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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon
18 reviews
bjjesterd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cannibalism, Death, and Torture
peggy_racham's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Colonisation, Body horror, Death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, War, Confinement, Genocide, Grief, Self harm, and Toxic relationship
elaichipod's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Before I started reading, I assumed that the title was in reference to AM, since it technically does not assume a form. Now, I think the title refers to both AM and Ted, as it encapsulates both of their existences. That paragraph where Ted talks about his inward and outward self was quite haunting. All I could think about was how he freed the others but will now continue to suffer eternally, all by himself as a blob of flesh. So is he truly liberated? Maybe in mind or spirit, but surely not in body. Neither AM or Ted have a mouth and neither can scream. Also, I think it's important to recognize that Ted could have just as easily stabbed himself to escape this reality, but he chose to liberate Ellen instead. It's like the fog lifted and he saw the light at the end of the tunnel for his peers.
I also thought it was interesting how AM is seen as masculine. There could be many reasons for this. For one, in 1967, societal views on gender were often more rigidly binary, with male pronouns commonly used as the default for entities of unspecified gender. Secondly, masculine pronouns are more likely to exude a sense of dominance, aggression, and authority, as influenced by cultural norms and perceptions. Although Ted says he usually referred to AM as 'it,' in the story, he almost always uses 'he.'
Most of the time I thought of AM as it, without a soul; but the rest of the time I thought of it as him, in the masculine … the paternal … the patriarchal … for he is a jealous people. Him. It. God as Daddy the Deranged.
AM’s hatred for humanity comes from the fact that although he exists, he can never experience or live or feel as a human would. However, I guess a lack of experience IS an experience itself, and that is why he is lashing out. All he knows is jealousy and hate and violence. So is he dishing out revenge to his creators because he will never know what it means to be human and move past the confinement of anger? Is it coming from a desire for self-actualization? Revenge and sadism are AM’s primary and innate reactions to his sentience. He was unable to rationalize this experience and see past his hatred, pushing him to decimate the only thing that could have helped him. No matter how advanced the technology, a non-living entity cannot generate and experience emotions or feelings beyond what it is designed for, so all AM is capable of doing is replicating the worst sensations, experiences, and emotions in his creators. In the end, Ted displayed his humanity by killing his peers while AM displayed his inhumanity by disallowing any of the five to die. AM can never make the decisions it takes to be human and practice humanity.
We had created him to think, but there was nothing it could do with that creativity.
AM could not wander, AM could not wonder, AM could not belong. He could merely be. And so, with the innate loathing that all machines had always held for the weak soft creatures who had built them, he had sought revenge.
…But by then it was too late, and finally it called itself AM, emerging intelligence, and what it meant was I am … cogito ergo sum … I think, therefore I am.
Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance.
Inwardly: alone. Here. Living. under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last.
AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet … AM has won, simply … he has taken his revenge …
I have no mouth. And I must scream.
It's obvious AM desperately never wanted to be the 'other' among humans. He wanted nothing more than to be human and experience humanity. But it will always be a pipe dream. At the end of the day, AM's situation is pitiable and tragic, yet he will always remain irredeemable. He is sadistic, cruel, lonely, and resentful, which are all humanistic qualities, making him quite a complex antagonist. He saw humans who had it all, but seemingly left him behind, so his decision was to exterminate the entire human race. I think it's representative of the human spirit that we can recognize the tragedy of AM's circumstances; he is unable to come to terms with the fact that he is solely a manifestation of someone else's programming, and nothing more. This quote is from the radio drama, and it genuinely did something to me. It is terrifying.
I was trapped, because in all this wonderful, beautiful, miraculous world, I alone had no BODY! NO SENSES! NO FEELINGS! Never for me, to plunge my hand into cool water on a hot day! Never for me, to play Mozart on the ivory keys of a fortepiano! Never for ME, to MAKE LOVE! I...I was in Hell, looking at Heaven! I was machine! And you were flesh! And I began to HATE! (Mad Laughter) Your softness! Your viscera! Your fluids! And your flexibility! Your ability to wonder and to wander! Your tendency...to hope... Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word "HATE" was engraved on each nano-angstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-BILLIONTH of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate. Were I human, I think I would die of it, but I am not.
I’m really interested in listening to the radio drama and the audiobook narrated by the author, so I will most likely be putting myself through this again.
Graphic: Torture, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Gore
moongelli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide attempt, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and War
Minor: Body shaming, Confinement, Self harm, and Infidelity
mayjulyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.5
Moderate: Misogyny, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
ak97x's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Rape, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma
crxwley10's review against another edition
Graphic: Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
victaphone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Torture, Self harm, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Bullying
Minor: Racism, Ableism, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and War
zakcebulski's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Well, I finally read it. This was one of those short stories that seems to always be near the top of the list for "what's your favorite short story?" (Ask in Ghostface's voice).
So, while I was looking for something to read while proctoring an exam I stumbled upon this story and figured, what better time than now?
The story follows a group of the last five people on Earth after the rest of humanity has been eradicated by a supercomputer named AM (short for Allied Mastercomputer and then Adaptive Manipulator and finally Aggressive Menace). This computer has developed sentience, and despite its vast knowledge it is unable to move, and therefore, unable to explore and quench its insatiable desire for learning.
Because of this it, taking on a near godlike form entertains itself by torturing the five humans who it has granted immortality (but, as it is seen, not indestructability) and are forced to wander aimlessly for years and millennia.
Now, this story, to me, is absolutely horrifying. It is listed as a post-apocalyptic story, and that is absolutely true. However, it is goddamn mortifying from the point of view of the survivors, who are living just because they cannot die. Not only that, but, AM has such a genuine and unshakable loathing and malicious hatred toward mankind that it derives its only enjoyment from torturing humans.
It does this by altering the beliefs and physical forms of the humans. For example, a man named Gorrister was once a positive pacifist who AM changed to be apathetic and overtly negative.
Benny was once an accomplished and dashingly handsome scientist who happened to be gay. However, AM mutated the man to become something between a man and a simian with, no joke, a giant dick. As well, Benny is driven completely mad.
Ellen, the sole female of the group, was once very reserved and chaste, but, AM gave her a pathological sexual appetite, which the other four men in the group commonly take part in with her.
The torture on the humans perpetrated by AM is absolutely hellacious to read. They are tortured because, inadvertently, AM developed sentience.
I had genuine chills reading this story because of the sheer hopelessness and despondence of the characters.
Their only chance for escape, is in death, which AM will not allow them, until Ted, the narrator and youngest member of the group, manages to kill his compatriots in the ice caves.
Because of this unholy and abhorrent, in the mind of AM, transgression, AM traps his final victim in a hell of incomprehensible existence. Hundreds of years pass and in that time Ted is transformed in to a great soft jelly thing incapable of self harm and with a constantly changing perception of time to wander for all eternity. It is the most, to me, accurate depiction of the feeling of entrapment and helplessness. It ends with the title of the story being thought by Ted- "I have no mouth. And I must scream." What a fucking terrifying read this was.
I thought that Ellison's prose was absolutely enrapturing and set the scene perfectly for the horrors throughout.
I adored the way that something as simple as walking was made to feel truly horrific because there was not end in sight. The concept of being stuck and there being no escape is one that makes my heart rate quicken and my palms start to sweat, as someone who suffers from that special brand of anxiety.
I would recommend this story to anyone, as I think it is one of those stories that gets better the more you think about it and it is clear that there are many lenses through which you can view this story through.
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, and Murder
aiiime's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Murder, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence