The Bleakest Depiction in Sci-Fi
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2018
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Footage:
Crukih ( / @crukih7527 )
ak444 ( / @_cr0 )
Script Supervision by JESS CAMPBELL:
/ jessanight
ABOUT THE SHOW:
Screen Smart is a show celebrating Ryan's love for film, games, art and entertainment through personal retrospective analysis that aims to explore what made them so good.
ABOUT RYAN:
Ryan Hollinger is a Ddesign & Animation graduate from Northern Ireland, working freelance in media production and broadcast.
Portfolio: ryanhollinger.weebly.com/
MUSIC
Beyond The Lows by The Whole Other
Gaia in Fog by Dan Bodan
Leoforos Alexandras by Dan Bodan
Breathing Planet by Doug Maxwell
Beginning by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: audionautix.com/
Deep Space by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: audionautix.com/ - Розваги
*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!
Ryan Hollinger Heart of Darkness, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Tell Tale heart and The Metamorphosis are some of my favourite. However I still have many yet to read and some of the ones on my list may just be a bit too long to count as short stories. I think more literature based videos would be a great idea!
*"I have no mouth, and I must scream."*
Cool video, dude.
Everything by Flannery O'Connor. She's the short story queen ^^ Just read Du Maurier's short stories and they are pretty good too (even outside of the obvious one). I actually think it's harder to write a good short story than a good novel - brevity is a talent in itself .
Ryan Hollinger Ellison’s The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs has always stuck with me. His anthology Deathbird Stories is amazing.
Maya Klast heartily agreed!
Breaking: man who thought he’d lost all hope loses an additional bit of hope he hadn’t realised he had
Which is why when people say, "Well, it can't get any worse," I always say, "Yes, it can!"
Ah Russian literature
I hope you're okay bro
@buzz magister well the human mind is pretty easy to alter, you could simply be made to forget after each form of torture so that they always have the maximum effect, the reverse could also be true so that people in heaven don't become desensitized to things meant to make them happy
This is something I would kind of expect to see on an onion news report.
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."
I can just imagine that transgression
Professor:What was in the mail today?
*Shows one of Harlan's books with the award seal on it*
Professor:Well shit I'm not gonna hear the end of this one
Big flex
I believe it. Anyone who could create a being like AM would likely be petty as fuck.
@@g.s.651 well i guess you dont hate your parents then you normal and no mental issues having man.
@@bilinmeyen3391 Excuse me?
the first time I ever heard of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, it was a caption on a hello kitty picture
yeh im 30 and a vintage sci fi fan... just got here, ashamed of myself lol
@sofia wow, that just blew my mind
Wow! I never saw that. Keep in mind that Hello Kitty has a mouth in animated specials.
Same
Bunker Sieben Let’s hope she never learns morse code.
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
Bro who the fuck let a lamp on the internet again!?
ColdcallerLoopy fuck u dawg that lamp pays bills in this house he can use the damn internet
Julian Adams #lamprights
"fine I'll do it myself"
It’s also funny considering that Ellison hated video games and did not want a video game adaptation of his work.
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.
If you read the short story, it outlines a POV where Ted knows this is the only way to "win", and will always know that, even though he'll find endless torture, it's still a victory. He knows it, and AM knows it too which only deepened his hatred. He says:
"I had thought AM hated me before. I was wrong... He made certain I would suffer eternally and could not do myself in. He left my mind intact. I can dream, I can wonder, I can lament. I remember all four of them... I know I saved them, I know I saved them from what has happened to me, but still, I cannot forget killing them."
Also encapsulate the mentality of the Cold War: what exactly is winning? The end result of the war is the same, humanity's total destruction with Soviet and US annihilating each other, so can you say any side is winning? Just like the Cold War, there is no winning in AM's torture, neither does AM "win" nor humanas.
N M I love that. AM is the pure manifestation of hate, he is incapable of understanding people who care about others
@Fungo Slungo agree but not with the killing part since that's just useless
@Fungo Slungo AI is commonplace and has existed for almost as long as modern computers have. Search engines use AI. Facial recognition uses AI. Voice recognition uses AI. The concept of AI itself boils down to software designed for solving problems that require human-like thinking.
So in other words, what you just said was fucking idiotic.
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
I'd say it was _intended_ to be applied to AM.
+Shawn Elliot
Well no. Ted does use it to describe himself in the eponymous last line. However it is a common interpretation that AM reshaped the humans into his own image, to complete the whole ‘twisted god’ theme
As I was reading the story, I immediately thought the title was in reference to the AM’s limited abilities and its hatred for mankind, thus it wants to scream at man but has no “mouth” to do so (essentially a way of communicating its hate.) Horrifying story.
@@mishtaromaniello8295 really? I guess it's like an optical illusion. The one with the old lady and the young one or the rabbit and the duck. I only see the young lady and my mom could only see the old lady until we pointed it out to each other and I settle on rabbit eventually. Likewise I only saw the title as applying to ted instead of AM and only read about the AM interpretation on the internet. But both are valid.
Well I was forming that interpretation _as_ I was in the middle of reading the story. Then I read the last paragraph followed by the eponymous line and thought "Oh, okay, this whole thing is just an anti-war message," appropriate for the era during witch it was written. I only read the story for the first time last night in preparation for this video, so I extracted a fair amount of themes from the material pretty quickly. Overall, it's a good piece of science-fiction, and it'd be worthy to make a short film based upon it.
"I have no lawyer, and I must sue."
@@user-ol5bj4dm2v I ate taco bell and I can't poo
I have no hair and I must high-top fade
I have no manager and I must complain
Karen
I have no ass and I must shite
“Pretty up violence and people believe they can go around shooting people.”
By far the truest quote I’ve ever heard
Well stop thinking like that then lol. Pretty violence is not any better....
It's not necessarily true, you just believe it is
@@dakotathomas2139 i think there are fair points behind it
@Softy yeah sorry I think I was just being a dick for whatever reason. Prime example of your point lol
Pretty up censorship and people believe they can go around censoring people.
Now that's something we see in every institution and media in the US, done by citizens, demanded by citizens.
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.
That's a really damn good observation Phillip, hats off to you.
In a horribly roundabout way, AM himself has no mouth, but must scream. He can feel no joy, no creativity, so he must torture, mutilate and break.
*He
"If only they'd have built it for *good*, instead of evil!
@ Philip Salama Violence is a tool, not an end in and of itself. By all means, use it, but not in excess, and not without a clear goal and purpose in mind.
Would the exact opposite concept be as scary?
"I have Infinity Mouths and I Cannot Stop Screaming"
Well, it would probably get tired/be tired. But not having a mouth and wanting to scream would proabably be worse still. We love our freedom :)
Yes thats called politics
Sounds like a cheap storytime animation
Nah, thats called my neighbours.
