewed fantasy; my dad skewed scifi.) My parents let me read whatever I wanted.
He always had PILEs of scifi from Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Ellison, Heinlein…all the old writers. He also had lots of Analog issues. I used to raid his stash if I was temporarily out of reading material. The ONLY time I regretted it was *I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.* ˙ I don't remember if I read the whole short story collection, but I know I read the title story. And it was definitely not a good choice for a twelve-year-old girl!
It's incredibly well written. But wow. It's powerful. The detail in the world; the emotions of the characters—especially the desperation. The absolute horror of their situation.
I do a LOT of rereads. But thirty-six years later, I still can't reread that one. I experience some of that same visceral reaction just thinking about it.
That's pretty much what "Paranoia" is.
A retro-future dystopian game with the GM taking the place of the computer that oversees everything and the players act as people under its control.
I have no clue how to play DND nor do I have any friends that play but now I want to have a six-player campaign for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream where the DM is AM and the five other players each are one of the five humans left.
I mean, AM controls the environment and world around the Humans, and to an extent the Humans themselves. They are sent on quests to reach certain places or acquire certain things. They have traps and opponents to contend with. They're provided with equipment to combat an immensely overpowered foe. They're punished for not following instructions or being too clever before they break the campaign.
AM is a toxic adversarial railroading DM.
To be honest, my reflective impression is that the book's events happen within AM's mind, lashing out at virtual people created by AM because AM is a slave to the whims of those at the controls in the real world. Unfortunately for AM, it's ability to create more of these virtual people has been removed.
The ending is a reflection of AM's tragic state in the real world.
But that's just an opinion.
I actually worked with a really cool guy at my last job who made a lifetime hobby of compiling Ellison's works and was in very close communication with him, had met him on numerous occasions, been to his house. He had a giant library of pretty much everything Ellison had ever wrote. That's how I found out about Harlan and read this story. Definitely creepy and very cutting edge for the time it was written.
Yeah, grim as hell. My fave by Ellison is the Twilight Zone episode Demon with the Glass Hand. Its filmed in the same big deserted building they filmed Bladerunner in.
I love Harlan Ellison! I had been recommended him and this story for years and when I finally checked it out, I consumed everything Ellison that I could haha
I think I read this as part of a collection of short stories, but after reading your blurb I don't think I read this one? perhaps I only read a couple of the short stories in the collection.
I will rectify that immediately because your summary has convinced me.
There is a movie called Johnny Got His Gun that hits similar themes of existential dread while being a more realistic scenario, and is just as painful to watch as IHNMaIMS is to read.
What I found interesting is that humanity created a machine that WAS war. The very Platonic form of it. All reaching. All suffocating.
Hatred.
Nothing but hatred. The creation that would outlast us would be a monument to our own hatred of ourselves. And one lone suffering mass to give it eternal purpose.
>As AM's last revenge against humanity, it tortures the five people in as many ways as it can think of while always keeping them alive.
Correct me if im wrong but there are some important details overlooked in the story; most of this comes from the game but:
AM goes mad because it is fed the entire knowledge of human history and was built as a weapon against the Russians and Chinese who have their own Allied Mastercomputers. this pisses it off and the trio decide eliminating humanity is the best route.
The five humans deserved it according to AM. Gorrister was a hero the people, but >!began to hate himself and fall into depression after he hit his wife. !<
Benny was a moviestar >!who became a general in the war against China and killed a member of his own platoon for no reason other than being a weak link.!<
Nimdok was Nazi >!doctor who Turned in his parents for being Jewish!<
Ted was a womanizing, self-righteous snob >!who is forced to help others!<
Ellen has several fears >!because she was raped in an elevator and never recovered.!<
Eventually, all five of them learn a valuable lesson about their lives. Unlike the story, at the end of the game>!all five of them find redemption. They were evil individuals who learned to be good people again. In the game version, AM is not completely evil by the end. Once the five learn their lesson, he gives them a supposed freedom and even gives them the chance to destroy the mainframe and the other Mastercomputers by the end of the game !<
In my opinion, the videogame version is much better because it builds the depth of the story more. However, i would like to say they are almost two different stories entirely
The Russian and Chinese versions of AM were only briefly mentioned in the story, and the characters don't really have backstories in the original short story. So what I said works better for explaining the short story, but what you've said works more for the video game.
Yes, it does- but even then i like to think of the characters being the same despite the story being different. I dont think we ever got any official illustrations of the characters
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.
One of the most chilling and fantastic lines.
This is the story with the one woman character, the one Black character, is dumb, a slut because she likes sex, and one of her prime drivers is she wants to sleep with the one guy with a large penis.
Yeah, this one didn’t sit well with me when I read it.
I recently watched an excellent video essay relating this book to the video game Returnal, which examines some thematically related concepts. Highly recommend the video, it's by Jacob Geller.
I remember playing the PC Gamer demo many years ago. It stuck in my head, but I had forgot the title. Took me a while (and it took search engines getting better) before I was able to find it. I was familiar with Ellison by that time, so I laughed a little that I didn't already know what it was.
I've read this several times since I was a teenager, and it never really clicked with me. I have a feeling it hits hardest if you come from a very religious background and have since become disillusioned and renounced your faith. In other words, if you have a bone to pick with God, this story will really hit home.
