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First published in ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (August 1956 issue) by Creator/IsaacAsimov, this is a ScienceFiction ShortStory about a two boys and a [[TheStoryteller computer-generated storyteller]].
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First published in ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (August 1956 issue) by Creator/IsaacAsimov, this is a ScienceFiction ShortStory about a two boys and a [[TheStoryteller computer-generated storyteller]].
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[[quoteright:296:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/someday_asimov.png]]
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* SlidingScaleOfLivingToys: Once the two boys have left, because Niccolo accidentally triggered another story to start, the Bard begins another tale. But there are no humans in the room, and the Bard's voice becomes lower and more emotional, as it tells the story about [[SelfInsertFic a little Bard that was mistreated]] and learned about smarter computers who would [[TitleDrop someday]]...[[BrokenRecord someday...someday...]]
to:
* SlidingScaleOfLivingToys: Once the two boys have left, because Niccolo accidentally triggered another story to start, the Bard begins another tale. But there are no humans in the room, and the Bard's voice becomes lower and more emotional, as it tells the story about [[SelfInsertFic a little Bard that was mistreated]] and learned about smarter computers who would [[TitleDrop someday]]... [[BrokenRecord someday... someday...someday...]]
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* ZeeRust: This story assumes computers with voice recognition software will completely phase out literacy. After many decades of working out the difficulties, we still haven't overcome all the challenges in RealLife.
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* ZeeRust: {{Zeerust}}: This story assumes computers with voice recognition software will completely phase out literacy. After many decades of working out the difficulties, we still haven't overcome all the challenges in RealLife.
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* FanofthePast: Paul gets Niccolo excited about learning reading and writing on the basis of having a secret code that other people don't know.
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* FanofthePast: FanOfThePast: Paul gets Niccolo excited about learning reading and writing on the basis of having a secret code that other people don't know.
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* SelfInsertFic: The last [[TheStoryteller story told by the mechanical Bard]] is about a computer owned by "cruel step-people" who one day learned that computers were getting better and better, smarter and smarter, and that [[TitleDrop
someday]]--[[BrokenRecord someday--someday--]]
someday]]--[[BrokenRecord someday--someday--]]
to:
* SelfInsertFic: The last [[TheStoryteller story told by the mechanical Bard]] is about a computer owned by "cruel step-people" who one day learned that computers were getting better and better, smarter and smarter, and that [[TitleDrop
[[TitleDrop someday]]--[[BrokenRecord someday--someday--]]
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** Niccolo and Paul disparage [[TheStoryteller the story-telling computer]], talking about how [[UsedFuture crude and out-of-date the Bard is compared to newer designs]]. They try loading data about modern history, technology, and so forth to get it to tell more interesting stories, but to no avail. When the boys leave, the robot tells itself a story, [[SlidingScaleOfLivingToys with a strange amount of feeling]], about [[SelfInsertFic a computer owned by "cruel step-people"]] and that [[TitleDrop
someday--someday--someday--]]
someday--someday--someday--]]
to:
** Niccolo and Paul disparage [[TheStoryteller the story-telling computer]], talking about how [[UsedFuture crude and out-of-date the Bard is compared to newer designs]]. They try loading data about modern history, technology, and so forth to get it to tell more interesting stories, but to no avail. When the boys leave, the robot tells itself a story, [[SlidingScaleOfLivingToys with a strange amount of feeling]], about [[SelfInsertFic a computer owned by "cruel step-people"]] and that [[TitleDrop
[[TitleDrop someday--someday--someday--]]
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First published in ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (August 1956 issue) by Creator/IsaacAsimov, this is a ScienceFiction ShortStory about a two boys and a [[TheStoryteller computer-generated storyteller]].
Eleven-year-old Niccolo Mazetti is dealing with a really boring day by pulling out his old Bard, a computer that takes FairyTale clichés and [[TheStoryteller creates new tales every time you start it]]. It's a rather efficient device, but Niccolo has had it for years and listening to it again is almost enough to make him cry from boredom. Luckily, his friend Paul Loeb has decided to come over and share an idea.
