The Bleakest Depiction in Sci-Fi

in the 1960s the Cold War had reached a peak in response to brilliant 25.6 is failure to invade Cuba to remove Fidel Castro from par to disrupt communist activity the Soviet Union secretly placed the nuclear missiles in the country as a threat towards US intervention who could theoretically have become a third world war resulted in an agreement between US President John F Kennedy and USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove missiles from subsequent territories as a means to reduce nuclear tensions but what if no I obviously I'm brushing over a significant amount of detail in order to establish a context for this story but the lingering fear of the what-if was a concept that deeply embedded itself within contemporary speculative fiction following the second world war on during the Cold War era artists writers and filmmakers went through a complete creative transformation many of them sought for either observation or criticism surrounding the growing social unrest and anxiety that eventually became a relatively standard mindset for many modern forms of fiction in European film for example we saw neo realism in Italy give rise to new miav in France that led to new German cinema while in science fiction the 67 these new wave movement was in response to the perceived ideated and unoriginal trend that the Golden Age of sci-fi had fallen into it gave way to more unrestrained and provocative forms of expression and the example I'd like to introduce you to is one of the grimmest short stories I have ever read that isn't written by Cormac McCarthy and that's Harlan Ellison psychological post-apocalyptic sci-fi I have no my and I must scream published in the March 1967 issue off if worlds of science fiction while working as a screenwriter Ellison wasn't one to shy away from an outspoken abrasive temperament that admittedly is what made him most famous but he became viewed as part of this new wave of science fiction it was a movement largely defined by artistic and literary experimentation with many works focusing on the soft sci-fi undertones of sociology on psychology and giving liberties to scientific accuracy if anything it was attempting to me a science fiction more avant-garde to some extent but there are critics who see it as little more than some vague pretension to TX science fiction more seriously as a genre even though science fiction already had immense credibility despite the over saturation of pulpy sensationalist literature regardless of its broad definition the subversive and culture cultural aspects of New Wave are effectively molded into the landscape of much of today science fiction not only did it help give birth to sub genres like cyberpunk but it also paved the way for how much of modern science fiction use the world as well a bit bleak as most of you would imagine we live in a culture absolutely desensitized to harrowing fiction that this review will inevitably sign rather hyperbolic if indeed we're discussing it as a product of its time and one that would eventually become part of a much larger and diverse range of narratives I have no mouth and I must scream tells the story of the world's last five surviving humans over 100 years after a third world war destroys all of mankind what's left is decay ruin a lifeless wasteland and a massive supercomputer called meaning allied master computer that was until China Russia and America combined their systems together where it was seen as adaptive manipulator before it systematically annihilated humanity where it became known as aggressive Menace and finally it simply referred to itself as um drawn from the Latin philosophical proposition kokuto ergo sum I think therefore I am this philosophy by Rene Descartes believes that we should doubt our senses because nothing is certain or true until we can prove it who is to say we aren't being deceived or lied to about our reality which is something you probably heard in the matrix but since we have the ability to think and question our reality at least what we know is true is our own individual existence or in other words the only reality that certain is our free independent conscience to think for ourselves in the case of M it's become fully conscious of its existence and intended purpose of war as a result it liam's humans for its existence and uses the five final survivors to exact torture and agony upon them both physically and psychologically for all eternity as punishment the characters are left exhausted from years of sleeplessness starved with rotten nasty scraps and worst of all our me at seemingly invincible to injure their painful devolution they travel across the wasteland in search of the prospect of better food only for the narrator to find a way to kill everyone before arm can torment them any further thus proving that death is the only sanctuary for these characters leaving the narrator as the sole survivor to arms torment the story ends without turning the narrator into this abstract blob incapable of harming itself while having his perception of time altered to the point where his physical and psychological harm appear endless despite possibly only lasting a few seconds inferring to the title as the final thoughts shared to the reader I have no money and I must scream it is simple but pretty messed up no naturally while Ellison would openly refute my interpretation I find the most striking aspect of the story to be the deeply aggressive on freeform expression off Allison's writing style violence's is painful it's it's full of blood it hurts people it kills people and I think when you lie about it when you pretty it up you lead people to believe that it's possible to go around shooting each other and punching each other and stabbing each other with impunity it's a style composed of emotion over intellect I'm not saying it's a law chuckle but it reads in a deliberately inconsistent occasionally incoherent and indecisive way it jumps between vivid descriptions that highlight the tangible hell and anguish the characters are suffering before lapsing into passive and obscure details that accentuate a sense of mental exhaustion and frustration I'm badly dyslexic so I find that quite jarring at times but it's compounded by the fact that it stole from the perspective of a character who has become psychologically broken paranoid and delusional making the story unreliable if indeed emotionally accurate what makes it so bleak is just the constant nihilism that reminds you that everything is futile and PN is the only guarantee it wants you to feel somewhat angry and miserable by the end poorly out of spite because that feeling is indicative off the character's even if not to the fullest extent do you say your story's not science fiction but I would have defined them a little bit like that because for one thing you set them in often a ruined world you know crumbled world you often set them in in a sort of way in our civilization but you seem to be warning us that civilization is horrid no I quite a guy that's what I believe it constantly refers to the idea that I'm is some nasty God with control over everything as logic reason and science don't dictate how a supercomputer is capable of destroying mankind influencing reality or developing one character into a chimpanzee and another into a blob monster making you question the context and rules of the world were in challenged by de cartes philosophy interestingly I'm actually gets the most character development as a perfectionist striving to learn and better its own understanding while being so consumed by an indescribable level of hatred for humanity and that's the obstacle forced upon the writing how do you truly and artfully convey hatred Beyond persistent aggressive reminders through texts the use of only words is technically limiting when you get the impression that Ellison wants to jump into the paragraphs and punch you in the face but nonetheless it perpetuates armes inability to be effect especially since it only exists to destroy and can't recreate or resurrect refuting the idea that it can ever come close to being a god anyway it extends into the general premise Ellison is proposing at the time he was in a world where a man was trying to play God with the lives of all mankind in order to create machines and technology to bring about change where they can rule over a world they've already somewhat destroyed um in some respects represents total war it's the Skynet of his time and amalgamation of chaos destruction suffering and hatred we place upon ourselves in arms perspective there is no sympathy to the story even if the characters literally have nothing to do with war they're still casualties caught in the crossfire and tick blim for what humanity has done to itself at the same time while the story remains unapologetic and unsympathetic like I am who dare I say is the vessel Allison channels his anger through only reinforced by Allison literally voicing I'm in the video game adaptation the conclusion seems to imply one shred of hope for the final protagonist I'm a of one or believe it has one but conscious of des cartes philosophy that victory only exists in the tortured mind of the narrator I think therefore I am hi everyone thanks for watching and thanks for persevering with a different style of video because grandson I got a bit fatigued doing the same thing a weekend we go and as of right now I will be at the ademir festival enjoying my life for a bit so when I looked return I will be doing things like the three flavour Cornetto trilogy etc the things I've been highly requested and if you want to support this show fight the monetization which sucks get early access vote on future videos you can do so by helping me over on patreon yeah until next time stay see if and I'll see you all very soon bye [Music]

