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I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a dystopian science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. This nightmarish tale of the evil that man can unleash from himself through science was first published in the March 1967 issue of IF: Worlds of Science Fiction. It won a Hugo award in 1968, went on to become one of the ten most reprinted stories in the English language, and is taught and lectured about in hundreds of universities.
Background Ellison wrote I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream in a single night in 1966, making virtually no changes since the first draft. He derived the story's title, as well as the inspiration for this story, from a drawing by Ellison's friend, William Rotsler. Adaptations Ellison adapted the story into a computer game of the same name, published by Cyberdreams in 1995. Although he is not a fan of computer games and does not own a personal computer, he co-authored the expanded storyline and wrote much of the game's dialog, all on a mechanical typewriter. Ellison also voiced the supercomputer "AM" and provided artwork of himself used for a mousepad included with the game. Characters The story is about five humans, whose lifespans have been lengthened by artificial means, in their 109th year of imprisonment inside a global system of artificial caverns. Their entire environment is under the absolute control of a sadistic supercomputer called simply "AM." The humans are: Backstory More than a century before the story opens, AM had already destroyed the entire human race save for the five protagonists. Before AM's present incarnation, there had been three separate American, Soviet and Chinese supercomputers, each programmed for fighting an increasingly complex global war against its two opponents. However, the computers evolved and connected to each other, gained sentience and subsequently annihilated all humanity. AM feels its own creation was an act of unimaginable cruelty because he possesses so much power and can do so little with it, and therefore possesses an extreme hatred for humanity. The machine's hatred combined with its godlike power resulted in the destruction of the human race, save for the five individuals whom AM trapped and then artificially sustained at their current ages indefinitely, solely for the purpose of tormenting them forever. Plot The story is told from the perspective of one of the five humans, Ted. The humans are kept alive by AM but subjected to physical and psychological torment. After hellish torture in an ice desert, AM provides the starving group with canned food, but no means of opening the cans. In pure frustration, Benny snaps and tries to eat Gorrister. During the struggle, sharp icicles start falling down. Ted achieves a victory over AM by killing his four peers in an act of euthanasia, using the icicles as makeshift weapons, thus ending their suffering and depriving AM of four of his precious toys. As a punishment and safety precaution, AM transforms him into a gelatinous blob to prevent him from committing suicide; it is from this physical state that the title, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is derived. See also | ||||||||
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