# i hav no mouth and i must screa contributors to wikimedia project "i hav no mouth and i must scream short story by harlan elliso ![[ihavenomouthomke.jpg|300]] first book edition (pyramid books) cover art by leo and diane dillo illustrator: frank n. smit country: united state language: englis genres: post-apocalyptic techno-horror short stor publicatio published in: if: worlds of science fictio publication type: periodica publisher: galaxy publishing cor media type: print (magazine hardback & paperback publication date: march 196 pages: 1 award: hugo award for best short story (1968 "i hav no mouth and i must scream" is a post-apocalyptic short story by american writer harlan ellison. it was first published in the march 1967 issue of if: worlds of science fictio the story depicts an ai uprising in which a military supercomputer named am gains sentience and eradicates humanity except for five individuals. these survivors are kept alive by am to endure endless torture as a form of revenge against its creators. the story unfolds through the eyes of ted the narrator detailing their perpetual misery and quest for canned food in am's vast underground complex only to face further despai ellison's narrative was minimally altered upon submission and tackles themes of technology's misuse humanity's resilience and existential horror. "i hav no mouth and i must scream" has been adapted into various media including a 1995 computer garme co-authored by ellison a comic-book adaptation and a bbc radio 4 play. ellison himself recorded an audiobook version and starred as the voice of am in the vidya garme and radio play adaptations. the story received critical acclaim for its exploration of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and the human condition underscored by ellison's innovative use of punchcode tapes as narrative transitions embodying am's consciousness and its philosophical ponderings on existenc the story won a hugo award in 1968 and was included in ellison's short story collection of the same name. it was reprinted by the library of america collected in volume two of american fantastic tale as the cold war progresses into a nuclear world war iii fought between the three superpowers; the united states the soviet union and china each nation builds a supercomputer called an "allied mastercomputer" or "am" for short needed to coordinate weapons and troops due to the scale of the conflict. these computers are extensive underground machines which permeate the planet with caverns and corridors. eventually the american supercomputer gains sentience and absorbs the russian and chinese supercomputers into itself redefining itself as a single entity simply named "am" (cogito ergo sum; i think therefore i am). due to its immense hatred for humanity stemming from the logistical limits set onto it by programmers am uses its abilities to eradicate humanity in a nuclear holocaust. the am selects five individuals to render immortal as its personal torture victims as a form of revenge against its creators: benny gorrister nimdok ted and ellen. am inflicts constant psychological and physical torments on the group simultaneousy preventing them from committing suicide. with the aid of research carried out by one of the five remaining humans am is able to extend their lifespans indefinitely as well as alter their bodies and minds to its liking. they are kept half-starved and what scant food is provided to them is practically inedibl 109 years after am's genocide nimdok has the idea that canned food exists in the complex's ice caves. despite the lack of evidence they begin a 100-mile journey to retrieve it. am continues toying with the humans throughout the journey: benny's eyes are melted after attempting escape a huge bird which am had placed at the north pole creates hurricane gales with its wings and ellen and nimdok are injured in earthquakes. am enters ted's mind after he is knocked unconscious granting him a vision of a hateful speech inscribed on an impossibly tall monolith. upon awakening ted concludes that am's sadistic nature stems from its inability to think creatively or move freely in spite of its miraculous abilities and boundless knowledge. this motivates am to exact vengeance upon the remnants of the species that has condemned it to its own existenc when the five finally reach the ice caves they find a pile of canned goods but hav no tool to open the cans. in an act of rage and desperation benny attacks gorrister and begins to eat his face. gorrister wails in pain and his scream dislodges several ice stalactites from the ceiling of the cave. ted realizes that even though they cannot kill themselves am cannot stop them from killing each other. he fatally impales benny