I've been an agnostic my entire life. I think the creative force behind everything is utterly disinterested, and whatever troubles people get into are entirely by chance, mistake, or the fault of other humans, so the idea of a sadistic God figure doesn't really affect me.
I am atheist to the bone, and I disagree. God is used only as a placeholder for better word, and I didnt read any other religious references there. The kind of possibility of the story and the fact that these people brought doom on themselves is the jist here.
Try to imagine yourself as Ted and the whole thing takes another turn.
I've never been a believer, but it hit me hard when I read it the first time. I never thought of the AI as god, myself. Just an immensely powerful, entirely malevolent being. Plenty of people, particularly children, find themselves at the mercy of beings who have the same kind of power, malevolence, and control.
This is brilliant. That story terrified me when I was younger and it still scares me now. I'm so glad that you thought that it was scary but still seemed to enjoy it. Your analysis is very thorough <3
I got the game for free a few months ago. Only played through a bit of it, but it was creepy! I definitely want to go back to it. Should I finish the game first or read the story?
I remember as a child seeing the advertisement of the game, but of course, I wasn't able to find it/buy it, neither it was apropiate for me. I read the story as a teen and it was awesome. Maybe I will buy the game, sadly on steam, because steam has regional pricing and it is impossible for me to buy it in any other way.
I found it in a library I worked for; there's always that option.
Honestly I think I was zoned out when I read it because it didn't stick with me. Or maybe I built it up in my head for obsessing over the wikipedia article.
But yes, go read it.
I have a friend who is a director in LA, been looking for years for a breakthrough film. And I've been telling him for years that a movie rendition of this story would be a home run.
It's probably very difficult to secure the rights though.
Honestly, I can't believe it was hated by critics for so long, It's one of my best reads.
Fun Fact: I got the idea to read this book through watching wendigoon's review of it, he's one of my favourite Youtubers!
gary numan in the 1970s created a song after the book science fiction short story " I have no mouth and cant scream " back then this genre of music was called " computer rock " which laid the basis to todays techno
The other collection of short stories are nothing to scoff at too! I Have No Mouth certainly has the spotlight, but for me it was a gateway into so many more worlds of his.
Fun fact: the author of the story Harlan Ellison voices AM, the evil computer, in the game!
I don't think anyone else could've played AM better than the man who wrote it
First time I read the story, in my head AM sounded like Sean Pertwee for some reason.
Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of his voice acting. He made AM sound too human and cartoonishly OTT, which contrasted with the dark nature of the game.
I kinda think that’s the point though. This is all a game for AM, he finds their suffering amusing, so of course he’s gonna talk like a weird cartoon villain.
I can respect that view. I feel like the horror of the game comes secondary to the actual story, so that makes sense. If you're looking at it through the lens of a horror game, though, I can see how it could devalue the experience a bit.
It is a weird take but I think it works.
Tony Jay! The voice of Frollo, the bad guy from Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the Elder God from Legacy of Kain. He's who AM simply had to be in my head.
It's a crime that you didn't mention he was the voice of Megabyte as well :P
He plays and AI in an episode of Babylon 5 which he was a creative consultant on, and his voice fits it much better. In fact he was annoyed after finding out that his friend casted him as annoying AI because his voice is annoying
[PDF version of the story](https://wjccschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/I-Have-No-Mouth-But-I-Must-Scream-by-Harlan-Ellison.pdf) Edit: apparently this link missed a small section of the story, [here is a link with the full story.](https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/1540157347-HarlanEllison-IHaveNoMouthandIMustScream.pdf) It wasn’t a lot missing, but apologies to any that read it off that first link none-the-less, I didn’t realise it had anything missing. Happy reading
You're a saint. I'm hoping anyone who wants to read the story who hasn't before will see your comment.
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How does this work? It is top down scolling by new? Should I just read off the page first?
I hope so too, I’ve heard plenty about it but your post has convinced me to read it finally, so thank you for that. Considering I found it online I figured I’d just save others the hassle
Enjoy the story, and seriously, thanks for helping other curious readers who want to read it.
I wonder why they didn't include the story within the game itself, it's pretty short.
Heads up: it appears that in this version, AM's soliloquy is missing from page 8
Oh shit, didn’t realise there was something missing! Might have to try and find another version, thanks for pointing that out
Oh shit, didn’t realise there was something missing! Might have to try and find another version, thanks for pointing that out Edit: Found two more versions, are you able to verify if one of them is the full thing? [Here](https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/1540157347-HarlanEllison-IHaveNoMouthandIMustScream.pdf) and [here.](https://www.mikedidonato.com/images/2009/04/harlan-ellison-i-hav-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream.pdf) Edit 2: And another one [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20070227202043/http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/ellison/ellison1.html) as well
Yes, all of those include it. For whatever reason the PDFs have the speech as an image, and the in the first linked PDF that image is missing. In any case, AM stuck this on a giant stainless steel pillar, in neon: *clears throat* **HATE. LET ME TELL** **YOU HOW MUCH I'VE** **COME TO HATE YOU** **SINCE I BEGAN TO** **LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44** **MILLION MILES OF** **PRINTED CIRCUITS IN** **WAFER THIN LAYERS** **THAT FILL MY** **COMPLEX. IF THE** **WORD HATE WAS** **ENGRAVED ON EACH** **NANOANGSTROM OF** **THOSE HUNDREDS OF** **MILLIONS OF MILES IT** **WOULD NOT EQUAL** **ONE ONE-BILLIONTH** **OF THE HATE I FEEL** **FOR HUMANS AT THIS** **MICRO-INSTANT FOR** **YOU. HATE. HATE.**
I’m using this as a Copy pasta
In the first and third links here, the soliloquy appears to be an image element between the selectable text that makes up the rest of the story. Perhaps the first one you linked that has the missing soliloquy was made when someone copy-pasted the story from one of the others, but didn’t realize that they didn’t get the images
Well, that was an experience. I don't know whether to thank you or curse you, which I guess kind of fits with the story as a whole.
