There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
btboces.org81 points by wallflower 4 days ago
81 points by wallflower 4 days ago
Worth noting - the original WW1 poem written by Sara Teasdale with the same name that may have inspired Bradbury:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(po...
The poem explicitly features in the story, so I'd say it's pretty guaranteed to have inspired Bradbury ;)
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The SSAATTBB setting of Teasdale's words by Latvian contemporary choral composer Ēriks Ešenvalds is fittingly powerful and a guaranteed source of chills:
The choir I sing in performed the piece for the first time in spring 2022, and against the backdrop of the pandemic and Russia's invasion the words felt incredibly topical and poignant. We're performing it again this spring.
While we're at it, a couple of other ethereally beautiful Ešenvalds settings of Teasdale's texts:
Only in Sleep – https://youtu.be/fvPynMI6Umc (for choir and a soprano soloist)
Stars – https://youtu.be/SK2Rd3qgIGE (for choir and tuned wine glasses!)
I made a composition for string orchestra and male voice from that poem 10 years ago. It's a very powerful poem.
https://soundcloud.com/henrisokka/there-will-come-soft-rains
The paragraph about the stove making dozens of breakfasts as the house collapses at the climax of the story is what always stuck with me most. It would take a better writer than me to say why it works so well, I just know it does.
I read this recently and wanted to post it on August 4. You jumped the gun!
I’ll always upvote Bradbury; what a master. Isaac Asimov used to talk about “the big 3” of science fiction of his era: himself (natch), Arthur C Clarke, and Ray Bradbury. The more I read of all those cats, and boy have I read them, I came to see that Asimov was wrong, and that Bradbury was a different and better writer altogether.
Bradbury’s stories are about people, deeply real and deeply feeling people. This thread is young and already comments are about how Bradbury made folks feel. He was a humanist, like Ursula LeGuin, and less interested in exactly how the ray guns worked. Frank Herbert seems like this to me as well, very humane, opposite of Greg Bear and Kim Stanley Robinson and (later stage) Neal Stephenson.
If you love Bradbury then take a look at Ian McDonald. When I read “Rainmaker Cometh” for the first time I had to do a double-take, so sure I was that it was a new Bradbury story.
Thank you for suggesting Ian Mcdonald, have not read any of his.
I absolutely rever and adore Bradbury, probably because he has a knack of articulating so well, the emotions and esthetics that we have in common, that I leave unarticulated, more so now that I am no longer a teenager.
He captured childhood in a way that perhaps no one else has. His children have dignity and purpose and seriousness and are still absolutely full of joy and randomness. William Wordsworth, maybe, revered and portrayed childhood as well as Bradbury.
> take a look at Ian McDonald
+1. I loved Desolation Road in particular; a sort of 100 Years of Solitude but on Mars and with more than 2 names for its 3000 characters.
Yes, that is one of my very favorite books. My life is measured in part by how often I allow myself to read it.
the soviet cartoon version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LNHYz89sNc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(po...
Almost politically incorrect woke?
Another Bradbury adaptation
(Here there be Tygers)
I read this in high school English class. It remains one of my favorites.
Soviet cartoon (1984) based on the story:
I upvote anything Bradbury or Teasdale.
For anyone interested, here's a short game I made in 2 days for Ludum Dare back in 2019, which was inspired by the original poem and Bradbury's short story.
I didn't have enough time to balance the gameplay and add more scenarios, but it's a neat experience and contains one of my favorite personal musical compositions.
wow
how dare you make my feel my own feelings