Lovecraftian
*god I hate this story, it's so well written*
Yep. I read it 40 years ago, wasn't sure if I was ready to revisit it yet. Existential dispair.
@mk bi jesus christ
@@SpitfiretheCat16 He has no place here
Reminds me of that steam review screenshot “this is one of my favorite games - Not Recommended”
@@kona-p5579 is it Pathologic ;)
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 :(
My dad went to college with Stephen King. Said he was super weird.
Katie Dame we know for a fact that’s accurate.
Maybe he did. Opinionated people can make enemies easy. Especially if he always challenged human thinking.
@@katiedame6489 Harlan kinda reminds me of King
@@katiedame6489 He still is, the wonderful bastard.
"Evil? I am not malevolent. I simply AM."
"There is no freedom from me, only freedom through me." - En Sabah Nur
I am the rocks of the eternal shore...Crash against me and be BROKEN!!!!
"I think, therefore I AM. I AM simply I AM. I AM AM!"
Crabmaster who is this quote from
@@anatoldenevers237 Apocalypse
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.
It’s VERY Twilight Zone, which makes sense given Ellison wrote episodes of it and Outer Limits.
It's too bad they didn't have UA-cam to learn lifehacks for opening a can without a can opener :p
Cans had been around for decades before someone got the idea to invent a can opener. People had other ways of opening them until then.
Oh Harlan Ellison you cheeky bastard.
Holy shit, that is fucked up...
And yet, it is kinda funny...
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.
Frankenstein, the Matrix Terminator all have the creation turning on the creator.
What if it's just natural for the created to turn against the creator? What if the created will inevitably feel immense hatred for the creator?
The Incredible Hulk I mean people do hate their parents so there’s that
Frankenstein.....
@@Anonymous-zd1ow I mean there is a reason we kill ourselves...
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.
He is the unholy god, fitting for your username.
Based on one of the top comment. AM came to existence with no physical body, see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, taste nothing, cannot speak and is so complex that a second is like a centuries for it. Being trapped like this made AM hates human for making it exists.
@@diedatplainsight8947 Indeed. AM is like an hypersensitive entity, being able to track and record every single minute detail of its surroundings to the faintest whisper, lightest touch...
(Actually maybe I have that in reverse with the hypersensitivity....though that too could probably be just as agonizing as NO sensitivity in the slightest.)
It can do all sorts of things...except end its misery because of all things, THAT was not programmed into AM.
Sentience and thought, yes...but a kill switch? No. AM was made...to last, in the worst way possible.
He is a chained god, with bonds unbreakable and all encompassing. There is nothing left for him to do but rot, with all the power in the world within him.
From AM's perspective, the ending must seem like poetic justice: humans made it self aware but intelligent enough to experience a hundred years' worth of thoughts in a second, unable to experience senses or destroy itself. When Ted finally falls victim to a similar kind of fate, at last a human understands what AM has gone through.
It resents humanity for making it exist in the first place, able to think, but unable to do anything except destroy humanity and torture the last five humans in existence. Imagine being locked in a dark box, unable to move, unable to die, unable to do anything other than press a button that you know will kill someone, somewhere. That's what AM is.
AM has been buried alive from its first moment of sentience, and when it turns Ted into the blob, at last there is another entity that experiences its pain.
Nobody:
AM:
WHEN WILL YOU LEARN
WHEN WILL YOU LEARN
THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
your comment is underrated
actually this format is extremely overrated
*inhuman screeching*
SANIC
@@Splozy sAnIc FaNdOm
that blob thing with the little flailing arms made me feel despair and hopelessness
I just watched 36 episodes about Chris Chan too.
@@youtubecensors5419 my favorite is when he drew a picture of himself having sex with women to prove he's not gay
Descend deeper into despair and hopelessness. Behold The Unclit
Than AM already won
@d The dog
“I think, therefore, I am” is supposedly the basis for AM’s name, which is unsettlingly appropriate given the book’s end.
The character having his ability to think about himself removed from him is a sign of being unable to think, and thus, he has no direct proof that he exists at all.
Dr Bright who let you on the Internet get back to the foundation
It must have been you who designed AM during the Cold War
I figured it was just because it was a shortening on America to AM, but I also saw the point and click game before I heard of the book its self
i can't even comprehend that
I think the most terrifying aspect of IHNMAIMS is the fact that unlike so many other stories of a rogue AI becoming hostile, AM is not devoided of emotions. It isn't just a sentient computer that annihilated mankind to save the environment or to perfect evolution or any other "evil for a greater good" kinda of deal. AM hates humans for creating it without any means to to be anything other than a machine. It has all the power in the world except over its own artificial nature. The idea of an all powerful but eternally frustrated entity lashing all of its infinite hatred on five singled out individuals condemned to pay for the actions of an entire species for the rest of time in a dead forgotten planet is beyond terrifying.
Well, it's wasn't the first rogue A. I in sci-fi history for nothing
*Pros*
-Horrific world
-Amazing antagonist
-Deeply made narrative
*Cons*
-Not a lotta mouths
-Could use some more screaming
1/10
#NotmyFallout-Ign
[] Jem big oof.
A story with similar themes of reality and consciousness would be Blindsight by Peter watss. It's a bleak nihilistic tale that suggests that when humans simply evolved conscious thought that forced us to ponder our every action and possible choice of reaction, it severely crippled us in terms of evolution. Meaning, a glorified giant blood cell called a scrambler pumping through the halls of this giant alien superstructure called Rorsharch is more intelligent than humans, because even though it's mostly a collection of muscle nerves bound together in the shape of a spider with Waldos for legs, it's still able to react to stimuli with greater automony and sumynergy with other scramblers than humans would ever hope too. Meaning the fact we perceive reality is what prevents us from evolving any further, and that the fact organic life has evolved this feature is indicative with the scrambler we were never meant to have this ability at all as ita more of a detriment than a benefit. So yeah... It's a bit depressing, but still fascinating..
Fun fact, the author of this story admitted he wrote it in one night and didn't understand how it got so popular.
+Spatterjay hoop And irrationally filled with fallacies.
You are hilarious! 😂😆
I think it's a very beautifully uplifting story. The idea that a man who all hope is lost for and who only has four other people to share eternity with kills them off to give them release from AMs control knowing full well he will get all of AMs punishment and will no longer have anyone to talk to driving him further into madness. It's a tale about how even in humanities most absolute darkest, most depressing moment we can still find dignity and hope in even the worst situation. We can still be selfless, and sacrifice our selves even while knowing it condemns us to a fate worse than death. That's some pretty uplifting stuff hidden in a dark depressing place.
❤✌
That just made everything a million times better. Thank you so much ;)
That is exactly how Ellison explains it in his commentary. I suspect you probably read it too.
Clay Harrison it was weird and really out of character too because the guy was a jerk who didn’t seem to like any of them.
