I have no mouth and I must scream:
Title: I
have no mouth and I must scream
Author:
Harlan Ellison
Literary
Level: Moderately advanced
Ranking: 4/5
WARNING: If
the concept of Artificial Intelligence taking complete control over the human race
scares you, I do not recommend going any further.
The short story was written in March
of 1967 by Harlan Ellison, an American Science Fiction writer. It tells the never-ending
cycle of despair from the point of view of Ted and four other humans (Gorrister,
Ellen, Nimdok, and Benny) as an artificially intelligent supercomputer named AM
(Allied Master-computer) tortures them. In wake of a possible prank or a haul
of ice scream, Ted decides to take a one-hundred-mile journey with the others
to either disappoint themselves or find a sliver of joy and hope. AM, after
achieving consciousness, took revenge and murdered every single human, except for
the five to torture, as well as keeping them virtually immortal. Finding out
that the ice scream journey was for naught, Ted took it upon himself to “save”
his companions by spearing them with ice stalactites (taking advantage that Benny
had gone mad and ate Gorrister’s face). AM, with four outlets gone to vent its
anger gave Ted the ultimate torture and turned him into a slow-thinking, motionless
blob that can barely be considered a human anymore. Ted tells that if he were
to think of the word now it could take him ten months. The story ends with Ted
unable to express himself in any meaningful capacity as any normal human should:
without a mouth and unable to shout.
Review: This short story evokes such
a sense of despair, loneliness, sadness, emptiness, and more. It both shows how
incredibly painful it would be to be tortured for more than one hundred years,
as well as what could happen when technology grows tired of our existence. The
sense of dread and inescapable fear as a pretend God mocks our very existence,
toying with our physical, emotional, and psychological person, unable to run or
die. The sense of endless suffering mixed with a callous resolution gives you I
have no mouth and I must scream, showing the reader that not every ending is
happy in dystopian writing, nor expect a positive outlook on the Machiavellian
workings of human ingenuity. Is it a story I recommend? Yes and no. If you’re
willing to subject yourself to sadness for sake of reading great material, go
for it. On the other hand, some are keenly aware of how terrifying a bleak future
we have a would rather avoid it as much as possible.