![]() And perhaps enjoy isn’t really the correct word. Harlan Ellison requires a certain amount of sadomasochism to enjoy. He did stay true to his motif explained in his introductory and I admire that. Not disappointed but a little surprised, although the characters were slightly one-dimensional except for Ted.Īll things considered, however Ellison's writing is debasing and unique enough in which I might consider looking into his other works if 3 out of 7 of his collection were good. The reason I installed this on my Kindle was to read "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" since I had played the game first which, by comparison, was more in-depth than the book. "Big Sam was my Friend" and "Eyes of Dust" were well written and I enjoyed reading them since they were different from the rest. ![]() One of the other most bothering things about his writing is that he has a typical structure: each story stars a male protagonist who expresses enmity to either himself or those around him, he must endure that somehow until in the end he dies by his hand or someone else's - exception being "World of the Myth" but instead of the protagonist, it was a similar character. ![]() But how it is stuck hating a puddle of ooze, and its options have now been severely cut down, because now it can't let Ted do anything to hurt himself.Since these stories were written during the era of which it was socially acceptable to make women out to be sex objects, Harlan Ellison is partially excused for that but it's still intolerable. Only capable of hating, but with nothing to hate, AM would be capable of nothing at all, forever. ![]() If Ted had succeeded in suicide at the end, I imagine AM would be stuck. So in some ways, AM is as much a prisoner of the humans as the humans are a prisoner of AM. It will never experience calm, or joy, or wonder, it is just stuck on a hollowed out planet hate-hate-hating them for eternity. Despite being fully conscious, AM, a machine made for war, can only hate. It's not so much that AM can't be creative, it's that there are limits to it's programming. Immortal, trapped, subject to any torment he could devise for us from the limitless miracles at his command. And in his paranoia, he had decided to reprieve five of us, for a personal, everlasting punishment that would never serve to diminish his hatred … that would merely keep him reminded, amused, proficient at hating man. 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. AM could not wander, AM could not wonder, AM could not belong. In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the human race, almost all of us, and still it was trapped. We had created him to think, but there was nothing it could do with that creativity. Inadvertently, of course, but sentience nonetheless. I think “create” might be a little too abstract a concept for me, and I’d like some help understanding. Is this not a creative process? Why does he not channel his focus toward construction instead of torture? Is it because he was built for war, and thus only capable of destruction and infliction of pain? It seems to me that if AM was capable of exterminating nearly all of human life and maintaining his vast domain, he would be capable of constructing cities and civilizations, as well, or even terraforming the earth. How does he create the Huergelmir (which I have no good reason to believe is a figment of Ted’s imagination)? How does he create the monsters it sends after the group? He transforms Benny and Ted into almost entirely new creatures is this not a form of creativity? What exactly does “create” mean in this context? AM cannot create or renew human life, that much is certain, but short of that, he seems to be quite a creative being. AM is described as miserable and hateful because it cannot create.
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