There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

philosopherNoob•4 minutes ago

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.

SamuelAdams•about 1 hour ago

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.

water-data-dude•42 minutes ago

For most of my life it's felt like we've been moving away from this scenario, but lately it's felt like we're sliding back towards it

kibwen•35 minutes ago

The great sleight-of-hand of the 20th century is that it never went away, we all just collectively decided to stop thinking about the fact that at every given moment for the rest of human history we'll never be more than thirty minutes away from total nuclear annihilation.

pmg101•about 4 hours ago

Today is August 4, 2026

purple-leafy•about 1 hour ago

Ray 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.

squigz•about 1 hour ago

Interestingly, I had the exact opposite reaction - I enjoyed the writing itself, but didn't find the premise all that interesting.

purple-leafy•about 1 hour ago

My friend, we exist at opposite ends of a spectrum ha

squigz•about 1 hour ago

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

HomeDeLaPot•about 1 hour ago

The story of a smart home that can't tell when you're not home! :-)

andai•about 1 hour ago

This story was adapted into a short animated film in 1987:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LNHYz89sNc

(Russian, with subtitles.)

MengerSponge•about 2 hours ago

https://wnyc.org/story/bradbury-centennial-with-neil-gaiman

Yetide Badaki's marvelous reading begins at 3:50

dredmorbius•about 1 hour ago

OT: Selected Shorts is wonderful.

My one complaint: it's rarely revealed when a story was published, and it took me far, far, far too long to realise that many of my favourites were many decades old.

That said, hearing a story read and acted by a skilled player is its own joy. I'm a good reader, but I'm not that level of good, and a few decades of listening to Shorts has improved my own inner-reading voice.

Available as a podcast, though the back-catalogue is parlous brief, largely due to copyright, I suspect. Still worth following.

MengerSponge•9 minutes ago

With the right podcatcher* settings the back-catalogue issue goes away. It's still annoying when you want to share a particularly moving story with friends.

*) Overcast user here: "Smart Speed has saved you 419 hours beyond speed adjustments alone"

MrBuddyCasino•32 minutes ago

Mandatory link: the Zarelli soundtrack, using Leonard Nimoy's reading.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0DflgiMYRQP3UXtZ47NBus?si=XGR...

Aloha•about 1 hour ago

One of my favorites of Bradbury’s.

Haunting.

pbronez•about 1 hour ago

Yeesh how bleak

tomhow•about 2 hours ago

Earlier this year...

There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847297 - Feb 2026 (52 comments)

(I’ve turned off duplicate detection due to the significance of the date.)

There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]

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