Nimdok and Gorrister carried Ellen for a while, their hands locked to their own and each other's
wrists, a seat. Benny and I walked before and after, just to make sure that, if anything happened,
it would catch one of us and at least Ellen would be safe. Fat chance, safe. Didn't matter.
It was only a hundred miles or so to the ice caverns, and the second day, when we were lying out
under the blistering sun-thing he had materialized, he sent down some manna. Tasted like boiled
boar urine. We ate it.
On the third day we passed through a valley of obsolescence, filled with rusting carcasses of
ancient computer banks. AM had been as ruthless with its own life as with ours. It was a mark of
his personality: it strove for perfection. Whether it was a matter of killing off unproductive
elements in his own world-filling bulk, or perfecting methods for torturing us, AM was as
thorough as those who had invented him—now long since gone to dust—could ever have hoped.
There was light filtering down from above, and we realized we must be very near the surface.
But we didn't try to crawl up to see. There was virtually nothing out there; had been nothing that
could be considered anything for over a hundred years. Only the blasted skin of what had once
been the home of billions. Now there were only five of us, down here inside, alone with AM.
And then a skeleton popped out!
Nimdok and Gorrister carried Ellen for a while, their hands locked to their own and each other's
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I wish Ellison's lesser known works were more talked about. They're harder to find than you'd think.
why is this story so horrible lads
i had high hopes for it but the writing is dull and lifeless and the story is more edgy than genuinely disturbing
Alone Against Tomorrow is a great short story collection.
The omnibus Dreams with Sharp Teeth has everything you could want from Ellison
When you realise that it describes in near perfect detail what the coming technocracy wants for us, the dread will begin to set in.
not really desu
the technocracy needs us, which is horrifying but not in that way
ellison knows a lot of words, and he's great at arranging them as if someone were screaming them at the top of their lungs.. but i can only think of maybe two or three of his stories that actually go anywhere or have some kind of resolution. most of them are "describe bad shit, then bad shit gets worse".
not really, Shōjo. the technocracy doesn't need us at all, which is kind of a relief.
yeah he knows a lot of words, but desu the prose in I have no words didn't seem to match the story at all
like it didn't manage to be scary, he was simply describing the situation
yeah but that's not like the story at all
You don’t understand post-scarcity. All you have is faith that our masters will be kind gods.
He literally wrote it in a night
this story is about Roko's basilisk
Because Ellison was a cuck, edgelord and a filthy jew.
did he also edit it in 2 minutes?
except AM tortures humans for bringing it into existence, not the opposite
What the fuck is AM's problem?
>Waaah I didn't wanna be born!!!
Stfu faggot go clean your room.
I disagree.
The prose snaps along without any needless digressions and the imagery is strong. There's several great moments of assonance like "boiled boar urine," and internal rhyme like "blistering sun-thing."
The plot has a pretty well-defined three-act structure: we learn the characters' "want" (the canned goods), they quest for their "want," and the "want" gives way to the "need" (suicide). Context and characterization are woven into the plot without being obtuse or overly vague.
There's many layers of symbolism — criticism of the 1960s' war machine, mostly. Benny undergoes a transition from brutalizing mankind (as a scientist) to brutalizing specific people (as an ape-thing). Gorrister is an ineffectual protester — he claims to be against war (and AM), but actually goes along with both. The image of "light at the end of the tunnel" is always inverted — light doesn't mean escape, it means more harm, just as a war doesn't mean peace, it means the groundwork is laid for another war.
And so on.
It's dumb, a child could poke holes in its premise.
This. I read a couple books of short stories my friend had of his and have not been able to find them since. They were amazing too.
Nice poetic analysis, user.
Jefty is Five. A love letter to Entertainment Past.
>more edgy than genuinely disturbing
Yeah I've always felt the same way.
Ellison short stories better than IHNMAIMS off the top of my head:
Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes
Grail
Jeffty is Five
Adrift off the Islets of Langerhans
Repent, Harlequin
I'd read your post but you put weebshit next to it