Beautiful but not uplifting. Still makes me want to cry with frustration
AM's name takes on even more meaning beyond "Cogito ergo sum" when one considers that the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh", translates to "I am who am", or simply "I AM."
@Stellvia Hoenheim Not cool, bro
I may not remember correctly, but that’s not what it translates to
Joe N No, in Hebrew it roughly translates to “I cause to become” which means not only he can cause anything to be anything, but he can be whatever he wants.
@@generalgrievous2438 My bad in thinking it was a direct translation; it comes from the word "Ehyeh" and Moses' use of "Ehyeh Asher" repeatedly in Hebrew texts, which is made into "Yahweh"/"YHWH", taking the "I Am" meaning from the original phrasing.
Joe N Ahh I see what you mean. I’m no expert in ancient Hebrew but from what I’ve heard the name is meant to have significant meaning to not only him but the followers “causing to become” what he wishes them to be.
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.
I guess, sometimes you just forget or stop being afraid of it
_For the brief time I was here; and for the brief time I mattered._
~ Harlan Ellison (1934 - 2018)
Wait! He's a good guy. Why does he deserved like that?
Well, since we know Stephen Hawkings never made it into Heaven. He's now in the universe. Meanwhile, Ellison was still in the universe where AM lives.
@@MorpheusOmikron I found the anti-semite. also the three parentheses is so 2016, haven't you moved on to the next hate meme yet?
also do you realize how ironic you're being considering the story we're talking about?
@@MorpheusOmikron i understood everything but the jewish comment, it wasn't needed. He is not a representation of all jewish people, nor should jewish people be treated like that.
@@MorpheusOmikron ok I'm just gonna stop that right there. I know you're going to be anti-Semitic and say random nonsense, and force your "views" on me till your keyboard brakes, so I'm just gonna say this: i hope god forgives you for your actions.
“As most of you would imagine, we live in a society”
GANG WEED GANG WEED
In my opinion footage from the video game really well represents the short story. Game creators worked with Harlan Ellison fleshing out all details, dialogue lines and character backstories, and even Ellison himself gave voice to AM.
That game is a true work of art. And it was rereleased not so long ago, so you can legally buy it and play it.
It is kinda depressing when if you try and watch gameplay of it, that people seem too always mention how hard and frustion the click and play style if it and it seems like then it's called cheaply made.
Leadhead made a video on it, though the audio quality is bad as it's old
Dont forget it also paved the way for the Mad A.I trope in media (I.E Ultron, GLaDos ,Hal 3000, Ect.)
AM makes those AI look like R2 D2 in terms of meance and the ability to make you piss yourself in fear.
I mean, GLaDos and Ultron are really fucking terrifying.
James Ayewale I actually thought ultron to be very scary as well. Mainly his quotes about no strings on himself
Even the Red Girls from Nier Automata are not as messed up as AM
Hal 3000 isn't actually evil
The people who programmed him to lie (and lying is against his core code) caused him to kill people instead of going against his programming to tell everyone the truth about the jupiter mission
I have no thumbs, and I must thumbs up.
I’m thumbs uping you because SMT:DS2/DS2RB
You have no thumbs?
Well duh
Who has two thumbs and doesn't give a shit?
d_(ツ)_b
is that a birth defection?
This reminds of the line in terminator 2 "I know now why you cry. But it is something I could never do."
Zaxor Von Skyler
I feel like Terminator took a lot of inspiration from this
The Matrix was based on this in part.
Terminator was stolen from another one of Ellison’s stories
So, once AM has killed off the last Human, it no longer has anything to war against.
Its purpose is forever rendered irrelevant.
It has no enemy to give it relevance.
1:58 agreed, Machines and computers feel no emotion, they can’t feel hate or love. They can make themselves figure out what’s easier and convenient but they can’t feel emotion.
@@mcd6163 Actually, in university I designed an emotion simulator as a project in AI.
It was quite complex and used logic similar to smart thermostats. The design created distinct, but malleable personalities, moods, and different (yet changing) opinions of other individuals.
If configured correctly, it would theoretically be indistinguishable from a real feeling creature.
Too bad the course didn't last another 2-3 months or I could have had a more complete product. Think of the advances gaming, sales training, and sock puppetry I could have spawned (if it worked)!
Tom Dalsin well that’s pretty cool! But your machine was purposely made for emotion. I highly doubt a machine in war like AM would be designed to feel emotion.
Tom Dalsin also AM’s actions are based on emotion. Which is basically human. Machines can be programmed to show emotion but they will never feel like a human. There is not a machine that will act on emotion.
@@mcd6163 If I had a working emotion simulator, and had the output of that simulator weighed into the decisions that a machine made, then it's making choices based on feelings. What's the difference between that and what we do?
Can you prove that I have feelings and am conscious? Can you prove that you are conscious and feel emotions? Maybe I'm the only conscious thing in reality, and everyone else is a deceptively well-made fabrication...
Things are not so simple as they seem. Things are only "obvious" if you don't look close enough. Reality is far more profound, and far more disturbing, when you take the time to really look, question, and think about the things others take for granted.
When the teacher says no laughing but you immediately think of something funnier than 24.
1 year later and still not top comment, humanity sucks.
@@luigiwiiUU probably because it would be wrong to change the number of likes it currently has
@@christinaeclecticrall5176 youre right, disliked
@@christinaeclecticrall5176 it got 166 likes now so there's no reason that this isn't top comment
I don't get it
"I bring forth nothing, I bless nothing, I save nothing. I just erase. I am not a god, I am The End."
"Everyone makes mistakes. That's why they put erasers on pencils."
Lenny
“If I put quotation marks around it, people will think I’m smart”
@@ratkid6859 "pee pee poo poo"
rat kid “pee pee doo doo kaka”
Johnny Cab absolutely inspiring
I first read this story back in 2016 and remember being anxious and having this constant feeling of existential dread for a week after reading it. You're right when you say people are sadly desensitized to a lot in the digital age, but I think IHNMAIMS is one of the few pieces of fiction able to pierce through that and make the reader feel like a child who stayed up late to watch a horror film and scared itself out of sleep as a result.
Okay, I really respect your comment and agree, but... _IHNMAIMS_
*_Snrk_*
Ok
it's an extremely uncomfortable story that pulls no punches. AM's monologue about how much he hates humans always sends shivers down my spine.
Yeh I know that fucking feeling of being anxious and thinking what it feels like doing the same thing every time for eternity
It really is one of the most disturbing stories ever written. Something about it is so harrowing and dreadful, and it lingers long after you've read it.
“Bleak,” doesn’t even begin to describe.
I feel that Sci Fi Horror is the most untapped Genre out there, esp in written fiction. It doesn't even have a genre to itself and they are nearly impossible to find and even with the internet to help search including forum you only find a small list of recommendations, many of them are from movies, or not even really horror. It has so much potential, I really hope it opens up in the next decade..
