Anton Chekhov's "The Bet"

http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/The_Bet.html

http://revver.com/video/609986/the-bet-by-anton-chekhov-part-1-3/

http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/Streams/The_Bet_by_Anton_Chekhov_2_stream.html

http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/Streams/The_Bet_by_Anton_Chekhov_3_stream.html

"Kirr him"

A student production that has its moments.  It's worth watching just for the unintended comic moments.  The sound quality needs work.  Their accents make you listen more closely, so it upsets you when the guy is hiding behind a flower.  Showing their parallel lives is fun.  The lawyer is reading philosophy and crying at the piano, while the banker is boozing it up with the ladies.  (Is she even old enough to drink?)  But if you've a fan of South Park, I challenge you not to laugh at the banker's decision to kill the lawyer:  "I could just kirr him now."

If you watch until the end, they summarize the story with this line: "Wisdom lies between experience and knowledge."  Especially because they showed the characters in parallel frames, they are stressing their differences.  One guy wants nothing to do with money; the other is willing to kill for it.  Where do you stand on that?  This story forces you to think about time, money and the value of each.

Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains"

The Poem

By way of introducing the short story, let's start with the poem that inspired it.  "There Will Come Soft Rains" was written by Sara Teasdale in 1920.  The world just lived through a war like it had never seen before.  Advances in technology made killing easier.  The machine gun, the tank, the flame-thrower, planes and even chemical weapons made their war-time debut.  Millions upon millions were killed.  

This reality inspired a frightening thought: we could destroy ourselves.  All of us.  (Yes, Will Smith, too.)  And for good. (Like the dinosaurs.)  Species have died out before, but it's usually through natural causes: flood, fire, drought, meteor.  We - as in humankind - have done a good job at killing each other.  One day, we go too far.  

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/there-will-come-soft-rains/

This is from a video game, but the robot (Mr. Handy?) recites the poem.

Come on.  A sarcastic robot?  Listen to how sinister he sounds when he says "utterly."

Computer Animation

This one is worth watching to get a feel of the empty house.  I'm upset there are no dust mice in this one, but the final shot of the devastated city is worth it.

http://vimeo.com/1192818

Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace"

The necklace in the story cost 40,000 francs to replace.  40,000 francs seems like a lot of money even for 1884.  If someone can find a better answer, please let me know.  For conversation's sake, let's estimate that the necklace to be $500,000 in today's dollars.  Five-hundred thousand dollars.  Modernizing the assumptions from the story: you're a low-level accountant making $40,000 a year.  Not poor, but certainly not rich.  And not rich enough to pay off this crazy necklace that allowed your wife to have one night of fun.  All told, do you feel sorry for her?        

Nerd Theater