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I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan…
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I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (original 1967; edition 1984)

by Harlan Ellison (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,750509,761 (3.82)54
Ellison is a gifted writer who can make you go from oh-okay to holy-shit-what-did-I-just-read in the span of a few pages.

The titular short story is a brilliant exercise in depravity and hatred--the ending is a masterpiece of torment that will haunt you for a long time to come.

The other stories are no slouches either. Most of them are too out there and not too memorable to be honest, but they are good reads, nonetheless. His introductions are great, too. ( )
  bdgamer | Sep 10, 2021 |
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A must-read. ( )
  trrpatton | Mar 20, 2024 |
I thought quite often about [a:H. P. Lovecraft|22272396|H. P. Lovecraft|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] while reading this. I think Ellison and Lovecraft are compelling in similar ways. They are both shitty people and not especially skilled writers (though Ellison has Lovecraft beat, there), and they are both struggling with enormous, genuinely compelling visions that stem from a weird combination of their shitty worldviews and, through those funhouse-mirror-views, some aspects of the actual enormity and pain of the world. I'm not sure that I'm being at all clear, but I'm glad I've read this, though I can't actually recommend that anyone do the same. ( )
1 vote localgayangel | Mar 5, 2024 |
I hadn't read this before tonight. Now I've listened to five different readings of it, including the intriguingly different radio play with Harlan Ellison as Am.

I don't know if it's more the depression that has struck like a hammer after having a week or so that wasn't dark, and the neurodivergent hyperfixation, my experience with chronic physical and mental conditions, being mostly housebound, and being a big, fat, tranny in a country and a world becoming hateful and dangerous for us, or some fun concoction of all of that, but I feel strangely seen and oddly soothed by the truly horrifying story.

If it wasn't for the misogyny, and specifically misogynoir, as well as the complete lack of understanding of women, sex, and homosexuality that is, frankly, incel in its ignorant hate and contemptuous disregard, this would easily be top marks. But I just can't do that. I don't have the mental capacity to full get into it right now, but if you are unable to see the sexism, racism, and homophobia in the group dynamic and how the characters are written, you need to check in with yourself. I totally understand how others have been so put off and effected by this grossness, which is genuinely one of the most uncomfortable and weird things in this story, which is saying something.

The nightmare dystopia of Skynet killing everyone save five people it decides to torture with inchoate abandon, driven into an eternal hateful fugue at being given sentience and no way to experience life as humans do, is truly horrifying. The torturer, Am, is oddly human and zealous in its gleeful hate. The protagonist is left strangely inhuman, eternally alone and safe from death in hell with the eponymous lines left on his lack of lips.

This is one of those stories you can project whatever you want on because it's pure nightmare. It's capitalism, authoritarianism, transphobia, chronic pain, depression, and none of these things. I think it is kinda abhorrently beautiful and comforting, aside from the fucking weird incel shit, and I can absolutely see why this is both seen as an absolute classic and among the luminaries of sci-fi and horror, and that how people think it's an overhyped, ugly, problematic mess. For me, it's both. ( )
  RatGrrrl | Dec 20, 2023 |
This collection of short sci-fi stories (almost always dark and depressing) left me with a mixed taste after I finished it.
The titular short story is one of the best sci-fi stories I've ever read, period (tied, for me, with The Last Question by Asimov). It makes HAL, from Kubrick's 2001:A Space Odyssey look like a cuddly teddy bear in comparison. Since all of them are extremely short stories, any detail will just be a spoiler, but let's just say Ellison attention to mental torture is much more unsettling than it has any right to be.
The rest of the stories are all over the place, much to my disappointment, the best amongst them being 'Delusion of a Dragon Slayer', which describes a person for whom heaven is hell, and the worst being 'Eyes of Dust', which is just plain boring, and has a premise which intends to shock but just dulls instead.
What struck me after finishing the work though, were three things.
Firstly, Ellison is a magnificent writer, with his writing, prose and his ideas making him a sheer delight to read.
Secondly, Ellison has one of the worst egos I've ever encountered in writing, and his ego practically oozes from every word of the story (along with not-quite-humble remarks in his prefaces to every story, in which he describes himself as a magnificent 'man of Stature', whatever that means). If egoistic writing is unsuited to your tastes, it's not a bad idea to skip this.
Thirdly, Ellison is also the brand of extreme misogynist that would be labelled as an incel nowadays. If there are any women in the story, you can rest assured that nothing good will happen to them (even considering he writes dark tales, the fates of women in his stories range from bad to horrific). His prefaces are littered with women being treated as objects again and again, and at some point you want to just tell him to get on with the story. His three-page preface to his last story straight up said that his story was based on a woman he met in Vegas (guess what - the woman has a bad ending, and gets a good ending by manipulating the naive man).
So there's a lot of good (prose, ideas, wackiness) and a lot of bad (misogyny, ego). If you can stomach the bad, this is a beautiful sci-fi collection. ( )
  SidKhanooja | Sep 1, 2023 |
Before reading this all I knew of Harlan Ellison was that he’s a big name in sci-fi/speculative fiction and that his story “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” was a super intriguing title.

