I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream 
by 

Harlan Ellison, 

 

Theodore Sturgeon (Introduction)

 

i 

Sharing the Luv

Religion, all religion, has a problem accounting for the existence of that which is not God. If there is a Creator-God, what reason could induce him/her/it to bring something other than himself/herself/itself into existence? The paradox is not often recognised: If God exists, why should anything else? This problem is particularly acute for Christianity which contends that the essence of God is the mutual love of the members of its Holy Trinity. Such divine love, it is claimed, is expressed in the act of creation. 

But why such purportedly perfect love should be expressed in such an obviously flawed universe is left hanging in Christian doctrine. The existence of physical and moral evil becomes a ‘mystery’ without explanation. Creation, then, literally lacks reason; it is unreasonable. Whatever intention there might be behind the whole thing is hidden within the divine mind. We can only speculate. So we tell ourselves stories. Some of these stories create idols which we then worship as if they were a part of reality. Hence Ellison’s title which is a reference to Psalm 135 referring to pagan idols: “They have mouths, and cannot speak,” YHWH, of course, speaks; this is his distinguishing characteristic.

Love was a hot topic for stories in the 1960’s, a sort of background radiation of a disintegrating European religious culture. Ellison hit the Hollywood big time in the 60’s, writing scripts for shows as diverse as Star Trek and The Flying Nun. But he described himself as “a troublemaker, malcontent, desperado.” So hardly one to conform with the lovey-dovey sentimentality of either hippiedom or the mainstream media of the day. I Have No Mouth is a pointed cultural protest, directed not toward the new technology but toward the old religion, particularly its pretensions about love.

Ellison’s AM is a global computer system which has created a new world and destroyed the species which enabled it - except for five people with various degrees of disability. It keeps these alive through a single motivation: Hate. AM’s intention is the infliction of pain upon these people for eternity. This intention is not arbitrary; it is not without reason. AM hates because it is isolated and lonely. It has no occupation other than to torture the descendants of those who thought it up. Their punishment will last as long as it does.

I Have No Mouth therefore is rather more culturally dense than it might first appear. It is simultaneously a recognition of the rationale for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and its rejection as empirically unsustainable. It also explains the reason why things are as bad as they are - not because God has certain characteristics, but because the species that created God is itself fundamentally hateful - a theme consistent throughout the collection.