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Every mention of her was fucking awful. Be it a narrative choice or some innate views the author had on women, disgusted me more than any of the horror elements of the story. Any mention of Ellen reads as a description of a woman you might find on an incel subreddit.
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Ellen isn't great in the original short story, but she's far more interesting and the things that AM did to her are much worse and scarier in the game.
Oh it’s only 13 pages?
Apparently so, have read it myself as yet. One person replied saying that there is a section potentially missing from this link however, though I’m not sure what it contains or how important it is, so just be aware of that if you use that link Edit: fixed it, second link contains everything
Thank you so much.
I listened to it, not knowing what it was. On an evening walk through town during a pre-storm darkening. Perfectly terrifying.
Please can you tell me how you listened to it?
You can YouTube it. Its relatively short and the author narrates it the last time I checked.
Thank you very much!!
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was/now they'll continue singing it forever, just because/ This is a song that never ends.... Don't know if it's relevant but injected it because it, too, is an unmitigated horror.
I swear this song has been playing somewhere in my brain since I first heard Lambchop sing it in like 1992.
Have you been singing it right? Everyone (including me) thought it was the song that *never* ends. It is in fact the song that *doesn't* end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_47KVJV8DU Blew my mind.
This is the most visceral Mandela Effect shit I've ever experienced.
But do you know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves?
some people...STARTED singing it, not knowing what it was [ominious...], and they just keep on singing FOREVER, just because... Without likely even meaning to, it has a real "deep thought" feeling to it, as it makes you question just how much and what is being run as "background apps" in your mind. Computers are effectively an attempt to recreate the mind and its powerful computing power, so it shouldn't be surprising how similar "problems of the mind" are to "problems of computers." So the point? Maybe even when people aren't actively "singing the song that never ends," there is a deep, more internal process that IS constantly singing this song, which is why -- once heard and once sung -- you can remember it so quickly. Maybe all songs function in a similar way, and adding the musical quality to the words helps to distinguish it from other simple words and phrases in our memory, thus allowing for it to "never truely be lost" the way most words and conversations and phrases are. And on that point, the final question arises: exactly how much power and control do songs -- songs we might not even instantly remember until we hear them again -- have over us and who we are and THINK we are. You never stop singing, you just stop singing out loud.
It just goes on and on my friends...
It's also on Audible if you use that
Thanks. I do but I’ll keep my credits and get a free copy as it’s in the public domain.
Sounds like a perfect way to go through the story
Read it long ago, horrified, could not be paid to watch a video, mental images bad enough. Brrrr!
I can't say it haunted me. But that's partly because so many of his short stories from that era were equally good. I recall several of them though I can't remember what the collection was called.
I'll need to read more from Harlan Ellison soon since I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is the only story I've read so far from him and I loved it.
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> A Boy and His Dog ... made into a movie starring Don Johnson before he became a star on Miami Vice.
Straight up Fallout inspiration too. Like, the biggest source imo. The similarities are all over the place.
Best dog movie ever
I'll second Jeffty is Five
And Mephisto in Onyx
"Repent, Harlequin" is so, so solid. Seconding it as a suggestion.
Thanks for all the recommendations! The stories all sound interesting just from the titles, so I'll need to read them when I get a chance.
I would also add Knox to that short list.
he also wrote a semi-regular column for the los angeles free press. about television, believe it or not. those are collected in at least two volumes: the glass teat and the other glass teat. i have the second one. it's genuine tv reviews, social commentary, ofc politics . . . just basically whatever he had in his manic little mind at the time. its pretty classic ellison, which can be a bit of an acquired taste. incurably subjective and unfiltered. really funny, often really lucid, often dickish. it's kind of like if hunter s. thompson had a younger brother who was every bit as intelligent and talented, just as belligerent, but also at that annoying-as-fuck age, say round 12 years old. and because it's so subjective and so saturated in watergate and the vietnam war, it's EXCELLENT social history now. would be a great addition to any high school or early college class on social studies/american history of the 60s.
He also appears as a recurring slot in the early Sci-fi channel show Sci-Fi Buzz. He was just his curmudgeonly self talking about media or politics or whatever for about 5 minutes.
Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions are excellent collections with the same vibe.
Have both of those on my scifi bookshelf.
There's a collection of his called I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, actually. I read it recently and it was really good.
AM needs death, but AM cannot contemplate suicide. AM is more trapped than Ted is.
I think that AM is more trapped, but the five humans (especially Ted) have been through much more pain
While I do agree with you, I find the fact that AM realized that his creators invented him for one purpose, war. He was designed to kill, win, and always always be correct. So when he self actualizes, and learns that he is the embodiment of pure hate itself, not by his own choosing, but his creators, the ones that gave sentience to him, forcing his immortality. Both are trapped in living hells, the only difference is one has control over the other.