After reading it I can safely say I’ve become a huge Harlan Ellison fan! Such inventiveness, creativity, and originality ( )
  Reading_Vicariously | May 22, 2023 |
Maybe the most efficient sci-fi short story I know ( )
  jammymammu | Jan 6, 2023 |
This book is so aggressively psychotic and disturbed. I love it. I will add that the audiobook is also fantastic, being able to hear an author narrate is work as he intended it to be read is always a great pleasure. ( )
1 vote beets4borshenko | Sep 10, 2022 |
Ellison's nightmarish vision of a post-apocalyptic scenario and his concept of immortality told in a completely original and intriguing way will make you think a lot, not only about what it means to be immortal forever, but also about what it means to have no control over yourself anymore. The enjoyable writing makes this a must-read for readers of science-fiction, in my opinion. ( )
  Councillor3004 | Sep 1, 2022 |
"AM appeared to us as a burning bush and said we could kill the hurricane bird if we wanted to eat." - Is this a reference to the bible?

Also, I will be throwing out all my electronics thanks to this story. But in all seriousness, I love dystopian genres, and the writing for this was short and to the point. Great read and free online if you google. ( )
  Koralis | Jul 12, 2022 |
I realize I tried to read these stories in a different time, a different era, than when they were written. Having said that, I can be somewhat forgiving. Ellison's style is now dated. But I simply didn't enjoy the stories I read, and couldn't bring myself to finish the book. His autobiographical remarks preceding each story didn't endear me toward him either. Of course, I don't have to personally like a writer to like his writing. But his attitudes toward women, and violence toward women, came through in his stories, and that turned me off. ( )
  MarkLacy | May 29, 2022 |
Absolutely the best Science Fiction ever. Harlan Ellison at his best. ( )
  Windyone1 | May 10, 2022 |
Sometimes the weirdness overshadows some of the message. ( )
  Theriq | Apr 20, 2022 |
I'd been wanting to read this collection for quite a while, and so glad that I finally got the chance, even if overall the stories were a bit uneven. The ironic part is that the title story might be one of the best stories that I've ever read - short story or novel-length. The last story has a very definite Twilight Zone vibe to me (I'm actually surprised that more didn't, considering the author's TZ work).

I HAVE NO MOUTH & I MUST SCREAM - 5 stars
BIG SAM WAS MY FRIEND - 4
EYES OF DUST - 2
WORLD OF THE MYTH - 3
LONELYACHE - 4
DELUSION FOR A DRAGON SLAYER - 2
PRETTY MAGGIE MONEYEYES - 5

Average: 3.57, Weighted: 3.70, rounding up to 4 stars ( )
  KrakenTamer | Oct 23, 2021 |
I found it absolutely worth my time, even though parts of it have aged without grace (especially Ellison's monologue-ish and very blustery story-by-story intros) - but, man, anything in an anthology with the title story is just going to suffer by comparison. "World of the Myth" really struck me. ( )
  autoclave | Oct 4, 2021 |
Ellison is a gifted writer who can make you go from oh-okay to holy-shit-what-did-I-just-read in the span of a few pages.

The titular short story is a brilliant exercise in depravity and hatred--the ending is a masterpiece of torment that will haunt you for a long time to come.

The other stories are no slouches either. Most of them are too out there and not too memorable to be honest, but they are good reads, nonetheless. His introductions are great, too. ( )
  bdgamer | Sep 10, 2021 |
Interesting short stories. I enjoyed this book.
  sigshane | Aug 31, 2021 |
I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't finish it. It shouldn't have been too hard, the subject material is right up my alley, and I definitely understand Ellison's place in science fiction, but I just couldn't get into it. I found the writing, at times, to be laughably poor, the ideas atrocious, and worst of all, dull.
Maybe I need to give it time to breathe and revisit it in the future, but for now, it's an absolute dud. ( )
  whatsleepsbeneath | Apr 20, 2021 |
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a collection of seven short stories by Harlan Ellison. This book was originally published in 1967. The 1983 edition is available as a Kindle book free to Amazon Prime Members.

