The End of the Whole Mess (short story)
E1028891
"The End of the Whole Mess" is a science fiction short story by Stephen King that follows a brilliant man's attempt to end human violence through a well-intentioned but catastrophic experiment.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The End of the Whole Mess (short story) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T13238469 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The End of the Whole Mess (short story) Context triple: [Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, basedOnWork, The End of the Whole Mess (short story)]
-
A.
The Wide Net and Other Stories
The Wide Net and Other Stories is a 1943 collection of short fiction by American author Eudora Welty that showcases her lyrical prose and vivid portrayals of life in the American South.
-
B.
A Strange Story
A Strange Story is an 1862 supernatural novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton that blends occult themes with psychological and philosophical exploration.
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C.
A Very Short Story
"A Very Short Story" is a brief World War I–themed narrative by Ernest Hemingway, known for its concise style and emotional understatement, later collected in his book *In Our Time*.
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D.
When the Nines Roll Over (short story collection)
"When the Nines Roll Over" is a collection of contemporary short stories by David Benioff that explores themes of love, ambition, and disillusionment through sharply drawn characters and darkly comic situations.
-
E.
The Only Story
The Only Story is a 2018 novel by British author Julian Barnes that explores a young man's life-defining love affair with an older, married woman and its lasting emotional consequences.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The End of the Whole Mess (short story) Target entity description: "The End of the Whole Mess" is a science fiction short story by Stephen King that follows a brilliant man's attempt to end human violence through a well-intentioned but catastrophic experiment.
-
A.
The Wide Net and Other Stories
The Wide Net and Other Stories is a 1943 collection of short fiction by American author Eudora Welty that showcases her lyrical prose and vivid portrayals of life in the American South.
-
B.
A Strange Story
A Strange Story is an 1862 supernatural novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton that blends occult themes with psychological and philosophical exploration.
-
C.
A Very Short Story
"A Very Short Story" is a brief World War I–themed narrative by Ernest Hemingway, known for its concise style and emotional understatement, later collected in his book *In Our Time*.
-
D.
When the Nines Roll Over (short story collection)
"When the Nines Roll Over" is a collection of contemporary short stories by David Benioff that explores themes of love, ambition, and disillusionment through sharply drawn characters and darkly comic situations.
-
E.
The Only Story
The Only Story is a 2018 novel by British author Julian Barnes that explores a young man's life-defining love affair with an older, married woman and its lasting emotional consequences.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
science fiction short story
ⓘ
short story ⓘ |
| author | Stephen King ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| exploresConcept |
behavior modification
ⓘ
limits of human control ⓘ mass psychotropic exposure ⓘ |
| genre |
science fiction
ⓘ
speculative fiction ⓘ |
| hasConflict |
man versus self
ⓘ
man versus society ⓘ |
| hasEnding | apocalyptic ⓘ |
| hasForm | prose ⓘ |
| hasLength | short fiction ⓘ |
| hasMoral | well-intentioned interventions can have disastrous consequences ⓘ |
| hasReception | noted for its disturbing and thought-provoking premise ⓘ |
| hasSetting |
global scale
ⓘ
near future ⓘ |
| hasStructure | retrospective account ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
family relationships
ⓘ
global catastrophe ⓘ memory loss ⓘ pacifism ⓘ scientific responsibility ⓘ violence ⓘ |
| hasTone |
cautionary
ⓘ
dark ⓘ tragic ⓘ |
| intendedAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| intendedEffectOnReader | warning about hubris in science ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | late 20th century literature ⓘ |
| literaryStyle | conversational first-person voice ⓘ |
| mainCharacterRole |
brilliant scientist
ⓘ
narrator brother ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
attempt to end human violence
ⓘ
brotherly relationship ⓘ ethical implications of altering human behavior ⓘ unintended consequences of scientific experimentation ⓘ |
| narrativeDevice | dying narrator recounting events ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first-person narrative ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A brilliant man develops a method to reduce human aggression, leading to catastrophic side effects for humanity. ⓘ |
| portrays |
collapse of human civilization
ⓘ
erosion of human cognitive abilities ⓘ |
| workOfAuthor | Stephen King bibliography NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| workType | short fiction by Stephen King ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The End of the Whole Mess (short story) Description of subject: "The End of the Whole Mess" is a science fiction short story by Stephen King that follows a brilliant man's attempt to end human violence through a well-intentioned but catastrophic experiment.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King
→
basedOnWork
→
The End of the Whole Mess (short story)
ⓘ