Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: TNGO on March 26, 2005, 12:12:13 AM
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Years ago, I read a science fiction short story that I can't get out of my head, even though I can't remember the title or author.
It was set on an Earth that has been conquered and enslaved by aliens. Existence for the surviving humans is an absolutely hopeless hell. The protagonist is a man who is applying to the alien masters for a special
dispensation, which turns out to be death.
Cheerful stuff, right? Can anyone identify this story?
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Would that be Battleground Earth? Written by....Oh..what's his name...Hollyweird folks follow a religion, Scientology, that he dreamed up..John Travolta played in the movie and is a follower of Scientology.
Swag on my part.
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No, not Battlefield Earth; that's a novel, and it has a happy ending. The story I remember is unrelentingly grim.
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The closest story I can think of is "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison. It doesn't quite match your description. There's an all-powerful being on Earth and he's kept 3 humans alive to torment for his personal enjoyment. They've been that way for years and years, suffering. In the end ...
Spoiler warning for those who haven't read it ... don't scroll down if you don't want to know.
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In the end one of them figures out a way they can die. All 3 want to die. They manage it for two of them. The third one lives, sacrificing his chance to die so they others can succeed. The creature changes the last human's form so there is no way he can possibly do this again. He is left immortal and suffering.
At least that's how I remember the story. I'd have to go dig out my copy to confirm all the details.
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It sounds like a Twilight Zone.
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I'm just going to take a wild guess based on BryanP's last post, so, if you avoided the spoilar warning, don't read this!
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What did they do? Bite their tongues off? I'm guess from the title that the third guy was relieved of his mouth, though, I don't see how removing his mouth made him immortal, maybe there was something more to it.
It takes a lot of determination to bite off one's tongue...I suppose they'd have it. >_>
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mbs357, you can read a summary of the story here:
http://www.enotes.com/have-no/
The entire story is available online (quite legally) here:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/ellison/ellison1.html
As you can see, I had the number of people wrong. It's been quite a few years since I read it.
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I have read this story, it is not the harlan one. It was in a collection of similar stories. I have no idea of the title.
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yay!