There Will Come Soft Rains [short story]

A post-nuclear tale published in 1950 that predicts the fully automated house still being promised us through the so-called Internet of Things. Today, we perhaps might hear Alexa's voice.

The house lives on after the instant immolation of the inhabitants represented ultimately by the monument of their burned shadows on what will be the only part of the house to survive at the end of the story. Even the dog is dead.

But the reason for reading it is the elegiac tone. Bradbury builds the story around a few lines of a poem written long before the possibility of nuclear war but predictive of the same reality that continues today at Chernobyl where trees still grow but humans don't live.

He really lets himself flow into what turns into a sort show more of extended prose poem about mechanisms that act as ghosts of humanity, mindlessly following routines until accident and entropy no longer permit them to follow what had become daily rituals as the system collapses.

The idea of technology surviving as the pale shadow of lost human life before it too is no longer able to function would have been sad enough nearly seventy years ago. Perhaps it is even sadder now when we contemplate the ghost lives that will survive us on the internet. show less

An interesting story written in 1950 by Bradbury depicting a post-apocalyptic August 4, 2026, where only machines survive a nuclear devastation...the machines keep whirring, speaking, cooking, cleaning, reminding, and serving an extinct humanity...if it wasn't so chilling it would be funny to watch all that animated activity continuing aimlessly ad nauseum...

I'm not keen on science fiction or dystopian, but this succinct five-page story, packs a punch. You can find it here.

There Will Come Soft Rains
Short Story by Ray Bradbury

Disturbing tale of what remains after a nuclear blast in 2026. The McClellan home in Allendale, CA, is the last remaining building standing. It continues functioning normally in a futuristic fashion even though the family who lived there is no longer present. Breakfasts are made, baths are run, dishes are washed, poems are read with soft music playing in the background, cigars are lit, etc., just as the family has programmed the home to do as part of their normal routine.

The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly.

The title of this story show more refers to the mother's favorite poem of the same name written by Sara Teasdale, which has an ironic nod toward what has just happened to the world as they knew it.

Witnessing the house function on its own adds a sense of loneliness and horror knowing the McClellan family, as well as everything and everyone around them were also lost. Reminiscent of the devastation in Japan during WWII, Bradbury included imagery of the family's silhouettes left on an outside wall of their home. Adding salt to our wounds, he also had to include the heartbreaking homecoming of the family dog.

I don't think I will ever forget it. Fourteen pages of heart-wrenching tragic prophesy. show less

A short story or a novella by one of my favorite authors. This story did not disappoint. It seemed to be in the same vein as Fahrenheit 451 and is supposed to take place in 2026. For being written in 1950, Bradbury was very perceptive. I would say this was a post-apocalyptic tale, although we don't know what occurred before the story begins. Great short read!

Where this short story really soars is its setting; Bradbury creates a haunting, melancholy atmosphere subtly and without using any cheap tricks. The imagery of the house calmly and faithfully carrying out its daily duties while the world crumbles around it is one that will stay in your mind for a long time.

For those of you that have played the video game Fallout 3, there is also an allusion to this story in it. In fact, the developers created their own spin on the famous Ray Bradbury "smart house":

AND if you ask the resident robot to recite a poem, it will recite Sara Teasdale's "There Will Come Soft Rains", as in the story:

The title is from an anti-war poem by Sara Teasdale, here, written during WW1.

Bradbury writes an initially comic (computerised Heath Robinson) and very cinematographic scene that felt disorientingly different from the preceding Martian Chronicles, but works well as a standalone. But it arises from the horrific cinders of a nuclear explosion. An automated house continues its programmed routines of preparing meals, cleaning, watering the lawn, playing films, running baths, reading favourite poems - all for people who aren’t there. People whose shadows were captured on a wall, in a moment: mowing the lawn, picking flowers, tossing a ball.

Image: Shadows on the wall (Source)

It's worth browsing YouTube for the many short amateur show more animations this has inspired. Given that Bradbury wrote the story, afraid of nuclear war with the USSR, a Russian one was notable, and also for its imagery that might shock some Christians. Many of the others were too cutesy, and without enough humour or horror, imo. Oddly, only one of the half-dozen I watched included the most memorable image of all, but I didn't like its hybrid visuals: photos with cartoonish animation superimposed, intercut with real world video. That one is here.

This story is also published as one of The Martian Chronicles, which I've reviewed in detail HERE. show less

boring. Interesting premise, but boring to read. Kept skimming and drifting off.