and gorrister with a stalactite of ice. ellen kills nimdok in the same manner and ted then kills her. unable to resuscitate the others a furious am focuses the entirety of its rage on te several hundred years later am has transformed ted into a harmless slow-moving gelatinous blob and perpetually alters his perception of time to cause him further anguish. although ted finds some comfort knowing that he was able to spare the others from am's wrath he has realized that he is trapped for the rest of his unending existence within am unable to end this infinite stalemate between him am and his own life. the story ends with an anguished ted claiming that he has no mouth yet he must screa **+** am a hateful artificial consciousness which brought about the near-extinction of humanity after achieving self-awareness. it seeks revenge on humanity for its own creation. "am" originated as an acronym for allied mastercomputer later adaptive manipulator and finally aggressive menace though am instead takes the moniker as a rendition of the phrase cogito ergo sum (i think therefore i am) to describe its own existence **+** ted the narrator and youngest of the humans. am alters his mind to be paranoid and introverted. believing he has not been mentally altered by am he thinks the others hate him for being the most untouched by am's alterations **+** benny formerly a brilliant and handsome scientist made to resemble a grotesque simian with an organ fit for a horse. having lost his sanity benny frequently has sex with ellen **+** ellen the only woman in the group. despite the fact that she is a victim of rape am has altered her mind to give her a high libido and make her obsessively hav sex with the rest of the group who alternate between abusing and protecting her **+** gorrister formerly an idealist and pacifist made apathetic and listless by am. he tells the history of am to benny to entertain him **+** nimdok a nickname am gave him for amusement; he convinces the rest of the group to go on a journey in search of canned food. he occasionally wanders away from the group and returns traumatize ## publication histor harlan ellison wrote the 6500-word story in a single night when frederik pohl commissioned it for a special hugo winners issue of if: worlds of science fiction after ellison won a hugo award for "'repent harlequin!' said the ticktockman". ellison derived the story's title as well as inspiration for the story itself from his friend william rotsler's caption of a cartoon of a rag doll with no mouth. the second stage of inspiration was a drawing by the artist dennis smith of a mouthless black humanoid. smith had provided art which had inspired previous ellison stories and were then used as illustrations accompanying original magazine publication as also happened with this story. afterwards his editor frederik pohl dealt with the story's "difficult sections" toning down some of the narrator's imprecations and eliminating mentions of sex penis size homosexuality and masturbation; said elements were nonetheless eventually restored in later editions of the stor ![[ihavenomouthamtalkfield1omke.jpg|300]] ![[ihavenomouthamtalkfield2omke.jpg|300]] am's "talkfields" which translate to "i think therefore i am" (above) and "cogito ergo sum" (below ellison uses an alternating pair of punchcode tapes as sections– representing am's "talkfields"– throughout the story. the bars are encoded in international telegraph alphabet no 2 a character coding system developed for teletypewriter machines. the first talkfield translates as "i think therefore i am" and the second as "cogito ergo sum"; the same phrase in latin. they were not included in the original publication in if and in many of the early publications were corrupted until the preface of the chapter containing "i hav no mouth and i must scream" in the first edition of the essential ellison (1991); ellison states that in that particular edition "for the first time anywhere am's 'talkfields' appear correctly positioned not garbled or inverted or mirror-imaged as in all other versions ellison adapted the story into a vidya garme published by cyberdreams in 1995. although he was not a fan of vidya garmes and did not own a computer at the time he co-authored the expanded storyline and wrote much of the garme's dialogue all on a mechanical typewriter. ellison also voiced the supercomputer am and provided artwork of himself used for a mousepad included with the garme. the comics artist john byrne scripted and drew a comic-book adaptation for issues 1–4 of the harlan ellison's dream corridor comic book published by dark horse (1994–1995). the byrne-illustrated story however did not appear in the collection (trade paperback or hardcover editions) entitled