AM, or the most evil character in fiction - from I have no mouth and I must scream

Hello Charlie, today, I will talk about a Book, but also a video game called "I have no mouth and I must scream".

Please note that I haven't personally read the book, nor played the game, so my version of things can contain some errors.However, the book and game are very well documentated on Internet, so I will be making  a little synthesis of what can and should be learned. Another thing is that I won't give all the details about this book because some are too horrible to be wrote here, so go buy the book , play the game or simply look on Wikipedia if you want to know.

But first , let's talk about the book version.

I have no mouth and I must scream is  a post-apocalyptic and techno-horror novel wrote by Harlan Ellison and published in march 1967 in the magazine IF: Worlds of Science Fiction.The book won a Hugo Award in 1968.

During World War III, the three fighting countries, United States, China and the Soviet Union,each build a super computer , "Allied Master computer", or "AM", essentiel to fight in this large-scale war. The antagonist, AM, combines himself with the other computers ( they are very large computers). AM gained sentience. Just imagine : a machine so developed that knows what human emotions are, but can't feel them. What having a body is, but doesn't have one. What being human is, but isn't one. He exterminates humanity, but keeps 5 human alive : Benny, Ellen,Nimdok (nickname), and Ted, the narrator. About the characters, there are details I can't give, for the same reasons as I said earlier, but you can easily check on Wikipedia if you are interested ( it's a little harsh, so be conscious of it before going for it). AM  then tortures them for eternity, making them immortal by giving them a virtual body but still vulnerable to all types of pain. They are fed with practically inedible food,and he makes them unable to kill themselves, just to get himself a reminder of how much he hates humanity . 109 years after AM kills all of mankind, the 5 humans theorize that canned food  exist in the ice caves of the complex. So they  begin looking for it, while AM  still tortures them. During the journey, Ted, the narrator is knocked uncouscious and has a nightmare of AM with an anthropomorphic body speaking directly to him. He then understands that AM hates human, because in spite of his knowledge and abilities, he cannot move freely ; he is a computer complex, after all. So he hates the ones that are responsible of his current state. When the group reaches the ice caves,  they find the canned food but can't open it, because they have no tools. Enraged, Benny begins to eat Gorrister's face. While he screams, ice stalactites get disloged from the ceiling of the ice caves. That makes Ted realize they cannot kill themselves, but can't be stopped from killing each other. He impales Benny and Gorrister with an ice stalactite. Ellen does the same for Nimdok and Ted kills her. AM, furious to see that they are all dead except Ted, he casts his entire rage on him. Hundred of  years later,AM has transformed  Ted into a gelatinous blob and changed his perception of time, to make the eternity seem longer. Even though Ted is happy that he spared  the others from AM anger, he knows he is doomed and trapped for the rest of his unending  existence in this state, unable to end his own life. The story ends with Ted claiming that he has no mouth, and he must scream.

Sources  : mostly Wikipedia, but from all over the Internet globally

The game  was released  in november  1995, and is a point and click adventure horror game developed by Cyber Dreams and The Dreamers Guild. It was a commercial failure , but received critical acclaim and developed a cult following, according to Wikipedia ( but you can still see references to the game on Internet today, because the story regained popularity). It won an Award for "Best Game Adapted from Linear Media " from the computer Game Developers Conference. It was listed as no.134 on the "150 games of all time", named one of the "Best 15 sleepers of all time ", and received an award for "Adventure Game or the Year " from Computer Gaming World. In 2011, Adventure Gamers named it the "69th-best adventure game ever released".

The story is pretty much the same, but a little bit different. So i'll make it quick : AM kills all of humanity, keeps alive 5 humans, and after 109 years of torture, gives them a game to play. Each human will have to play a different version of it , created by AM and based on their greatest fears. But everyone out of the 5 overcome their weaknesses, with the help of the Russian and Chinese super computers who help them in this version of the story. The player can then choose one of the humans to get translated in binary and enter AM's mind.Through dialogue with AM's components (Surgat, Chinese Supercomputer and Russian Supercomputer), the character learns that a colony of humans survived the war by hiding on the moon. Our character can then shut down the three Supercomputers. The complex  is then destroyed by explosions, including other characters' cavern.  But the character we chose to be translated in binary keeps his digital form, to patrol AM's circuits, to be ensured the computers will never regain consciousness. But if our character fails to disable AM, he gets punished by being transformed into an immobile blob and spends eternity with AM. 

There are 7 different endings, but I don't think it's necessary to talk about them all, so I won't do it and anyways , I fear it would be hard for me to correctly talk about them.

So, in the end, as you can see, AM is really one of the most evil characters in fiction, well-known and recognized for it. I didn't give all the details, but he did very cruel things and is completely crazy, so don't treat him as a model (I doubt anyone will do it, but still). About the characters, for exemple,  I can say , mostly in the book, he totally transformed them, as much mentally than physically.

Little details and things related :

-You can listen to the audio book on Spotify 

-AM , originally stands for "Allied Master computer", "Adaptative Manipulator" and "Agressive Menace", but AM uses it as a rendition of the phrase Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) to describe his own existence, which is an important point in AM : how he can describe his existence.

-I really thank Wikipedia for helping me write this article but also all the youtube vidéos that talk about AM and this book/game, without them I wouldn't have discovered such an interesting and visionary Story ( a book that talks about a computer taking control of humanity in 1967 !)

-AM hate speech in an animated version- to make you understand how hateful he is

- In the game version, Harlan Ellison himself wrote the dialogues of AM and voiced him, to be ensured to have a voice that really fits AM's hatred

- What Ted claims, that he has no mouth and must scream, aka the title of the book and game, also refers to AM, who also  doesn't have a mouth but needs to scream.

- Apparently, the series called " The amazing digital circus" was inspirée by the character of AM. I don't really know this series though, so I can't really talk about it.

Anyways, this book and game is amazing, and you should read it (even if I spoiled you, sorry)