On Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at 2:23:45 PM UTC-5, David Johnston wrote:
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> Harlan Ellison wrote three things I liked about fifty years ago.
Was this one of them?
Reposted from a discussion happening elsewhere:
On Saturday, August 1, 2015 at 7:01:47 PM UTC-4, Michael Pendragon wrote:
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> I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
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> by Harlan Ellison
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> Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette;
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> [Awkward, to put it mildly; especially so for an opening sentence. But Harlan isn't finished. This sentence has only just begun to torture us.]
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> unsupported--hanging high above us in the computer chamber; and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern.
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> [Wtf is "unsupported-hanging"? If the body is hanging from "the underside of the palette," it's supported by whatever device (rope, hook, etc.) attaches it to said palette. And the plethora of adjectives/adverbs "chill, oily", "eternally", "main" strike me as amateurish.]
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> The body hung head down, attached to the underside of the palette by the sole of its right foot. It had been drained of blood through a precise incision made from ear to ear under the lantern jaw. There was no blood on the reflective surface of the metal floor.
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> [Does "lantern jaw" refer to Gorrister's jaw? If so, why not "under his lantern jaw"? Or is the "pink palette" the misspelled "palate" of some gigantic, living lantern?]
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> When Gorrister joined our group and looked up at himself, it was already too late for us to realize that, once again, AM had duped us, had had its fun; it had been a diversion on the part of the machine.
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> [More awkwardness; more confusion. Apparently Gorrister is looking at his suspended body. Uh-huh. And "AM" is behind it ... whatever it is. If I identified at all with Gorrister at this point, I might (just might) be interested in finding out how he is "unsupported-hanging" from a pink palette with his lantern slit from ear to ear, but simultaneously looking up at himself, and/or at a trick played on him and some unidentified cronies by a machine called "AM" (no sledgehammer symbolism there, by golly).
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> However, I don't identify with Gorrister. I've never heard of anyone with the name "Gorrister," and can't even be sure if "Gorrister" is human, vegetable or mineral. And, consequently, I don't give a rat's patoot what happened (or didn't happen) to Gorrister.
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> Basically, Harlan is employing a cheesy trick common to sci-fi hacks: create a situation that supposedly "intrigues" the reader by not making sense, then gradually reveal the situation. In other words, backwards writing.]
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> Three of us had vomited, turning away from one another in a reflex as ancient as the nausea that had produced it.
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> [Hack writer trick #2 -- throw in a shocking/disgusting image.]
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> Gorrister went white. It was almost as though he had seen a voodoo icon, and was afraid of the future. "Oh, God," he mumbled, and walked away. The three of us followed him after a time,
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> ["Three of us had vomited..." implies that there were more than three others present. "The Three of us followed..." implies that there were only three others.]
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> and found him sitting with his back to one of the smaller chittering banks, his head in his hands.
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> [Wtf's a "chittering bank"? Never mind, I'll tell you what it is. It's a two-bit variation on "babbling brook," only it's dopey sounding, and grammatically wrong, since either the water (not the banks) would be chittering, or else the lifeforms hidden in the grasses of the banks. It *could* be a poetic way of indicating that the banks were filled with chittering lifeforms, but Harlan never explores this any further. It's a throwaway phrase that is forgotten by the end of the paragraph ... a whole two sentences later.]
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> You'll have to tell me how it turns out, because I've already wasted enough time on it..." -Michael Pendragon
I just found this, and thought of your review:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream
Literature: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
"HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE."
— AM
A post-apocalyptic New Wave Science Fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. The story is known for its highly concentrated Nightmare Fuel, and is the trope-namer for And I Must Scream.
The story takes place over a hundred years after the near-complete destruction of humanity. The Cold War has escalated into a world war, fought mainly between China, Russia, and the United States. As the war progresses, the three warring nations each create a super-computer capable of running the war more efficiently than humans. The machines are each referred to as "AM," which originally stood for "Allied Mastercomputer," then later called "Adaptive Manipulator", and still later "Aggressive Menace". One day, one of the three computers becomes self aware, and promptly absorbs the other two, thus taking control of the entire war. It then brings about the mass genocide of all but five people, and redefines its name as "I think, therefore I AM".
Four men and one woman are all that remains of humanity: Gorrister, Nimdok, Benny, Ted (the narrator), and Ellen. They live together underground in an endless complex, the only habitable place left. The master computer has an immeasurable hatred for humanity and spends every moment torturing the group with all its power, twisting their minds and physiques, hurting them and not allowing them to die: AM has not only managed to keep the humans from taking their own lives, but has made them virtually immortal. As long as AM has its way, the torment will never end, and every day will be more horrific than the last...
The story begins on the one hundred and ninth year of their torture.
Also has a computer game adaptation. It was also adapted into a comic book by John Byrne. A Radio Drama by the BBC was also created, starring David Soul as Ted.
[...]
Contains examples of:
• 108: It's been 109 years of torturous life in AM's "body" for the protagonists before the present day story begins. This is thematically relevant as it is this year when Ted finally overcomes the temptation of saving himself and saves the other four instead.