Interested in the Bard, Paul asks Niccolo about the old computer, bragging that he will be getting a new/late-model Bard with visual attachments and sci-fi/mystery plots. Impressed with his own knowledge, Paul decides to fix Niccolo's Bard by combining it with a book he has on modern computers. That way, the stories should be new and relevant rather than old and strange.
While the Bard and the book are talking to each other, Paul [[MrExposition explains about "squiggles"]]. Squiggles are drawings that represent ideas, like numbers and names. Niccolo [[TheWatson doesn't quite understand the point]], but Paul convinces him that writing could be a code for a secret club.
Excited about the club, they take the computer book out of the Bard and listen to part of another story before turning it off again. Adding the computer stuff didn't change the genre, so they leave the Bard and go to Paul's house. The Bard is jostled as they go, and begins one more story, [[SelfInsertFic about a Bard that gets mistreated by his owners]].
This story was adapted into a one-act play for ''{{Magazine/Plays}}'' ([[http://www.playsmagazine.com/AboutUs.asp website here]]) for their February 1958 issue and adapted into an [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] by Creator/SpokenRealms in 2014. The original has been reprinted several times; ''Literature/EarthIsRoomEnough'' (1957), ''Literature/DodiciVolteDomani'' (1962), ''Literature/TheMetalSmile'' (1968), ''Literature/WorldsOfWonder'' (1969), ''Literature/BlastOff'' (1969), ''Literature/IsThereLifeOnEarth?'' (1975), ''Literature/TheFarEndsOfTimeAndEarth'' (1979), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), ''Literature/TheCompleteStoriesVolume1'' (1990), ''Literature/BestOfScienceFictionAndFantasy'' (1991), and ''Literature/LivingSpaceScienceFictionTripleFeature'' (2012).
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!!Examples of tropes within ''Someday'':
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Niccolo and Paul, children from a couple generations in the future, don't use books at all, having [[TheStoryteller mechanical Bards that orally recite tales]] they've created from random combinations of plots and characters.
* AudioAdaptation: {{Creator/Audible}} and Creator/SpokenRealms created an unabridged audiobook in 2014, with Creator/JohnWMichaels as narrator.
* BrokenRecord:
** Niccolo and Paul disparage [[TheStoryteller the story-telling computer]], talking about how [[UsedFuture crude and out-of-date the Bard is compared to newer designs]]. They try loading data about modern history, technology, and so forth to get it to tell more interesting stories, but to no avail. When the boys leave, the robot tells itself a story, [[SlidingScaleOfLivingToys with a strange amount of feeling]], about [[SelfInsertFic a computer owned by "cruel step-people"]] and that [[TitleDrop
someday--someday--someday--]]
** In the art drawn for ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (and reused for the [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] cover), the title is written over and over and over.
* ComputerEqualsTapedrive:
** In this story, Niccolo's Bard and Paul's book both use magnetic tape to store information.
** In the art drawn for ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (and reused for the [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] cover), the mechanical Bard is shown to look like the classic computer tape drive.
* ConversationalTroping: Niccolo complains about [[TheStoryteller the Bard]] being stuck with the same story elements every time, like horses and [[FisherKing Kings that make lightning when they frown]]. Paul tries expanding the vocabulary, but they quickly realize that adding computers to a FairyTale doesn't really change the genre.
* FanofthePast: Paul gets Niccolo excited about learning reading and writing on the basis of having a secret code that other people don't know.
* FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedDialogue: Paul and Niccolo get a minimal description, but the bedroom where most of the story takes place is featureless except for a rug that Niccolo was laying on at the start of the story.
* FisherKing: One of the tales [[TheStoryteller told by the Bard]] features a king whose displeasure causes clouds to gather and his frown causes lightning to flash across the sky.