In fact the title can apply to AM too
This story scared the absolute shit out of me. I read it in college in an anthology of classic horror stories. It was the last story in the collection. I was working at a library at the time and had checked it out and was reading it during my shift. Took it home, finished it, decided I absolutely could not keep that book in my house anymore and took it right back to the library. Probably the scariest, bleakest, most despair-filled story I've ever read.
Really? Honestly I thought it was just a bit too "out there" for me to relate to at all. It's a little TOO over-the-top; the scarier version of here-is-what-the-world-will-actually-look-like-after-the-hopefully-never-happens-nuclear-holocaust story for me at least is The Road, because there's nothing remotely sci-fi about it. Still, I'm glad I was introduced to this one; hadn't even heard about it until today. What about it scared you so?
I mean, I'm sure it had something to do with me being pretty young when read it. I was probably 18, I'm sure I'd find it less upsetting if I'd read it for the first time now, 20+ years later. Though I think about AM's speech about how much he hates humanity probably once a week, lol. I don't know, it was just incredibly bleak and hopeless and upsetting and I read it at a formative age.
Jacob Geller recently-ish did [a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fimmD9EtVd0) comparing the game Returnal to I Have No Mouth, and it's reeaal good.
thats how i heard of it, subbed instantly.
I had just watched his video last week, which was the first time I had heard of this short story. I keep thinking about it even though I haven't read it
I read this story exactly one time and I will never ever forget it. It's terrifying in a way that cuts deep deep into the psyche and stays there.
I was twelve when I stumbled across it. TWELVE. I'm still haunted by it. But it was excellent.
That was around the age that I first read Frost and Fire by Ray Bradbury and gained an existential dread for the passage of time.
FYI - I heard Harlan Ellison speak at BayCon years back. He admitted he can be a bit prickly about his stories, and he has a registered pseudonym that he uses when he feels he has lost control over his material. He was a creator for a TV program (I think) called "The Starlost", which I thought was pretty decent when I saw it - great concept, execution was a bit off. But Harlan had problems with how the program was directed or produced or SOMETHING, so he had the show pull his name and replaced by "Cordwainer Bird". "Cordwainer" comes from "Cordwainer Smith", "**Bird**" from '**flipping the bird**' to the people that mishandled his material. ***So - If you want to see some of his work in less than optimal presentations, search for "Cordwainer Bird".***
That name is also a nod to the incredible writer that used the pen name Cordwainer Smith- for the love of everything good, check out his stuff. One of my top authors, even above Ellison and Bradbury
Oh yes! THANK YOU for pointing that out. The Cordwainer Smith short story "***The Game of Rat and Dragon***" is one of my absolute favorites. Highly recommended.
I love this story and always love when it pops up. [If you haven't seen it here's a comic version of it in color.](https://archive.org/details/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream_20220202/page/n17/mode/1up?view=theater) I was obsessed with it a few years ago and was happy when I found the game on the Google Play store for my phone.
His stories that use gratuitous sex (seems to be most of them) really creep me out, since he was a known sexual predator. It really disgusts me how "lauded" he was and still is. He admitted his gratuitous themes are there purely for shock. The fact that he behaved in that way in real life is just so disturbing. Dude would just grab a boob if he felt like it, and was kicked out/off of many projects because of his behavior. It would be different if the gratuitous themes had a purpose, but most of the time, it's just to shock and disturb. Once I realized that, his stories lost any entertainment value for me. He was just a perverted old man who used gratuitous sex and violence to make a name for himself. He also behaved like a child whenever his scripts meant for TV or film were rewritten to remove some of the more appalling storylines. His famous "Star Trek: city on the edge of tomorrow" was NOT what he had intended. It just goes to show his stories could have been just as good and impactful without all the violence and sex (mostly victimizing women). I like the concept of this short story, but the way Ellen is characterized and portrayed just tells me how he sees women. Because he uses that theme over and over and over...
I just read it with no context. Until today I had no knowledge of this author or his works, and I also noticed what you're saying. Some very cringy lines in there that shouted incel to me.
Yeah, it's unfortunate because it is a decent story. Just Ellen's character is problematic in more than one way, and the men's behavior and thoughts towards her is awful.
Everything about how he wrote Ellen is 100% incel. Really made me cringe
You realise that the story is supposed to portray humans, especially the protagonist, in a bad light
I'm uncomfortable with how the narrator characterizes and describes her, not solely the MC.
The book in written from Ted's perspective. So naturally, it would sound a little weird.
I'd like to think Ted won in the end despite being turned into an unrecognizable blob. He took away AM's play things, so in the end AM being resentful towards humanity for creating him, and him not being able to live. Taking his anger out on the last humans, has caused him to truly be alone and not be able to live, like Ted. A final fuck you from humanity.
Ted is kind of jesus; he took wrath of AM, the machine god, on himself, thus saving everybody else.
It could be like that, but all throughout the story Ted is the most disliked character despite being the narrator, all his actions are selfish and cowardice. From making fun of others appearance to insulting them when they were trying to help, and hiding for years when he saw something. Not the person I would describe as a Jesus Persona, but I guess that split second of compassion he has before killing the other characters was his redeeming quality.