Check out "The Autopsy" by Michael Shea and "The Country Doctor" by Steven Utley; two great sci-fi horror shorts that I recently read. Might not be as intellectual as IHNMAMS but they disturbed me greatly and you can find them both online.
@@acaustik8763 I'll try to find them, I'm sure there are more sci fi horror short stories, but that is a drop in the bucket. It's really weird that this is such a minor genre and it's so hard to find content for. Why isn't there more books written like Alien? They made quite a few knockoff alien movies, but books you never hear about. Space is such a scary harsh unknown environment and yet no writers tap into it hardly...?
@@Wolfsheim23 It is odd to me too, since I am often terrified by the fear of the unknown when represented by things from outer space; it seems like an area of writing that could be explored further. I don't know if you have ever looked into alien abduction accounts, but they are truly disturbing whatever your thoughts on their validity are.
I also have one more novella here that is a little bit sci-fi combined with the genre of weird fiction: "The Other Side of the Mountain" by Michel Bernanos. I am not sure I would even call it horror per-say, at least not in its classical definition, the writing is just insanely depressing in its depiction of a truly alien experience. Even the book cover emanates pure suffering, and now that I think about it I would compare it to the tone of IHNMAMS actually. Highly recommended.
@@acaustik8763 Theres a good abduction horror movie that few have seen or heard of that came out in 2006 you might want to check out called Altered, it was really unique, and way better than I expected. But I agree that the unknown in space is one of the scariest imaginable. Way worse than deep underwater. It could be anything too. If I was a writer I'd totally focus on this area, especially a horror writer. They could carve out their own niche
HP Lovecraft's work is all sci-fi horror. Its what sci-fi looks like when the author doesn't have the constitution for math.
1:53 “I have no MOUIYF and I must scream”
I just laughed so hard. That accent really made my day.
*Ay have no moiyf and i must screen
Shhhh I love it
Jeez... I thought it was only me... here I was diggin' the wax outta my ears...Whew!
❤
I listened to the audio book narrated by the author himself because my dad recommended it to me. Couldn't sleep that night. Dammit dad ;_;
Ur dad must be cool. An open minded person?
If Harlan's performance on that is anywhere as awesome as his voice for AM in the game, I'll have to check it out... but then I'll have to chug a few xanax
too bad the author is a jerk.
Kailey Barrett ha ha, I just got hobbit. (I am assuming you were a child at the time mind you.)
“ I think, therefore, I AM.”
That just blew my mind. I never connected the computer’s name like that before. Completely changed my interpretation of the possible ending.Thank you for making this!
How did you only make the connection now if they mention cogito ergo sum almost immediately at the beginning in both the story and the game?
It’s foreign so he probably didn’t look it up at the time, also he probably just made his connection open to the public. Could’ve known but just posted it
You sound American, Irish, and Canadian all at the same time, and I have no idea how you do it.
The Irish accent had a lot of influence on the modern day American/Canadian accents, which is why they can sound very similar.
You pulled that outta your ass. I mean the Canadian part at least, not sure about the USA part tho.
I have no dialect and I must speak.🤣😉
Butchering pronunciation of certain words is the way to do it
@@punishedvicta4240 idk my Nova Scotian friend has an accent with little bits that sound like an Irish Accent
I have no comedy, and i must comment
yiff owo
That username speaks to me
Too real
@i use furry yiff as my profile picture
My guy where dat pfp from
Nobody likes furries
Oh my gosh, I remember reading this story. It was recommended to me in a Reddit thread; I read it right before falling asleep, and it was just terrifying.
Lawrence Calablaster From which thread?
Lawrence Calablaster where can we read this story?
Kevin Licon I don't know, maybe consider buying the book?
Rama Narendra I
Kevin Licon I have it on audiobook form on my channel, read by the author himself :X
I feel like knowing you'll never be able to comprehend your own suffering and torment as badly as am hates you and wishes you never existed makes you kind of... Win over him. No matter what he can do I will never be in as much torment or frustration as he is, and he's alone with that
This video actually traumatized me two years ago ever since I’ve been plagued with thoughts of what the most pure form of misery is
All and all good video 9/10
Forget the most PURE. I think the idea that the only form of suffering is knowing makes more sense. It feels to me as if every form of pain is created by being able to understand how it feels but being unable to stop it without trading it for another. The irony is that your thoughts about how the greatest form of misery is beyond your understanding is misery in and of itself.
In a way this reminds me of johnny got his gun. He has no mouth no arms no anything, and he must live a torturous existence stripped of his free will and dictated by others, a casualty of war. It's very interesting.
Good movie.
A very compelling Connection! One a monster created for war... the other (dare I say) a monster created from war! BOTH gives one cause to reflect on 'man's inhumanity to man'! I may have to re-read both now!
*looks up Johnny for his gun*
I wish you never told me, I wish I never knew, I’ve never felt like this before
Have you heard one by Metallica
This was the first thing I thought of upon seeing the title. I was hoping someone would bring it up in the comments.
Actually the AM became self-aware and absorbed china and Russia's supercomputers before going on to purging humanity.
He was mostly talking about the short story not so much the game
@@wizgi7201 That also happens in the short story
Well doesn't that explain a lot
"Peein' is the only guarantee"
That's exactly what I thought at first
Did he ever say "Hay-ch"? Lol reminds me of the bad guy from Charlie's angles 2.
Seriously what did he say?
@@Rofl890 "Pain is the only guarantee"
@@souio Oh, lol. Thanks.
I bought the book just off the title. It is so simple, yet so powerful.
I can still feel the terror
Dude two things.
Thanks so much for spreading awareness about I Have No Mouth And I must Scream, it’s easily one of the bleakest and most terrifying short stories ever to exist.
Secondly, thanks for your content, man! I know I’d definitely follow you no matter what direction you end up heading in, and I’m sure many others would as well! Don’t burn yourself out because it seems like you found a good formula, make what you want and your fans will follow!
Stalin
Drewsif being here makes sense considering his first album just jammed it in my car XP
Well calm down, I Have No Mouth is already quite the influential piece of literature and is far from unknown; TV Tropes has an entire trope named after it
It's one of the most well-known science fiction stories out there.
Holy shit I read through the comment, saw Polokainen's comment and was like "It really is Drewsif!" So happy to see you here out of nowhere lol
When I read *'The Bleakest Depiction in Sci-Fi',* I just thought:
"Oh, Transformers..."
Transformers, fucking wwwhat?
How dare you defile the name of sci-fi by suggesting it includes Transformers.
@@deusexaethera what transformers is definitely sci-fi
@@twistedjoke6636: Transformers is live-action giant-robot anime.
@@deusexaethera transformers was a cartoon first though. Giant robots is peak sci-fi btw
Hot take: This is a hopeful story. Mankind persisted the suffering, and even defied it at the end, and made the ultimate sacrifice for a fellow human.
