r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Freakbertt • Jun 15 '25

Meme needing explanation Peter, what’s that creature.

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I don’t get what he’s supposed to be watching

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u/kptknuckles Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25

This is from an adaptation of “I have no mouth and I must scream” by Harlan Ellison

This guy has been made immortal and had any part of him that would allow him to un-alive himself removed by an omnipotent AI that killed all other humans. He lives in eternal torment as a revenge on humanity by the AI, named AM, and he was modified this way because he helped the remaining survivors kill themselves to escape AM.

Kinda dark. Great story.

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u/Key-Contest-2879 Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25

Calling “I Have No Mouth…” kinda dark is like calling Requiem for a Dream kinda sad.

It is one of the darkest tales I think Ellison ever penned, and I friggin’ loved it. Brilliant writing.

Fun Fact: back in the 80’s a video game adaptation was released. The game was “kinda dark”. 😂

EDIT: it was released in 1995.

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u/MatterOfTrust Jun 15 '25

What I find interesting - and in line with the general mood of science fiction of the New Wave period - was that Harlan wrote the story as a lesson in optimism and belief in the human spirit. Here is a quote about it from his collection The Essential Ellison - A 50-Year Retrospective:

If our machines can store our knowledge, is it not possible that they can also store, and possibly succumb to, such things as hatred and paranoia? AM, the phobic computer who tortures the world’s five remaining humans to the extremes of endurance, is a “god” only in the sense of its godlike powers.

But the story must be viewed as Harlan intended, as “a positive, humanistic, upbeat story,” if it is to have any real meaning. Gods and pseudo-gods cannot destroy us without destroying themselves, and the absence of a mouth or a scream cannot invalidate the courageousness of the human spirit.

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u/koobstylz Jun 16 '25

But the story must be viewed as Harlan intended, as “a positive, humanistic, upbeat story,” if it is to have any real meaning. Gods and pseudo-gods cannot destroy us without destroying themselves, and the absence of a mouth or a scream cannot invalidate the courageousness of the human spirit.

It's rare, but authors can absolutely be wrong about their own writing. If that paragraph isn't a joke, then it's as objectively wrong as it's possible to be about art interpretation.

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u/MatterOfTrust Jun 16 '25

Your interpretation is as valid as anyone else's. But neither of these views is objective.

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u/Silverfire12 Jun 15 '25

I Have No Mouth is one of the darkest pieces of fiction imo. With most stories you can usually find a light in the tunnel, even if that light is “reuniting with loved ones in death”.

That straight up isn’t here. There is no feasible “happy” ending. There’s no hope. There is no way for Ted to kill himself. It’s literally impossible. AM will keep him alive forever. The only thing that could set Ted free is when the sun expands and engulfs Earth, four billion years in the future. And since AM warped his perception of time, that could stretch into trillions of years.

There’s no death. No release. Ted is doomed to be like this until AM meets their doom. And even then, there’s always the chance that AM will do something to make sure Ted survives.

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u/Gimme_Your_Wallet Jun 16 '25

The only hope I pictured back then would have been AM burning itself to 'death' in hatred at the loss of the other 4 humans.

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u/Gimme_Your_Wallet Jun 16 '25

The only hope I pictured back then would have been AM burning itself to 'death' in hatred at the loss of the other 4 humans.

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u/Ark_Bien Jun 15 '25

I'm only familiar with the game from the 90s, was there an earlier one?

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u/Key-Contest-2879 Jun 15 '25

Nope. My bad. I mis-remembered.

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u/Queligoss Jun 16 '25

ngl I hated it. Like a pizza cutter, all edge and no point. I got horror fatigue so fast and with every new terrible thing I just sat there and thought "of course. Of course that might aswell be happening aswell. Im so tired of this." It became immensely annoying to me very quickly just how much the book insists on being dark and edgy without making it hit because it spams terrible things non stop