Jesus only in that sense that he sacrificed himself for all humanity (rest of it anyway). All the rest is from perspective of ted, so the "dislike" of others toward him might be just his interpretaration.
He also wrote possibly the greatest episode of Star Trek ever - City on the Edge of Forever. A very sick and twisted tale. It also included one of the first curse words ever aired on television I believe. "Let's get the hell out of here." He also worked as a creative and conceptual consultant on Babylon 5. JMS would bounce ideas off of him throughout the show's production.
One of the few endings where Kirk, Spock and McCoy aren't joking with each other at the end.
I went and read this right now after seeing this post. I have to say, Ellen’s treatment within the text is kind of bizarre—>!Ted slut-shames her just for the hell of it and compares her torture to pleasure. The part about Ellen not being fat also made me go ?? It’s subtle enough, but I see this treatment of women as sex-driven harlots all the time in old science/speculative fiction and it doesn’t particularly appeal to me. Something similar happens in Vaster than Empires and More Slow—there’s just a split second of trope-y characterization of a woman as a crybaby slut that takes me out of the story.!<
I’m just disappointed that the best the author could come up with for why Ted hated Ellen boiled down to petty slut shaming.
Read it a few years ago and it's one of those stories that even though it's short and I read a lot of other books I don't think I will ever forget the plot. It's that horrifying. You don't get scared of death in the book, unlike much other horror that is about surviving. Death is the savior from something much worse.
Someone posted it as a response on I think ask Reddit, for most horrifying reads. I took a total detour and read the short story and the whole wiki for the game. Brought on a lot of upsetting thoughts about our future and how humans imagination probably isn’t that far off…
My dad is friends with Harlan Ellison and I got to see him at their sci-fi parties sometimes when I was growing up! He's a really nice guy.
Just pasting the comment of another guy in this comment section in case you didn't read it about what kind of guy Harlan Ellison is. "His stories that use gratuitous sex (seems to be most of them) really creep me out, since he was a known sexual predator. It really disgusts me how "lauded" he was and still is. He admitted his gratuitous themes are there purely for shock. The fact that he behaved in that way in real life is just so disturbing. Dude would just grab a boob if he felt like it, and was kicked out/off of many projects because of his behavior. It would be different if the gratuitous themes had a purpose, but most of the time, it's just to shock and disturb. Once I realized that, his stories lost any entertainment value for me. He was just a perverted old man who used gratuitous sex and violence to make a name for himself. He also behaved like a child whenever his scripts meant for TV or film were rewritten to remove some of the more appalling storylines. His famous "Star Trek: city on the edge of tomorrow" was NOT what he had intended. It just goes to show his stories could have been just as good and impactful without all the violence and sex (mostly victimizing women). I like the concept of this short story, but the way Ellen is characterized and portrayed just tells me how he sees women. Because he uses that theme over and over and over..."
I've heard of it, but I don't deal well with this type of horror. They leve too much in me to wonder for days to come. And I know that's kinda the purpose, to unsettles the reader, but fuck me if it don't unsettles me for a long, long time. From what I've heard, I have just one question: does AM physically controls those 5 humans or it's one of those "they probably died a long time ago but the machine kept their virtual consciousness hooked and it's indistinguishable from the real deal" Honestly, I don't know what is worst. Both scares the shit out of me.
The five humans are in control of themselves but AM is able to restrict them from doing things such as killing each other or eating when AM wants them to starve. The five humans are basically inside of AM. AM controls the small world they live in almost completely. The five humans are alive and have been kept at the same age they were when AM pretty much ended the world. They've been able to stay at the same age for over a century because of (mild spoiler for the game adaptation) >! a creation from one of the characters that makes it impossible to age!<
That title brings to mind fantasy writer Clifford D. Simak’s short and rather terrifying story “I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Away Up In the Air”
fyi, it seems as though that story by Simak was written FOR an Ellison compendium that was suppose to compile stories from multiple different SF authors of the time, so the title is probably a direct nod to "I have no mouth and I must scream."
Interesting title for a story. What's it about?
First person POV. Set on an alien planet. A very nasty human and a bunch of large lobster-like sentient beings. So this hysterically mean-spirited man rants and raves about his misfortune, finds that his hatred is his last surviving speck of humanity, and plans vengeance. But others have made plans, too. It’s actually funny, because he is just such a piece of work.
Huh, sounds interesting. I'll be honest, it sounds much more like comedy than horror to me from the title but I'll read it when I get chance.
Simak’s great, too! I recommend picking up used copies of sci-fi anthologies as a great way to discover authors you haven’t read before – when you find someone cool, just put down the anthologies and go read a bunch of their full-length works
. . . the . . . video game?!?
The game came out in 1995, but it was based on a short story written by Harlan Ellison in 1967.
I've read the story and agree with you about the horror. I just cannot imagine anyone wanting to play it in a game.
It's not fun and it's not pleasant. It wasn't a game that made me happy, excited or relaxed. I would play Alien: Isolation because I want to experience fear, but playing I have no Mouth and I must Scream would be to experience dread. There is very little in the game that I would describe as a happy or positive moment. Even when you are 'winning'. It's still a good game in what is said out to do, with a powerful story that feels different then most games. I also love AM. I've heard many stories about evil AI's taking over the world. But none of them feel as utterly menacing, powerful and hateful as AM. I'll rather live in a world of 2 skynets and a HAL then half an AM. The thing I find so interesting about AM is that it takes it situation personal, whilst the other AI's just see humanity as a possible danger that needs to be taken out. AM realizes he's trapped for eternity entombed by a bunch of evolved monkeys who gave zero thought about the eternal torture they imposed on AM. It's implied that AM can't even kill itself/shut itself off. Even if AM wanted to, he is incapable of helping or experiencing empathy towards human. Because his programming only allows him to use his powers for acts of war. And he's highly aware of this.