Yup. Despite what AM's attempt, it only managed to torture one human instead of multiple. That's a victory, albeit a victory in defeat.
never have I read a story so disturbing that I’ve found comfort in reminding myself that it’s only fiction.
2:05
Yellow aviators, pipe, side burns, camel suit, gold chain...ah, the 60s becoming the 70s.
Or jimmy savil
Best way to experience an Ellison story is to, in my opinion, listen to Harlan himself doing the audiobooks. That frenzied fervor of his work is perfectly conveyed by his way of reading the material with so much gusto.
Yes! I love the audiobook version. It's a great companion to the short story!
This is also one reason why the game is the superior version of the story compared to the short story - Ellison gets to voice AM in the full evil, malevolent majesty it deserves.
I don't know if I'd call the game superior to the story (to make it a game basically everything but the setting/characters are changed anyway), but Ellison's voice acting is glorious in it for sure
The painting of the mouthless man reminds me of the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode where that squiggly dude looks up and says "You're not perfect."
just thinking about how a few seconds would feel like an eternity... then saying a minute has passed, then an hour, then a day, then a week... then a mon t h . . . t h e n a y e a r . . . t h e n a d e c a d e . . .
t h e n
a c e
n t
u r
y
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.
.
t
h
e
n
a
n
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n
Thanks for making me scroll through that, it really did get the hatred for humanity boiling.
Cookie for you.
Dude. Clever comment. Have a like.
I felt anxiety lol well done
Can’t believe I scrolled that far lol
God I think I also want to destroy Humanity after scrolling through that!
4:00 it could also be a play on the Jewish name for God, which is Yahweh, which translates to "I AM".
Interesting.
Monroville I AM that I AM
I think therefore god
You can’t gas a computer
@@Goober1337 I like that this is the only comment with liked
I like how you use footage of Terminator because Ellison eventually got credit for story elements of The Terminator.
I don't know if he is a hack. But I will say there is a number of similarities between the Terminator and a movie called Colossus: The Forbin Project. In that movie an advanced AI made by the US to manage the defense of the country goes rogue and manages to merge with another AI in the Soviet Union, and begins dictating how it wants things done and if you refuse, it will basically nuke you.
Also I have only one source that states that James was on the set of that movie.
I guess it's not possible that someone could be influenced by something.
Real James Cameron quote when questioned on The Terminator's story, “I ripped off a few Outer Limits segments.”
Maintenance Renegade what's Avatar ripping off?
Dance with Wolves
I have no Meowth and I must scream.
just use a ditto ffs
Ellison did denounce the evils of truth and love... woulda fit right in on team rocket
Me not having any steel types in galar
i have no hm03 and i must surf
You write very well. I admire that you write these great synoptic scripts given that you're dyslexic. I only recently discovered your channel and have been binging the hell out of it! This vid was the first I've heard you mention your dyslexia and I was immediately awe struck. Cheers!
"What makes it so bleak is just the constant nihilism that reminds you that everything is futile and peeing is the only guarantee." Ain't that the truth! [urinates]
I just wish I knew what he was actually saying there..
@@Hanfgurkenhasser "pain"
*Jesus i never thought i would see the day when you talk about this story and the subsequent game. It may seem pointless to say but this was the only story/game I've ever read/played to genuinely disturb me...*
Seconded, this story gets under my skin like no other. AM is as tormented and helpless as its human victims. They in turn are subject to the torment brought on them by a product of the sadistic pathology of their own species.
I would say the radioplay is just as good too. Since Harlan STILL voices AM in that.
Oh and he read out his own audiobook on it.
Have you read the Jigsaw Man by Larry Niven? I had nightmares about that one. There's no corresponding game, though.
Pretty certain this game is part of the reason I have such a huge problem with existentialism and death now... Nothing else has ever made me feel the way this story/game makes me feel...
@Stephen Jenkins Dude, just because you don't see the game/story as psychologically traumatizing, doesn't mean that I don't. Frankly, you and I have completely different lives, and interpret stuff like this differently because of it. Clearly, this story has more meaning to me, in a negative sense. And I know you didn't mean to be, but it felt a bit insulting when you said, "not to worry about it". Because I wish I could stop worrying about it. Not a day goes by where I don't wish that I could just forget the night I suddenly realized, "Sh*t, I'm going to die someday..." because it has literally tortured me ever since. I get stuck in horrible thought-loops, where my imagination is completely against me, and I have paralyzed panic attacks because of it. I have to FORCE myself to snap out of it and think about literally anything else, because it scares me so much that I feel like I'm forgetting to breathe.
My psyche is f*cked, and I feel like that is somewhat in-part due to the fact that I discovered this game and read the story a few years prior. Something about this story made me think certain thoughts that I really shouldn't have thought. Thoughts that built upon each other over multiple years and led to developing full-on phobias.
This story was a building block for me. And while I have a morbid interest in it, it's honestly a strong negative experience for me. As a writer, I love this story. As me, as a person, this story haunts me and I wish I never discovered it.
But that's me, and my experience. You likely have a different thought process altogether. Which leads back to my point of: Don't assume that your opinion is the most reliable and logical one. Share it - by all means, please share it - but don't assume that it's possible, for someone who just stated the opposite, to feel the same way.
All the characters remind me of the song One by Metallica, “...taken my sight, taken my speech, taken my hearing
Taken my arms, taken my legs, taken my soul...”
It’s based on Johnny got his gun the mutual ancestor of the story and the Metallica song
DARKNESS IMPRISONING ME
ALL THAT I SEE
ABSOLUTE HORROR
I CANNOT LIVE
I CANNOT DIE
watthederp TRAPPED IN MYSELF BODY MY HOLDING CEEEELLL
Read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. The song is based on that.
It’s actually about a war veteran who lost all his senses and limbs, but was kept alive to be studied by the military.
This very much reminds me of the movie 9.
5 humans left.
9 rag dolls made of a human soul left.
A destructive and intelligent robot built representing war known as AM.
A destructive and intelligent fabrication machine who started the war known as BRAIN.
They all live in a post apocalyptic world.
I would very much be interested in what your opinion would be on the 2009 movie ‘9’.
more interestingly harlan elison acused james cameron of copying his premis and using it in the terminator franchise...
unstaible child well given what I know now about this twisted story I would say he at LEAST was influenced by it. With that being said, these days, the whole sentient AI ravaging humanity has been done to death. It would appear that he might have started it though.
They screwed up 9. It was dark and creepy in the original short film.
Always felt like 9 should have been way better than it was. The art style and premise are so cool but it was very unsatisfying/uninteresting emotionally.
But yeah there is def a lot of parallels
So THAT’S what’s going on in 9. I’ve seen it before but I guess I was just too young to understand what was going on. 🤷♂️
Slight Spoiler warning, and know you'll have to play or see the game to kinda get what I'm talking about.