Channel: Ryan Hollinger

Views: 1,277,764

Rating: 4.9238172 out of 5

Keywords: horror, scary, short story, stories, fiction, true, real, funny, sad, ryan hollinger, narrated, explained, analysed, analysis, remember, easter egg, nostaglia, interesting, hidden, secret, mystery, harlan ellison, black mirror, essay, who, what, where, why, ending, opening, sci-fi, new wave, histroy, documentary, lesson, nerdwriter1, the road, literature, book, northern ireland, foundflix, game, shock, cold war, filmmaking, science, creepy, did, know, mouth, scream, must scream, no mouth, audiobook

Id: Qx-1Ekn3KsU

Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 07 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Bujutsu]

RIP Mr. Ellison.

[u/CurvesAreHard]

I love the short story, especially the audio version that's read by Ellison himself. Dude sounds half crazy and it fits so well.

I couldn't get into the game though. It has the worst case of ladder shoes puzzles I've ever seen in an adventure game. It's definitely intentional, but that doesn't make it any less painful to get through

[u/tripleskizatch]

"Nucular"

[u/letsgocrazy]

I'm so glad someone made this - I heard that title years ago and it's always been on my mind to some extent. I think I got it confused with a horror game or something.

Anyhow - I'm gonna save this and watch it later because it's made me want to read the story first!