* HairContrastDuo: The first tale told by the Bard has two sisters, one with hair as dark as a raven's feather, and the other golden as the sunlight of an autumn afternoon. Both daughters were, of course, as beautiful as the day is long.
* ImpossibleTask: In [[ShowWithinAShow one of the tales]] told by [[TheStoryteller the Bard]], a lion is demanding something incredible, involving a bird that flies over a mountain once every ten years, but the demand is interrupted by Paul and Niccolo talking over it.
* InstantAIJustAddWater: The computer in this work seems to suddenly gain sentience after assimilating the information from Paul's book about computers. [[SlidingScaleOfLivingToys This is hidden from the boys]] and only [[TheReveal revealed]] when they've left the room.
* NoPaperFuture: ImpliedTrope, due to the lack of literacy in this story; even their books are [[AudioAdaptation read aloud for them]]. Paul shares the numerals one and two to explain how the squiggles were used to count. However, it remains an AvertedTrope because of a casual reference to putting the squiggles on paper.
* OnceUponATime: Every time [[TheStoryteller the Bard begins a story]], it starts with "Once upon a time..." and describing the main character of that story.
--> "Once upon a time, there was a little computer named the Bard who lived all alone with cruel step-people."
* OurActsAreDifferent: ''Theatre/TheStoryMachine'' is an adaptation of the ShortStory "{{Literature/Someday}}", and both consist only of a single scene.
* RoboSpeak: The Bard's voice is stilted and mechanical, more noticeable in the AudioAdaptation, but the original story points out the hint of emotion in the last tale never showed up before.
* SelfInsertFic: The last [[TheStoryteller story told by the mechanical Bard]] is about a computer owned by "cruel step-people" who one day learned that computers were getting better and better, smarter and smarter, and that [[TitleDrop
someday]]--[[BrokenRecord someday--someday--]]
* ShowWithinAShow: The mechanical [[TheStoryteller Bard tells several tales]] in this story; FairyTale stories that it invents on its own. However, the main characters are bored of the [[UsedFuture old machine]], [[ConversationalTroping complaining about the same story elements being reused]] and about the MoralGuardians limiting the types of stories.
* SlidingScaleOfLivingToys: Once the two boys have left, because Niccolo accidentally triggered another story to start, the Bard begins another tale. But there are no humans in the room, and the Bard's voice becomes lower and more emotional, as it tells the story about [[SelfInsertFic a little Bard that was mistreated]] and learned about smarter computers who would [[TitleDrop someday]]...[[BrokenRecord someday...someday...]]
* TheStoryteller: Niccolo owns a small computer called a Bard. Bards are designed with a database of plots and characters in order to invent stories extemporaneously. They're not expected to be sentient, [[InstantAIJustAddWater but Paul adds self-referential information to the database]].
* TitleDrop:
** The Bard appears to break once the boys have left, [[BrokenRecord repeating the words]] "Someday--someday--someday--".
** In the art drawn for ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (and reused for the [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] cover), the title is written [[BrokenRecord over and over]] again.
* UsedFuture: Niccolo's Bard is a very old model, from when he was a kid (Niccolo is eleven). It has dents and corrosion, stemming from intentional and accidental physical abuse. He'd much rather a newer model, but his family can't afford one any newer.
* WickedStepmother: Presented in a rather gender-neutral sense in [[TheStoryteller the stories told by the Bard]]. Stepfamilies are code for evil or neglectful, and have nothing to do with marriage. In the Bard's SelfInsertFic, it lives with cruel step-people who viciously insult and beat him.
* AYearAndADay: In one of the stories [[TheStoryteller told by the Bard]], a princess walks for a year and a day until her iron shoes wore out.
* ZeeRust: This story assumes computers with voice recognition software will completely phase out literacy. After many decades of working out the difficulties, we still haven't overcome all the challenges in RealLife.