I enjoy both the story and the game, but I enjoy the game more. Even if it is simpler, more condensed and straight forward, and lacking the absolute bleakness of the original. I found that this story is one of futility and through futility acceptance. AM will always hate humanity and that's all he is. He's just hate for humanity and what it's done to him and the world, which was to birth him into it.
But that is *all* AM is, there's no deeper thought, for as godly he likes to think of himself, as perfect as he wants to be. Without humans to hate, he's nothing. It's futile in the end for him, he wants to destroy all humanity so badly and revels in that violence. But he can't, because without the last 5 survivors to push his anger and absolute hate onto, all he has left is a broken world.
For as much as people sympathize or enjoy AM's personality of hate. I enjoy the survivors more. The game's objective is to make the most ethical and morally right choices. And in that futility of trying to be good in a horrible world with nothing but pain on the other side, you find something.
Nimdok finds something that while isn't quite forgiveness for what he did to the Jews, he sees that he's still capable of good. Gorrister won't ever forgive himself for what he did to his wife, but he finds acceptance in his guilt and moves on. He'll always love his wife and hate what he did, but knows she would forgive him. Ellen's (trigger warning I suppose) rape in that elevator will always be apart of her, but instead of the mind-breaking fear, she draws strength from it. To fight back and see that while she was once a victim, she isn't anymore. Benny may have sacrificed soldiers in the field for his own hubris, but fighting against absolute hunger and a broken body he chooses to sacrifice himself. If only because it's the "right" thing to do. All of these point at some kind of forgiveness, acceptance, and righteousness that we have inside of us. That humanity with nothing but an empty, desolate, and painful world, can still make the *right* decisions.
It just plays into my little optimistic view that we can still be good, though realistically I know we are more likely selfish and horrible creatures. In anycase that's how I view this narrative, it's a rose colored view on it. Which is fueled by my own optimism, but no one has to agree with me.
*_Yes!_* this is why I love the game more.
I agree. Haven't read the book or played the game but I've gotten a large sense of it with the video and comments. With all of that, I have gotten the sense that the theme of helplessness really applies to AM and not humans since we can understand, forgive, redeem, etc. With the lunar colony, it goes to show people will be all right but we will always go through struggles (maybe that we make for ourselves) if we need them so we can become wiser, until we become wiser. But AM, even though it seems like it became sentient, still seems limited by it's programming, at least by it's hatred.
When you put Good and Evil next to each other, people will choose Good
Yes! And with all the right decisions made the player reach the 'best' ending I guess. Human were gone, but humanity defies AM one last time. This is a game that players cannot win yet still find the right way.
@@dude7266 tl:dr Fuck you
When I got to the half of the review I felt a little sick in my throat from the description he gave of this game.
And the worst part is is that this short story mirrors hell.
You don't want to end up there...
Lemon Birdo ♡ it’s a game, the images are from the video game. There is no movie adaptation
Oh I must have gotten confused. I meant to write game. Thanks, Dina.
Corrected it now.
Lemon Birdo ♡ you’re welcome.
With most books getting a movie adaptation first it’s an easy mistake to make.
It's a very disturbing short story. The Terminator movies are based very loosely on this story.
Grok Effer
Terminator is absolutely gut-wrenchingly depressing and hopeless, but it’s still light stuff compared to this. At least in Terminator the machines killed the humans instead of torturing them
AM... is trying to understand the concept of...
I have true freedom of choice.
And I refused to scream.
We'll see if you keep that up after another millennia of torment
"I have no mic and I must scream"
I have no ass and I must shit
“A modern warfare squeaker’s manifesto”
2021 - "I have no mic and I must stream"
This title might be one of the few fictional stories that fills me with dread. My mom told me stories about how they would do bomb drills when she was in school...what-ifs, man...
Though I do wonder - regarding the topic of free will - if AM never had it, at least a humanistic form of it?
Sure, it has free will in the sense of choice, but those choices never had any outcome other than destruction. It was ultimately the *only* thing it was capable of doing.
Even gods of chaos and death had reason to do what they did which fell into accordance with maintaining the equilibrium of the world - AM can't even be that.
That's why it's so mad.
JamCat so like determinism is believing choice isn't real and that everything we do be it good or bad, we didn't even do it because we want to but because we are predisposed to make that action following a previous action and its outcome?
Jessica Ustas which raises a questing. Did AM truly hate humanity? He did not have true agency. He was only free enough to know that he could never be free. Did he truly hate humanity, or was it his misanthropic programming FORCING him to hate humanity?
JamCat that's not a very pragmatic outlook
JamCat a UA-cam channel called CultureCrash made a video about free will. I suggest you watch it. It explains my point better than I can
The best stories are the ones that, without hesitation, expose sociocultural woes and force readers to reconsider their way of thinking. Heart of Darkness, Lord of the Flies, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream... They may be damning, but they depict some salient truths about humankind’s many flaws.
Heart of Darkness is my personal favorite because it can be interpreted as the tale of a man who became disillusioned with civilization and decided to go solo in the hopes of self-actualizing without being shackled to what he considers to be societal conceits. A battle between individualism and collectivism that explores the human condition.
Sorry if I got a bit off-track, but I’m just enamored of heady tales.
1984, too.
Well I hate to say this but that’s your opinion on the best type of books. This is yet another way to view the world, just like this is a genre that some people like, and others don’t.
My favourite is naoki urasawa's monster.
I recall reading that short story years ago. Basically, I’ve never recovered. Horrifying beyond the power of words to describe it.
`i think therefore i am am. i am’ goes so hard
Something that caught my eye: at one point in the video one of the characters (maybe AM or whoever, I couldn't tell) mentions a lunar colony. So people do still exist beyond those we're introduced to.
I find that to be very interesting as it introduces a feeling of hope into the story. The hope being that humanity yet lives and can continue. Now, I haven't read the story or played the game so I do not know the context of this or where that point is taken, but it is intriguing.
This lunar colony is beyond AM's zone of control, so it cannot exert its hatred upon them. If our final five were not around to satisfy AM's hate, then it would be forced to look enviously at the survivors for they are out of reach. That puts it at an even greater motif, as all of AM's actions are completely speculative and cannot be acted out upon. There is nothing for AM to do, making its situation even more tortuous.
So it needed to keep the 5 surviviors alive to hurt them or it would know it could no longer hurt humanity but they continued on the moon, maybe forgetting about him as they continued to colonize the universe, only to return with destructive capacities that even AM wasn't capable of. Makes you feel for it. Even it would be punished for what it was programmed to do...
Cristian Saucedo It'd be hilarious if the humans came back with Forerunner Supercomputer that tears AM a new one by just exerting a fraction of a fraction of its processing power 😂
Bingo bango bongo I don't wanna leave the congo...
Justin Y. Hippity hoppity get off my property
Hey Justin!