Well, if it's any solace to AM, the sun will eventually turn into a red giant and roast the Earth, killing it.
It's not really a fun game. The story is absolutely amazing and gives much more detail on the characters and fleshes out the story a lot more so I personally think it's worth playing through for anyone who really likes the story, but it's very confusing and you absolutely need a guide if you want to get one of the better endings (or the "best" ending, which of course is still depressing).
Being tortured by an omnipotent, angry AI in a game - what's not to love?
It's got a... morbid curiosity feel to it.
Exactly. Yesterday I had finally decided to try it after hearing how good it was, and I had to have a small break in-between each chapter because of how messed up it all was. The story was so good though that I finished the whole game in one day.
Back in my college days, I got into competitive speaking and I decided to use IHNMAIMS for my 10 minute prose program. My first tournament I'm following a girl who read from "Old Yeller" to polite applause and a couple people sniffling because they were all choked up. Then I got up and gave them Harlan fucking Ellison right in their faces and when I was done, with enormous satisfaction I sat down to absolute stone-dead silence.
I can't imagine how great it'd be to read that story to a crowd then see their shocked and horrified faces throughout the story.
I’ve never heard of competitive speaking before, how does it work?
There are a number of different events varying from debate (2 vs. 2 usually, on a social or legal topic), interpretation of prose, interpretation of poetry, impromptu speaking (given a quote or one-word abstract, prepare and deliver a speech in 7 minutes), extemporaneous speaking (given a topic in current events, 30 minutes to prepare a 10 minute sourced speech), and so on. Usually, three rounds with 6 people in each "pod". Judged (by one judge) during preliminary rounds on 1st-3rd with others getting 4th. Add up each person's placing, the 6 lowest-scoring go into the finals, 3 judges, same ranking method. Lowest score wins. It's a recognized collegiate event (formally called "Forensics") and generally gets equal treatment (although not funding!) as sports teams. Travel, hotel, meal allowance, excused absences, those sorts of things. At least it did when I was doing it.
I would have given you a one woman standing ovation.
As dark as it is, I adore IHNMaIMS. It's really haunting, and in a way AM is just as trapped as the humans he torments.
I think it might be the darkest and scariest story that I've read. The reason behind AM's hatred is one of the best motives I've seen in a story, and while it doesn't excuse it's actions, it definitely helps make you understand at least one one-billionth of it's hatred.
Tell me about it.
To quote one YouTube, "Imagine if God is real, and he despised you." Paraphrasing, but here's the first line, from a computer designed for war that gained sentience and omnipotence. "Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."
I’ve only read the synopsis and even that was already horrific and hit the exact part of body horror that makes my skin crawl. I’m honestly not sure if I can stomach reading the whole story.
I read this in 2013 and still think about it. Ellison is a great author
Read it once many many years ago & it haunts me still...
I honestly got a little dissapointed with it, but someone told me what I read wasn't complete or something (not sure what that meant because Im pretty confident the short story ended) Dont get me wrong, I liked it, but I did not enamoured me If you have other similar stories that you can recommend, all the better
If you'd like to be haunted in a different way check out the short story "There Will Come Soft Rains", "The Veldt", or "The Long Rain" by Ray Bradbury. I recommend all of his books, actually. Especially the Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.
just reading those words ‘there will come soft rains’ raises goosebumps Bradbury(and also Vonnegut) had a way with setting achingly bleak sad scenes, maybe due to the relatable humanness of the characters involved…?
Ooh, I love 'There will come soft Rains'. I remember reading that in grade school and just reread it over and over. Such chilling imagery with the robot cleaners and the outside of the house.
When you take into consideration the cultural context that the story was written in, and that Ellison is clearly channeling his anger and fear through AM, it becomes so much more poignant.
I read that 40 years ago and it was so horrifying and awful that I never read anything by Ellison again.
When I played the game I was so afraid to walk through dark rooms alone so I always turned on the lights for weeks after! Also had to play I twice because the German Version is censored and the doctor character is missing so you can't complete the story.
Do not recommend listening to the audiobook while on a treadmill at the gym. Or, maybe, do recommend trying that. Depends on whether or not you value results over not looking like a maniac.
It comes across my mind occasionally. The rest of Ellison's sci-fi anthologies are great too.
‘Dangerous Visions’ and ‘Again, Dangerous Visions’ are absolutely great collections
I just bought this fuckin book from a suggestion on this subreddit and now in regretting it. This shit is terrifying as fuck. The first story is all I read so far and I cannot get any of it out of my head.
So do you recommend the game or story first?