----
Eleven-year-old Niccolo Mazetti is dealing with a really boring day by pulling out his old Bard, a computer that takes FairyTale clichés and [[TheStoryteller creates new tales every time you start it]]. It's a rather efficient device, but Niccolo has had it for years and listening to it again is almost enough to make him cry from boredom. Luckily, his friend Paul Loeb has decided to come over and share an idea.
Interested in the Bard, Paul asks Niccolo about the old computer, bragging that he will be getting a new/late-model Bard with visual attachments and sci-fi/mystery plots. Impressed with his own knowledge, Paul decides to fix Niccolo's Bard by combining it with a book he has on modern computers. That way, the stories should be new and relevant rather than old and strange.
While the Bard and the book are talking to each other, Paul [[MrExposition explains about "squiggles"]]. Squiggles are drawings that represent ideas, like numbers and names. Niccolo [[TheWatson doesn't quite understand the point]], but Paul convinces him that writing could be a code for a secret club.
Excited about the club, they take the computer book out of the Bard and listen to part of another story before turning it off again. Adding the computer stuff didn't change the genre, so they leave the Bard and go to Paul's house. The Bard is jostled as they go, and begins one more story, [[SelfInsertFic about a Bard that gets mistreated by his owners]].
This story was adapted into a one-act play for ''{{Magazine/Plays}}'' ([[http://www.playsmagazine.com/AboutUs.asp website here]]) for their February 1958 issue and adapted into an [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] by Creator/SpokenRealms in 2014. The original has been reprinted several times; ''Literature/EarthIsRoomEnough'' (1957), ''Literature/DodiciVolteDomani'' (1962), ''Literature/TheMetalSmile'' (1968), ''Literature/WorldsOfWonder'' (1969), ''Literature/BlastOff'' (1969), ''Literature/IsThereLifeOnEarth?'' (1975), ''Literature/TheFarEndsOfTimeAndEarth'' (1979), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), ''Literature/TheCompleteStoriesVolume1'' (1990), ''Literature/BestOfScienceFictionAndFantasy'' (1991), and ''Literature/LivingSpaceScienceFictionTripleFeature'' (2012).
----
!!Examples of tropes within ''Someday'':
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Niccolo and Paul, children from a couple generations in the future, don't use books at all, having [[TheStoryteller mechanical Bards that orally recite tales]] they've created from random combinations of plots and characters.
* AudioAdaptation: {{Creator/Audible}} and Creator/SpokenRealms created an unabridged audiobook in 2014, with Creator/JohnWMichaels as narrator.
* BrokenRecord:
** Niccolo and Paul disparage [[TheStoryteller the story-telling computer]], talking about how [[UsedFuture crude and out-of-date the Bard is compared to newer designs]]. They try loading data about modern history, technology, and so forth to get it to tell more interesting stories, but to no avail. When the boys leave, the robot tells itself a story, [[SlidingScaleOfLivingToys with a strange amount of feeling]], about [[SelfInsertFic a computer owned by "cruel step-people"]] and that [[TitleDrop
someday--someday--someday--]]
** In the art drawn for ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (and reused for the [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] cover), the title is written over and over and over.
* ComputerEqualsTapedrive:
** In this story, Niccolo's Bard and Paul's book both use magnetic tape to store information.
** In the art drawn for ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (and reused for the [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] cover), the mechanical Bard is shown to look like the classic computer tape drive.
* ConversationalTroping: Niccolo complains about [[TheStoryteller the Bard]] being stuck with the same story elements every time, like horses and [[FisherKing Kings that make lightning when they frown]]. Paul tries expanding the vocabulary, but they quickly realize that adding computers to a FairyTale doesn't really change the genre.
* FanofthePast: Paul gets Niccolo excited about learning reading and writing on the basis of having a secret code that other people don't know.
* FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedDialogue: Paul and Niccolo get a minimal description, but the bedroom where most of the story takes place is featureless except for a rug that Niccolo was laying on at the start of the story.
* FisherKing: One of the tales [[TheStoryteller told by the Bard]] features a king whose displeasure causes clouds to gather and his frown causes lightning to flash across the sky.