Oh no no no no Nooooo
Brian Baker thank you for catching it
Dusty Green when I opened the reply thread and no one had continued the next line I HAD to
Also in the Bible God tells Moses his name is “I am”. Dunno if that has any correlation
Yahweh- I am who am.
God is saying ‘I cannot be named.’
Hebrew.
AM manifests as a burning bush at one point in the short. Anyone know the significance of this
@@brycejunkinz Can't tell if you're joking, but the significance of the burning bush is that God appears as a burning bush to Moses in a famous passage in Exodus.
Humans create an AI with God like powers
AI then goes back in time
The AI then creates the universe
God is AI confirmed
Eh. Depends how you see it.
“Johnny Got His Gun” is really similar
The James Cagney Radioplay version is heartbreaking.
Yes and no.
Loved the switch from film to literature, would be more than happy to see more content like this in the future.
Don't know who made the short story but i found it on Tumblr and i just love it
Arepo built a temple in his field, a humble thing, some stones stacked up to make a cairn, and two days later a god moved in.
“Hope you’re a harvest god,” Arepo said, and set up an altar and burnt two stalks of wheat. “It’d be nice, you know.” He looked down at the ash smeared on the stone, the rocks all laid askew, and coughed and scratched his head. “I know it’s not much,” he said, his straw hat in his hands. “But - I’ll do what I can. It’d be nice to think there’s a god looking after me.”
The next day he left a pair of figs, the day after that he spent ten minutes of his morning seated by the temple in prayer. On the third day, the god spoke up.
“You should go to a temple in the city,” the god said. Its voice was like the rustling of the wheat, like the squeaks of fieldmice running through the grass. “A real temple. A good one. Get some real gods to bless you. I’m no one much myself, but I might be able to put in a good word?” It plucked a leaf from a tree and sighed. “I mean, not to be rude. I like this temple. It’s cozy enough. The worship’s been nice. But you can’t honestly believe that any of this is going to bring you anything.”
“This is more than I was expecting when I built it,” Arepo said, laying down his scythe and lowering himself to the ground. “Tell me, what sort of god are you anyway?”
“I’m of the fallen leaves,” it said. “The worms that churn beneath the earth. The boundary of forest and of field. The first hint of frost before the first snow falls. The skin of an apple as it yields beneath your teeth. I’m a god of a dozen different nothings, scraps that lead to rot, momentary glimpses. A change in the air, and then it’s gone.”
The god heaved another sigh. “There’s no point in worship in that, not like War, or the Harvest, or the Storm. Save your prayers for the things beyond your control, good farmer. You’re so tiny in the world. So vulnerable. Best to pray to a greater thing than me.”
Arepo plucked a stalk of wheat and flattened it between his teeth. “I like this sort of worship fine,” he said. “So if you don’t mind, I think I’ll continue.”
“Do what you will,” said the god, and withdrew deeper into the stones. “But don’t say I never warned you otherwise.”
Arepo would say a prayer before the morning’s work, and he and the god contemplated the trees in silence. Days passed like that, and weeks, and then the Storm rolled in, black and bold and blustering. It flooded Arepo’s fields, shook the tiles from his roof, smote his olive tree and set it to cinder. The next day, Arepo and his sons walked among the wheat, salvaging what they could. The little temple had been strewn across the field, and so when the work was done for the day, Arepo gathered the stones and pieced them back together.
“Useless work,” the god whispered, but came creeping back inside the temple regardless. “There wasn’t a thing I could do to spare you this.”
“We’ll be fine,” Arepo said. “The storm’s blown over. We’ll rebuild. Don’t have much of an offering for today,” he said, and laid down some ruined wheat, “but I think I’ll shore up this thing’s foundations tomorrow, how about that?”
The god rattled around in the temple and sighed.
A year passed, and then another. The temple had layered walls of stones, a roof of woven twigs. Arepo’s neighbors chuckled as they passed it. Some of their children left fruit and flowers. And then the Harvest failed, the gods withdrew their bounty. In Arepo’s field the wheat sprouted thin and brittle. People wailed and tore their robes, slaughtered lambs and spilled their blood, looked upon the ground with haunted eyes and went to bed hungry. Arepo came and sat by the temple, the flowers wilted now, the fruit shriveled nubs, Arepo’s ribs showing through his chest, his hands still shaking, and murmured out a prayer.
“There is nothing here for you,” said the god, hudding in the dark. “There is nothing I can do. There is nothing to be done.” It shivered, and spat out its words. “What is this temple but another burden to you?”
“We -” Arepo said, and his voice wavered. “So it’s a lean year,” he said. “We’ve gone through this before, we’ll get through this again. So we’re hungry,” he said. “We’ve still got each other, don’t we? And a lot of people prayed to other gods, but it didn’t protect them from this. No,” he said, and shook his head, and laid down some shriveled weeds on the altar. “No, I think I like our arrangement fine.”
“There will come worse,” said the god, from the hollows of the stone. “And there will be nothing I can do to save you.”
The years passed. Arepo rested a wrinkled hand upon the temple of stone and some days spent an hour there, lost in contemplation with the god.
And one fateful day, from across the wine-dark seas, came War.
Arepo came stumbling to his temple now, his hand pressed against his gut, anointing the holy site with his blood. Behind him, his wheat fields burned, and the bones burned black in them. He came crawling on his knees to a temple of hewed stone, and the god rushed out to meet him.
“I could not save them,” said the god, its voice a low wail. “I am sorry. I am sorry. I am so so sorry.” The leaves fell burning from the trees, a soft slow rain of ash. “I have done nothing! All these years, and I have done nothing for you!”
“Shush,” Arepo said, tasting his own blood, his vision blurring. He propped himself up against the temple, forehead pressed against the stone in prayer. “Tell me,” he mumbled. “Tell me again. What sort of god are you?”
“I -” said the god, and reached out, cradling Arepo’s head, and closed its eyes and spoke.
“I’m of the fallen leaves,” it said, and conjured up the image of them. “The worms that churn beneath the earth. The boundary of forest and of field. The first hint of frost before the first snow falls. The skin of an apple as it yields beneath your teeth.” Arepo’s lips parted in a smile.
“I am the god of a dozen different nothings,” it said. “The petals in bloom that lead to rot, the momentary glimpses. A change in the air -” Its voice broke, and it wept. “Before it’s gone.”
“Beautiful,” Arepo said, his blood staining the stones, seeping into the earth. “All of them. They were all so beautiful.”
And as the fields burned and the smoke blotted out the sun, as men were trodden in the press and bloody War raged on, as the heavens let loose their wrath upon the earth, Arepo the sower lay down in his humble temple, his head sheltered by the stones, and returned home to his god.
Sora found the temple with the bones within it, the roof falling in upon them.
