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View Full Version : HELP- Trying to ID 2 short stories



Kapp
March 11th, 2010, 03:49 PM
Hi folks...1st time posting here

I have been trying to get the title and author for 2 sci-fi short stories that I remember reading some time ago...

First story- All I remember is that it is a man in his house, who is an author of some kind, and is using an electric typewriter to write an article, etc (this must have been written before people used word processors, etc)...during the course of the story, machines in his house keep acting erratically, then, the typewriter itself starts typing messages to him on it's own, giving warnings to him...at the end of the story, the typewriter basically reveals that alien beings from space have taken control of all of earth's machines, and that for humans to resist is futile, etc...then, the terrified man sees small, metallic "mouse-like" aliens begin to swarm into his house, realizing that these are the invaders...that's the end of the story

NOTE- the above story is NOT "The Mechanical Mice" from Maurice Hugi, and it is ALSO not the Twilight Zone "A Thing About Machines"...although the writer of the story I mentioned seemed to cull some ideas from those two

Second Story- This short story is basically describing a day of a futuristic suburban home from the inside. The story is slowly describing each room of the house and mentioning each automated feature of the house as it seems to turn on by itself, based on some sort of daily computerized clock that runs the house's activities-- from the futurisitic kitchen- I remember things like the kitchen automatically making coffee, stoves etc automatically starting up and cooking breakfast in the morning, etc...things like that, to the children's rooms, where a sort of colored lamp slowly spins, projecting pictures of african animals and peaceful music, etc, sort of like a night light that would turn on at the bedtime.....the house's kitchen has small, fast moving robotic droids that occasionally shoot out and clean up the floor...however, throughout this description of these automatic things happening, the house is quiet and no humans are mentioned at all.....soon the story basically reveals that there was some sort of nuclear destruction that happened/ war, etc, and the humans who once lived here are gone...but the house, automated, is still running... a sort of creepy, atmospheric story with an obvious anti-war message.... I seem to remember this being written by a more famous author (Bradbury, etc) but I could be wrong

Can anyone ID either one of these stories...? Author, title, etc?
MUCH THANKS :cool:

stinkycats
March 11th, 2010, 04:54 PM
You could have at least googled Bradbury's bibliography to come up with his classic Martian Chronicles short "There Will Come Soft Rains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_%28short_story%29)."

I'm giving you negative internet points for not making the effort. :p

Kapp
March 11th, 2010, 06:26 PM
thanks Stinky....glad to see the happyface icon there at the end....initially I only got an e mail version of your reply with no happy face icon....I was going to cancel my membership on this forum and never return, yelling out random statements about "jerks", "trolls", etc... :p

I may have to give up on that first short story...I read that way back around 1983-84 more or less, when I was in Jr High....cool story, but I've asked around since then and no one has ever heard of that one...

By the way, wasnt entirely SURE that the "soft rains" story was Bradbury...I just had a faint idea..... :eek: