I've recently finished the short story
collection named I have no Mouth, and I must scream by Harlan
Ellison. The titular short story was adapted into an adventure game
for PC that I played a long time ago, at the time it prompted me to
read what turned out to be a heavily edited version of that story.
On a William Gibson spending spree
however I saw that Amazon was recommending this collection too, so I
picked it up. I am glad I did.
The collection contains a number of
short stories each introduced by the author himself and this adds a
context, a reality to what otherwise is absolute fantasy. You learn
a lot as you traverse the pages but each story also opens questions
that are never answered, but the point of his work is clearly never
to answer any questions, it's to punch holes in things that we
thought we were sure of. To make us question the unquestionable.
Have no mouth is an example of that,
where an AI becomes abhorred with humanity. Despising it so much to
perpetrate the existence of a collection of souls so as to torture
them eternally, the relationship of man and god and master and slave
is questioned. I often picture AI as something that would be far
away and emotionless but what if Ellison's example is right, if you
grant something the ability to think are you intrinsically giving it
the ability to hate.
One story punched me harder than the
rest however, hitting me somewhere that I clearly needed to feel
weakness. Somewhere that I thought I would be impervious. Delusion for a Dragon Slayer is a story about a normal guy, living out his normal
life until an event occurs that throws him into a world of dreams.
I won't provide a synopsis but I think
I may steal its sentiment. The guy finds that it doesn't matter how
grand ones dreams are, he must be worthy of them or he still then has
nothing. That hit me, made me realize I had this mad idea in my head
that grand dreams are something great in themselves. Ellison made me
see that they aren't something I own, merely something I bring myself
to face and if I'm not worthy of them. Well.
Great collection of stories, I highly
recommend them.
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