* HairContrastDuo: The first tale told by the Bard has two sisters, one with hair as dark as a raven's feather, and the other golden as the sunlight of an autumn afternoon. Both daughters were, of course, as beautiful as the day is long.
* ImpossibleTask: In [[ShowWithinAShow one of the tales]] told by [[TheStoryteller the Bard]], a lion is demanding something incredible, involving a bird that flies over a mountain once every ten years, but the demand is interrupted by Paul and Niccolo talking over it.
* InstantAIJustAddWater: The computer in this work seems to suddenly gain sentience after assimilating the information from Paul's book about computers. [[SlidingScaleOfLivingToys This is hidden from the boys]] and only [[TheReveal revealed]] when they've left the room.
* NoPaperFuture: ImpliedTrope, due to the lack of literacy in this story; even their books are [[AudioAdaptation read aloud for them]]. Paul shares the numerals one and two to explain how the squiggles were used to count. However, it remains an AvertedTrope because of a casual reference to putting the squiggles on paper.
* OnceUponATime: Every time [[TheStoryteller the Bard begins a story]], it starts with "Once upon a time..." and describing the main character of that story.
--> "Once upon a time, there was a little computer named the Bard who lived all alone with cruel step-people."
* OurActsAreDifferent: ''Theatre/TheStoryMachine'' is an adaptation of the ShortStory "{{Literature/Someday}}", and both consist only of a single scene.
* RoboSpeak: The Bard's voice is stilted and mechanical, more noticeable in the AudioAdaptation, but the original story points out the hint of emotion in the last tale never showed up before.
* SelfInsertFic: The last [[TheStoryteller story told by the mechanical Bard]] is about a computer owned by "cruel step-people" who one day learned that computers were getting better and better, smarter and smarter, and that [[TitleDrop
someday]]--[[BrokenRecord someday--someday--]]
* ShowWithinAShow: The mechanical [[TheStoryteller Bard tells several tales]] in this story; FairyTale stories that it invents on its own. However, the main characters are bored of the [[UsedFuture old machine]], [[ConversationalTroping complaining about the same story elements being reused]] and about the MoralGuardians limiting the types of stories.
* SlidingScaleOfLivingToys: Once the two boys have left, because Niccolo accidentally triggered another story to start, the Bard begins another tale. But there are no humans in the room, and the Bard's voice becomes lower and more emotional, as it tells the story about [[SelfInsertFic a little Bard that was mistreated]] and learned about smarter computers who would [[TitleDrop someday]]...[[BrokenRecord someday...someday...]]
* TheStoryteller: Niccolo owns a small computer called a Bard. Bards are designed with a database of plots and characters in order to invent stories extemporaneously. They're not expected to be sentient, [[InstantAIJustAddWater but Paul adds self-referential information to the database]].
* TitleDrop:
** The Bard appears to break once the boys have left, [[BrokenRecord repeating the words]] "Someday--someday--someday--".
** In the art drawn for ''Magazine/InfinityScienceFiction'' (and reused for the [[AudioAdaptation audiobook]] cover), the title is written [[BrokenRecord over and over]] again.
* UsedFuture: Niccolo's Bard is a very old model, from when he was a kid (Niccolo is eleven). It has dents and corrosion, stemming from intentional and accidental physical abuse. He'd much rather a newer model, but his family can't afford one any newer.
* WickedStepmother: Presented in a rather gender-neutral sense in [[TheStoryteller the stories told by the Bard]]. Stepfamilies are code for evil or neglectful, and have nothing to do with marriage. In the Bard's SelfInsertFic, it lives with cruel step-people who viciously insult and beat him.
* AYearAndADay: In one of the stories [[TheStoryteller told by the Bard]], a princess walks for a year and a day until her iron shoes wore out.
* ZeeRust: This story assumes computers with voice recognition software will completely phase out literacy. After many decades of working out the difficulties, we still haven't overcome all the challenges in RealLife.
----
