Annyone in here knows this short story? It is simply brilliant. It is about 5 persons trapped inside a computer after the world ended... sounds strange, but it is brilliant.
If you want to search for it, Harlan wrote it. Tell me your oppinnion if you're through.

It's a rather dark story, but it stands as one of my all-time favorites. Absolutely compelling, original, and thought-provoking! I recommend this story to people all the time.

Not a Bradbury story, though. It's by Harlen Ellison. I think it came out in 1967. The title is the last line of the story.


[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 04-10-2003).]

The only Ellison collection I read was "Shatterday." Although I really liked some parts of certain stories, overall I found his writing enough of a downer that I was never inclined to read any more of his work. Brilliant and original as he can be, I just find writing downer stories too deceptively easy. Unpredictable upper stories are FAR more difficult and ultimately worthwhile.

I cried, and I mean I cried HARD, after reading Ellison's JEFTY IS FIVE.

Up or down, I want to feel SOMETHING when I read a story.

Dam, I have to read more of his works. BTW, a movie version of IHNMAIMS would rock! Imagine Edward Norton as the lead!

In "Shatterday," Ellison wrote that "Jeffty is Five" is one of his best six stories of all time. I almost asked the other five. The ones I hear of most frequently are "I have no mouth and I must scream" and "Repent Harlequin said the Ticktockman."

For some reason "Repent Harlequin" never did it for me. Perhaps I should re-read it one day. I'll bet some of Ellison's other picks are "Deathbird", "A Boy and His Dog" and "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" -- all worth reading.

Does Ray have a short list of his personal best? For some reason, I bet he doesn't.

[This message has been edited by WritingReptile (edited 04-11-2003).]

[This message has been edited by WritingReptile (edited 04-11-2003).]

I read "Angry Candy" which is a collection of stories about death. The introduction alone is a bit of a downer.It is a pretty good collection despite the lack of "upper stories". I've read some of his other stories in anthologies including "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" which won the Edgar award in 1974. It's a pretty good urban horror story.I don't mind "downer" stories as long as they are creative and carry emotion as WritingReptile alluded to. Sometimes they just compliment the mood of that particular day, kind of like listening to "Riders on the Storm" on a rainy day while staring blankly out the window.I don't know if I would classify them as easier to write, "upper stories" seem more predictable to me.Some of the best short stories are from authors like Poe and Shirley Jackson who I would have to categorize as "downer" type story tellers.Anyway, I haven't read "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" but it certainly sounds like one worth hunting down. What a great title too.Thanks for the post.

I'd forgotten "A Boy and his Dog" was by Ellison. Another great story. I don't remember details of the film, but they did a movie adapted from this. My recollection of it is that it was pretty good.

This goes to another thing I like about Bradbury -- he manages to evoke human feeling without resorting to graphic sex or violence. He also -- no matter how dark a story gets -- seems to find a good character somewhere or some good thing a bad character did. This sets him apart from a lot of SciFi -- which frequently contains graphic sexuality and violence. That's not to say I think there is no place for those in stories that forecast dystopias, but it is another factor in Ray's writing that sets him apart.


[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 04-11-2003).]

A compelling story indeed, and the most powerful story title I have EVER seen.

By the way, Harlan Ellison's laudatory introduction to Ray's contribution to one of his "Dangerous Visions" anthologies is the most enjoyable praise of Ray I have ever seen. Except maybe on this site, of course.