BLINK Exercise
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
Bradbury is among the most influential people in my life. Beyond my love for his writing his philosophies have directed my own dispositions towards creative thinking, doing, and life. LIVE FOREVER!!!
The short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" is Bradbury's spin on the Teasdale poem recited by a voice in the house's choir. Bradbury often cites his inspiration directly in his work so that the reader has a reference point from which the imagery evolves. It also points us in the direction of where we might turn to augment further the ideas and themes in his writing.
He departs from the the natural world perspective of the Teasdale poem by speaking from the viewpoint of technology, a human component. Going a step further, he pits nature against technology. Much like humanity, this technology defies nature and serves only itself (us). By resisting nature in the examples of the starving dog, and bird flying into the house, there is little hope that humanity's successor can be adapted to the natural world. The story reinforces Teasdale's vision of nature after humanity as it not only shrugs off the absence of our existence, but erodes the artifacts perpetuating humanity over time.
The imagery of the apocalyptic event is a reference to the effects of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima five years prior to the publishing of There Will Come Soft Rains. By setting the story in the distant future Bradbury is predicting the nature of man is to destroy itself and the natural world after will clean the carrion.
Salvaged Circuitboard Image
removed from a HP C6290A 30V DC flatbed scanner
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