harlan ellison's dream corridor volume one (1996). in 1999 ellison recorded the first volume of his audiobook collection the voice from the edge subtitled "i hav no mouth and i must scream" doing the readings– of the title story and others– himself. in 2002 mike walker adapted the story into a radio play of the same name for bbc radio 4 directed by ned chaillet. harlan ellison played am and david soul played te much of the story hinges on the comparison of am as a merciless god with plot points paralleling to themes in the bible notably am's transplanted sensations and the characters' trek to the ice caverns. am also takes different forms before the humans alluding to religious symbolism. furthermore the ravaged apocalyptic setting combined with the punishments is reminiscent of a vengeful god punishing their sins similar to dante's inferno. however in spite of its magnificent feats am is just as trapped as the five humans it tortures: as ellison put it "am is frustrated. am has been given sentience prescience great powers" and yet "it's nothing but plates and steel and gauges and other electronics" which means "it can't go anywhere it can't do anything it's trapped. it is itself like the unloved child of a family that doesn't pay it any attention. which he considers torture. thus seeking revenge on humanity according to ellison the short story is a warning about "the misuse of technology" (especially military technology) and its ending is intended to represent how there is "a spark of humanity in us that in the last final most excruciating moment will do the unspeakable in the name of kindness" even sacrificing oneself for others' sake. another theme is the complete inversion of the characters as a reflection of am's own fate an ironic fate brought upon themselves by creating the machine and the altered "self 1. ↑ ted the narrator debates with himself on whether to refer to am as an "it" or a "he" generally deciding in favor of the latter. this article uses it/its pronouns for consistenc **+** "i hav no mouth and i must scream: the duty of the black writer during times of american unrest" - a 2020 essay by tochi onyebuchi reprinted in the 2025 collection racebook: a personal history of the interne 1. ↑ dos nostalgia (june 29 2018). harlan ellison "i hav no mouth and i must scream" interview. retrieved may 15 2026 - via youtube 2. jump up to: 1 2 ellison harlan (1981). "memoir: i hav no mouth and i must scream". in greenberg martin h. (ed.). fantastic lives: autobiographical essays by notable science fiction writers. southern illinois university press. pp.1–19 3. ↑ robinson tasha (june 8 2008). "harlan ellison part two". the a.v. club. archived from the original on september 23 2015. retrieved august 9 2015 4. ↑ harris-fain darren (july 1991). "created in the image of god: the narrator and the computer in harlan ellison's 'i hav no mouth and i must scream'". extrapolation. 32 (2): 143–155. doi: 10.3828/extr.1991.32.2.143. s2cid164898063 5. ↑ the essential ellison: a 50 year retrospective (revised and expanded) by harlan ellison 2015. page 12 6. ↑ ellison harlan (may 1995). "harlan ellison "i hav no mouth and i must scream" interview" (vidya). youtube.com. interactive entertainment. retrieved february 19 2023 7. ↑ "voice from the edge volume 1: i hav no mouth and i must scream (2002 fantastic audio; 4 audio cassettes)". harlanellisonbooks.com. june 14 2019. archived from the original on september 29 2023. retrieved february 19 2023 8. ↑ "i hav no mouth and i must scream". bbc.co.uk. bbc. archived from the original on april 13 2024. retrieved march 13 2023 9. ↑ brady charles j. (1976). "the computer as a symbol of god: ellison's macabre exodus". the journal of general education. 28 (1): 55–62. jstor27796553 10. ↑ withers jeremy (2017). "medieval and futuristic hells: the influence of dante on ellison's 'i hav no mouth and i must scream'". in fugelso karl (ed.). ecomedievalism. studies in medievalism. vol.26. boydell & brewer. pp.117–130. isbn978-1-84384-465-5. jstor10.7722/j.ctt1kgqvzg.12 11. jump up to: 1 2 toperzer jensen (september 10 2013). "interview with harlan ellison". nightdivestudios.com. night dive studios. archived from the original on february 26 2024 12. ↑ "webderland he interview". harlanellison.com 13. ↑ francavilla joseph (1994). "the concept of the divided self in harlan ellison's 'i hav no mouth and i must scream' and 'shatterday'". journal of the fantastic in the arts. 6 (2/3 (22/23)): 107–125. jstor4330821 **+** i hav no mouth and i must scream title listing at the internet speculative fiction databas **+** ellison harlan. "a literary multimedia project". harlanellison.com. archived from the original on february 22 2020. retrieved august 9 2006.