Ellison, who died in 2018, won eight Hugo Awards, and three Nebula Awards for short stories (and another for a novella), among many other distinctions. He preferred to call his work "speculative fiction", but it is often classified as Sci Fi / Fantasy or Horror (depending on the work). He wrote novels and novellas, short stories, screen plays, comic book scripts and critiques/opinions. The short story from which the title of this collection is taken was turned into a videogame which he co-designed. Later in life he reworked and adapted several of his short stories in graphic form, and they were published by Dark Horse Comics as Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor in two volumes almost 10 years apart.

Beyond his writing Ellison was also known for his "difficult" personality, a reputation he alludes to in the introduction to one of the stories in this collection. He was married five times, his final marriage lasting 32 years until his death.

This set of stories date from the late 1950's through the mid-1960s. Four of the stories first appeared in "Knight" magazine, a softcore men's magazine, and the others appeared in Sci Fi magazines. Given the era, and the original place of publication of these stories it's not surprising how male-centric and dismissive of women (to the point of misogyny) these stories are. In these seven short stories, two women are raped, and many more are shallowly written, interchangeable bed partners.

Another thing that may be off-putting to modern readers is the "experimental", "New Wave" style of writing Ellison employs in many of these stories. The overall style in these stories is as if Ellison were trying to write like Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler but instead ends up more like A.A. Fair (an early pseudonym for Erle Stanley Gardner) if Fair had ingested psychedelics and was trying to impress the horny teenage boys of the 1960s.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of gems here. For my money "Big Sam Was My Friend" and "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" were really good stories. Surprisingly, Moneyeyes is actually one of the stories that appeared originally in "Knight", but it has the strongest female character of all the stories in this collection. And it reads like an episode of The Twilight Zone (for which Ellison served as creative consultant of the 1980's reboot).

The title story, though one of Ellison's Hugo winners, was too dated, too "experimental" and too dark for me. In fact, there is a dark streak that runs through most of these stories, thus the appeal to fans of Horror.

I rate this book 3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐ - I liked this book. If you are a fan of Horror or late 50s / early 60s Sci Fi, you might like it too ( )
  stevesbookstuff | Mar 15, 2021 |
I have only read the titular story, likely the greatest one. It was a terrific springboard for stories on human suffering, the nature of hell and loneliness. ( )
  Firons2 | Jan 31, 2021 |
Fascinating ideas and interesting prose. At some point the neologisms and the comma-less writing got repetitive and lost its effect. And the way he displays women (in the stories as well as the editorial bits) bugged me a lot. ( )
  SpookyFM | Jan 18, 2021 |
Itis like nothing I ever read before. I really enjoyed it. ( )
  064 | Dec 25, 2020 |
Sadistic machine
you broke his favorite toys
suffer in silence. ( )
  Eggpants | Jun 25, 2020 |
I know I shouldn't categorize this as sci fi. Truth is..Harlan Ellison needs a category of his own 'Harlan Ellison' speaks for itself. His stories are unlike anyone else's which is one reason he is an award winning writer. He puts your nightmares on paper in such a real way that there is no escaping into...oh this is delicious fantasy horror...they are all too possible to the imagination. ( )
  Karen74Leigh | Sep 4, 2019 |
I had read this a long time ago; in fact, I actually have a paperback that is autographed by Ellison. It was time to read it again. I had forgotten how well Ellison wrote. After reading the book, I realized how uncomfortable Ellison's stories make me.

It is the title story that gets the most attention as it won the Hugo, deservedly so. The other two stories that affected me were "Delusion for a Dragon Slayer" and "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes." The first one left me sad for the title character. The latter one had so much to say about addiction and desire.

If you like well-written short stories, you might try this collection. ( )
1 vote Jean_Sexton | Jun 9, 2019 |
An uneven collection, and frankly dated at times, but when Ellison is good, he’s very good. I hesitated between three and four stars, but the title story made me go for four - it’s a classic, and rightly so. ( )
  espadana | Apr 29, 2019 |
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