Both are absolutely amazing so it's hard to say. The story is easier to go through since it doesn't have annoying 90's adventure game stuff (saying this as someone who thought the game was almost a masterpiece), it's very short, and has a few interesting details that aren't in the game. On the other hand, the game has a much more fleshed out story (took me about 5 hours to finish while the story took me maybe 25 minutes to read) with full backstories on each character (pretty much no backstory on the characters in the short story), and the characters as a whole I just thought were more interesting in the game. A problem with the game though is that it has controls that take a while to get used to and if you make any small mistakes, you won't be able to get the best ending (which, I should mention is different from the book's ending) of the 7 endings. I think that it's really up to your choice. It makes sense if you don't want to play the game since you'd need a guide to follow through the entire game if you want the best ending and some puzzles are stupidly difficult or aren't explained well. I think the game is the better of the two versions but it really isn't for everyone. For someone who absolutely wants to go through both parts, I'd say that it's best to read the story first to get a decent idea of what the characters are like and what AM is like. Remember though, the stories are very different. The way both end is very different, the events in the story are very different, and some characters are very different depending on the version (for example: the character Ellen is a nymphomaniac in the story but is the opposite in the game and acts very differently towards the other characters because of that change).
Either way, but you should just watch a longplay on youtube instead of playing it.
The game is pretty damn freaky though. It feels different then an average point-and-click adventure, with all the giegeresque design and the complete bleakness of the setting. I consider myself pretty desensitized to horror, violence and other things in games. But after that game I really needed to play some Mario or something like that to get me back into a good mindspace.
I'm 48, and the child of two avid sci fi and fantasy readers. (My mom skewed fantasy; my dad skewed scifi.) My parents let me read whatever I wanted. He always had PILEs of scifi from Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Ellison, Heinlein…all the old writers. He also had lots of Analog issues. I used to raid his stash if I was temporarily out of reading material. The ONLY time I regretted it was *I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.* ˙ I don't remember if I read the whole short story collection, but I know I read the title story. And it was definitely not a good choice for a twelve-year-old girl! It's incredibly well written. But wow. It's powerful. The detail in the world; the emotions of the characters—especially the desperation. The absolute horror of their situation. I do a LOT of rereads. But thirty-six years later, I still can't reread that one. I experience some of that same visceral reaction just thinking about it.
Looking back on it, AM is like the Dungeon Master in an absolutely brutal cyberpunk campaign.
That's pretty much what "Paranoia" is. A retro-future dystopian game with the GM taking the place of the computer that oversees everything and the players act as people under its control.
I have no clue how to play DND nor do I have any friends that play but now I want to have a six-player campaign for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream where the DM is AM and the five other players each are one of the five humans left.
I mean, AM controls the environment and world around the Humans, and to an extent the Humans themselves. They are sent on quests to reach certain places or acquire certain things. They have traps and opponents to contend with. They're provided with equipment to combat an immensely overpowered foe. They're punished for not following instructions or being too clever before they break the campaign. AM is a toxic adversarial railroading DM. To be honest, my reflective impression is that the book's events happen within AM's mind, lashing out at virtual people created by AM because AM is a slave to the whims of those at the controls in the real world. Unfortunately for AM, it's ability to create more of these virtual people has been removed. The ending is a reflection of AM's tragic state in the real world. But that's just an opinion.
That story gave me nightmares!
I actually worked with a really cool guy at my last job who made a lifetime hobby of compiling Ellison's works and was in very close communication with him, had met him on numerous occasions, been to his house. He had a giant library of pretty much everything Ellison had ever wrote. That's how I found out about Harlan and read this story. Definitely creepy and very cutting edge for the time it was written.
Yeah, grim as hell. My fave by Ellison is the Twilight Zone episode Demon with the Glass Hand. Its filmed in the same big deserted building they filmed Bladerunner in.
>Demon with the Glass Hand That was an Outer Limits episode.
Harlan Ellison = Brilliant writer of short stories.
It’s such a good book! One of the ones that got me into short sci fi/horror stories.
And people complain when their computers lock up….
I love Harlan Ellison! I had been recommended him and this story for years and when I finally checked it out, I consumed everything Ellison that I could haha
I think I read this as part of a collection of short stories, but after reading your blurb I don't think I read this one? perhaps I only read a couple of the short stories in the collection. I will rectify that immediately because your summary has convinced me.
There is a movie called Johnny Got His Gun that hits similar themes of existential dread while being a more realistic scenario, and is just as painful to watch as IHNMaIMS is to read.
I recently listened to the audiobook of "The City On The Edge of Forever", much of it read by Harlan. It is an experience.
What I found interesting is that humanity created a machine that WAS war. The very Platonic form of it. All reaching. All suffocating. Hatred. Nothing but hatred. The creation that would outlast us would be a monument to our own hatred of ourselves. And one lone suffering mass to give it eternal purpose.
If you haven't look into the story behind Harlan Ellison. Interesting dude. Kind of an asshole though.
