My all time favourite writer. No sci-fi writer could describe the launch of a rocket any more poetic than Ray Bradbury.
There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#42My all time favourite writer. No sci-fi writer could describe the launch of a rocket any more poetic than Ray Bradbury.
Bradbury wrote rockets the way other writers wrote sunsets
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#43I think an appreciable number of people upvoting this and reading it or re-reading it may not have noticed why it was submitted today (the date on which the story takes place is tomorrow!).
The future arrived quietly
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#44"Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn." Bradbury describes the fully automated smart home, but its technology does obviously not extend into the garden exterior. Funny - that in reality robot vacuum cleaners and robot mowers were actually among the first gadgets in automated smart homes. I perceive this as a flaw in the story. The author had a very prophetic vision of technology in the future, and with…
People still cook in houses with microwaves and wash dishes despite owning dishwashers
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#45I think an appreciable number of people upvoting this and reading it or re-reading it may not have noticed why it was submitted today (the date on which the story takes place is tomorrow!).
It is now public domain ?
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#46"Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn." Bradbury describes the fully automated smart home, but its technology does obviously not extend into the garden exterior. Funny - that in reality robot vacuum cleaners and robot mowers were actually among the first gadgets in automated smart homes. I perceive this as a flaw in the story. The author had a very prophetic vision of technology in the future, and with…
Yeah. All they needed back then was a healthy dose of some of those new chemical fertilizer/herbicides to broadcast onto their monoculture non-native grass lawns. They could look forward to the smell of fresh-cut grass while they enjoyed snorting the exhaust from their leaded gasoline lawnmowers and edgers. They could have the nicest, greenest lawn on the block and be the envy of all their neighbors.
Later on, like their neighbors, they can stumble thru the last years of their lives with Parkinsons or other chemically-induced afflictions or just slowly waste away with internal cancers while their lead-addled offspring elect criminal pedophiles and imbeciles to lead the whole country - backwards.
Man, I need to go to sleep. I do agree with your analysis though.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#47"Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn." Bradbury describes the fully automated smart home, but its technology does obviously not extend into the garden exterior. Funny - that in reality robot vacuum cleaners and robot mowers were actually among the first gadgets in automated smart homes. I perceive this as a flaw in the story. The author had a very prophetic vision of technology in the future, and with…
Well I enjoy mowing my lawn (with a mechanic mower of course). Anything but the office chair and monitor.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#48"Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn." Bradbury describes the fully automated smart home, but its technology does obviously not extend into the garden exterior. Funny - that in reality robot vacuum cleaners and robot mowers were actually among the first gadgets in automated smart homes. I perceive this as a flaw in the story. The author had a very prophetic vision of technology in the future, and with…
People still cook in houses with microwaves and wash dishes despite owning dishwashers
Cooking is pretty different to lawn mowing here, you still can't replicate the output of a cooked meal with any easily available combination of home appliances and robotics (let alone just microwaves). I think a large chunk of people would probably stop cooking if that was possible.
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#49I think an appreciable number of people upvoting this and reading it or re-reading it may not have noticed why it was submitted today (the date on which the story takes place is tomorrow!).
Reminds me of when November 2019 came and went (the date that Blade Runner is set in)
Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
#50Ray Bradbury has some great ideas, but I hate his writing style. It’s far too flowery, he’s on a spectrum that contains Hemingway at one extreme, and Bradbury near the other. I prefer Hemingway. Writing style at least.
As "Forever and the Earth" shows it wasn't just stylistic, but essential.
Ecclesiastes 1:1~11 (where that title is from) talks about futility, using only verses that are hopeful. (but that is lost on newer translations because the language was simplified. see legacy standard or Brenton's Septuagint for the effect)