The Bleakest Depiction in Sci-Fi

What's your favourite short story? I'm now on a long overdue holiday! Come follow me on twitter.com/ryanhollinger and vote on my next videos at patreon.com/ryanhollinger. Also, note that this video is NOT ABOUT THE GAME. I feel it's unrepresentative of the simplicity of the original short story which you can read here: goo.gl/trqYMX I'm considering doing more literature-based reviews in the future, so... more variety!

Fun Fact: Each time Harlan won awards for his stories, he would mail his college writing professor his books for around 20 years because he told Harlan "He would never amount to anything."

Breaking: man who thought he’d lost all hope loses an additional bit of hope he hadn’t realised he had

the first time I ever heard of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, it was a caption on a hello kitty picture

It’s hilarious that originally AM was voiced by someone else but Ellison said it wasn’t hateful and angry enough so he did it himself

I always loved how the phrase "I have no mouth and I must scream" itself could be applied to AM just as much as the survivors

The ending has more deeper meaning. After exposing the humans to AM’s infinite torture, they still find the mercy to spare others from torture even if that means that they suffer as a result. This is something that AM cannot do, and has shown to be incapable of. When the Narrator spares the other humans and deepens his own torture, it shows AM that the humans are better than him, they were always better than him. Despite his infinite wisdom, their mental abilities are greater than his own and he is inferior. So even though AM makes the narrator think he has won, AM knows he has lost. Fitting for a War AI.

"I have no lawyer, and I must sue."

god I hate this story, it's so well written

"Evil? I am not malevolent. I simply AM."

Nobody: AM: WHEN WILL YOU LEARN WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

Would the exact opposite concept be as scary? "I have Infinity Mouths and I Cannot Stop Screaming"

“Pretty up violence and people believe they can go around shooting people.” By far the truest quote I’ve ever heard

God this one is dark. One thing that always gets me is the way AM itself seems like it's being tortured by its own hatred, just as much as its victims are. It doesn't get any pleasure from the torture, it just can't imagine doing anything else, stuck doing the same pointless, Sisyphean task over and over again for the rest of eternity. It has the power to accomplish unimaginably fantastic things, and limitless time to do them, but won't, because the people who built it didn't have the imagination to use it for anything more than violence.

My grandfather went to school with this author. He said that Harlan Ellison was bullied relentlessly, but he said that Harlan would provoke the fights. I'm not sure if that was the case, but he was certainly a very creative guy. I hope he rests in peace :(

I find a perverse irony in the fact that for all intents and purposes in the story man has played god, created life, and that life has become mankind's new god, and loathes them for it.

AM knew no better. He was programmed for brilliance beyond all comprehension but has no way to apply his great knowledge as he's pretty much an immortal living subconscious. The title 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream' applies to him perhaps even more so than the human survivors.

The ending is kinda funny in retrospect. Spoiler alert:they get to some canned food and find out that AM didn't give them a can opener. Then they die.

that blob thing with the little flailing arms made me feel despair and hopelessness

it's amazing how psychological horror lingers with you for the rest of your life. The concept of terrible things stay with you and never leave.