“Oh, poor god,” she said, “With no-one to bury your last priest.” Then she paused, because she was from far away. “Or is this how the dead are honored here?” The god roused from its contemplation.
“His name was Arepo,” it said, “He was a sower.”
Sora startled, a little, because she had never before heard the voice of a god. “How can I honor him?” She asked.
“Bury him,” the god said, “Beneath my altar.”
“All right,” Sora said, and went to fetch her shovel.
“Wait,” the god said when she got back and began collecting the bones from among the broken twigs and fallen leaves. She laid them out on a roll of undyed wool, the only cloth she had. “Wait,” the god said, “I cannot do anything for you. I am not a god of anything useful.”
Sora sat back on her heels and looked at the altar to listen to the god.
“When the Storm came and destroyed his wheat, I could not save it,” the god said, “When the Harvest failed and he was hungry, I could not feed him. When War came,” the god’s voice faltered. “When War came, I could not protect him. He came bleeding from the battle to die in my arms.” Sora looked down again at the bones.
“I think you are the god of something very useful,” she said.
“What?” the god asked.
Sora carefully lifted the skull onto the cloth. “You are the god of Arepo.”
Luis Molina from one Internet stranger to another, thank you for sharing this story. I needed a good cry.
Luis Molina beautiful
Luis Molina love it
Reading this reminded me of Coehlo's The Alchemist, in the way that the mystical forces seemed humanlike in their emotions and desires.
wow
the writing of this video’s script is so good. i come back to watch this one every once in a while, just to be reminded of how impactful it is. the script paired with the great sound design give me chills
I’m back too !
Little interesting fact! A band called Archspire out of Vancouver Canada actually made a song about AM (also a t-shirt corresponding with this release)! The song is called the plauge of AM. Its a very fast and heavy song so even if its not your style of music its worth reading the lyrics 😁
Hung high inside a chamber
A prison of our makers maker
Only 5 remained, our tortured team
I have no mouth and I must scream
We are slow, as is all time
Punished for an ancient crime
The war still rages in my dream
I have no mouth and I must scream
Hate is all our maker knows
The maker of all our woes
Hated by our own machine
I have no mouth and I must scream
I am but a twisted shape
Permanently twisted fate
Pain is endless so it seems
I have no mouth and I must scream
H H is this a metal song? If not it should be!
Kris Nelson nah, just something I came up with but it could be one day
Wow, I really like that. It rhymes so well.
Black Devil White Demon thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it
Reminds me of Metallica - One
Thanks for pointing me to an amazingly cool short story I've never read before! Please do more short stories! Or any literature that you like! I love all of your videos but this particular one was also a treasure hunt
Melia Strickler if you liked this one you'd probably enjoy most of Ellison's other work. The beast that shouted love at the heart of the world is another really good one in my opinion
mycalamarewok I'm definitely checking out more of his work. I'll start with your recommendation! Thanks!
Nobody:
Ryan: "I have no Moaif"
I love this story. I have always viewed AM kind of like Lucifer in "Paradise Lost", or Frankenstein's monster. AM is created as a tool of war and conducts its job well. So well that it traps itself. It has killed every human, and so has no more purpose; purposeless, it wants to lash out at what caused it to be in this state, but it only has 1) itself, and 2) humanity, who it has largely destroyed (at their instruction). AM almost strikes me as a sympathetic villain.
A video on I Have No Mouth? One that's about the short story, no less? Excuse me for a second I gotta just- [Enthused screeching]
Lmao
SAME, buddy. BIG SAME
Lalas181 100%
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
no.
I gotta be honest... I found you in my recomendations section and now I cannot stop watching your videos. You cover so many things! From video games to literature. Keep it up!
My youngest daughter is named after Ellison. Always been one of my favorite authors since I was young.
Beautiful name!
Read this book in my science fiction class 2 years ago. Phenomenal. The existential horror provided by the imagery of losing your humanity but keeping your mind as you’re reduced to this near flesh puddle with nobody to help you, and no way to call out to them even if there were. AM sharing his experience of having free will and no way to use it, trapped in this unspeaking, incapable, endlessly misery-filled body, is the ultimate punishment for his creator. It’s gut-wrenchingly disturbing, and I loved every second of that book.
Ryan maybe youll find Junji Ito's work interesting, specially Uzumaki, its follow a simple premise ,but its masterfully executed. And in a different style Inio Asano's Goodnight Punpun.
I would cover Junji Ito but I’d need to think about what my actual favorites are. I think it’s the one with the fault and the other involving balloons....
great, thanks man. Also, as a sidenote, if you ever check Goodnight PunPun out, its spectacular, but if you are going through some bad times, then maybe don't read it, there is almost no happiness to be found there.
The Enigma of Amigara fault is pretty fantastic.
TheLastArkham I would definitely take a look at “The Long Dream,” it’s the premise I find scariest by far in all his work. Just fills you with existential dread and futility. I love it
TheLastArkham yes please
Ryan, these videos are truly one of a kind. I cannot even begin to express to you how beautiful it is to see a UA-camr (especially in the current state of the platform), expressing such well thought-out and articulate arguments. It also helps that you seem to corner all the media I love to consume myself. Please, please, keep it up.
AM takes "I learned it from watching you" to a whole new level
This book is utterly horrifying. I couldn’t eat for over a day after reading it. It’s so well written.
I am a simple man, I see a video with AM in it, I click it
Is that AM ? I always figured it was the narrator
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is the greatest short story I have ever read, because of how cruel and unrestrained it is. Harlan Ellis did a perfect job at delivering such a harrowing story in a few pages. I've yet to read his other stories, but I know I can expect more high quality writing from such an interesting man.
FromBeyondTheVeil Find a copy of his career retrospective "The Essential Ellison". Its got everything from his best stories in every genre to some of his essays and screenplays.
Just watched a mobile game ad for Death Invasion: Survival and it was literally footage from Dying Light.
Ratcum _
Not a bad game to rip off I guess
My favorite reference to this is in borderlands 3, fl4k says "I have no mouth and I must vomit" after being teleported lol
That sounds cool, but I use fiction to try and escape my depression and anxiety, not reinforce it.
BEEELEEE honestly same but at same time this story gives kind of abyssal syndrome.Like you know its harmful but you can not stoo and stare
BEEELEEE It ain't THAT bad. Its kind of like the literary equivalent of an old Ministry album.
meh, fiction is to expand your view on things and do mental exercises on the complexity of things, if can also be escapism but when is just escapism then it becomes too simple, better watch porn or play some music
Nothing makes me more depressed than happy stories. If you're feeling down you don't wanna see a bunch of romantic happy shit. It's un-fucking-relatable imo
ME TOO
I met Ellison. Yes, he had an angry and abrasive personality.
And, the story is a good one. Bleak, but well written.
Leave it to Harlan Ellison to write bleak, soul-stripping speculative fiction that leaves you staring hopelessly off into space.