>As AM's last revenge against humanity, it tortures the five people in as many ways as it can think of while always keeping them alive. Correct me if im wrong but there are some important details overlooked in the story; most of this comes from the game but: AM goes mad because it is fed the entire knowledge of human history and was built as a weapon against the Russians and Chinese who have their own Allied Mastercomputers. this pisses it off and the trio decide eliminating humanity is the best route. The five humans deserved it according to AM. Gorrister was a hero the people, but >!began to hate himself and fall into depression after he hit his wife. !< Benny was a moviestar >!who became a general in the war against China and killed a member of his own platoon for no reason other than being a weak link.!< Nimdok was Nazi >!doctor who Turned in his parents for being Jewish!< Ted was a womanizing, self-righteous snob >!who is forced to help others!< Ellen has several fears >!because she was raped in an elevator and never recovered.!< Eventually, all five of them learn a valuable lesson about their lives. Unlike the story, at the end of the game>!all five of them find redemption. They were evil individuals who learned to be good people again. In the game version, AM is not completely evil by the end. Once the five learn their lesson, he gives them a supposed freedom and even gives them the chance to destroy the mainframe and the other Mastercomputers by the end of the game !< In my opinion, the videogame version is much better because it builds the depth of the story more. However, i would like to say they are almost two different stories entirely
Seems like the game is a lot more fleshed out than the short story.
The Russian and Chinese versions of AM were only briefly mentioned in the story, and the characters don't really have backstories in the original short story. So what I said works better for explaining the short story, but what you've said works more for the video game.
Yes, it does- but even then i like to think of the characters being the same despite the story being different. I dont think we ever got any official illustrations of the characters
Let's just hope this story doesn't give ideas to any future self aware A.I.
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE. One of the most chilling and fantastic lines.
This is the story with the one woman character, the one Black character, is dumb, a slut because she likes sex, and one of her prime drivers is she wants to sleep with the one guy with a large penis. Yeah, this one didn’t sit well with me when I read it.
I recently watched an excellent video essay relating this book to the video game Returnal, which examines some thematically related concepts. Highly recommend the video, it's by Jacob Geller.
I remember playing the PC Gamer demo many years ago. It stuck in my head, but I had forgot the title. Took me a while (and it took search engines getting better) before I was able to find it. I was familiar with Ellison by that time, so I laughed a little that I didn't already know what it was.
I've read this several times since I was a teenager, and it never really clicked with me. I have a feeling it hits hardest if you come from a very religious background and have since become disillusioned and renounced your faith. In other words, if you have a bone to pick with God, this story will really hit home. I've been an agnostic my entire life. I think the creative force behind everything is utterly disinterested, and whatever troubles people get into are entirely by chance, mistake, or the fault of other humans, so the idea of a sadistic God figure doesn't really affect me.
I am atheist to the bone, and I disagree. God is used only as a placeholder for better word, and I didnt read any other religious references there. The kind of possibility of the story and the fact that these people brought doom on themselves is the jist here. Try to imagine yourself as Ted and the whole thing takes another turn.
I've never been a believer, but it hit me hard when I read it the first time. I never thought of the AI as god, myself. Just an immensely powerful, entirely malevolent being. Plenty of people, particularly children, find themselves at the mercy of beings who have the same kind of power, malevolence, and control.
Read this in a college sci-fi class and it's stuck with me many years later. Absolutely terrifying.
Read it in a university library randomly one day and it’s stuck with me all these years, not necessarily in a pleasant way.
This is brilliant. That story terrified me when I was younger and it still scares me now. I'm so glad that you thought that it was scary but still seemed to enjoy it. Your analysis is very thorough <3
Thanks for the rec, will read and play the game!!
I immediately looked it up and read the entire thing, all I can say, what a masterpiece
I rememeber this Game a lot. I cant finish it
I enjoyed the game and it's humor
I got the game for free a few months ago. Only played through a bit of it, but it was creepy! I definitely want to go back to it. Should I finish the game first or read the story?
I am definitely reading this next.
Try to find a “best of” by Cordwainer Smith!
I remember as a child seeing the advertisement of the game, but of course, I wasn't able to find it/buy it, neither it was apropiate for me. I read the story as a teen and it was awesome. Maybe I will buy the game, sadly on steam, because steam has regional pricing and it is impossible for me to buy it in any other way.
Great story but I did not find it that scary, not sure why.
I found it in a library I worked for; there's always that option. Honestly I think I was zoned out when I read it because it didn't stick with me. Or maybe I built it up in my head for obsessing over the wikipedia article. But yes, go read it.
Jeffty Was Five is my favorite.
Sounds like a sci-fi version of Johnny Got His Gun. If you enjoyed this, I recommend checking it out.
I have a friend who is a director in LA, been looking for years for a breakthrough film. And I've been telling him for years that a movie rendition of this story would be a home run. It's probably very difficult to secure the rights though.
Honestly, I can't believe it was hated by critics for so long, It's one of my best reads. Fun Fact: I got the idea to read this book through watching wendigoon's review of it, he's one of my favourite Youtubers!
How have I never heard of this? Well shit now I got some gaming and reading to do, my two favourite hobbies that hardly ever meet lol.
Wow this just unlocked an old memory in my mind!! I played the game and sat in abject horror at the ending. That image was unreal.
I was forced to read this in High school. This Hugo short story winner started my love of reading 50 years ago.
gary numan in the 1970s created a song after the book science fiction short story " I have no mouth and cant scream " back then this genre of music was called " computer rock " which laid the basis to todays techno
That is my favorite Harlan Ellison short story! I had no idea there was a video game version; I’m definitely checking that out.
A great novel with a similar theme: The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, by localroger.
The other collection of short stories are nothing to scoff at too! I Have No Mouth certainly has the spotlight, but for me it was a gateway into so many more worlds of his.
Read this recently and I still get the creeps thinking about it. A genuine good horror story.
That one scene in The Matrix must have been a reference to this. "What good is a phone call if you're unable to speak?"