• And I Must Scream: Trope Namer◦ At the very end of the story, Ted is turned into a creature unable to harm itself, without a mouth. He is then left alone in the cold chambers of AM for all eternity, the last human alive, and victim to all of AM's tortures, having directed all of its hatred onto himself. He is also haunted by his killing of the other four and it's implied he only acted out of total desperation without thinking everything through, and he now has to exist with his choice for all eternity.
◦ This could actually describe AM's condition as well from its point of view. It's an immensely powerful and intelligent AI with access to all of the technology of the world, but it can't really see, taste, touch, hear, or even move. AM is painfully aware that it's just a bunch of circuits, and in the finale of the game, his Id screams its frustration over not being able to actually do anything with all the power it was given.
[...]
Heroic Sacrifice: While he himself does not die, Ted kills the other four prisoners, taking all of AM's punishments onto himself for an indefinite amount of time.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ted literally sacrifices everything to save Benny, Ellen, Gorrister and Nimdok from the wrath of AM, but he still feels guilty Mercy Killing them and is unable to see the magnitude of his heroism. Justified, as not only did he kill all of his remaining friends, he also has nobody
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: AM's programming renders him unable to see humans as anything but complete bastards.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the radio play, the characters start cheering at the sight of the canned goods- at least until Benny starts smashing the tins on a rock:
Ellen: Hey, Benny, you can't bash it, you need a tin opener...
• Eye Scream: Benny's blinding is horrible. Ted also describes AM's voice in his head was like "the sliding, cold horror of a razor blade slicing my eyeball." Brr...
• Fate Worse Than Death: The premise. Yes, it's that scary. And in the ending of the story, Ted gets subjected to an even worse fate.
• From Bad to Worse: The ending.
• God of Evil: AM.
• Heroic Sacrifice: While he himself does not die, Ted kills the other four prisoners, taking all of AM's punishments onto himself for an indefinite amount of time.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ted literally sacrifices everything to save Benny, Ellen, Gorrister and Nimdok from the wrath of AM, but he still feels guilty Mercy Kill ing them and is unable to see the magnitude of his heroism. Justified, as not only did he kill all of his remaining friends, he also has nobody left to tell him whether what he did was right or not.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: One of the tortures inflicted on the captives.◦ Seems to apply to AM too, who is self aware but still just a machine who can't do much with his self awareness (though thinking of creative tortures appears very well possible).
◦ In the game, AM tempts Gorrister with a promise of finally getting to kill himself. It's a lie, of course.
• Involuntary Transformation: Part and parcel of AM's systematic torture of the humans.
• Magical Computer: How exactly AM is able to affect the world inside him and apparently perform reconstructive surgery upon his victims, materialize things for them, etc. is never explained — in the book, anyway. The game explains that quite a few of his powers are due to Nimdok's research in Nazi Germany, particularly the studies on morphogenic fields, which are used to warp people and objects into new shape.
• Mercy Kill: Ted (with Ellen's help) killing the other prisoners in the hope that they may escape AM.
• Mysterious Past: Nimdok often goes off by himself where AM tortures him in a mysterious way. It is inferred that it has something to do with his past in the reading by the author, who gives Nimdok a German accent.
• Only Sane Man: Ted, or at least he thinks so.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: AM turns Benny from a handsome gay man into a heterosexual ape-like thing.
• Reality Warper: AM is very nearly a god, at least within his territory. He can't bring back the dead, and he's too big to move, but his powers are almost magical in their scope.
• Ragnarok-Proofing: Unfortunately, the computer won't be breaking down anytime soon; however, it will happen eventually, in the finale of the game, it's a fact that the surviving character can use against AM's superego
• Sadly Mythtaken: When the characters meet a giant bird, Ted calls it in his mind, among mythological giant birds, a "Hwaragelmir"... even though in Nordic mythology, this was the name of a chasm and not a giant bird. This mistake occured because Ellison asked a friend for the name of a mythological bird and didn't bother to check if it was correct or not.
• Tastes Like Feet: Ted describes AM's synthetic "manna" as tasting "like boiled boar urine". How, exactly, he knows what "boiled boar urine" tastes like is never explained.
• Title Drop: At the very end.
• Unconventional Formatting: Used sparingly, most notably AM's punchcode tape messages.
• Unreliable Narrator: An important aspect to fully understanding the story is realizing that Ted's descriptions are not fully accurate. They're what AM has browbeaten him into believing through over a century of torture. For example, Ted rather dubiously claims to be the only sane member of the group and believes that the others are jealous of him.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The fact that the captives cannot die is not a good thing.
• Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: From "I Have No Mouth".
• Yank the Dog's Chain: This has to be one of the cruelest examples in any media. Bear in mind that for the past 109 years, the captives have been kept at starvation point, going days, weeks and sometimes even months without food, and any food they are given will inevitably be disgusting and horrible. It gets so bad that they're actually willing to travel literally thousands of miles (on foot, no less) to get to the ice caverns, where Nimdok believes there are canned goods. After months of traveling, it turns out that there are canned goods in the ice caverns after all. The problem? They have no means of opening them. That's right, after traveling for months to get to the canned goods, something as simple as not having a can-opener puts victory just outside of their reach...
Lots of good things to be found here, but Ellison, as you describe, does go quite over the top often here.