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There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#61

Post by layer8 »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #12

I wonder if the latest Jurassic Park: Rebirth film drew from this? There is a reference to global warming that is similar to the poem. That the world will heat up, and humanity will die, and the earth will continue on as it has for a million years. The film mentioned the “the earth will shake us off, like a summer cold”. This seems fairly comparable to the soft rains poem in this piece.

Earth overcoming the sickness that is homo sapiens is a long-standing meme. The ideas that species can become extinct (Cuvier) and that humans are hurting the planet (Humboldt) have existed since around 1800.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#62

Post by myself248 »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #12

I wonder if the latest Jurassic Park: Rebirth film drew from this? There is a reference to global warming that is similar to the poem. That the world will heat up, and humanity will die, and the earth will continue on as it has for a million years. The film mentioned the “the earth will shake us off, like a summer cold”. This seems fairly comparable to the soft rains poem in this piece.

Oh, this just popped into my head. If you want an early piece about global warming, I submit Metropolitan Nightmare:

https://poets.org/poem/metropolitan-nightmare

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#64

Post by dfansteel »

graysnow86 wrote: post #63

this version seems to be missing large sections compared to the other posted version, like how the mice throughly clean up the debris after the dog's entrance, the dog smelling food through the kitchen door and scratching at it, etc etc

The original was published as a one page story. It was later reprinted in a longer format.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#65

Post by adaml_623 »

purple-leafy wrote: post #15
squigz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I'm just tired of the doom and gloom. I should probably keep in mind this was written in 1950.

Try some Arthur C Clarke, less doom and gloom

Childhood's End by Clarke is quite high on my list of grim endings for the human race

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#66

Post by laszlojamf »

The most interesting thing about science fiction to me isn't the things the authors get right, but what they get wrong. Like, the whole house talking in a ChatGPT voice, intelligent appliances, etc: brilliant prescience. But he still thought we'd be having linoleum on our floors...

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#67

Post by 3848484949 »

srean wrote: post #53
philosopherNoob wrote: post #20

Though it makes me mourn for life lost when I read it even now, I never cared much for “There Will Come Soft Rains”. It’s a story exploring how what we make could continue on without us (for a time). But “The Pedestrian” (1951) is included at the end. It’s the last two pages out of that six page PDF. I think that one’s more apt to modern life. I read that one ages ago and it unsettled me.

I relate strongly with The Pedestrian. I love going for long walks at odd hours. In the United State police's defence once I was walking all by myself at 3 in the morning in Mountain View, peeking and crouching among the bushes for good shots with my camera. A police car approached me. It ended up being a non-threatening conversation. It was early 2002. All in all quite surprising given my brown skin and then long be…

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Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#68

Post by ZoomZoomZoom »

laszlojamf wrote: post #66

The most interesting thing about science fiction to me isn't the things the authors get right, but what they get wrong. Like, the whole house talking in a ChatGPT voice, intelligent appliances, etc: brilliant prescience. But he still thought we'd be having linoleum on our floors...

Lots of places still use PVC covering commonly called linoleum. And laminate that I see everywhere is not so technologically remote, with its plastic surface.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#69

Post by tgv »

antonvs wrote: post #55
pbronez wrote: post #5

Yeesh how bleak

It was published 5 years after World War II was ended via the first ever nuclear warfare. The silhouettes on the house wall are a clear allusion to the shadows of people left on buildings in Hiroshima. The bleakness was a warning and reminder of what was at stake at the time.

I wonder if the date was chosen at random. Hiroshima is august, 6, after all.

Re: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

#70

Post by xtiansimon »

briansm wrote: post #49
schoen wrote: post #22

I 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)

Don’t forget 2021-01-17, “This is your wake up call. Thank you for staying at the New Darwin Inn.”

Johnny Neumonic (movie, 1995)

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