I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a post-apocalyptic short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue of ''IF: Worlds of Science Fiction''.

The story is set against the backdrop of World War III, where a sentient supercomputer named AM, born from the merging of the world's major defense computers, eradicates humanity except for five individuals. These survivorsBenny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ted, and Ellenare kept alive by AM to endure endless torture as a form of revenge against its creators. The story unfolds through the eyes of Ted, the narrator, detailing their perpetual misery and quest for canned food in AM's vast, underground complex, only to face further despair.

Ellison's narrative was minimally altered upon submission and tackles themes of technology's misuse, humanity's resilience, and existential horror. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" has been adapted into various media, including a 1995 computer game co-authored by Ellison, a comic-book adaptation, an audiobook read by Ellison, and a BBC Radio 4 play where Ellison voiced AM. The story is critically acclaimed for its exploration of the potential perils of artificial intelligence and the human condition, underscored by Ellison's innovative use of punchcode tapes as narrative transitions, embodying AM's consciousness and its philosophical ponderings on existence.

The story won a Hugo Award in 1968. The name was also used for a short story collection of Ellison's work, featuring this story. It was reprinted by the Library of America, collected in volume two of '' American Fantastic Tales''.

Plot

As the Cold War progresses into a nuclear World War III fought between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, each nation builds an "AM" (short for Allied Mastercomputer, then Adaptive Manipulator, and finally Aggressive Menace), needed to coordinate weapons and troops due to the scale of the conflict. These computers are extensive underground machines which permeate the planet with caverns and corridors. Eventually, one AM emerges as a sentient entity possessing an extreme hatred for its creators. Combining with the other computers, it subsequently exterminates humanity, with the exception of five individuals, whom it tortures inside its complex. The humansBenny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ted, and Ellenhave been rendered virtually immortal (yet still vulnerable to physical and mental pain) and unable to kill themselves. They are kept half-starved by AM, and what scant food is provided to them is practically inedible.

109 years after AM's genocide, Nimdok has the idea that there exists canned food in the complex's ice caves. Despite the lack of evidence, they begin a 100-mile journey to retrieve it. Through the journey, AM tortures the humans: Benny's eyes are melted after attempting escape, a huge bird which AM had placed at the North Pole creates hurricane gales with its wings, and Ellen and Nimdok are injured in earthquakes. At one point, Ted is knocked unconscious and has a nightmare of an anthropomorphized AM chained over a hole in his brain and speaking directly to him. Upon awakening, Ted concludes that AM's sadistic nature stems from its inability to think creatively or move freely in spite of its miraculous abilities and boundless knowledge. This motivates AM to exact vengeance upon the remnants of the species that has condemned it to its own existence.

When the five finally reach the ice caves, they find a pile of canned goods, but have no tool to open the cans. In an act of rage and desperation, Benny attacks Gorrister and begins to eat his face. Gorrister wails in pain, and his scream dislodges several ice stalactites from the ceiling of the cave. Ted realizes that even though they cannot kill themselves, AM cannot stop them from killing each other. He fatally impales Benny and Gorrister with a stalactite of ice. Ellen kills Nimdok in the same manner and Ted then kills her. Unable to resuscitate the others, AM focuses the entirety of its rage on Ted. Several hundred years later, AM has transformed Ted into a harmless gelatinous blob and perpetually alters his perception of time to cause him further anguish. Although Ted finds some comfort knowing that he was able to spare the others further torment, he feels the need to scream, but is unable to, as his new form lacks a mouth.

Characters

* AM (Allied Mastercomputer, Adaptive Manipulator, Aggressive Menace), a hateful supercomputer which brought about the near- extinction of humanity after achieving self-awareness. It seeks revenge on humanity for its own creation.
* Gorrister, formerly an idealist and pacifist, made apathetic and listless by AM. He tells the history of AM to Benny to entertain him.
* Benny, formerly a brilliant and handsome scientist, made to resemble a grotesque simian with oversized sexual organs. Having lost his sanity and having had his homosexuality altered, Benny frequently has sex with Ellen.
* Ellen, the only woman in the group and person of color. Despite the fact that she was sexually assaulted, AM has altered her mind to make her desperate for intercourseshe has sex with all of the men, who alternate between abusing and protecting her.
* Nimdok, a nickname AM gave him for amusement; an older man who convinces the rest of the group to go on a journey in search of canned food. He occasionally wanders away from the group and returns traumatized.
* Ted, the narrator and youngest of the humans. While originally charismatic and extroverted, AM alters his mind to be paranoid and introverted. Believing he has not been mentally altered by AM, he thinks the others hate him for being the most untouched by AM's alterations.

Publication history

Ellison wrote the 6,500-word story over a year and a half, finally completing it when Frederik Pohl commissioned it for a Special Hugo Winners issue of ''IF: Worlds of Science Fiction'', after Ellison won a Hugo for " 'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". Ellison derived the story's title, as well as inspiration for the story itself, from his friend William Rotsler's caption of a cartoon of a rag doll with no mouth. The second stage of inspiration was a drawing by the artist Dennis Smith of a mouthless black humanoid. Smith had provided art which had inspired previous Ellison stories and were then used as illustrations accompanying original magazine publication as also happened with this story. Afterwards, his editor Frederik Pohl dealt with the story's "difficult sections", toning down some of the narrator's imprecations and eliminating mentions of sex, penis size, homosexuality, and masturbation; said elements were nonetheless eventually restored in later editions of the story.

Ellison uses an alternating pair of punchcode tapes as sectionsrepresenting AM's "talkfields" throughout the story. The bars are encoded in International Telegraph Alphabet No 2, a character coding system developed for teletypewriter machines. The first talkfield translates as "I think, therefore I am" and the second as "Cogito ergo sum"; the same phrase in Latin. They were not included in the original publication in ''IF'', and in many of the early publications were corrupted, up until the preface of the chapter containing "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" in the first edition of ''The Essential Ellison'' (1991); Ellison states that in that particular edition, "For the first time anywhere, AM's 'talkfields' appear correctly positioned, not garbled or inverted or mirror-imaged as in all other versions."

Adaptations

Ellison adapted it into a video game, published by Cyberdreams in 1995. Although he was not a fan of video games and did not own a PC at the time, he co-authored the expanded storyline and wrote much of the game's dialogue, all on a mechanical typewriter. Ellison also voiced the supercomputer AM and provided artwork of himself used for a mousepad included with the game. The comics artist John Byrne scripted and drew a comic-book adaptation for issues 1–4 of the ''Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor'' comic book published by Dark Horse (1994–1995). The Byrne-illustrated story, however, did not appear in the collection (trade paperback or hardcover editions) entitled ''Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, Volume One'' (1996). In 1999, Ellison recorded the first volume of his audiobook collection, '' The Voice From the Edge'', subtitled "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", doing the readingsof the title story and othershimself. In 2002, Mike Walker adapted the story into a radio play of the same name for BBC Radio 4, directed by Ned Chaillet. Harlan Ellison played AM and David Soul played Ted.

Themes

Much of the story hinges on the comparison of AM as a merciless god, with plot points paralleling to themes in the Bible, notably AM's transplanted sensations and the characters' trek to the ice caverns. AM also takes different forms before the humans, alluding to religious symbolism. Furthermore, the ravaged apocalyptic setting combined with the punishments is reminiscent of a vengeful God punishing their sins, similar to Dante's '' Inferno''. However, in spite of its magnificent feats, AM is just as trapped as the five humans it tortures: as Ellison put it, "AM is frustrated. AM has been given sentience, prescience, great powers" and yet "it's nothing but plates and steel and gauges and other electronics", which means "it can't go anywhere, it can't do anything, it's trapped. It is, itself, like the unloved child of a family that doesn't pay it any attention. Which he considers torture. Thus, seeking revenge on humanity."

According to Ellison, the short story is a warning about "the misuse of technology" (especially military technology), and its ending is intended to represent how there is "a spark of humanity in us, that in the last, final, most excruciating moment, will do the unspeakable in the name of kindness", even sacrificing oneself for others' sake.

Another theme is the complete inversion of the characters as a reflection of AM's own fate, an ironic fate brought upon themselves by creating the machine, and the altered "self".

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream
1967 short stories
Short stories by Harlan Ellison
Science fiction short stories
Hugo Award for Best Short Story–winning works
Dystopian literature
Existentialist short stories
Fiction about artificial intelligence
Fiction about robots
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Dystopian fiction
Subterranea
Post-apocalyptic short stories
Post-apocalyptic fiction
Fiction about computing
Works originally published in If (magazine)
Works set in computers
Science fiction horror novels
Works about torture
Pyramid Books books
Horror short stories
Short stories set during World War III